Teacher John Wooden

Over twenty years ago, UCLA’s John Wooden delivered a Ted Talk titled “The Difference Between Winning and Succeeding.” Nicknamed “the Wizard of Westwood” (the location of the UCLA campus), Wooden won ten NCAA basketball championships in a 12-year period, including a record seven in a row. Within this period, Wooden’s Bruin teams won an NCAA men’s basketball record 88 consecutive games.

Here are excerpts from Coach Wooden’s talk:

“I coined my own definition of success in 1934, when I was teaching at a high school in South Bend, Indiana, being a little disappointed, and disillusioned perhaps, by the way parents of the youngsters in my English classes expected their youngsters in my English classes expected their youngsters to get an A or a B. They thought a C was all right for the neighbors’ children, because they were all average. But they weren’t satisfied when their own – it would make the teacher feel that they had failed, or the youngster had failed. And that’s not right….”

“Not everybody could earn an A or a B, and I didn’t like that way of judging, and I did know how the alumni of various schools back in the ‘30’s judged coaches and athletic teams. If you won them all, you were considered to be reasonably successful – not completely. Because I found out – we had a number of years at UCLA where we didn’t lose a game. But it seemed that we didn’t win each individual game by the margin that some of our alumni had predicted….”

“But that was true back in the ‘30’s, so I understood that. But I didn’t like it, I didn’t agree with it. I wanted to come up with something I hoped could make me a better teacher, and give the youngsters under my supervision, be it in athletics or the English classroom, something to which to aspire, other than just a higher mark in the classroom, or more points in some athletic contest.”

“I thought about that for quite a spell, and I wanted to come up with my own definition. I thought that might help. And I knew how Mr. Webster defined it, as the accumulation of material possessions or the attainment of a position of power or prestige, or something of that sort, worthy accomplishments perhaps, but, in my opinion, not necessarily indicative of success. So I wanted to come up with something of my own.”

“And I recalled – I was raised on a small farm in Southern Indiana, and Dad tried to teach me and my brothers that you should never try to be better than someone else…. Never try to be better than someone else, always learn from others. Never cease trying to be the best you can be – that’s under your control. If you get too engrossed and involved and concerned in regard to the things over which you have no control, it will adversely affect the things over which you have control. Then I ran across this simple verse that said, ‘At God’s footstool to confess, a poor soul knelt, and bowed his head. “I failed,’ he cried. And The Master said, ‘Thou didst they best, that is success.’”

“From those things…I coined my own definition of success, which is: Peace of mind attained only through self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to do the best of which you’re capable. I believe that’s true. If you make the effort to do the best of which you’re capable, trying to improve the situation that exists for you, I think that’s success, and I don’t think others can judge that; it’s like character and reputation – your reputation is what you’re perceived to be; your character is what you really are. And I think that character is much more important than what you are perceived to be. You’d hope they’d both be good, but they won’t necessarily be the same. Well, that was my idea that I was going to try to get across to the youngsters.”

…

“’No written word, no spoken plea can teach our youth what they should be; nor all the books on all the shelves – it’s what the teachers are themselves.’”

“That made an impression on my in the 1930’s. And I tried to use that more or less in my teaching, whether it be in sports, or whether it be in the English classroom. I love poetry and always had an interest in that somehow. Maybe it’s because Dad used to read to us at night, by coal oil lamp – we didn’t have electricity in our farm home. And Dad would read poetry to us. So I always like it. And about the same time I ran across this one verse, I ran across another one. Someone asked a lady teacher why she taught, and after some time, she said she wanted to think about that. Then she came up and said,

‘They ask me why I teach, and I reply, ‘Where could I find such splendid company?’ There sits a statesman, strong, unbiased, wise; another Daniel Webster, silver-tongued. A doctor sits beside him, whose quick, steady hand may mend a bone, or stem the life-blood’s flow. And there a builder; upward rise the arch of a church he builds, wherein that minister may speak the word of God, and lead a stumbling soul to touch the Christ. And all about, a gathering of teachers, farmers, merchants, laborers – those who work and vote and build and plan and pray into a great tomorrow. And I may say, I may not see the church, or hear the word, or eat the food their hands may grow, but yet again I may; And later I may say, I knew him once, and he was weak, or strong, or bold or proud or gay. I knew him once, but then he was a boy. They ask me why I teach and I reply, ‘Where could I find such splendid company.’”

“And I believe the teaching profession – it’s true, you have so many youngsters, and I’ve got to think of my youngsters at UCLA – 30-some attorneys, 11 dentists and doctors, many, many teachers and other professions. And that gives you a great deal of pleasure, to see them go on. I always tried to make the youngsters feel that they’re there to get an education, number one; basketball was second, because it was paying their way, and they do need a little time for social activities, but you let social activities take a little precedence over the other two, and you’re not going to have any very long. So that was the idea that I tried to get across to the youngsters under my supervision.”

…

Arguably, there wasn’t a bigger winner than John Wooden in college basketball. Coach Wooden could have retired believing that it was winning that was most important. But, to his death, Wooden proclaimed it was his “Pyramid of Success” that produced the winning, and not vice versa.

Do our traditional K-12 schools understand what success really means for their young learners? Or have they bought into a definition of “success” defined by grades, grade point average, class rank, and the like? Have they focused too much on “winning” and not enough on “success”?

What would learning look like if we started with understanding what success might look like for every young learner, and then build the relationships and plans necessary to act on that vision?

Til tomorrow. SVB