The Balancing Game

I've been thinking a lot about balance this week, particularly walking the line between a challenging and a supportive academic program.

There is a blog post by educator and father John Spencer about how parenthood changes you as a teacher. It is a mindset that allows Mr. Spencer to coach and support all learners. He writes:

"There are no "bad kids." I think I knew that on some level. However, I was okay early on just letting some kids fall through. However, when I saw (as early as three years old) the deeper truth that every child is capable of brokenness and beauty, it forever changed how I view my students."

"Every mind is different. Genetically, our kids are supposed to be really similar. However, for all the talk of "learning styles" and the tracking of kids, I am convinced in the originality of every mind. That might sound cliché, but having kids is part of why I am on a journey toward implementing a more personalized approach to my classroom."

I am a parent myself these sentiments, along with the others on his list, resonate. Supporting all students, personalizing learning and differentiating instruction are hallmarks of a supportive curriculum. 

Yet offering support and expressing care doesn’t mean “letting everyone win.” In a challenging environment, sometimes, you lose. And as Ashley Merryman recently wrote in the NewYork Times, "insulating students from heartbreak and failure isn’t healthy." In her article she rails against the “everyone gets a trophy” mentality. 

Today, participation trophies and prizes are almost a given, as children are constantly assured that they are winners…When children make mistakes, our job should not be to spin those losses into decorated victories. Instead, our job is to help kids overcome setbacks, to help them see that progress over time is more important than a particular win or loss, and to help them graciously congratulate the child who succeeded when they failed.

She also quotes author of “Generation Me,” Jean Twenge:

In life, “you’re going to lose more often than you win, even if you’re good at something,” Ms. Twenge told me. “You’ve got to get used to that to keep going.”

In these two articles I see the convergence of a challenging AND supportive learning environment. Essentially, everyone does NOT get a trophy, but everyone does get a darn good coach.