Now, the bad news: You have only six months before UIL district academic contests.
In addition to all the paperwork and planning meetings, start now by recruiting coaches. It’s easy. Just offer candidates large sums of money. If that doesn’t work (usually it doesn’t. Teachers don’t care about money, I’m told) or if money is unavailable -- to you, anyway -- then excuse them from cafeteria or potty patrol, or give them an extra prep period, or simply remind them that coaching UIL academics allows them to fully experience the joy of teaching and working with hardworking, motivated young people.
At a time when education and the media are obsessed with standardized testing and its warped concept of high performance, or are traumatized by today’s society and culture, UIL academics offer classroom teachers an opportunity to create healthy, positive relationships with students. On a summer visit to a high school, I noticed on a bookshelf outside the principal’s office stacks of brochures on drug abuse, family violence, sexual assault, date rape, child sexual abuse, tobacco use, alcohol abuse and a halfdozen mental and physical disorders I’d never heard of, and I wondered how many people became teachers in order to grapple with all that? "I’m not going to tell you one more time: put down that beer, put out that cigarette and do your geometry homework."
It’s depressing until you meet the students and figure out that, despite the spiky hair, tattoos and occasional body piercings, they’re fairly regular kids. They’re bright, possess all sorts of camouflaged talents and are looking for a friendly, safe place in school, which, if you coach UIL, you provide. You can give them unlimited personal attention, and you have complete academic freedom. We don’t care how you prepare your students for competition, so long as you do. On your better days, you might even inspire them. In a 1997 article about O’Donnell’s legendary oneact play directors, Glenn and Donna Hopkins, Hank Stuever, a former Austin AmericanStatesman reporter now with the Washington Post, wrote, "They taught these smalltown kids to stand up straight, with elegance, and become something entirely else. Other people, other times, other places than O’Donnell, Texas. Spray a cheerleader’s hair with silver paint and teach her to be something different, older, refined. Draw wrinkles on a linebacker’s face and teach him to play a man. Comedy and tragedy, shy children standing on the edge of a cliff with everyone watching."
Here are a few more reasons to coach UIL academics:
* According to a bigname speaker at a recent Gifted and Talented convention, too many students underachieve because they’re bored, unchallenged. One of the best ways to encourage achievement in unchallenged students is to expose them to academic competitions, she recommended. In addition, she suggested emphasizing goalsetting and persistence; setting high, firm expectations; showing realworld connections and the longterm benefits of acquiring high academic skills; helping students learn strategies for time and stress management; and praising students for the effort rather than then intelligence -- all of which UIL academic participation does.
* It’s important to encourage students to take risks. "Taking chances is essential to a rich and rewarding life, and risk taking elevates people to greater psychological maturity," said Dr. Maureen Neihart, a clinical psychologist. "All children benefit from learning to take risks, and risk taking is an important skill for gifted children to learn because if they are unable to take risks, they may severely compromise their potential for high achievement or strong leadership."
* If you live in a rural area, it’s likely that many of your academically gifted students are overlooked and socially isolated from intellectual and cultural opportunities, unless your idea of a cultural event is cowtipping. At least, that’s what a panel of educators concluded. Competing in UIL academic contests allows them to meet and mingle with other gifted students, to exceed the expectations of the regular classroom, and to visit college and university campuses.
Emphasize that last point above -- competing in UIL academics gets you out of class, even out of town now and then.
This is a powerful motivator. Join UIL and visit Nacogdoches, Commerce or Kingsville, maybe even Austin. Hang out with bright people like yourself, who can and actually do read. Challenge yourself against the best and brightest, not just from your school or town or city, but from your region and state. Learn to work with others, study deeply, solve problems, think on your feet, navigate the Internet, speak with confidence, write clearly and powerfully, argue convincingly. Pad your college resume. Master the Double Windsor.
Lay this one on them: the ultimate contest will not be played on a grass field or a hardwood floor but in the arena of the mind. I’m thinking of turning that into a recruiting poster for UIL academics.
If that doesn’t work, toss out the hard data. According to a report, "Getting By: What American Teenagers Really Think About Their Schools," Jonathan A. Plucker, assistant professor of educational psy chology at the University of Maine at Orono; and Stuart N. Omdal, an assistant professor of special education at the University of Northern Colorado, wrote:
"With respect to education, the most worrisome causes are a lack of intellectual challenge and a lack of application of knowledge. Dozens of research papers and several books over the past decade have reported the slow ‘dumbing down’ of the curriculum in our schools. The lack of curricular challenge is apparent across all subject areas, from history to mathematics. Research also suggests that the curriculum is seldom differentiated to account for the variability in student interests, abilities, or learning styles. Considering this, the fact that many of our children--especially those who are academically talented--are not challenged and become bored as a consequence should not surprise us."
To avoid boredom, Plucker and Omdal suggested that schools:
* Pretest students to determine appropriate instructional level.
"My UIL experience not only gave me an outlet to go beyond the classroom, but it also taught me valuable skills that I can carry into my future. UIL broadened and strengthened what my teachers taught me because I could actively apply their lessons." - H. Marty Kang of Midland Lee
* Assess student interests, plan instruction to incorporate those interests, and include time for students to pursue their interests independently. Emphasize mentorship opportunities.
"Participating in UIL oneact play gave me the opportunity to broaden my education and to teach others through my knowledge and personal expression." - Kelly Harrell of Paris North Lamar
* Recognize that memorization of basic facts needs to lead to application of those facts.
"My UIL academic experiences opened a whole new world for me. It broadened my focus from only grades to include current issues and events and it helped me develop important communication and research skills. My experiences taught me a lot about dedication, hard work and how to work with people on a social as well as competitive level. I encountered real situations where the benefits of good ethics and thorough preparation paid off." - Sommer Norwood of Warren
* Focus on higherorder thinking skills including analytical reasoning, problemsolving, and critical and creative thinking.
"The contests helped me learn to think on my feet, which everyone needs to know how to do, and to argue, which some people don’t think is such a great thing." - Patricia Murrell of Lindsey
* Increase expectations for students, both with respect to conduct and to academic performance.
"UIL academic competition teaches numerous life lessons. Although competitors are tempted to quote such benefits as learning how to graciously accept both defeat and victory, I find that UIL has given me a more practical skill: the ability to feel at ease while taking tests. I am so accustomed to enjoying UIL tests that I have found myself actually relishing the challenge of a SAT or AP exam." - Raymond Wagner of Port Lavaca Calhoun.
* Apply the content directly to reallife situations, thus putting the curriculum in context.
"UIL has offered me a competitive environment in which I could expand my academic knowledge and skills. Too often, only athletes have these opportunities. UIL has encouraged me to strengthen skills that will benefit me tremendously in the years to come." - Crystal Topper of Johnson City
* Plucker and Omdal added, "In most cases, boredom in school is a surrogate for lack of challenge and a perceived lack of relevance in what is being covered in the classroom."
This was before last year’s federal report on the socalled "wasted senior year," before National Education Association president Bob Chase wrote, "Parents must realize that critical areas of their child’s school are, in fact, accessible. For example: lack of challenge in the classroom. Parents can learn how to tell when ‘I’m bored’ is a legitimate complaint, how to talk with the teacher about it and what remedies the school ought to have in its repertoire."
Hopefully, those remedies will include academic competitions. They worked for Heather Hayes, a Tyler Lee grad who wrote, "My UIL academic experience has taught me so much about people. Competitive academics are the best way for a group of intelligent students to express themselves and meet others. I would not trade my UIL experiences for anything-the people, places and competitions will always be a wonderful high school memory."