Autonomy. Mastery. Purpose. (Drive, 2011)

Daniel Pink and so many others that I follow on Twitter and old fashioned email listservs, inspire me to think outside the box.   In high schools, it seems, there has always been a dynamic tension between athletics and academics, especially when it comes to staffing and funding.  Like divisiveness everywhere in politics, faith, and more, both sides stubbornly cling to their own views, denying themselves the opportunity to see something from another perspective.  However seeing something from another point of view is when we learn something new. 

Back to Daniel Pink’s, Autonomy, Mastery, Purpose.   Coaches individualize practices aimed to improve each athlete, assigning  manageable skill sets that when put together for a live performance creates a win.  That same effort when applied academically is called differentiation. 

In each scenario we want students to win.  To have success.  Both coaches and teachers understand that the learner needs to internalize that drive for success.   How do we instill that in students?  It doesn’t happen overnight.  In the Educational Leadership’s October 2012 issue of   Student Who Challenge Us (pp.76-78), Jeffrey Benson, in his article, 100 Repetitions, makes a strong case for the collective work of many when working with challenging students.  He talks about the need for variation and the fact that we, as individuals, may not see results in our own work with every student.  But at some point, the learning will click for a student. 

What reformers have wrong in their push to redesign public education is the fact that learning is complex and cannot be reduced to a set of results in one moment in time.  Practitioners in daily practice need leadership and support in order to persevere through many student failures.  It requires not only skills and strategies, but faith, hope, and determination.  Pushing students or teachers without the necessary supports does not create successful educational outcomes.  We need to step back, listen, and learn from each other.  We need to start solving problems together rather than insisting there is only one way to overcome our challenges.  And most importantly, we need to inspire students and teachers to internalize that drive, so that we are all pulling in the same direction.

Questions are key….

In the last blog, I discussed letting students do the work of critical thinking about their future. This is easier said than done, but questioning can be the most useful technique with or without technology that we have available to us. Jamie McKenzie, editor of From Now On - The Educational Technology Journal has created a whole website of the types of questions that prompt investigation and help us avoid just providing information or answers.

Kathryn Kee notes in her book, Results Coaching: The New Essential for School Leaders, that “'advice is toxic’…Resisting giving advice and giving answers empowers other to think, to act, and to achieve.”(p.55, Kee)

Have we forgotten that high school is a time for growth, maturation, development, exploring who I am and not just about pushing academic rigor?

Ask your student—how did you prepare for your future today? What steps are you taking to create a future for yourself? Modeling our own day-to-day decision making and having expectations regarding planning for their future success is essential.

Sometimes we just need to step back and let students grow……

Whether they want to begin a career or go to college after high school there are many great print and online resources out there that help students prepare for their future.   As school administrators, counselors, and teachers we can be a tremendous asset in helping students develop useful skills and strategies and show them how to navigate the necessary requirements; courses, SATS, GPA, college applications, community service, etc.   One caveat however is not letting students investigate and initiate these processes under their own volition. 

As a parent of high school students, I prompted and cajoled my two sons to consider future options, complete necessary paperwork and tests, and maintain high levels of academic achievement.  However, I now wonder if perhaps I did the majority of critical thinking about their future plans by directing rather than coaching them through the thought process of considering various possibilities and alternatives.  Had I allowed them to learn how to follow through and make choices for themselves and explore and experience the fruits of this exercise outside of gaining their parents ire or approval?  

The unfortunate result of directing students along a path of college and career readiness instead of allowing them to wonder, flounder, and self-motivate is that they do not actually become career and college ready.   The attitudes and dispositions developed during this process are what they must acquire in order to persevere when things do not always go smoothly.  Confidence in oneself and the ability to access experts and resources when help is required are essential to future success.   Knowing oneself and being aware of one’s academic and social limitations allow a student to prepare for and overcome obstacles and generate self- motivation.  Students thus prepared will be able to handle most problems they face and although intimidated by them, trust that they will eventually devise solutions on their own or with help. 

The more we embrace the role of coach rather than boss; the better our students will know how to succeed on the playing field of life.  In Results Coaching:  The New Essential for School Leaders, Kathryn Kee, et al, 2010, reminds us about neuroscience as it relates to performance:

“Today, we know from neuroscientists that if we want to improve performance, we must improve thinking.   Learning to think critically, problem solve, or predict outcomes rarely comes from a kit or a program.  It comes from real interactions that continually model the expectation of thinking to achieve results.  Therefore, whether we are working with students …, the critical new essential is believing in people’s potential in such a way that we stop telling them what to do and teach them how to decide what is the best action to take or task to do given the standards, the expectations, the results, or the outcomes.”