Success is achieved by developing our strengths, not by eliminating our weaknesses (Marilyn vos Savant)

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That quote caused me to do a double take. When I mulled it over, I could see the truth in Marilyn's statement.

In past interviews, in a former life, I've asked that question. You know the one - adapted to the more modern buzz-speak, "What are your work-ons?", but the intent is the same. In my defense it was designed to gauge self-awareness, more than it was about an applicant's weakness. But it remains a horrible question.

Savant is right - too much is put on eliminating weakness, and not enough in developing strengths!

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

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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.

Wrapping paper in the gutter, moving slowly as the wind on the sea (Cream)

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Interesting thought from James Clear:

"Your teaching ability is constrained by your writing ability.

If you can’t write it down, it will be nearly impossible to teach it well."

As an English teacher, I initially nodded in agreement, but I'm not sure my P.E. colleagues would necessarily go for that. It's one of those quotes that needs some context around it.

It has had me puzzling on it for a few days, which is good.

I'm caught in a fold as the moon holds the sea (Mostly Autumn)

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Cover. Relief. Substitute.

I need to be away from my school for a few days next week, so the boys will have a reliever to cover my classes.

Like many teachers, I hate being away from school. Particularly for an extended period.

It means I have to set relief, which is not an exact science because I can't gauge the boys' day to day progress, nor can I leave material for the reliever that needs actually teaching because they won't be expecting to do that. 

Frinstance: if I relieve another English teacher I'm fine and I'm not useless in humanities/arts/P.E., but if it's a science or maths class - fergetaboutit. It's the luck of the draw.

Therefore, it's a baby-sitting exercise by necessity. That's the unfortunate reality, but I do need my students to progress during the week because time is tight. Neither they nor I can afford to waste a week.

However, needs must. Family comes first. Every time. So, they'll just have to manage the best they can without me. I'll pick the pieces when I get back.

Meh. Afterall, graveyards are full of indispensable people, are they not?

I've been workin' so hard (Van Morrison)

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According to four-star Marine Corps general and former secretary of defense James Mattis:

'If I was to sum up the single biggest problem of senior leadership in the information age, it's lack of reflection. Solitude allows you to reflect while others are reacting. We need solitude to refocus on prospective decision-making, rather than just reacting to problems as they arise'.

Solitude for me comes at regular intervals during my workday.

First thing in the morning is when I'm the only person awake. This routine started when the kids were young and I needed some part of my day without noise and bustle. Now, it's because my back is sore every morning when I wake up, and I need to get up and move around. I've always been an early riser so this hasn't disrupted things too much. This equals to about 1 hour usually.

The commute to Hastings takes an hour so I have two hours a day of listening to music, thinking my thoughts, driving on State Highway 50. Out of nowhere, the weirdest things pop into my head on the commute. 

I arrive at school before others get there. At Hastings Boys' that means I arrive at 7.00am (the time Andrew turns off the alarms). I've done this early arrival thing since the late eighties so it's an ingrained routine. This equals to another hour usually.

During the day I can sometimes head off for a walk during a non-contact period. I walk from school into the CBD and back. It roughly takes about 40 minutes. I don't take my earpods - instead I pay attention to my surroundings as best I can, and think.

My final solitude experience is at night before going to bed. I need some time to myself to write my journal entry for the day. This equals to about 15 minutes usually.

That's quite a bit - at most about 4 hours of me time a day. Nice.

Rewards

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The reward of our work is not what we get, but what we become.

(Paulo Coelho)

No eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn.

(Jim Morrison)

You can't always get what you want but if you try sometime you'll find you get what you need.

(Mick Jagger)

Brains, like hearts, go where they are appreciated.

(Robert McNamara)

There are two things people want more than sex and money: recognition and praise.

(Mary Kay Ash)

All that you behold, that which comprises both god and man, is one - we are the parts of one great body (Seneca)

I have mentioned before how proud I am of my choice to be a teacher (and Jacky's career as a nurse).

Having just finished marking Year 9 and 10 work (Letters to Mr Purdy) and my Psychoanalysis for beginners responses from my three senior classes, I had a moment of realisation about my on-going connectedness to generations of current and former students of mine stretching all the way back to 1983.

It's probably best described as a stepping back from the enormity of that immediate experience (reading their work and encouraging my students) to seeing/appreciating the experiences all those students (old and new) and connecting with them.

It's a magic feeling that reinforces my own worth on a planet spinning around the solar system. I love being a teacher of service to others.

My hope is that you get to experience that feeling in your own life from time to time.

A smile is an inexpensive way to improve your looks (Charles Gordy)

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I'd go further than Gordy and say, a smile is an essential element to improve your looks, as well. Especially for a schoolteacher.

If you can't smile/laugh at yourself, if you can't smile/laugh at the ridiculous things that kids say, if you can't smile/laugh at your colleagues' war stories, then...what are you doing in teaching?

Really.

Yesterday, I had to go to the admin hub and it was sunny so I put on my dark glasses and off I toddled. As I passed a couple of boys I heard one say to the other, "Mr. Hollywood".

I laughed, turned around and said, "Mr. Hollywood is it?"

Hilarious!

Keep a blue head!

 

My Pirate Code poster (outlining for my students desired classroom behaviours), amongst other things, uses two ideas from the 15 All Black Principles' poster which I love:

Keep a blue head (keep calm under pressure essentially)

Sweep the sheds (be humble, be responsible, take a lead, look after the small things).

They apply to everyone don't they?

The stonecutter

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Students are back at Hastings' Boys High School, next week, where I am teaching English.

The Chinese story about the stonecutter comes to mind:

“There was once a stonecutter who was dissatisfied with himself and with his position in life.

One day he passed a wealthy merchant’s house. Through the open gateway, he saw many fine possessions and important visitors. “How powerful that merchant must be!” thought the stonecutter. He became very envious and wished that he could be like the merchant.

To his great surprise, he suddenly became the merchant, enjoying more luxuries and power than he had ever imagined, but envied and detested by those less wealthy than himself. Soon a high official passed by, carried in a sedan chair, accompanied by attendants and escorted by soldiers beating gongs. Everyone, no matter how wealthy, had to bow low before the procession. “How powerful that official is!” he thought. “I wish that I could be a high official!”

Then he became the high official, carried everywhere in his embroidered sedan chair, feared and hated by the people all around. It was a hot summer day, so the official felt very uncomfortable in the sticky sedan chair. He looked up at the sun. It shone proudly in the sky, unaffected by his presence. “How powerful the sun is!” he thought. “I wish that I could be the sun!”

Then he became the sun, shining fiercely down on everyone, scorching the fields, cursed by the farmers and laborers. But a huge black cloud moved between him and the earth, so that his light could no longer shine on everything below. “How powerful that storm cloud is!” he thought. “I wish that I could be a cloud!”

Then he became the cloud, flooding the fields and villages, shouted at by everyone. But soon he found that he was being pushed away by some great force, and realized that it was the wind. “How powerful it is!” he thought. “I wish that I could be the wind!”

Then he became the wind, blowing tiles off the roofs of houses, uprooting trees, feared and hated by all below him. But after a while, he ran up against something that would not move, no matter how forcefully he blew against it – a huge, towering rock. “How powerful that rock is!” he thought. “I wish that I could be a rock!”

Then he became the rock, more powerful than anything else on earth. But as he stood there, he heard the sound of a hammer pounding a chisel into the hard surface, and felt himself being changed. “What could be more powerful than I, the rock?” he thought.

He looked down and saw far below him the figure of a stonecutter.”

"Why, why?" Says the junk in the yard (Paul McCartney)

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I'm reading two books concurrently Stillness Is The Key (Ryan Holiday) and The McCartney Legacy (Kozinn/ Sinclair).

Ryan's advice when things get really tough:

• Be fully present
• Empty our mind of preoccupations
• Take our time
• Sit quietly and reflect
• Reject distraction
• Weigh advice against the counsel of our convictions
• Deliberate without being paralysed

In 1969 at the height of Beatle business issues, McCartney escaped London, with his wife Linda and their two children, and went to his remote Scottish farm called High Park near Campbeltown. 

By all accounts, while there he was at a low ebb ('a dark place' in the current parlance). By his own admission he was close to a mental breakdown. He drank a lot, he licked his wounds, and he slowly recovered by doing something he has always been able to do - make music.

When they returned to their London home he started making some home recordings that became McCartney (his first solo album).  

Music appears to be his stillness. There is a pattern - he did this solo thing again in 1980 after his drug bust in Japan (and produced the terrible McCartney II as a result, but that's by the by).

I can tick off all of Ryan's list as I put myself in Macca's shoes, and I can certainly relate it to other times in my own personal and professional life.

Stillness is the key.

Rationality makes it possible to better understand the world around us (Arsene Wenger)

Myles Lewis-Skelly - age 18

The January transfer window means players like Manchester City's Kyle Walker (aged 34) are looking to transfer to a new club.

It will be unlikely that a big club will look at Walker because of his age. So, he's probably looking to manage his last few years playing at a lower league, then transition to something else in or out of football.

The life of a modern footballer is pretty short. Even someone like Arsenal's Myles Lewis-Skelly, who is 18, will only expect to play until his mid 30s. After 14 years he's going to be tired!

Arsene Wenger explains the reality of this using a data metric called Top Score (points are awarded for actions such as the direction of passes): 

We realised that at the age of 32 a midfielder had a defensive score that was going down but an offensive score that was rising, that he had less energy to go into battle but more to express himself, to be more tactical. Rationality makes it possible to better understand the world around us.

Teachers and administrators can relate to this. There are different ways to express yourself. Experience can do that. 

I'm looking forward to my 43rd year as a teacher in 2025.

Moreover, I'll win (Colin Prentice)

As I gear up for a return to school in a few weeks time, I remembered this bit in Colin Prentice's book (When People Matter Most):

In the first assembly of the year I would lay out the school rules to the whole school and say: Look, here's the line, put your big toe on the line and you're fine. Put your big toe over the line and you're telling me that you're looking for a fight. I won't disappoint you. Moreover, I'll win, because the Board of Governors has agreed with these rules and the way we run it here. So it's not worth fighting.

These rules he speaks of, at Macleans College, were more guidelines to protect and maintain order, generate freedom from oppression, bullying, and offensive social behaviour.

As he said: the rights of the child to a peaceful, orderly, and productive education have to be preserved.

As I work on my guidelines for my classes I always keep this in mind.

When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you. a joy (Rumi)

 

In The Beach Boys (by The Beach Boys), Carl Wilson describes the higher purpose and the altruism inherent in the songs on the Pet Sounds album:

The idea of making music that could really make people feel better became like a crusade.

Just don't judge me by my shoes (The Band)

The Band's song King Harvest (has Surely Come) supplies the title for the post.

[I'm reading Robbie Robertson's autobiography, Testimony, at the moment and listening to those early albums by The Band.]

Like a lot of The Band's songs there is a depth of feeling to King Harvest. Set in the 1930s Dust Bowl context, it is a song about hope, dashed hopes and the will to keep going despite it all.

The calendar quote for yesterday was:

If you can imagine it, you can achieve it;

If you can dream it, you can become it.

William Arthur Ward

Robbie definitely imagined it, achieved it, dreamed it, became it.

It's a good way to start a new year isn't it. Plenty of hope, plenty of healthy realism, plenty of ifs to medicate on.