Struggle is Good

STRUGGLE IS GOOD

The above statement might seem a little surprising but allow me to explain. If you know me, you know the explanation will be pretty long! In the January 21, 2008 edition of Sports Illustrated (Brett Favre, in the snow, on the cover), there is an article on basketball coach Rick Majerus. He has been a highly successful college basketball coach over the years, known primarily for taking the University of Utah to the national championship game in 1998 against Kentucky and his great sense of humor. Because of his health and other reasons, Majerus was out of coaching (doing analysis on TV instead) for the past few years. He got back into coaching this season with the Saint Louis University basketball team. The article is an interesting one even if you aren't a sports fan. Here is a link to it.

I don't agree or advocate all of the things that Coach Majerus does with his teams (which doesn't mean that those things are wrong for him) but he made an interesting statement in the magazine article. He said, “Parents today want to take all the pain, all the heartache and sadness, out of their kids' lives. All the things that make you a better person.” That particular statement reminded me of one of the philosophical underpinnings of my teaching career. This was something that developed over several years of teaching and seeing how kids react to certain situations and also having former students come back to talk to me after moving on to high school, college, or adulthood. In essence, one of the things they most appreciated about my class was that it was demanding and it caused them to develop better study habits and to have a greater sense of accomplishment when they succeeded. In other words, the students felt more pride in getting a good grade in a demanding course than getting an excellent grade in a less demanding course.

Actually this can be a little more complicated. All kids like to get good grades, and like even more to get excellent grades. Of course part of that happiness is that the good or excellent grade also makes their parents happy. However that is temporary for the student if they conclude that the excellent grade had required little, if any, effort on their part and that almost everyone else in the class – perhaps some who had worked even less than they had – had received the same excellent grade.

As I developed my classes and my expectations I felt it was important to do things the right way, to have my students understand things in ways that would best enable them to learn more in the future, and to encourage them to be detailed and careful with their work. If a student wasn't used to that or couldn't rise to that level of expectation, they would not do well in my class. I would count things wrong, or partially wrong, if they made a slight error. In some cases approximate answers are correct, but in most situations in math, precision in thinking and in answers is necessary. I eventually became much more concerned about how they were thinking about something (being well aware that there wasn't necessarily just one correct way of thinking about something), rather than the answer they eventually got. Sometimes the most trouble I had was with the parents who wanted their kids to do well and didn't always see the value of that attention to detail and precision.

It wasn't unusual that a student in my class would get an average grade (which is a “C”, believe it or not) when they had previously received good or excellent grades. That was not my intention. My intention was to do things the right way, which wasn't always the easiest way. Fortunately I had the backing of the administration who had confidence in me, and eventually I got the backing of my former students who could testify to the effectiveness of what had happened in my class. I did have to fight this battle throughout my teaching career but I felt strongly that I was doing the right thing and enough people agreed with me that it did work out well.

As any teacher knows, middle school students can be pretty simple and direct in how they explain things, Their most frequent explanation of me to their younger siblings who were about to start my class was something to the effect, “He is strict but you will learn a lot.”

Many years ago, I watched the movie, “Wall Street” and the character played by Michael Douglas famously said, “Greed is good.” A few days after that I realized that I had been using a similar philosophy in my teaching - “Struggle is good.” Beyond the learning of mathematical skills and concepts, there was value in requiring students to work to their maximum, or at least to work very hard in order to get the grade they desired. It would bring out the best in them and it would not deceive them (or their parents) into thinking that they really knew more than they did. At first they would resist or be uncomfortable, but I really left them no choice. They had to meet my standards, not the other way around.

Now I need to add something to this philosophy. If the instructor cannot “deliver the goods”, in terms of effective teaching, then the students will not continue to work. They will either conclude that the teacher doesn't know what they are doing or that they themselves don't have the ability to be successful. The teacher has the same responsibility as the student – to work very hard and do their best. I want to stress that setting high expectations for kids requires that we set high expectations for ourselves, whether we be parents or teachers.

What I advocate for teachers and parents is to carefully put struggle into their children's experiences. Don't make the struggle artificial - make it true to the value and importance of what they are doing. Teach them. Don't train them. Set high standards, but not impossible ones. If you are teaching a twelve year old how to pitch and your standard is that they never throw a wild pitch then I would submit that an expectation like that is impossible to reach. If you expect a child (or an adult) to reach an impossible level, they will soon quit and may never be willing to trust your judgment again. The wise teacher or parent can also model the value of struggle by working at something difficult in their own life. Therefore it can be “do as I do” and not just “do as I say.”

Find ways to motivate the kids to want to do what you require because they understand the value of what you want them to learn, but also because you want them to understand the value of struggle and the importance of overcoming the obstacles in their life. Motivation of students was always something that I considered to be a weakness of mine, but I always recognized its importance and I tried to constantly get better at it.

Any adult knows that adversity is a regular part of life and someone who has never had to deal with adversity before, may not be able to overcome it. Effective teaching should not just result in the learning of specific concepts and skills but also result in confidence gained from being required to meet high standards and overcome obstacles and difficulties in their experience. This is done for two reasons – it is the right thing to do (which many would say is enough by itself) and it promotes in kids the confidence and ability in themselves that they can overcome the adversity that will take place in their future.

So I say, “Struggle is good.” Now you know why I think that is true. Do you agree?