That is the cry of every parent who has a middle schooler (and beyond) taking math. How many careless errors would be caught if they would just check their multiplication or subtraction one more time? Surely they would see 204-39 doesn’t equal 175! Is it just a fact of life that we don’t and we won’t? Oh, for one test that reflects some progress in this area…
Don’t quit! Keep up the good work parents. We may be missing an important skill if we don’t constantly remind our children and ourselves to “check your work.” It is the skill of evaluation. It is the way we improve our skills and produce excellence (why do there have to be some many bad tests to learn this principle, I don’t know).
Next time you’re nagging your child to double check and recheck remember why and take a look at how you’ve been doing. Hear yourself say to your children “check your work” and do so, too, in fact let them “catch” you checking your work.
Paul was able to say something like, I’ve run the race and not been disqualified… and that comes from the discipline of evaluating. Confession might follow which is like test corrections but that is another topic.