Thoughts from a Late, Great Coach and Teacher

John Wooden

This TED lecture from 2009 with John Wooden (educator and coach) is well worth 20 minutes of your time. Here are some highlights from it:

“My dad taught us that you should never try to be better than someone else, always learn from others, and never cease trying to be the best you can be.

I coined my own definition of success in 1934 when I was teaching at a small school in Indiana. Success is peace of mind attained only through self- satisfaction and knowing you made the effort of doing that which you are capable.

I hoped to give my youngsters whether in the English classroom or on a sport’s team something greater to aspire to than just a higher mark in the classroom or more points in an athletic contest.

Your reputation is what you are perceived to be, your character is what you really are and your character matters more.

My dad tried to teach us three things: don't whine, don't complain, and don't make excuses, just get out there and try to do your best.

‘No written word, no spoken plea, can teach our youth what they should be, nor all the books upon the shelves, it's what the teachers are themselves.’

Cervantes said, ‘the journey is better than the end.’ I like that. The journey as a coach was the fun for me, it was the practices. Sometimes when you get to the game it was a little bit of a let down. I never mentioned winning to my players. My idea is that you can lose when you outscore somebody in a game, and you can win when you've been outscored.

When a game is over and you see somebody who didn't know the outcome, I always say to my players, I hope they couldn’t tell by your actions what the score was. I hope you played to the best of your ability, and if you did then the result will be what it should be, not necessarily what you want it to be.”

Summer Homework and More Summer Options

Today is the last day of school for our district. As far as I know, neither of my kids has been assigned homework over the summer. But, I suspect there are plenty of students who have been assigned work during the summer break in our district and many others across the state.

Sara Bennett from Stop Homework just posted about this recently. See: http://stophomework.com/abolish-summer-homework/2558

In her post she recommends that you call the State Dept of Ed to find out what the guidelines are for summer homework for your state. So, I called the Cal Dept of Ed and was pleased to find out that each school district decides its own guidelines regarding summer homework in California. The Cal State Dept of Ed does not have its own recommendation or guideline on this topic. I was pleased because this gives each school district its own autonomy in this matter.

Our own district’s (SRVUSD) homework policy (which I helped write two years ago as part of a task force of 19 members) doesn’t mention summer homework, but does say, “Assigning homework over holidays is highly discouraged.”

If you are in my district and find your son or daughter coming home with summer homework, please write an email, a letter, or make a phone call to the district superintendent (Steven Enoch - senoch@srvusd.net) and/or the Board members and kindly remind them of the phrase from our homework policy, “Assigning homework over holidays is highly discouraged.”

Instead of doing summer homework, encourage your child to read for fun. Here is an article from Donalyn Miller from "Teacher Magazine" with middle school reading recommendations from her students from the past year.

And there are so many other things to do this summer with your child: relax, cook together, clean together, exercise together, make a video project together, swim, run, plant a garden, be outside, play a game, make music, make art, skateboard, walk the dog, do a puzzle, catch up on sleep, hike, chill out, etc, etc, etc!

Reflect on the Dalai Lama’s advice about:

The Paradox of our Age

We have bigger houses but smaller families;



More conveniences, but less time;



We have more degrees, but less sense;



More knowledge, but less judgment;



More experts, but more problems;



More medicines, but less healthiness;



We’ve been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbor.



We build more computers to hold more information to produce more copies than ever but have less communication.



We have become long on quantity, but short on quality.



These are times of fast foods but slow digestion;



Tall man but short character;



Steep profits but shallow relationships.



It’s a time when there is much in the window, but nothing in the room.

I found this on Playborhood.com.

What are your favorite things to do with your family during the summer?