I had a conversation Saturday night with a friend who is a high school English teacher about the growth mindset in sports and education. (We share a view that the two really go hand-in-hand.) We talked about K-12 and college and how we are trending toward an easing of standards out of a desire to help young people feel successful. I understand the motivations of such well-intended educators, but they are misguided. What my friend sees in his school spills over into what I see at the university. Frankly, I feel we fail society when we don’t raise our young to embrace the challenge.
As an English teacher, my friend teaches what he describes as “functional literacy”. Long past are the days when students are “forced” to read the classics and write creatively. Thus, a passion for literature is lost. Creative writing is now limited to memes (often wrought with grammar and spelling issues) and brief tweets and social media posts. Words are replaced with acronyms and emotions are expressed with emoticons.
My pet peeve as a professor is Math. Somehow the perception has become that “we don’t need math” and “we’ll never use this”. Math, however, serve a greater purpose than stressing young minds. Yes, perhaps, I might not use everything I learned in Calculus, but Math has taught me logic and perseverance. Math has served me in far more ways than I can every comprehend. I am saddened (and a bit angered) by the comments of students that they “can’t do math” or “math is hard”. Maybe I was just fortunate in the math teachers I have had, but I feel so many of my students have been short changed.
We watched Hidden Figures on Friday. I was struck by the repeated examples of how these brilliant minds were not successful because of what they knew, but because of what they were able to figure out. Numerous times the comment was made that “we need math that hasn’t been done, yet” (paraphrasing). It was America in one of its finer hours (the progression of knowledge and technology, as well as the progression of the rights and opportunities of women and people of color). It was a story of doing what had never been done because it needed to be done.
I am educated and hold degrees, but these are meaningless if they don’t serve to remind me of how little I know. I have heard it said that “PhDs learn more and more about less and less until they know everything about absolutely nothing”. Maybe. I have found that what I have learned has opened doors to opportunity to learn more—ever revealing my ignorance.
There is satisfaction in “failing”. Something has been learned when one fails. Failure is the impulse to succeed. Without challenge, however, there is no failure. With no failure, there is no growth. In exercise physiology, this is the “overload principle”. It is the idea behind “momentary muscular failure” and muscle growth. In well-centered fitness, we likewise do not grow unless we are challenged.
Embrace the challenge. Be your best today; be better tomorrow. Carpe momento!