It’s hard to believe that the holiday season is already upon us, but you can tell from the bulk of ads in the daily paper that retailers are determined that we know it is so.
Although I do as little shopping as possible (and recycle my newspapers), I love the time with family and friends, the great food, the holiday spirit and the little bit of fall we get in central Texas. Over the Thanksgiving weekend, I watched the various trees around our house go from green to gold to brown, all in 48 hours.
Soon I’ll have to brave that stairwell closet full of boxes and see if any of our Christmas things survived through five moves across the country in the past few years.
Amid the bustle, I’ve had two opportunities to attend national meetings and discuss what’s happening across the country in academic competition, and especially what we offer students in Texas through UIL.
People from other states are constantly amazed at the wide array of events we offer, and astounded that contests range from second- grade storytelling to accounting, including the largest high school journalism and theatre programs in the nation.
Texans are well known for claiming to have the biggest and best of lots of things, but in UIL we truly do have the largest academic competitive program of its kind anywhere in the world.
And it couldn’t possibly have grown to what it has become without folks in the field who make it all work.
Sure, sometimes it takes longer than we’d like to implement changes, and some requested additions are impossible simply because the program is already so large.
Given the thousands of kids who participate every year, it’s hardly surprising that some coaches or contestants will be unhappy with the outcome of any given contest.
It is, after all, competition, which means not everybody can win first place – or any place. But depending on how you define ‘success’ – no one who participates will ‘lose’.
In this season of giving, I hope you’ll take the time to give yourself a pat on the back for all that you do for the students you serve.
You give students opportunities to develop their talents, and in many cases to discover talents and interests they didn’t even know they had.
Some of our most successful competitors got started in an event because they were already on the bus, and someone else entered didn’t show.
Others were encouraged by an academic coach to attend an invitational meet, just to see what it was like, and that’s all it took to create a dedicated contestant.
Some participated in elementary or middle school events and looked forward to new contests to try.
A ‘winning’ program is one that provides as many students as possible with experiences that stretch their imaginations, stimulate critical thinking and reading, enhance their problem-solving skills and make them feel good about the efforts they make.
You give students a place to belong, a chance to make friends and meet people, an academic arena in which they not only have fun, but learn teamwork, dedication, perseverance and good sportsmanship.
Chances are that some weeks your academic competitors spend more time with you than with their own parents.
In addition to teaching contest ‘tricks of the trade’, or countless rehearsals or writing critiques, or discussions of literature or current events, you give them support, encouragement, confidence and the motivation to become much better than they ever imagined they could be.
You may also give them lessons in etiquette and appropriate public behavior, fashion tips and lunch money.
All of it counts – and matters.
As classroom teachers or administrators, it’s not likely you became an academic coach because you didn’t have enough to do.
And I’m willing to bet that a huge stipend wasn’t what brought you into coaching or coordinating UIL events.
Since you can’t get the equivalent of ‘frequent flier’ miles for all those many miles in school buses, it probably wasn’t that, either. Or the gourmet food you enjoy on the tournament circuit.
If you chose to become an academic coach, you probably did so because you are an educator, and know that much of what it is vital for young people to learn isn’t written into the curricula and can’t be measured on a standardized test. It’s true that all UIL events are an extension of curricula, but the experience of participating offers far more than that.
You give participants extraordinary opportunities to learn and grow.
Studies of successful people reveal certain characteristics they have in common: they work well with others, are dedicated to their work, set goals, persevere when others quit, exercise self-discipline and display a positive attitude.
That’s a pretty good description of so many of the colleagues I have worked with over the years in UIL activities; those who were mentors as I was learning how to survive, those who have become life-long friends and those of you I’m just know getting the chance to meet at Student Activities Conferences and other workshops.
These people have successful programs and not just in terms of medals won. Their students are successful because they have learned that such attributes really do matter, that hard work really does pay off, and that you never really lose unless you quit trying.
So if you sometimes feel like the Energizer bunny that must keep on going and going and going as the academic year zips by, hopefully you’ll have the consolation of knowing that what you’re doing really does make a difference and that you are not alone.
Yours is the kind of gift that keeps on giving and giving and giving. Thanks, and happy holidays!