Pathway Prep

Smack It Right In The Mouth

By Alex Pint

Everything negative - pressure, challenges - is all an opportunity for me to rise.
Kobe Bryant

Failure has been on my mind lately. Maybe it’s because I took a leap to take Pathway Prep full-time this year. Maybe it’s because I help students who have specific ACT score goals. The goal is clear – which means it’s also clear when the goal is not met. While goals are important to focus us and propel us forward, they are not everything. They can even be counter-productive since once goals are set, it’s easy to desire success and fear failure. But once you explore the ideas of success and failure, the concepts begin to fade away.

A CASE STUDY

 

I have a goal to help all my students receive a higher score on the ACT (and I mean all). Although many achieve their goals, a few unfortunately fall short. Those cases bother me because they reveal I could be better at teaching. This can be easy to ignore if I only focus on the positive results. But instead of hiding from the negative results, I try to embrace them and see what I can learn from them. A common theme amongst those who don’t improve is a lack of engagement. So I decided to experiment with methods of encouraging student participation. Done right, this could result in higher levels of learning and retention. After brainstorming for several weeks, I was finally ready to try the new method on a student.

“This is going to be a game-changer. I have figured out the secret to learning!” I said (only half-joking) to my wife.

There was only one problem: it didn’t work at all. The method was clunky and complicated. It was hard to explain and understand. It made things worse than they were before. As I climbed into my car after the session, my face was burning bright red with embarrassment. It demoralized me. Cue the histrionics: may as well give up on this whole thing, I don’t have what it takes, I should have kept my day job. I can be prone to hyperbole at times.

I thought I had the perfect solution to my problems and it was a complete failure. Or so I thought.

With a little time, I began to move past my initial dramatic reaction and examine what happened. I ask my students to think about their test results with a problem-solving mindset: What went well? What could have gone better? How will you improve next time?  So I took a page from my own book and looked at my experience in this way. By altering my perspective, I recognized several positives. Principles about the test became clearer at a quicker rate than normal. The student was more engaged than normal. The positives were glimpses of what I wanted to do and the negatives were fixable.

What I viewed as a failure became an invaluable experience. Because I tried something new, I didn’t fail. I gained feedback on what worked and what didn’t. This feedback will help me reach my ultimate goal: helping students get a higher ACT score. But why did I first view it as a failure?

FAILURE AND SUCCESS DEFINED

 

Oxford’s English dictionary defines failure as “a lack of success.” As dark requires an understanding of light, failure requires an understanding of success. Oxford defines success as “the accomplishment of an aim or purpose”.

We all have aims and goals, but have we failed every minute we haven’t reached those goals? And once we do achieve those goals, have we succeeded?

Both of those definitions require a fixed timeline. I aimed to perfect the new teaching method before I helped that student and, in that sense, I “failed”. But that wasn’t my real aim. That was a sub-goal with the ultimate purpose of helping all students get a higher ACT score. So it wasn’t a failure, but rather another step on the journey to achieving my end goal. It is only a failure if I stop now. But if I don’t, there is always tomorrow.

What about when I achieve this goal (if I ever do)? Am I “successful” then? No. There will always be more students or different aims and purposes on and on until the end.

 So it goes.

FAILURE AND SUCCESS REDEFINED

 

As students strive towards their goal score, it is tempting to only focus on the score. We hit our goal this week! 🙂 But we didn’t this week. 😞

We need a target to aim at, but we don’t need it to learn. If anything, the score can distract from the learning process. We shouldn’t think about success and failure by the score, but by our understanding of the test. How well students understand the test is a better signal than any practice test score.

But wait – isn’t the whole point to get a better score? Good question! And one I struggle with myself at times. This video interview with the late and great Kobe Bryant provides some perspective.

Kobe begins the interview by claiming failure doesn’t exist. But then the interviewer probes: “If you were to have ended your career without a championship, would you not have considered that a failure?”

I paraphrased Kobe’s response for clarity below:

No. I would have considered that to be extremely disappointing because I had a dream and I had goals that I wanted to accomplish. But if I don’t accomplish those goals, I have to ask myself why?

Poor leadership. Failure to communicate properly with my teammates and put them in a position to be successful. Lack of preparation.

All of these things would be reasons why I don’t win. But I can still take those situations, and learn from them, and use them to make me a better person later in life. But if I don’t take that stuff and apply that someplace else, then that’s failing.

So is ACT prep about getting a better ACT score? No, not ultimately. Nor is anything ultimately about the result. Is your career about making as much money as possible or about gaining a certain title? Is your life about gaining accolades or material possessions? We all have goals and aims like every student has a goal to improve their score. But whether students reach their score or not, they fail if they don’t learn anything about themselves. The only time failure exists is when they give up and stop learning.

SMACK IT RIGHT IN THE MOUTH

 

I will end with an anecdote that most Kansas Citians are familiar with. 

 In the first quarter of the 2021 AFC Championship game vs. the Buffalo Bills, Mecole Hardman of the Kansas City Chiefs received a punt on his 10-yard-line. Unfortunately, he didn’t hold onto the ball for long. Buffalo recovered Hardman’s fumble. One quick pass later from Buffalo’s Josh Allen, Buffalo was ahead 9-0 only 9 minutes into the game.

After the play, Travis Kelce approached Hardman on the sideline and reminded him there’s “a lot of plays left to be made!” Hardman threw his helmet on the ground, sat on the bench, and covered his head with his jacket. Patrick Mahomes then advanced on Hardman, yanked his jacket off his head, and implored Hardman to listen. “You’re gonna make a play in this game,” Mahomes said with confidence, “Let’s go! Be us.”

It didn’t take long for Mahomes’ prediction to come true. On the very next KC possession, an 85-yard drive ended with a Hardman reception for a touchdown. And he wasn’t done yet. On the following KC possession, Hardman took a reverse handoff 50 yards into Buffalo territory. That possession also ended with a touchdown.

Coaches Andy Reid and Eric Bienemy could have frozen Hardman out as punishment for his failure. But they knew it wasn’t a failure. It was adversity. And they knew the right way to handle adversity was to “smack it right in the mouth”, as Kelce said to Hardman on the sidelines after his score. 

In a culture that glamorizes success and condemns failure, it’s no wonder we see our lives through black and white lenses. But we don’t have to. We can shift our perspective to realize that success and failure are only mirages. The only way to fail is to give up and stop learning. The only way to succeed is to stop striving. The key is to find a balance between the two where we continue to learn, improve, and overcome adversity. The journey, not the destination, is the true purpose.

Am I still worried about Pathway Prep becoming a thing of the past? Sure. Are my students still focused on their goal scores? 100%. But we can adjust our perspective. We can focus on the journey. We can change the game and remove failure and success from the equation. We can control the process even when we don’t control the results.

If I run into adversity, I will not give up. I will pick my head up, learn from my mistakes, and smack it right in the mouth. I hope my students do the same.