Can COVID-19 propel education forward?
Only if we draw our lessons from coaching
When I was 8 years old, I first stepped on a tennis court. As an active kid, I wasn’t sure tennis was for me. I loved running and chasing the ball, mostly failing in my attempt to make contact. I spent most of my time when I started, however, standing against the fence waiting for my turn. I thought the structure of my class WAS tennis – that playing tennis meant that 90% of my time would be standing bored, watching others play.
It took one person to make me realize that the world of tennis had much more to offer. It took one person to help me find one of my lifelong passions. It took one person to get me excited to spend thousands and thousands of hours practicing the sport without ‘burning out’. It took one person to motivate me to reach a nationally competitive level.
One person: my coach, Joe Brennan. Joe was my tennis coach from an early age until my departure to college. I owe much of my successes in life on and off the court to him.
When we think of the disruption wrought by COVID-19, most pundits have focused on the “where” of classrooms. The rise of homeschooling. Zoom classes. The use of tech-enabled instructional tools and the delivery of synchronous vs. asynchronous learning. Whether the traditional classroom space will survive or be forced to adapt.
All this misses the larger point. COVID-19 has exposed the education system – to use a Warren Buffett aphorism, the tide has gone out and we’re seeing who’s swimming naked – but not in terms of content and learning. Not in terms of schools. What we’ve seen is how teachers view themselves. Some view their role as teachers while others view their role as coaches. It has been those that see their roles as coaches that have been most successful during this pandemic.
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Joe’s a gregarious, hilarious guy. A hefty man with a mustache. He’s more likely to be confused for a mechanic than a tennis coach. No one would confuse him for Roger Federer or Pete Sampras. But as any athlete will tell you, the best players don’t often make the best coaches. Joe understood the elements of tennis and was a master performer – telling stories, rhyming, or making up witty quips to make concepts fun and memorable (“Don’t hit the ‘chips’ unless you’re at a party”). Even in the professional ranks, some of the best coaches never reached the pinnacle of their sport playing – like Gregg Popovich, the dynamic coach of the San Antonio Spurs, or Bill Belichick, the New England Patriots head coach.
This pandemic has exposed the need for engagement from teachers more so than any other time. We often assume great teachers should be great content experts, but that’s just not the case. Teachers that have struggled to master concepts themselves can often convey ideas relatably and reach students of varying levels effectively.
The best teachers are often not the best ‘content experts’.
During this pandemic, how many of us have seen Zoom calls with everyone muted except for the teacher, with children touching the screen, running away, or trying to do anything except listening? It doesn’t matter how well you know the content – if you can’t keep a child’s attention through a screen, you’re getting nowhere. On the other hand, my daughter’s teacher has:
Given students daily roles (as weather forecasters, for example) that gives them ownership
Asked parents to share projects so students are seeing different faces on the screen
This has made a huge difference in the kids’ engagement, not just during these other activities, but even during times with more traditional lessons. The parents that are happiest with their child’s distance learning experience have been the parents that have seen their teachers connect and engage with their children.
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Joe always knew when to push me and when to let go – providing encouraging words when I lacked confidence and providing tough love when I lacked grit. The best coaches in the world are master motivators – for example, during the documentary The Last Dance, we saw Phil Jackson’s legendary motivational skills. He got the team to coalesce around the concept of ‘The Last Dance’, allowing them to ignore individual contract and relationship issues. He let Dennis Rodman go to Vegas for a weekend during the season, knowing what Rodman needed to find his mojo on the court. Phil Jackson always understood his job wasn’t about X’s and O’s – it was about getting each individual to do their part in the pursuit of a championship.
As a teacher, more than delivering content, the job involves finding ways to motivate the students in the class, knowing when they need to be pushed, when they need to be encouraged, and when they need to be praised.
The best teachers get the best out of you.
Success Academy, a renowned charter school, understands this. When the pandemic hit, CEO Eva Moskowitz said, “This is a time for simplicity and being careful not to throw in too many bells and whistles.” She told teachers to focus on “inspiring and engaging” students and to call each student twice a day to check in. At first glance, this sounds grossly inefficient. But only if you view the role as a teacher. If you think of yourself as a coach, this strategy should be obvious.
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When I was growing up, the ball machine, an apparatus that delivered balls at high speeds from across the court, became a bigger part of tennis coaching. Joe would set up the ball machine and then focus on the technical side of my strokes, providing repetition and granularity that he couldn’t get when he would hit balls to me from the other side of the court. With this ability to ‘drill and kill’ with him standing right next to me, I could get what felt like 4 hours worth of targeted instruction in a single hour. Other coaches didn’t leverage technology as effectively – instead, they would set up the ball machine to reduce their teaching burden and add variety, sending balls to all areas of the court so students could practice all their strokes. This lack of targeted instruction not only meant students weren’t getting deliberate practice, but it also often meant a less engaged coach who didn’t have to pay attention while the machine was on.
Ed-tech has been the promised panacea for as long as the Internet has been around. While the last decades have been littered with cautionary tales, many are feeling this pandemic could be the opening that ed-tech has been waiting on. That change will only happen if we orient our use of ed-tech around coaching. Listen to Michael Lewis’ podcast on why colleges struggle to get and retain first-generation students. Hint: it’s not the availability of funds, tools, or resources. It’s the lack of coaching to navigate this new world. There’s no shortage of ed-tech resources.
Those who teach will use technology to make their job easier;
Those who coach will use technology to be more effective at their job. It’s the latter that will be a change that sticks.
My daughter’s teacher has used video-editing tools to create new tech-enabled routines around a weekly chicken check-in and a daily yoga video. She hasn’t thought of how to use distance learning tools to replace her previous style. She has used these tools to come up with a new and effective style in this world. For ed-tech to have true staying power beyond COVID-19, that’s the mindset shift that will be necessary.
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There’s more to sports than winning or losing matches. Joe always ensured his students developed character and integrity while improving their forehands. Spending thousands of hours on the tennis court with Joe taught me many things about life – the importance of deliberate practice even when you don’t have your best, how to bounce back from setbacks with a positive attitude and determination, and the need to apply critical thinking and strategy combined with tactical adjustments to succeed in difficult situations. I always thought I was just working on my tennis game, but it was these lessons that served me in university, in my work life, and in the relationships I have with friends and family.
The best teachers realize that the measurable results students achieve in the classroom pale in comparison to the immeasurable gains students make in developing into better global citizens. The two goals do not oppose each other – teachers that get results do so because they command the respect of students and connect with their students on a deeper level.
In the process of achieving tangible results, teachers impart much more.
My young daughter views her teacher as a role model – she wants to meditate and do yoga because her teacher does. When she gets mad or emotional, she tries deep breathing and saying “Peace. Begins. With. Me.” because she watches her teacher model that behavior. These skills won’t show up on any test. But I promise you they will serve her later in life and I am sure she will do better on tests as a result. These are the ingredients that allow teachers to positively influence students in their approach to life, helping them develop the characteristics that enable long-term success.
I can’t wait for school buildings to hopefully re-open in the fall. For everyone who works in education or has children, the forced closure has forced us to reflect on what education should look like. I’ve been more thankful than ever for the positive role my daughter’s teacher has played during an important and uncertain time for children. Of course, I now value flexibility and communication in a way that I hadn’t before. And I still want my girls’ teachers to help them to develop, to learn, to solve problems, to build friendships. Most of all, though, I want my girls’ teachers to be great coaches that inspire my daughters every step of the way.