Impossible is Nothing
This has long been a favorite
statement of mine…I picked it up from an Adidas advertisement that was always posted in
my classroom. It was a great motivator for myself and for my students. We
referred to it often when setting goals together. We believed that we could accomplish anything
as long as we set a balanced goal, developed a plan to accomplish that goal and
worked diligently to achieve the goal.
Recently I began working with an ASU Professor studying the
relationship between self-reflection and professional growth. A favorite
statement of his is, “the work you are doing is impossible.” He is referring to
my work with school reform in Arizona’s current education system. At first I
was offended, sometimes I still am, but after spending 30 minutes in a first
grade classroom in a typical Arizona school today I believe I have a better
understanding of the “why” behind his statement.
Imagine this: A first grade classroom with 31 students. 31
students quickly become 25 students due to mandatory district testing that is
taking place in a different classroom. Ten minutes into this well planned lesson
the SMART board goes black. The prepared teacher doesn’t miss a beat
instead she pulls out plan B and uses her document camera to display her
materials. At this time two of the six testing students return to the classroom and attempt
to catch up with their classmates. Ten more minutes pass when a student gets
sick. Again without missing a beat the teacher gets the student a trashcan,
writes him a note to the nurse and calls the front office for a “cleanup.” As
he is exiting the classroom two more of the missing six return and attempt to catch
up with their classmates. Five minutes
later the school custodian enters to clean the carpet and five minutes after that
the final two students return from testing and attempt to catch up with their
classmates.
You get the picture. When I combine this scene with the
statement, “the work you are doing is impossible” the outlook on reforming
education can be bleak. However, upon analyzing the student work produced form
the lesson described above with the teacher we discovered something amazing.
80% of the 31 students mastered the objective of the lesson. 80%! Even with all
of the distractions, 80% of the students were able to achieve their goal.
Impossible is Nothing.
