I’ll bet you’ve heard this article of faith.

Clichés, like the one above, often assume the power of holy scripture. No one questions their veracity. This is odd!

My entire life, I’ve heard this cliché about competition blathered enthusiastically. To a large degree, I embrace it. Competition in the classroom can infuse a serious adrenaline rush. I use games and simulations frequently. But there are trade-offs. People can get carried away when competition is involved. Have you ever witnessed adult behavior at youth sporting events?

My 9th grade Global Studies class recently competed in two contests designed to apply concepts from the Industrial Revolution. Students didn’t anticipate, however, that the simulations would spawn an intense discourse on human nature and challenge the simplistic cliché about competition.

Artisan were dominant prior to the Industrial Revolution. On the 1st day of the simulation, students became artisans. They were tasked to draw a person…head to toe. It was fun, relaxing, and hilarious. The students chatted, listened to music, and doodled away. It was totally chill!

Some kids are terrible drawers! No one cared. Some of the awful drawings were celebrated when students shared their masterpieces. We voted which we liked best. Those talented artists were rewarded with a Reese Cup. Good times were had by all.

When you live in Columbus, Ohio, kids draw Buckeye football players.

On day two, students mass-produced the superior drawings. My kids went from respected happy artisans to undervalued and stressed unskilled assembly line workers. Even the celebrated artists from the previous day were inserted unceremoniously on to the line.

I divided the class into competing teams. Each student was assigned a body part to reproduce. Sheets of paper moved along the assembly line (a row of desks) and images far inferior to the originals emerged. In the spirit of unbridled Capitalism, I promised that the team that produced the most quality pictures would be rewarded with restroom passes. I warned students that I didn’t have enough passes for everyone on each team. I bellowed, “Slackers will not be rewarded!” This created instant intra-team animosity.

The atmosphere of the class morphed into a hyper chaotic place. Students were certainly motivated, but they were hardly enjoying themselves…nor were they friendly to one another. It didn’t help that their psychotic teacher kept exhorting them and warning them about talking or sandbagging.

After ten minutes, I mercifully ended the production day. The knives came out immediately! Students on the successful team quickly ratted out slackers and made it clear they should receive no reward. It was epic!

Assembly line stations or the “Gates of Hell”…take your pick.

Many issues were addressed during the fascinating debriefing:

• How did the simulation compare to the Industrial Revolution?
• What was the difference between being an artisan and an unskilled laborer?
• What were pros and cons to the different methods of production?

But…I struck gold with this prompt:

• What did this simulation teach you about human nature?

The ensuing discussion was passionate and interesting! It became their next writing prompt. Most concluded that the cliché about competition was far too simplistic.

Perhaps, a better cliché would be, “Competition motivates us!” Granted…it’s not nearly as catchy.

My book “You’ve Gotta Connect” is all about how teachers can forge strong relationships with students. You can also listen to me dialogue about bonding with young people on numerous podcasts.

Please follow me on Twitter @jamessturtevant

I also love doing professional development. If you’re interested, here’s my email: pjsturtevant@gmail.com

I love my unit in World Civilization on Hinduism! It puts everything in perspective. My favorite concept from my favorite unit, is samsara. The only constant in the universe is change. How’s that for irony?

Teachers would do well to embrace samsara. This is my 31st year in the classroom. I’ve seen my share of change. During my teaching tenure, advancing technology has had a profound impact, much of it positive. Technology, and social media in particular, wipes out distances, pulverizes barriers, places libraries of information at fingertips, provides students with neat and beautiful forms of expression, and frustrates the living hell out of educators who are struggling to compete with a juicy text vibrating seductively in a student’s pocket.

I get it! A few years ago, I experienced this sense of futility. I was up in front of class pontificating, and I thought…I was bringing it! I was in the education zone…storytelling, rapping, illuminating! I fully expected applause at the end of my passionate dissertation. Instead, I glanced up to see a fair number of students staring intently at their slightly illuminated crotches! That was deflating.

But, I’ll cut the slightly younger me some slack. My frustration was as old as time…a basic generation gap. When I was a student, we listened to our teachers. Today’s kids are multi-taskers. It’s hard not to take it personal, but evolution is what it is! I’m certain parents in ancient Babylon were leery of their new fangled competitor…cuneiform!

And…teachers need to be careful of hypocrisy. I’ve seen a lot of texting in faculty meetings. Young people aren’t  the only ones addicted to their phones.

So, that being said, a huge barrier for many teachers is pure anxiety. Educators are jealous of their student’s wandering eyes. Teachers are worried they’ll become irrelevant.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Go ahead and fully embrace what social media can do for your kids. I’ve done this and it has revolutionized my teaching!

I’ve utilized YouTube to flip ALL my lectures. Here’s a link to my presentation on Chinese philosophy.

By doing this, my students can listen at their own pace. They can rewind and listen again to things they found confusing. If they get tired or distracted, they can take breaks. I’ve been amazed by how complimentary kids are towards my new method of presentation. And when they come to class the next day, we apply, apply apply!

My students blog on a weekly basis. This has been a blast, and so revealing. I’ve learned so much about my kids. Classmates have learned about one another. They’re required to read, watch, or listen, and then comment on colleague’s posts. My next step is to connect my kids with students in other schools, other states, other countries! We’ll all blog on the same prompt. It’s really fun! Here is my recent blog prompt on students creating a podcast about American attitudes towards Islam.

My suggestions to flip lectures and include blogging are hardly revolutionary. It’s easy to find activities that utilize social media. If you ask your colleagues and do a basic web search, you’ll be bombarded with options. My focus, however, is attitudinal. Go ahead…embrace social media. Your students will love you for it! I’ve been doing this gig since the mid 1980s. If I can change…so can you. SAMSARA BABY!

My book “You’ve Gotta Connect” is all about how teachers can forge strong relationships with students. You can also listen to me dialogue about bonding with young people on numerous podcasts.

Please follow me on Twitter @jamessturtevant

I also love doing professional development. If you’re interested, here’s my email: pjsturtevant@gmail.com

I was once confronted with a class of students who were nothing like me. I’m a white dude; most of them were African American. They were largely poor and had zero interest in 9th grade Civics.

I failed to appreciate that I was as alien to them as they were to me. Here I was this gung ho guy with a master’s degree in history from Ohio State. In retrospect, I came on way too strong! These kids wanted nothing to do with me. Not only were they cold, but they’d undermine a lot of my lessons. It was a long September.

My crabby students filed in one dreary Monday morning in early October. I paired them up for an activity, but they were far more interested in weekend exploits…which was so frustrating! There were a couple young guys by my desk who were loudly yammering. I was close to redirecting them, but I stopped myself. I decided to subtly listen to their conversation. What came next was an education. As I heard their weekend reports, it became clear their home situations resembled reality TV shows. There was lots of drama and poor choices. But what really struck me was many of the adults in their lives were transient.

I felt like Archimedes storming out on the streets of ancient Athens and hollering, “EUREKA!” It made perfect sense. Here I was, a new adult, trying to work my way into their lives. It was a rational act on their part to be standoffish! Of course they were going to check me out for a while before they let me in. The problem was not my students, it was me, and my ego, and my expectations, and my limited perspective.

As a result of this discovery, I made two minor, but powerful, adjustments. When I interacted with my students, I decided to remove my ego from the equation. I approached conversations like an objective observer. Once I shifted to this perspective, I was amazed how interesting interactions became. I would ask myself…”Hmmm, I wonder why he responded that way?” I stopped pushing and started learning. I also realized that bonding with these kids was going to take longer than a couple of weeks. I knew I was a friendly guy and I had plenty of time to win them over.

A few days after my Eureka experience, I had a huge breakthrough. We were discussing civil rights and I prompted them, “Who was the first African American baseball player to make it to the major leagues in 1947?” Many of these young people had heard about Jackie Robinson their entire lives. But that didn’t prevent one young man from offering, “That’d be Adolph Hitler!” His sarcastic answer sponsored waves of derisive laughter. Before my Eureka experience, I would have been frustrated by this, but I pulled my ego out of the situation, and for some odd reason, pictured, in my mind’s eye, Adolf Hitler in a Brooklyn Dodgers baseball uniform. Then, the magic happened! I disintegrated into laughter! I’ll never forget the looks on their faces, “WOW…uptight Mr. Sturtevant is laughing!” It was the first time we all shared a laugh. It was transformative.

From that point forward, I stopped pushing so hard. I parked my ego and my limited perspective. I worked on my approachability and I became more patient. IT WORKED! Students are like a mirror image of their teacher. When you relax some…they relax some. When you become more approachable…they become more approachable.

By Thanksgiving, I was darned cordial with those kids, and by spring break, I had them! I owe it all, to a gray October morning when I stopped broadcasting, stopped pushing, and sought to understand my students.

My book “You’ve Gotta Connect” is all about how teachers can forge strong relationships with students. You can also listen to me dialogue about bonding with young people on numerous podcasts.

Please follow me on Twitter @jamessturtevant

I also love doing professional development. If you’re interested, here’s my email: pjsturtevant@gmail.com

My friend and comrade Sung Lee writes so eloquently about a gap year for educators. SOUNDS GREAT!

My book “You’ve Gotta Connect” is all about how teachers can forge strong relationships with students. You can also listen to me dialogue about bonding with students onnumerous podcasts.

I love doing professional development. If you’re interested, here’s my email: pjsturtevant@gmail.com