Academic success – You know why your students are in school, but do they?
We might think it’s obvious that secondary education exists to equip your students for success in their adult lives, but you may find that they see things rather differently, says John Lawson…
- by John Lawson
‘When you give anything your everything, you will be successful’. This is a mantra that ‘champions’ of every stripe exude, and one that should be championed more often in classrooms – especially as we begin this new school year.
Success can be defined as being the best we can be at something we love. We can’t all be the best, but we can certainly all give our best.
Most students enjoy exploring their talents, and thanks to Aristotle, we know that the pursuit of eudaimonia, or happiness/wellbeing, is written into their hearts. Even Dickens’ arch misanthrope, Ebeneezer Scrooge, ultimately sought a form of happiness. It just took three ghostly teachers to re-direct him.
We must teach teenagers not to dismiss education as a soulless process of acquiring awards, grades, and certificates, but instead recognise that its real worth lies in what it can do to help us acquire an identity that goes on to shape our destiny.
We shouldn’t assume that students are aware of how important mindsets are, or know how to study effectively, because most of them don’t. If you need proof, ask your charges to evaluate their understanding of secondary education, and be prepared to encounter some amazing and occasionally bizarre answers.
I’d wager that their responses likely wouldn’t match mine – that secondary education involves teachers helping students to discover their natural talents, and encourage their development so that they may enjoy and value the gift of life that everyone has equal shares in.
What’s in your teaching credo?
The pursuit of happiness
Learning to think independently and study effectively plays a key role in adolescent formation. I can still recall my first life skills class when teaching at a school in Florida, with a group of high-flying seniors a semester away from graduation. I’d challenged them to compose and frame ‘10 Commandments of Success’ that they’d take with them to college.
What I received from these 30 Advanced Placement (A-level equivalent) students was astonishing. Why would teenagers who had secured places at Harvard and Princeton tacitly accept that stress and success were inseparable? Why were so few of them excited to pursue careers offering something beyond outward respectability, comfortable salaries and robust pension plans?
I can’t pretend that the pursuit of happiness and academic success will ever be easy, or entirely stress-free. It is, however, much easier to take on life’s mountains when we’re properly equipped and willing to listen to the lead Sherpa.
These, then, are my own five indisputable steps to success in any field, which I’d invite you to share with your students…
1. Want it
When you want to succeed as much as a drowning person wants to breathe, you’ll be successful. We all need to discover who we are and find that one thing we value above everything else.
2. Show up every day – body and soul
If you want to be a winner, you have to sign up for the race and be ready to give everything. We can only take out of life what we’ve deposited into our accounts.
3. Don’t shirk from hard work
It’s absurd to think that laziness can be priced into any success story. Michael Phelps is the most successful Olympian of all time, and nobody knows better than him how significant the eight hours a day he spent swimming laps was to his phenomenal success.
4. Never Give up
When Thomas Edison was experimenting with various lightbulb designs, his frustrated research assistant urged him to quit after ‘2,000 failures’. But Edison persevered, because he realised that discovering 2,000 ways of not making a lightbulb is still a type of progress, rather than failure. So go light your world!
5. Be ready when Lady Luck calls…
…because she rarely does call-backs. The harder we work, and the more risks we take, the more likely it is that we’ll eventually attract Lady Luck.
May this be a stellar new school year for you all, blessed with energised students and great teachers who are ready to show them that success isn’t a zero-sum game, nor the preserve of other people.
John Lawson is a former secondary teacher, now serving as a foundation governor and running a tutoring service, and author of the book The Successful (Less Stressful) Student (Outskirts Press, £11.95); for more information, visit prep4successnow.wordpress.com or follow @johninpompano
