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Introduction:
Educators need ??“ have always
needed ??“ to practice what they read and write for their
degrees. Most modern educational writing is strongly
optimistic. One example is the belief that ALL students can
succeed, but each in his/her own way or ???learning style???. In
spite of this, college professors are often at a loss when
asked why educators and college professors do not practice
what they ???profess???. Education is characterized by a type of
???profiling???. Advanced Placement or ???gifted??? students are
expected implicitly to have more ability than others.
Powerful factors, such as character (Emerson) and sheer
will, are often ignored.
The following story shows
that error and my original error, too!. VA
??¦??¦??¦??¦??¦??¦??¦??¦??¦??¦??¦
While serving as a high
school assistant principal, I became advisor for our
scholastic competition team (like a ???college bowl???), which
competed with other area schools in a regional association.
My group was somewhat ???mixed???, all good students but some
with very high grades. We were up against the best students
of our area schools. But we often met after school in order
to practice sample questions and to make up our own from
almanacs and other sources. We won some matches, but the
competition was tough. Some rival schools had exceptional
teams, and we did not look forward to dueling it out with
them!
Then one competition day
turned out rather bizarre. We discovered that not one member
nor I as advisor, was able to attend a meet against a
formidable rival! I recruited a teacher to chaperone the
team, and she really was interested in becoming a
co-advisor. Now I had to find about five or six students
(who would never have done this before) to represent our
school.
I ???profiled???.
Of course, I went right to an
Advanced Placement honors class, probably physics, explained
our need, and fully expected that these students, our very
best, would respond to our need! Of course, they would.
Not one volunteered. Not one
was interested. None asked for help to make any needed
arrangements; no one was interested!
OK. I then went to a
???regular??? biology class of younger students.
After explaining, with thanks
to the teacher for time to do so, I got my volunteers for
the team and for a team captain. (I contacted parents for
their permission.)
We had a team!
One girl, Chelsea, whose full
name I still remember without looking it up, had ???attitude???!
Yeah!
Of course, ???attitude??? is
often associated by adults with ???poor attitude???. I can
rephrase that Chelsea had a strong personality. (I prefer
???attitude???.) She, of course, became the captain. Not
expecting a win against our toughest rival, I completed my
day and then awaited their return later that afternoon.
Our pro tem team probably
would be soundly beaten, but at least we would not have
missed the meet.
They returned. No, we did
not magically trounce an outstanding and experienced team,
but ??¦ Chelsea and team had come close!
Sometimes ???close??? is more
than enough!
And Chelsea and team, not at
all afraid of these other guys, had WON the bonus round!
Underclassmen, no experience
in this competition, first time ever as a team for anything,
and from a regular biology class. But Chelsea and her team
would not just be walked on! They WON the bonus round! I
congratulated them.
I was elated to write the PA
announcement for the next morning. And I had learned my
???lesson???. |
