Look at my face (Lauren)

Watching Adolescence on Netflix has dredged up some memories of working and advising in some U.K. schools.

While working in Benfleet at the King John School, I experienced the teenage Essex culture at first hand (as did my two daughters). That school was an excellent one, but there were still students like Lauren Cooper from The Catherine Tate Show (look at my fayce - am I bovvered?) and some hard nut boys who appeared to just want trouble.

While seconded to help the leadership team at Walthamstowe Academy, it often felt like a war-zone featuring various ethnic cultures. Not surprising given that many had come from areas of war-torn Mogadishu. 

Helping out the English department at a 'Special Measures' school in Southend was also an eye-opener.

So, the school scenes in episode 2 of Adolescence are not far from the reality. Having all the teachers relying on videos to crowd control classes was something I never saw though.

The other aspect that rang true about the show was the behaviour of 13 year old Jamie Miller. All kids lie at some point. As a Deputy Principal, Assistant Headteacher and Principal I developed a keen sense for when students lied. 

The basic method of investigating thoroughly before confronting a student with proof, is something I used many times. Like Jamie, students will still lie as a self-preservation instinct, but eventually the truth will come out.

Always best to tell the truth and do the right thing, now.

DYD DYB DYB

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Do Your Best is a phrase I have heard many times. As a youngster I was a cub scout in Royal Oak, Auckland. Famously the scout motto is DYB DYB DYB.

But more importantly, it was a phrase my dad used all the time. He never said, "Try you best". Instead, it was, "Just do your best". That is enough.

So, I grew up with that phrase and it helped form my approach to life (the universe and everything). 

As Ryan Holiday says (in Discipline Is Destiny) why wouldn't you do your best?

As in:

Why are you holding back?

Why are you half-assing this?

Why are you so afraid to try?

Why don't you think this matters?

What could you be capable of if you really committed?

When I ask my students to set goals, I always combine it with a question about their commitment level - if it's not at the highest - then they need a different goal.

Whatever job I've had I've always aimed to do my best. I would take it particularly hard, if my commitment level was ever questioned, because 'anything less is to cheat the gift' (Ryan Holiday):

The gift of your potential

The gift of the opportunity

The gift of the craft you've been introduced to

The gift of the responsibility entrusted to you

The gift of the instruction and time of others

The gift of life itself.

Now he rides a comet's flame and won't be coming back again (Neutral Milk Hotel)

This passage from Discipline Is Destiny (Ryan Holiday) deserves repeating. And if you any kind of leader, it's something to keep in mind:

The history of Rome - indeed, the history of humankind - is almost universally the story of people who were made worse by power. From Nero to Napoleon, Tiberius to Trump, power doesn't just corrupt, it reveals. It places unimaginable stress on a person and subjects them to unbelievable temptations. It breaks even the strongest.

The rarest of the rare (Ryan Holiday)

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In the last post I focused on the 'just show up' directive.

In this sequel, the message is - that's the first step (showing up); the next step is finding something to focus on getting better at each day.

Ryan Holiday: Think about it: Most people don't even show up. Of the people who do, most don't really push themselves. So to show up and be disciplined about daily improvement? You are the rarest of the rare.

I've been lucky (I've lived a charmed life, remember). Teaching is absolutely that thing I found to focus on.

Some days you eat the bear, and some days the bear eats you. As a teacher you'd better figure out what to do to be better on to avoid more of those ugly days or else you won't last long (you need all that you can get of those days when you eat the bear).

Just show up!

I know that I've used Ryan Holiday's Discipline Is Destiny for a few posts on this blog (and Wozza's Place), but this book hits bull's-eyes for so many things.

This list of instructions is well worth pinning to a wall in my classroom. It will work for me and my students!

Show up...

...when you're tired

...when you don't have to

...even if you have an excuse

...even if you're busy

...even if you won't get recognised for it

...even if it's been kicking your ass lately.

It's tough to do. Showing up. But because it's hard - most people don't. It's why many NZ kids who want to grow up to be an All Black, never make it. 

Many of my students tell me they want to be professional league players in Australia. 

They'll need to show up. Every day.

Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work (Gustave Flaubert)

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I helped our school's very patient, calm and biddable caretaker to re-position a teacher's desk the other morning (I'm first to school remember). We chatted as we did so, and I remarked how I got out of the habit of using a teacher's desk back in my Woodford House days.

Conferencing with students means moving around the classroom and not sitting at a teacher's desk, plus these desks in Tier (the building I teach in) are huuuuge.

At OneSchool Global the thrust was very much away from teacher desks (they were removed with extreme prejudice by order of the Regional Principals).

Ryan Holiday has no such problem with desks existing, as he suggests - the laptop desktop has largely surplanted an old style desk - he just advocates them being cleaned up. Ordered.

I have always made sure my desk is free of papers and clutter at the end of every day - that continues to the present day, with my teacher's standing desk and my huuuge teacher desk that is in the corner of my classroom.

The last word goes to Ryan: Clean up your desk, make your bed. Get your things in order.

Sweat the small stuff

Photo by Branimir Balogović
on Unsplash

Yes, I know I'm a fan of the Don't Sweat The Small Stuff message from Richard Carlson, but Ryan Holiday makes a great point in Discipline Is Destiny.

He uses the analogy of coach John Wooden's lesson in how to put your shoes on correctly very effectively.

The basic message is to get the little things right.

In a way it's a mindfulness lesson. One of my routines each morning when I put my watch on is to say aloud 'Be mindful'.

I learnt that lesson when I was sloppy one morning - the watch slipped off my wrist as I was attaching it, and dropped to the floor - dislodging the second hand. Without it my watch stopped working. That meant a cost me a lot in terms of discombobulation and a repair bill.

So now I look at it each morning and say, 'Be mindful'. I haven't dropped it since.

In my career as a teacher and as a leader, I have aimed to employ that approach - nip things in the bud, get the basics right, fix the broken windows, deal to the graffiti, sweat the small stuff.

That does not mean I micro-manage others or lose perspective though.