Back in March of this year HBO ran a documentary about the UCLA basketball program and the ten NCAA Basketball titles that the program won from 1964 to 1975. As much as the film was about the basketball program, it was also about John Wooden and his concept of success.
Those who speak of UCLA basketball speak in terms of the ten titles won and the 88-game winning streak. Very little attention is given to the means by which those games were won. Nowadays teams are expected to win and losing is never an acceptable option.
Most everyone knows that UCLA won 10 titles, seven of them in a row. Most people, I think, don’t realize that each group of players were uniquely different and the style of play reflected those differences. Yet, the manner in which team prepared for the games was the same and the basic, fundamental principles of basketball were continually stressed. What intrigues me is, as was mentioned in the film and by many of his former players, he never equated winning with success.
Coach Wooden gave a different definition of success and excellence was a long term process, not a short-term gain. He defined success as “Peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to become the best of which you are capable.”
Now much has been written about Coach Wooden and his “Pyramid of Success” so I am not going to say much about that. Rather, At the end of the film, player after player notes how much Coach Wooden taught them about being successful in life and seeking excellence. And that stands to reason because John Wooden was first and foremost a teacher.
And teaching is part of a life-long process, not something quickly done and forgotten. Yet, in our desires for success and excellence, we see teaching as something for this moment; we see success in the grades our children receive at the end of the school year and we equate excellence with the overall grade point average of the school. We give no thought to what will happen the next year or how well our students are able to use the knowledge presented to them in school when they are on their own.
I would suggest that every classroom teacher and teacher-in-preparation as well as every administrator watch this film and study the pyramid. Maybe, just maybe, we can achieve the state of excellence we say we want.
[...] In the spring, flowers bloom. With the blooming of the flowers, comes the promise of a new generation. Each generation should see that the next generation can move beyond the present; each generation should see that the next generation is the best and brightest. But with each day I wonder if that is the case. Are we demanding excellence in our schools today? Or have we confused excellence with mediocrity and is success equated with something other than doing the best that you can? I have posted my thoughts on this before (see “To Search for Excellence” and “Defining Excellence”). [...]
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