Going the Distance

Disclaimer: every other week, I will blog about books with text references and connections to outside sources.  It's what I do because it's what I ask my students to do.  And I say a bunch of words. A bunch. Because I require many components in my student blogs and because I talk more in writing than I do in person.  Finally, I am giving every blog a song-inspired title...because I secretly live in a musical, and every school year begins with me singing (in my head) about "Going the Distance."  We are all there...at the starting line...beginning a long season of training.   Our muscles are creaky, our endurance minimal, our mental game dormant.  But as we give a little effort each day, we loosen our creative thinking, develop intellectual stamina, and activate mental strategies.  One day of sincere effort won't carry us to the end, but daily, repeated practice will take us to the finish line. For AP students, the AP test seems like the finish line, but hopefully, we keep redrawing that line.  We may cross a finish line at mile 26.2 (May 10 - APLAC test!), but if we want to keep growing, we will sign up for more races and more learning and more challenges.

Our summer reading challenge hopefully set kids on a path to new goals and new mindsets.  While we read about climate change or homelessness or racial tension or religious persecution, reading one book should invite more learning and problem-solving. Once we build awareness about issues, we have to choose action.  After reading Where You Go Is Not Who You'll Be by Frank Bruni, I am actively asking my students to reframe their college search.  At the end of junior year and beginning of senior year, I can feel the tension start to mount.  I hear it in the voices of students figuring out how to apply, asking for recs, and despairing about their lack of community service.  Often their search for acceptance to the "right" school is driven solely by the idea of impressing others, affording costs, or getting a job.  Bruni urges parents and educators to guide kids to see their effort and drive as a greater predictor of success than a certain GPA or test score.  According to Bruni, who continually demonizes the arbitrary school rankings offered by U.S. News and World Report, even the man in charge of U.S. News acknowledges that, "It's not where you went to school...It's how hard you work" (98). His own degree came from the University of Cincinnati, a school that does not merit mention in his publication's esteemed list, yet he reached a high professional position and offers living proof that any college education can provide the foundation for professional success.  Instead of focusing on the rank or reputation of a school, Bruni suggests that "no one college, no matter how celebrated, is right for anyone and everyone who can gain admission there. A school, like a dress or a suit, has to have the contours and colors that work for the person choosing it" (129). Despite Bruni's privileged background and Ivy League-driven high school, he chose the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a school with a high acceptance rate that changed his world view by taking him out of his Northeastern comfort zone.  The availability of new, meaningful experiences, according to Bruni, adds a level college education that extends beyond the classroom.  The key, then, for any high school student facing the college choice is not to nail test scores, but to develop sincere interests and to search for schools that will both celebrate those interests and present opportunities for new experiences.

I hope this semester of AP Language and Composition will open new experiences through extensive reading and student-directed discussion.  I also hope students will welcome the chance to build their mental muscle and to pursue their passions. Bruni's book captures the crucial ingredient for success that we are trying to build into our AP classes when he quotes Britt Harris, a former chief executive and a professor at Texas A&M, who says, "If you are extremely smart, but you're only partially engaged, you will be outperformed, and you should be, by people who are sufficiently smart and fully engaged" (195). Full engagement too often falls on teachers' shoulders.  We are supposed to appeal to students' interests, use more tech, incorporate more active learning, show enthusiasm, and so on.  I am willing to do all of those things, but if students hope only to  do "enough" or to "fulfill requirements," no amount of enthusiasm and engagement from me will help the students find a passion.  This article from a college admissions officer offers excellent advice about how to become fully engaged and how to find a passion with five crucial questions.  He claims that finding a passion will help students overcome obstacles and accept failures in the interest of taking action and becoming a participant rather than merely an observer. Like Bruni's book, the article suggests that learning shouldn't be about what someone else wants for you, but about what you want for yourself.  I'm here to help and guide any student who will take the first steps toward "Going the Distance" and making it to the finish line and beyond. 

Citations:
Bruni, Frank. Where You Go Is Not Who You'll Be. New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2015.

Gibson, Matt. "5 Simple Questions to Find Your Passions Today." Distinguish Me. Distinguish Me.
      2016. Web. 22 Aug 2016.