You Have to Hate to Lose

A couple of weeks ago I was talking with Mr. Castillo in my office after school and we noticed several young men running past my window over and over.  They must have run by a half dozen times before I noticed them. Once we started to pay attention, we realized that these young men were all members of our soccer team. We watched them run by for over 30 minutes before my curiosity got the best of me. I had to know why Coach Sullivan was making them run.

Upon further investigation, I learned that in the previous day's game. Coach Sullivan felt that his team had given up in a loss. They did not show grit and that was not acceptable. The team had lost that game 7-1 and they had to run a mile for every point they had given up. As each player passed Coach Sullivan, they all chanted the same phrase, "I hate losing Coach." According to Coach Sullivan, losing was ok, but giving up was not.

Earlier in the season, our soccer team lost to Northern Nash 10-1 and the game ended under the mercy rule. Something like that hurts for an athlete and it can certainly plague a team if they face that opponent again. Last night our soccer team defeated Northern Nash 3-1.  Teaching grit does not mean that you never lose. It means that you teach our young people to fight through losing so that you eventually win.  I have also seen this ideal translate to the classroom for many of these young men and ultimately, that's the point. Congratulations to Coach Sullivan and the young men on our soccer team for their grit.

Would You Want a Disability?

Researchers have noticed a very surprising trend among CEOs and top corporate leaders today. A large number (almost a third) of successful entrepreneurs are diagnosed dyslexics. If you expand the search to look for those with any type of learning disability, you get almost half of the group. We are not talking about lightweights here either. Some examples include: Richard Branson (founder of Virgin Group), Charles Schwab (broker and CEO of Charles Schwab), Craig McCaw (cell phone pioneer), David Neelman (founder of Jet Blue), John Chambers (CEO of Cisco) and Paul Orfalea (founder of Kinko's).

How can this be? We see these students in our classes and in our hallways. We understand their struggle and we work tirelessly to get most of them to adjust and compete in the classroom at the average level of their peers. If that learning struggle continues, how on earth are these people so successful in today's world? The difference is not in what they learn, but in how they learn. Most people are successful in school or in sports because of Capitalization Learning. In essence, we find what we are good at, and we capitalize on it by practicing and getting even better. Many people with a disability that are also successful have perfected Compensation Learning. Compensation Learning requires the learner to accept that they are not good at something and then compensate by finding an alternate way to master the material or task. Many dyslexics encounter this for the first time by memorizing material instead of reading it.

Compensation Learning is grit in action. It is refusing to fail despite a limitation. In essence, determination overcame disability. The outcome is an unusually determined and educated person. When you understand their skills in that context, their success is a no-brainer. These people are powerful examples of how grit can achieve anything.


I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messanger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weakness, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

2 Corinthians 12:7-10

Problems

We live in a world that is fascinated by solutions. Not just solutions, but quick solutions. Between kitchen gadgets that create great meals in half the time to 6 minute ab workouts that promise to undo what those meals did to us, we like what we want, when we want it. Why not?! We live in a consumer-based society where products and businesses seek to provide us with just that. Perhaps that is why education and learning can be frustrating. We want results now, not at the end of a unit, a semester or a year. What we get is often quite different.

Modern research on education says that it takes six full years to fully turn around a high school. While the evidence tells us that, none of us can imagine writing a 6-year PDP goal. Our SMART goals seek quick and measurable student growth highlighted with benchmark assessments that tell us exactly what we should predict on an end of course assessment. We further exacerbate this problem by seeking quick solutions through curriculum changes, technology updates, new programs and new textbooks. We spend millions of dollars and man hours on solutions. These are just tools. What we really need is a better understanding of our problems.

Just think. When your best plans failed because you realized that your students were not ready for that activity or method, you better understood them as students and made a change. You may have even felt failure at the lesson not working, but as a result, you changed and learned something valuable about your class. The solution was not the lesson, the solution was in understanding the classroom problem.

Educational solutions do not come quick. They are hard fought, hard learned, and come with long hours, sweat and tears. Growth is hard. Here is what I know...we are on the right track and we are understanding this unique problem that we call school. We are creating the solution.

A Teacher's Labor

There are certain American holidays that make history teachers pay attention. As a former high school history teacher, I jumped at the chance to teach the true meaning of many days that we celebrate. Columbus Day was my favorite because I despise it's meaning. (He discovered nothing!) My second favorite to teach was Labor Day.

At the height of the Industrial Revolution, the average American worker spent 12 hours a day, 7 days a week on the job. Men were paid poorly (about $2 a day), women and immigrant workers were paid half that and children were paid a fraction of that. Worker's banned together, formed unions, went on strike without pay, and were beaten and arrested; all to change our way of life.  Life in the United States changed for the better.

If there remains an American profession that can at all relate to the plight of the American industrial worker, it is the American teacher. 12 hour days are normal. Most weeks involve some kind of work, every day of the week. Most teachers are not fairly compensated when compared to the average wage of a professional of equal education and training. I do not make this comparison to invoke depression or thoughts of organizing a strike, but to say thank you for your contribution to this school, our students and our society. Your hard work is noticed by many.

Our school year is off to an amazing start. I already see wonderful things going on in your classes and on the athletic fields. Students and teachers are working hard together. With the long weekend ahead of us, I hope that you take time to rest and celebrate your hard work. You deserve it!