Motivation Matters

There are very few events that capture the concepts of determination, perseverance, and motivation better than the Olympics. Unlike Kevin, I'm not a big sports fan, and I very rarely keep up with athletics in general, but every time the Olympics roll around, I find myself glued to the television, marveling at the absolutely amazing things people are capable of. I put more hours of TV-watching in during the Olympics than I do at any other time of year (well, except for Shark Week).

I know of at least one program that is working to harness the awe-inspiring power of the Olympics to motivate students to be healthier, called Ready, Set, Gold! The program pairs up Olympians with schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District to promote nutrition and fitness, as well as goal-setting and self-discipline, all skills I'm sure the Olympians are very familiar with. And, of course, skills that greatly contribute to success in academics.

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In a recent commentary piece on edweek.org, Vicky Shippers argues that recess is an important piece of a student's school day. It is the only unstructured time children have at school, and yet many recess activities--like kickball and tag--have been banned from the playground because of safety concerns, and in many schools, recess itself has been squeezed out because of time constraints. Shippers explains why this is a worrisome trend:

"Recess ... is about freedom. ... During recess, children are in a peer setting where they can watch how other kids act, decide whom they like and don’t like, and figure out why. With this knowledge, they are armed with some important clues about how to go forth into the larger world."

Even though recess may cause physical or emotional injuries to some students, it provides an essential unstructured arena for children to learn social skills, Shippers argues, and I tend to agree with her. Recess gives students a chance to self-organize teams for baseball or basketball, and it gives kids a chance to deepen their relationships with other students. Also as recent studies have shown, giving kids an hour to run around and be physically active helps them focus in class later on.

What do you think? Is recess an important part of school? Or is it a good place to start cutting in order to make time for more academic classes? Have the safety constraints that bar traditional recess activities from the playground done more harm than good? Or are they appropriately protecting students from injuries?

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In her story this week, Education Week's Debra Viadero says that research is drawing an increasingly strong link between exercise and academic performance. Here's an excerpt:

"There’s sort of no question about it now," said Dr. John J. Ratey, a clinical associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. "The exercise itself doesn’t make you smarter, but it puts the brain of the learners in the optimal position for them to learn."

This has significant implications for schools that, finding themselves in a time-crunch, have cut down on the amount of time allotted for physical education during school. Considering how long kids spend watching TV, playing video games, and surfing the net each day, P.E. could conceivably be the only hour they spend being physically active.

In light of this research and--perhaps more importantly--rising childhood obesity rates, it seems that some states are beginning to understand the value of P.E. This AP story describes legislation in Oklahoma that would increase the amount of required physical fitness activities in elementary and middle schools, and over the past few months, I've read several stories about similar efforts across the country.

I notice, as I'm sure many of you do, that I am less stressed, more attentive, and more alert when I can find the time to exercise than when I'm stuck at my desk, staring at a computer screen all day. It's good to see those personal observations backed up by scientific research.

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One of the greatest motivators for young people and adults alike, at least from this amateur philosopher's perspective, is an attitude in which you appreciate what you have and realize that many others are not as fortunate. I know that sounds very basic and maybe even a little corny, but in coaching this generation of middle and high school boys in lacrosse, I have come to the sad conclusion that most middle class and upper middle class kids don't truly appreciate what they have, whether it be natural athletic ability or a comfortable home to sleep in every night. They take things for granted, and as a consequence, they don't work as hard or they show up on the field with an attitude of entitlement that, quite frankly, irritates coaches like me beyond belief.

Every now and then, though, you come across a story that really illustrates the "appreciate-what-you-have" attitude. Recently, my oldest son pointed me to an ESPN clip on YouTube that every teacher, coach, and administrator should consider sharing with students, especially if you think they need to start appreciating what they have.

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The majority of what we write about in this blog centers on academic motivation. But motivation matters in the physical education world too.

That's why it's worth noting that Texas recently introduced a statewide physical fitness test, to address what one health expert calls the "fitness and fatness of our youth in Texas," according to an Associated Press story on edweek.org. (FYI: We now have an AP education news feed on edweek.org that rolls new stories online 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. There's a lot of good content in the feed that you would probably find useful and interesting.)

Anyway, back to fitness and fatness.

According to the AP story, the test — which measures aerobic capacity, body composition, muscular strength, muscular endurance and flexibility — will be used in every gym class in the state in grades three and up.

The emphasis on fitness is needed in Texas, state officials contend. Forty-two percent of the state's fourth graders, 39 percent of eighth-graders and 36 percent of 11th-graders are overweight or at risk of being overweight, according to a 2007 report from the Texas comptroller, according to the AP article. The same study concluded that the more education people get, the less likely they are to be overweight or obese.

Now, the real challenge begins: Motivating thousands of lazy, poor eaters to get outside and exercise and learn to eat less junk food. Easier said than done, right?

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Will Fitzhugh, the founder and president of the Concord Review, a journal of academic writing by high school students, has written a thought-provoking essay, "Absent From Class," for edweek.org that poses the question: Why do so many of our high school students do so little work?

This, of course, is a question educators have been asking for years. But what was especially interesting about Fitzhugh's essay was how he contrasted the high levels of motivation today's high school students show in sports and other extracurricular activities versus the disturbingly low levels of motivation they have for academic work.

"I cannot think of a single high school sport that asks for only three or four hours a week of practice," Fitzhugh writes, citing a study indicating that only half of high school students spend more than 3-4 hours a week on homework. "So little time spent preparing would easily lead to an athletic failure to match the academic failure of so many of our students."

Fitzhugh's contrasting of motivation in sports versus academics raises some important questions and might point educators in the direction of figuring out how to get students more motivated to learn traditional academics.

But as a longtime youth sports coach who is now coaching high school boys in lacrosse, I am not convinced that today's high school athlete is as highly motivated as Fitzhugh suggests. In fact, at times, they seem much less motivated than athletes of a generation ago. Some high school coaches I know have said that this generation simply has too many choices or distractions--and, hence, they have trouble focusing their efforts. Other coaches have seen a sense of entitlement among today's teenagers, an attitude that they should be given special treatment regardless of how hard they work or whether they are willing to make personal sacrifices for the good of the team.

So let the debate begin...What must be done to get today's high school students more motivated? And do high school sports provide a model for figuring out how to motivate today's teenagers to perform better in their classes?

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In a Nov. 10 post about a review of Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck, I promised that I would read this book. The review was very positive, but I wanted to pass my own judgment.

Well, I can tell you the review was right on target. If you are interested in helping kids see the world through a lens that values hard work and a commitment to improvement, this book is a must read. It includes common sense advice backed up by research, and a host of anecdotes about students, teachers, and parents to illustrate how a person's mindset influences their short-term and long-term performance in school and on the job.

I also found it to be a great resource for sports coaches. In fact, it made me take a hard look at how I coach and what I need to change to bring out the best in my players. There is an excellent section on John Wooden, the most successful college basketball coach of all time. Wooden "admits that in terms of basketball tactics and strategies, he was quite average," Dweck writes. "What he was really good at was analyzing and motivating his players. With these skills he was able to help his players fulfill their potential, not just in basketball, but in life--something he found even more rewarding than winning games."

One of the most fascinating parts of the book is a page with drawings from students in an art class. Most people, including me, see drawing talent as a special ability that you either have or don't have. But the pictures on this page tell a different story. They show the crude drawings of people's faces done before the students took a drawing class. Even I could draw that well. Then they show the revised drawings after they took the class. The transformation in quality is exceptional.

Still, if there is one criticism I have of this book it is that it plays down pure, natural talent too much. To be sure, I believe we can all pick a skill, such as drawing, and learn how to do it better. But the reality is there are people who are born with a special talent for drawing or basketball that puts them way ahead of the rest of us.

Even so, the message in this book is powerful. At the least, it will prompt you to step back a bit and take a hard look at your approach to teaching, coaching, or just living. More likely than not, you will see a need for some adjustments.

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As the loyal readers of this blog are well aware, one of my areas of interest is the motivational philosophies and tactics sports coaches use to build strong teams that might also be utilized in the classroom to raise student achievement.

And that brings me to a book I am reading, The Education of a Coach by David Halberstam, the author of The Best and the Brightest and other best-selling books about American culture, sports, and politics.

This book is a biography of Bill Belichick, the current head coach of the New England Patriots, the most successful team in the NFL in recent years, with three Super Bowl victories in the past five seasons.

You wonder: What lessons could be learned about education from a book about a football coach? The answer is many.

What struck me, in particular, were the wide range of coaching philosophies and styles of some of the most successful high school, college, and professional coaches highlighted in the book. In other words, much like teaching, there is no cookie-cutter model of a successful football coach despite the stereotypes of all football coaches as cruel, boisterous, task masters. Undoubtedly, some motivate their players through such tactics, but others use a quiet, analytical approach to the game that is just as effective. Still others pull from both styles to create a sort of coaching composite. They all base their styles, in part, on what they think the players on their teams need.

And that raises some important questions about teaching. What style of teaching, for instance, motivates a group of poor, underachieving inner city boys or girls? Is it the tough love approach or a more laid back style? And how about privileged upper middle class kids? What approach motivates them most effectively? Better yet, what style works best with kids from all kinds of backgrounds?

If you are interested in the intersection of ideas (and experiences) between coaching and teaching, you might want to check out two blogs by teachers who are also coaches. Those blogs are: A Passion for Teaching and Opinions and Teaching in the 408.

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As I drive by high schools on my way to work this time of year and see football teams sweating through September workouts, a nagging question always comes to mind: Do today's student athletes work as hard as we did a generation ago? Are they as motivated as we were to get better? Some high school coaches I know say the answer is a definitive no. They believe today's student athletes simply have too many other distractions that draw away from the ability to focus intensely on one goal.

Others, however, see a new generation of student athletes, more sophisticated in their knowledge of sports, and smarter about when to work hard and when to take it easy. That is probably progress, a balance between athletic intelligence and hard work.

Still, I sometimes long for the days when hard work was the rule in high school sports.

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