Thinky Thoughts. Because of Comic Books.
I had a conversation with a student today that I think everybody needs to have more often.
I'm a big fan of Captain America; I even have a Cap lunchbox in my office. I know that's more than a little ironic, but I love that he honestly believes might does not make right, good will always win over evil, and the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one. (It's the same reason I love Supergirl. She may die to save the planet, but at the end of the day, the planet is saved.) I love that Cap is really as good as we think he is.
There's an old Captain America comic that was written before I was born. In it, Cap is talking to someone (probably Tony Stark) who is trying to live up to his father's legacy. And Cap says to him, “The only person you're competing against, soldier, is yourself.”
At work, we have this programme where promising high school students are allowed to take college courses. I have a class that's mostly these students. One of the students has a problem when he's doing in-class assignments: he looks at how long everybody else is taking. Student hates to be the last one finished, so even if he still has three questions left, he'll turn the assignment in before he's happy with it, just so he's not the last one working. He knows it's destructive, but Student can't help it. He's supposed to be one of the best and brightest, so he needs to finish early.
So I told him the same thing Cap told (possibly) Tony Stark. He nodded and told me he understood. I don't know if it sunk in, but that's the universal teacher's dilemma.
“The only person you're competing against, soldier, is yourself” is something we all need to hear every now and then. Especially me. I work with some amazing people; all of whom are more accomplished than me. I have to constantly remind myself that it's okay. It doesn't matter if someone else has published seven articles while I have only published one. I've published one, though. That's more than I had published two years ago. And that's what is important.
The goal of education (and of life in general) is not to be better than anyone else. The goal is to be better than you were before you started. It's about improvement. I'm not the best instructor, and I may never be. That's not the point. I'm a better instructor this term than I was the last, and next term, I'll be even better. That is the point.
The point of education (and life) is to never stop working, never stop striving to improve, never stop trying to be the best you can be. So what if I never win an award? In 3013, the difference between me and the award winner is that she is embalmed in a box and I am (hopefully) food for a very pretty tree. At that point, who cares? The tree doesn't care that someone was a better teacher than I was.
It's hard. It really is. Everyday, I look around the department and see these people who have accomplished such great things and I think to myself, “Holy crap. I do not belong here. Everybody is way more awesome than I am.” and then I hyperventilate a little and need to go to the bathroom and splash some water on my face. And what did I achieve? Absolutely nothing. I'm still not as awesome as the others. But if I focus on Cap and keep repeating his words to myself, then maybe I can achieve something. I'm still not awesome, but today, I was better than I was yesterday. Slowly, I'm embracing that.
“The only person you're competing against, soldier, is yourself.”
I'm a big fan of Captain America; I even have a Cap lunchbox in my office. I know that's more than a little ironic, but I love that he honestly believes might does not make right, good will always win over evil, and the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one. (It's the same reason I love Supergirl. She may die to save the planet, but at the end of the day, the planet is saved.) I love that Cap is really as good as we think he is.
There's an old Captain America comic that was written before I was born. In it, Cap is talking to someone (probably Tony Stark) who is trying to live up to his father's legacy. And Cap says to him, “The only person you're competing against, soldier, is yourself.”
At work, we have this programme where promising high school students are allowed to take college courses. I have a class that's mostly these students. One of the students has a problem when he's doing in-class assignments: he looks at how long everybody else is taking. Student hates to be the last one finished, so even if he still has three questions left, he'll turn the assignment in before he's happy with it, just so he's not the last one working. He knows it's destructive, but Student can't help it. He's supposed to be one of the best and brightest, so he needs to finish early.
So I told him the same thing Cap told (possibly) Tony Stark. He nodded and told me he understood. I don't know if it sunk in, but that's the universal teacher's dilemma.
“The only person you're competing against, soldier, is yourself” is something we all need to hear every now and then. Especially me. I work with some amazing people; all of whom are more accomplished than me. I have to constantly remind myself that it's okay. It doesn't matter if someone else has published seven articles while I have only published one. I've published one, though. That's more than I had published two years ago. And that's what is important.
The goal of education (and of life in general) is not to be better than anyone else. The goal is to be better than you were before you started. It's about improvement. I'm not the best instructor, and I may never be. That's not the point. I'm a better instructor this term than I was the last, and next term, I'll be even better. That is the point.
The point of education (and life) is to never stop working, never stop striving to improve, never stop trying to be the best you can be. So what if I never win an award? In 3013, the difference between me and the award winner is that she is embalmed in a box and I am (hopefully) food for a very pretty tree. At that point, who cares? The tree doesn't care that someone was a better teacher than I was.
It's hard. It really is. Everyday, I look around the department and see these people who have accomplished such great things and I think to myself, “Holy crap. I do not belong here. Everybody is way more awesome than I am.” and then I hyperventilate a little and need to go to the bathroom and splash some water on my face. And what did I achieve? Absolutely nothing. I'm still not as awesome as the others. But if I focus on Cap and keep repeating his words to myself, then maybe I can achieve something. I'm still not awesome, but today, I was better than I was yesterday. Slowly, I'm embracing that.
“The only person you're competing against, soldier, is yourself.”