Departments : Your Middle School Classroom :
Life Lessons
By Peter Barnes
Teachers should never stop talking to students about setting positive goals, but sometimes it's nice to hear it from someone else
Ohio State cornerback Antonio Smith (center) speaks about perseverance to some of his biggest fans.
Teachers like to think our words are rare jewels that students scoop up and treasure their entire lives. Our words are valuable, but sometimes an outsider's message has a more dramatic impact. Here's an example.
The word of the month
At my school, Ohio State football players rank behind parents and then perhaps only SpongeBob SquarePants in the hearts and minds of most students. This explains why when an unassuming young man in a blue sweatshirt and jeans entered our auditorium, he caused an explosion of applause that shook the building. The young man was Ohio State senior cornerback Antonio Smith, a perfect spokesperson for our word of the month: perseverance.
Becoming a leader
Teachers at our school take turns creating school assemblies focused around a character education word of the month. When my turn came up, I thought immediately of Antonio, whose cousin is in my class. Antonio has known about perseverance all his life. Starting in grade school people said he was too short (he stands just 5' 9"), too slow and too weak to become a star athlete. He refused to give up his dream. Even being cut from his high school basketball team didn't stop him. He simply focused all of his energy on excelling at his second love, football.
Unlike many Ohio State athletes who are heavily recruited by dozens of schools, Antonio was a walk-on player who fought for three years to get playing time. He finally earned a starting position his senior year and became a leader of one of the nation's top defenses. Perhaps more impressively, when told he couldn't handle a demanding major and football at the same time, he chose mechanical engineering. He will graduate this spring as planned.
Getting through
Students listened to this true tale of perseverance with rapt attention. Antonio talked about believing in himself and setting goals and working hard to achieve them. I talk about these same themes often in my classroom, but hearing them from Antonio was special. Kids, especially boys, often choose star athletes as role models. Positive words from someone like Antonio Smith stand a good chance of getting through even to hard-to-reach students.
Teachers should never stop talking about important life lessons like perseverance and goal-setting. Kids respect us and look to us for guidance. We should keep in mind, however, that sometimes it works best to let someone else do the talking for awhile.
Peter Barnes teaches fifth grade in New Albany, OH.
May, 2007, Vol.37, No.8
