"Winning is a Habit"

Last weekend I had the opportunity to attend the North Carolina High School Athletic Association's Hall of Fame banquet on behalf of Donald Clark. Mr. Clark retired from Greene Central seven years ago, so if you're relatively new here, you may not know his name. But if you're from Greene County or know anything about tennis in North Carolina, you absolutely know him. Mr. Clark came to Greene Central and really wanted to coach baseball, but got asked to fill in as a tennis coach for a bit. Two years later he was 0-32 and really was considering giving it up. But he decided to study the teams that won consistently and copy them. The teams started winning and a few years later were regular contenders for the state championships. Take a look in the trophy case up front and you'll see a lot of tennis in there. Those are because of Mr. Clark. 

When he spoke for the crowd, he said something that resonated with me. He said he learned that winning was a habit and that when you start winning and know how to win, it's hard to stop. Think about how true that is. We sometimes attribute winning to key individuals or superstars in the field, but often when a culture of winning is developed, those teams (or groups) continue to do well after the superstar is gone. Our own tennis program is a great example of that. Mr. Clark has been gone for seven years, but our teams have continued to thrive. They expect to win.

Building a winning culture is hard to do and it doesn't change overnight because you worked hard for one year. Remember Mr. Clark started 0-32. But sustained effort builds upon itself and eventually, it adds up to a lot. We can all learn a lot from Mr. Clark beyond tennis. He is proof that time and dedication to anything can pay off and impact so many others. He taught a small farming community how to win against communities with country clubs, and he left us with a habit of winning. 

Cortisol

A herd of gazelle graze in the savannah. Heads down, eating as they do every day. One is alerted to the rustling of the grass ahead of them. She stops eating and listens. Her senses are on alert to detect danger ahead. Seeing her, others in the herd also go to alert. Evolution has taught the herd to pay attention when any other member senses possible danger as a survival mechanism. Is it the wind, or a lion stalking them? As one gazelle sees the lion inch forward, it bolts in the opposite direction, and instantly the others in the herd flee to safety as well. None of this is learned behavior. There is no discussion or debate on the potential presence of the lion. It is simply biology at work. It is thousands of years of adaptation that have led the gazelle to safety. But it’s not just the gazelle that responds this way, we do it too. 

This has been a stressful year for teachers and we are entering an even more stressful end as we attempt to wrestle with double the student population in our school on top of large numbers of students that do not share the same urgency for effort that we do. On top of that, we are all tired and many of us bring other stressors from outside of school into our hallways. When our bodies are stressed, we release a chemical called cortisol. Cortisol is the chemical opposite of serotonin, the chemical that makes us feel happy. Cortisol can be good if you’re gazelle sensing a lion. It tells your body to go on alert. It’s the “fight or flight” chemical. In some situations, it can keep you alive. But the prolonged release of cortisol has very negative effects on humans and just like the herd of gazelle on the savannah, we respond to others and their stress as a biological mechanism for survival. 

Perhaps the most damaging effect of cortisol on teachers, is how it inhibits you from doing your job. The release of cortisol makes your body focus on trying to remove the stress that it is under and this shuts off the part of your brain that is capable of empathy for others. It tells your brain to save itself and not to worry about anyone else. And if you are a teacher, that means you can’t teach. You can’t care for others. All you can do is wait for someone to jump so that you can jump too. 

In these last six weeks of what has been a very stressful year, I beg you to find a way to release your stress so that you can keep that cortisol from running rampant through your body. Not only will your own body appreciate it, but others around you won’t face a biological need to respond to your stress. Managing your stress allows you to be a good colleague and an even better teacher. So go exercise, read a book, enjoy your family time, eat well and get your sleep. The rest of our herd needs you that way.

Enjoy Your Students

Just as quickly as we shut down last year, our students returned from Spring break and classes were more full than they have been in over a year. It was just in time for our FFA students to compete, the shoppers of the greenhouse to show up, another round of spring sports to kick-off, and the thermostats to switch to cool mode instead of heat. On Tuesday I found myself turning my head to loudness in the halls at class changes, only to see students greeting one another and laughing. We have all been thrown back into a more normal version of school, and while COVID isn't gone, it has been fun to remember what school was like for a bit. 

We still have students that are behind that we will struggle to catch up in the next 6 weeks. Ultimately, there will be students and parents that ask the age-old question of, "What can my child do to pass" when you have sent it out so many times. Your A/C may break down on the first hot day in May. A counselor may have to put a student in your room with 2-3 weeks left in the year. The old problems of school never went away, we were just distracted by new ones. And while we can spend the last 6 weeks in our usual tired and stressed out ways, I'm choosing to take a lesson from Mr. Ginn this year and I'm choosing Joy. I, like many of you, spent all year hoping to have our students back, and now they are here. I got what I wanted and I think some of the students did too. Reversing the impacts that a year of school in a pandemic left us won't be fixed with one summer school session. So instead of stressing over where we are with their learning, I am choosing to celebrate having the students where they are in our classrooms. Enjoy your students. They might not admit it all of the time, but I bet they are enjoying having you just the same.