My son coaches a local AAU basketball team and I hang out and help when I can.  At practice the other day he sent a player to me who was having difficulty in school.  The young man explained that he had two grades in the 60s.  In the one class he missed a test during an excused absence for his grandmother’s funeral and since it was at the end of the term, the teacher wouldn’t allow him to make it up, giving him a zero instead.  In the second class, he told me he was having a difficult time understanding the material.

In both cases, the student wanted to place the blame for his grade on the teacher, and while I believe the teachers have some responsibility in this matter, the lesson I needed the young man to learn was that he should look inward first….and then outward.  What responsibility did he have to making arrangements for making up the test or perhaps doing an alternative assignment as the teacher deemed appropriate?  What responsibility did he have to going to see his teacher when he didn’t understand  the material?  I wanted him to understand that he could place the responsibility for his success on others, or he could learn that the person most responsible for his success is him and the choices he makes….or does not make.

Today, no every day, I encourage you to continue to find the teachable moment beyond the obvious situation.  Did the first teacher have some responsibility to make sure the young man had an opportunity to make up a test due to an excused absence?  Of course.  Did the second teacher have some responsibility for recognizing his struggles and offer some type of support?  I would say yes.  But for this young man, I thought the more critical lesson to be learned was that if he had proactively sought to make up the test in the first class and get help in the second, he might not be looking at the possibility of his parents removing him from the team because of his grades.  Just sayin’!

Make Today a Magnificent Day!

Gary L Rupert

Culture Strategist/Mentor

II:Leaders Creating:II Leaders

LCL Mentors @ Marching Arts Education