Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. – Thomas Edison
I am an educator of 15 years, who has become overwhelmed with 21st Century Educational jargon, while being underwhelmed with the clarity and specificity to what it actually means. I Googled the term“21st Century Education “ today and received 32,100,000 results – wow! So I decided to cut to the chase and simply Google “definition of 21st Century Education” believing that would help me define this term and get on with implementing it in our school. I was wrong- this search rendered 27,300,00 results….so much for a quick fix.
I am a simple man of average intelligence, who always appreciated the KISS principle when teaching and learning. As a learner I gravitated towards my teachers and coaches who were able to grind down large concepts into their simplest forms, using stories, buzz words, analogies, etc. So in today’s blog post I set out to do the same as a teacher myself, with the goal of simplifying 21st Century Education into its simplest form, using a story, buzz words and analogies.
I believe the secret to 21st Century Education and what we teach our children can be extrapolated from the best of what prior centuries had to offer, and be boiled down to 2 words- WORK ETHIC.
Most people, for whatever reason, think natural ability is the most important power a person possesses. It’s not. People who achieve higher levels of success have an unbelievable work ethic , the desire to sacrifice. This is what we need to be teaching and modeling for our children.
As a coach, I believe athletics teach us many life lessons. Therefore, I share the following story about Jerry Rice (one of the NFL’s All-Time leading receivers) as told by his former coach Mike Shanahan. I have bolded and underlined key phrases I use when teaching my own children & students.
JERRY RICE – WHY THE BEST EVER?
Everybody thinks San Francisco’s Jerry Rice is the best wide receiver out there. He certainly is talented, but I guarantee you he’s not even close to being the most talented. He’s not the strongest or the fastest. But he is the most determined.
During my three seasons in San Francisco, I remember how he used to tell me “I want to be the best wide receiver ever to play the game.” In my mind, he already was the best. He already held the all time NFL records for receptions, receiving yards and touchdowns.
But Jerry’s mindset was that nobody was going to work harder, prepare better, or sacrifice more. He convinced himself that he was going to outwork every receiver who came into the league relative to conditioning, lifting, studying – EVERYTHING! He knew that people might not enjoy the practice, but you don’t get to be the best without it.
Every day in the off-season Jerry would be up at 6am going through his strenuous stretching drills. He would run short sprints then routes until he was exhausted. Then he would lift weights in as quick a rotation as possible. It didn’t take me long to understand why every time we got to the fourth quarter of a game, while most of the players were slowing down, Jerry could run as fast as he did on the first play of the game.
On the days he trained, Jerry would cap off his physical work with mental work. He would immerse himself in game film of the league’s top ten wide receivers, studying how they ran their routes and what moves they used to get open. It was amazing to me how he had so many of the all time records, and still was working harder than anybody.
It would have been easy for him to be spending that time relaxing at the mall or on the golf course. But Jerry was sacrificing his leisure time to be considered the greatest receiver of all time. The only way was the hard way - he believed.
And eventually, even though you may think nobody notices your extra effort, somebody usually does. Your work will pay off tomorrow, a year from now, five years from now, you don’t know when. But it will.
I would like to summarize the important points of this article, and blog post, into a KISS principle that I believe defines 21st Century Education – WORK ETHIC. These are the values we should be teaching our students:
WORK ETHIC
· Determination
· Passion
· Preparation
· Sacrifice
· Practice
· High Expectations
· Patience
What is your definition of 21st Century Education – in 2 words or less? Thoughts and comments welcome.
