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Thoughts on making a real difference in the lives of learners...

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Grit is for Sandpaper: Redux

2/15/2016

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Sunday I read a tweet online from an educator who was praising a speaker at the IDAOrlando conference that she was attending. The speaker, with apparent clarity and certainty, declared that "The number one thing that LD students need, is grit." Well, the comment did make me grit my teeth, if that was the intent! Grit, like the "growth vs fixed mindset" mantra, is just another truism in the current "blame the learner" approach to working with students with learning challenges.

With the best of intentions, teachers and theorists have placed the mindset burden on the backs of students who are already struggling because they learn differently than the system expects them to. And, if being told that they have a fixed mindset is not enough of a burden to place on learners, they follow it up by telling them that the reason that they are underachieving is because they lack "grit" or, as I read recently in another article dedicated to oversimplifying complex processes, they are short on "moxie"! More and more our classrooms and schools are sounding like something out of a Horatio Alger novel or a 1940s movie script.

In actual fact, most of our students have to have incredible perseverance just to get up and come to school every day and face another 6 or 7 hours where they feel like they just can't cut it. So, before you start putting up your "Paul Tough" posters and before you start copying cutesy "Growth Mindset" bulletin boards off of Pinterest, be sure that you know whom your real audience should be.

You see, I have seen the "gritless", and they are us!

It is we educators who often lack the “moxie” to break down the barriers to learning. It is telling that our provincial teachers' union is taking the issue “class composition” to the Supreme Court – basically saying – “get those kids out of my classroom, they are too difficult to teach!” Independent schools all too often do the same thing – we’re just a little more subtle, using phrases like “sorry but your child is not a mission appropriate candidate for our school” or the “it’s not you, it’s me” approach – “Unfortunately, we’re just not a good fit for your daughter/son”.

Instead of listening to the outside experts, perhaps we should be focusing our attention a little closer to home. Standard school jargon talks about the principle of “in loco parentis”, educators acting in the place of the parent – we use it in classroom management, on field trips, and even in how we approach discipline. But maybe we’ve got it all wrong.  
Maybe, if we educators really believed in the importance of in loco parentis, we could consider following a different kind of approach when working with our students. 
You see, parents are really the ones with “grit”. They are the ones with a growth mindset about their own child, they have so much “moxie” that we often berate them in the staff room for being too pushy, or of being “helicopter” parents.

So maybe a real solution for our students, and us, would be to take over their advocate role. In fact, what if we acted like parents rather than teachers? What difference would that make to help students to succeed? What if every school treated each child as if her or his success was critically important to us? What if we all actively searched for ways in which every student could learn effectively?  What if we showed the same grit and perseverance that parents do when they support and advocate for their child?

You see, in loco parentis is not actually a legal construct at all, it is a philosophy of teaching and learning. The more that schools and administrators and teachers become cheerleaders, coaches and advocates for children; rather than taking on the roles of judge, jury and executioner; the better the chance they have for success.
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Clearly, it is not students who need “grit” or a “growth mindset”, it is us. We are the ones who all too often give up on some kids as being beyond our ability to teach, and move on to easier, more pliant targets. We are the ones who need to use our professional grit to sand away the rough surfaces of insecurity and fear of failure and to expose and polish the underlying core of self-worth. The sooner we cease deflecting our professional responsibilities by blaming the learner for her or his lack of “moxie” – the sooner we can actually make a difference in their lives. 

We don’t ask parents to act like schools. And, for their part, schools should not take on the role of parents, but rather what we must do, as educators, is to embrace each parent's belief in the potential of her or his individual child. We have to work with them to help them to discover their own personal pathways to success. Let's not use glib phrases and popular slogans to blame the learner. Let's roll up our sleeves and get to work as their "pushy" teachers.
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All it takes is a little grit!



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5 Things that an astronaut taught me about learning

2/6/2016

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Yesterday I had the distinct privilege and pleasure of listening to Canadian astronaut Col. Chris Hadfield speak about his time in space (six months over three missions) and as commander of the international space station. He was interesting, engaging and entertaining - everything that you would want in a keynote speaker - but mixed in with the personal anecdotes, the stunning visuals, and even the guitar playing and singing, there were some key messages that resonated with me and gave me lots to think about as I headed for the Seabus on my way home. Here are five of the important learnings for me:

1. Every day is a fresh start and an opportunity to learn something new: We often ask kids, either as a reflective educator, or as parents around the dinner table, "what did you learn today?" But, how often do we turn that question on ourselves? Are we continuous learners? Or do we go through our days by rote, doing the same old things as a variation on an on-going theme? What if, instead, we were determined to not let a day go by without learning one new thing? A new set of facts about a topic of interest? A different perspective about our current beliefs and professional practices? A new skill? It can be as simple as trying out an interesting recipe for dinner. "What did you learn today that made you grow - just a little?"


2. Things don't happen just by luck (good or bad): We always talk about being in the right place at the right time to get a new opportunity, or job, or career advancement, and, conversely to miss the boat for the opposite reason. The fact is, the only way that you can be in the "right" place, is if you have put yourself there. By that I don't mean just physically, but in terms of your learning, your life experience, and your attitude. For everyone who gets an opportunity because they were in the right place at the right time - there were a dozen others who were too, and who didn't get it. It's not a matter of luck, its a matter of preparation.

3. In fact, most of life is preparation: Chris Hadfield is an astronaut. Almost every Canadian school kid has seen pictures or videos of him in the ISS doing experiments, or singing songs, or simply pointing out things through the station window. We all know that an astronaut is someone who flies around in space. Chris Hadfield is an amazing and accomplished astronaut.  He has been in the space programme for 23 years, of which only six months have been actually been in space! Three opportunities to "do his job" in more than two decades of training for it. I originally met Marc Garneau, the first Canadian in space, back in the late 1980s. His was a similar story. Years of training for three flights and a few weeks in space. Know what you want to accomplish and get ready for it.

4. Look for the next step: Superman is (shockingly!) a fictional character. No-one can actually "leap tall buildings in a single bound". But, we can all scale just as high a target if we take it one step at a time. There is no need to be in a hurry, you just have to keep moving onward and upward. Each forward step takes you closer to your goal. Too many of us spend our lives like the ball in a pinball machine either shooting forward and falling back, careening from one experience to the next or, sitting in the chute waiting for someone else to pull back the plunger that gets us started. As Commander Hadfield says: "Almost everything that you chose not to do in your life, no-one told you couldn't". Know where you want to go, and get on with it.


5. Have a vision not a dream: Back in my days of accrediting schools, I once had a Head say to me that he knew what his vision was, but he just didn't know how to get there. That wasn't a vision, that was a dream. We all have dreams. Like Chris Hadfield, I watched Star Trek growing up, saw Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin land on the moon and imagined myself flying around in space. For me, that was a nice fantasy, for him, it was a career path. His journey from a young boy with a vision to an amazingly accomplished spaceship commander was marked by learning new things every day; making his own "luck"; dedicating himself to years of preparation; and, systematically heading towards his goal one step at a time. In a funny, self-deprecating moment, Chris Hadfield called himself a "loser" because his goal had been to land on the moon not to command the International Space Station. In reality, his vision had remained intact, but history had altered his target.

I took my two youngest sons, Morgan and Quinn to hear Chris Hadfield speak. When we were leaving Morgan, who is 12, said to me - "Dad, I really want to be an astronaut when I grow up." So, my learnings, these five steps, are really being written for him, so that he can take his dream, turn it into a vision, and create his own future - one step at a time.

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    Dr. Jim Christopher is recently retired Head of Kenneth Gordon Maplewood School and Maplewood Alternative High School in North Vancouver. A parent, author and long-time teacher, and educational administrator across Canada, he has been actively involved in the drive to differentiate learning experiences to meet the needs of all learners.

    View my profile on LinkedIn

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