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   It doesn’t matter whether you are at work or at play; young or old; rich or poor; man or woman - in this world you will find yourself always being judged and evaluated according to your performance. And yet, one’s personal level of performance is often a direct result of other people’s expectations. If someone expects you to fail at something, you often live down to that expectation. If they expect you to succeed, you do everything you can to live up to that expectation. Let me demonstrate what I mean by sharing a little story with you.

   There was once a young lady who went to work for a company immediately after graduating from college. She seemed extremely talented but unbelievably timid. She was assigned to a small local marketing department where she assisted in the production of basic advertising material. Her supervisor associated her shyness with a lack of technical and conceptual skills. As a result, she was never included in brainstorming or planning sessions. The supervisor thought she was best suited to simple graphics layout and paste-up.

   Frustrated that her talents were squandered on simple tasks, she applied to the corporate marketing department. The vice-president reviewed her resume and transferred her without even so much as an interview. His concept of the young lady was extremely positive and he immediately assigned her to a series of important, key projects. She performed magnificently.

   A few months later, the original supervisor was in the vice-president's office admiring the new corporate ad campaign. The project consisted of television and radio commercials, full-page ads for national publications and complete press kits. The supervisor asked, "What kind of a Madison Avenue rain-maker worked this kind of magic?" The VP replied, "This was all completed by that young lady you sent me. That was the best move I ever made!"

SET HIGH STANDARDS FOR YOUR STUDENTS AND THEY WILL SURPRISE YOU

   You see, the young lady was held back by the expectations of her former supervisor, who felt she was incapable of anything beyond the most trivial of assignments. Her new supervisor, however, saw a completely different person. He felt, from her resume, that she had enormous potential and gave her ample opportunity to demonstrate that creativity. As a result of this confidence and expectation, she performed at a very high level.

   As a classroom teacher I saw this all the time. There were many students who came into my class with low marks and a reputation for having poor work habits. I ignored previous reports and set high standards for my pupils. Many of them protested that they “couldn’t” do the work. I held my ground and told them that there was no reason why I should accept a lower standard and assured them that I would never assign them anything which I felt was beyond their capabilities. By showing them that I felt they were competent, many of them found a new level of success that surprised their parents and former teachers alike.

   The message is clear. If your supervisors expect little from you, and give you very little responsibility, you will likely perform to that level. However, if your supervisors show confidence in your abilities and give you corresponding responsibilities, you will rise to new levels which may even surprise yourself.

ALWAYS SHOW YOUR STUDENTS THAT YOU HAVE CONFIDENCE IN THEIR ABILITIES AND THEY WILL PERFORM FOR YOU

   This is something you must always remember when working with students in your classroom. Show your students that you have confidence in their abilities and they will rise to your expectations. They may fail once in a while and may at times find it difficult, but they will become much better for the experience.

   If you are familiar with baseball, and perhaps if you are a bit closer in age to me, you will remember Pete Rose. One day Pete was being interviewed during spring training the year he was about to break Ty Cobb’s all time hits record. A reporter asked him, “Pete, you only need 78 hits to break the record. How many at bats do you think you’ll need to get the 78 hits?”

   Without hesitation, Pete looked at the reporter and said, “78.”

   The report yelled back, “Come on, Pete. You don’t expect to get 78 hits in 78 bat bats do you?”

   Rose explained, “Every time I step up to the plate I expect to get a hit. If I go up there hoping to get a hit, then I probably don’t have a prayer.”

APPROACH EVERYTHING YOU DO IN LIFE WITH THE EXPECTATION THAT YOU WILL ALWAYS BE SUCCESSFUL

   Rose’s philosophy is one that we all should adopt. If you hope to finish the project; if you hope to be a good father; if you hope to be a good teacher; if you hope to finish your homework....you may do an adequate job, but you will never make it to your ultimate goals. Therefore, you must approach everything in life with an expectation that you will always be successful. Nothing else is acceptable. You should never do anything hoping to succeed. You approach everything expecting to succeed. You may not get a “hit” every time you go to bat, but you have to “expect” that you will or you will never get anywhere.

   So next time you find yourself doubting your abilities, or unsure about whether or not you are capable of handling your responsibilities, remember Pete Rose. Go into everything in your life with the expectation that you will do a great job, and you will be surprised at how well you actually perform. And if someone else gives you a task that seems a bit too difficult for you to handle, just remember that if that person thinks you can do it, so should you. Go for it!

Do you ever spend any time thinking about all of the people who are responsible for helping you make it through the day? Or are you one of those people who actually think you have made it on your own? See if the following little story improves your memory.

Charles Plumb was a United States Navy jet pilot in Vietnam. 

After 75 combat missions, his plane was destroyed by a missile and after parachuting to safety he was captured and spent six years in a communist prison. He survived the ordeal and went on a lecture tour providing audiences with insight into the lessons he learned from his experience.

One day, when Plumb and his wife were sitting in a restaurant, a man at another table came up and said, “You’re Plumb! You flew jet fighters in Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk . You were shot down!”

“How in the world did you know that?” asked Plumb.

“I packed your parachute,” the man replied. “I guess it worked!”

Plumb gasped in surprise and gratitude as he shook the man’s hand, “It sure did. If your chute hadn’t worked, I wouldn’t be here today.”

Plumb couldn’t sleep that night, thinking about the man. He said, “I kept wondering what he might have looked like in a Navy uniform: a white hat, a bib in the back, and bell-bottom trousers. I wonder how many times I might have seen him and not even said Good morning, how are you? or anything because, you see, I was a fighter pilot and he was just a sailor.”

Plumb thought of how many hours the sailor had spent on a long wooden table in the bowels of the ship, carefully weaving the shrouds and folding the silks of each chute, holding in his hands each time the fate of someone he didn’t know.

From that day on, Plumb always asked his audiences, “Who’s packing your parachute?”

Everyone has someone who provides what they need to make it through the day. Plumb pointed out that he needed many kinds of parachutes when his plan was shot down over enemy territory. He needed his physical parachute; his mental parachute; his emotional parachute; and his spiritual parachute. He called on all of these supports before reaching safety.

It’s easy to miss what is really important as we go through the daily challenges of life. We get so caught up in surviving that we forget about the people who have provided us with the support in order to get through those challenges. In our hurry to get on with life we may fail to say hello, please, thank you, congratulate someone else on an accomplishment, give a compliment or just do something nice for someone we love. Yet, when you think of it, where would you be if they hadn’t packed your parachute?

Take a few moments to reflect upon the parachutes you use during the day. The girl who gives you your morning coffee at the drive through; the person who ploughs the road so that you can get to work; the cleaning lady who empties your garbage at night and vacuums your office; the mechanic who works on your automobile; the police officer who enforces the speed limit on the highway; the internet provider who makes sure your email arrives on time; your spouse who is always there to listen to your problems; your child’s coach who has made the arrangements for the game or practice so that you could concentrate on other things; the grocery store which remains open late at night so that you can get those things you forgot. Think about all of the things you did today which would have been impossible or much more difficult were it not for the help or assistance of someone else. Did you thank them for what they did? Did you show your appreciation? 

TEACHERS PACK A LOT OF PARACHUTES EVERY DAY

Now, in your role as a teacher, how many parachutes did you pack today?

Did you make it easier for someone else to meet life’s challenges? 

Remember, as well as using parachutes, we must also provide parachutes for the people who come into our life. And as teachers, we have a tremendous responsibility to pack the parachutes of all of the children who are placed in our care. Further more, it is not just the children we teach within our own wall that we are packing for. What about the children you saw on bus duty this morning? Did you give them a proper greeting, or did you treat them just as if they were faceless bodies climbing down the steps of the bus? What about the children in the hallway? Did you acknowledge them or did you just walk on by as if they never existed?

As teachers we must never forget that children are constantly watching us. Most of our teaching is done by example. When the children who crossed your path today need to use the parachute you packed for them today, will it work?

The other day while I was caught in traffic, my mind began to wander like it usually does when I am not preoccupied with one of my numerous daily activities. 

I thought back to the beginning of my career as a teacher and recalled how excited I was to finally have an opportunity to ‘teach’ children. I then projected myself to my last couple of years before retirement and realized that the early excitement I felt in my first few years had disappeared. 

I thought back to my days as a youngster growing up in Lively and how my friends and I would play street hockey for hours on end until our mothers would almost have to physically drag us into the house for dinner. It wasn’t just hockey, however. A couple of phone calls was all it took and we would have a baseball game, a football game, a game of hide-and-seek, soccer, you name it. And we had fun - no referees - no adults - just a bunch of kids playing for the “Stanley Cup” or the “World Series”.

Sadly, I don’t notice the same level of excitement in the eyes of young teachers. I certainly know that in my own career I started to lose the excitement many years before I actually retired, but I think it was still there at least until after I had been in the profession for over twenty years. 

Come to think about it, I also notice that there doesn’t seem to be many road hockey games around any more. You seldom see kids playing at a baseball field unless there are adults, umpires and fancy uniforms.  

THE FISHERMAN'S FELLOWSHIP

It reminded me about a story I once heard about a group called “The Fisherman’s Fellowship”. 

These men were surrounded by streams and lakes full of hungry fish, but not one of them had ever gone fishing.

They met regularly to discuss the call to fish, and the thrill of catching fish. They really got excited about fishing! Something like I felt about  teaching when I first started. Something like a young kid feels about playing hockey in the beginning.

Someone in the group suggested that they needed a philosophy of fishing, so they carefully defined and redefined fishing, and the purpose of fishing. They developed fishing strategies and tactics. Then they realized that they had been going about it backwards. They had approached fishing from the point of view of the fisherman, and not from the point of view of the fish. How do fish view the world? How does the fisherman appear to the fish? What do fish eat, and when? These are all good things to know. So they began research studies, and attended conferences on fishing. Some travelled to far away places to study different kinds of fish, with different habits. Some got PhD’s in fishology. 

But no one had yet gone fishing.

So a committee was formed to send out fishermen. 

Since the prospective fishing places outnumbered fishermen, the committee needed to determine priorities. A priority list of fishing places was posted on bulletin boards in all of the fellowship halls. 

But still, no one was fishing. A survey was launched, to find out why. Most did not answer the survey, but from those that did, it was discovered that some felt called to study fish, a few to furnish fishing equipment, and several to go around encouraging the fisherman.

What with meetings, conferences, and seminars, they just simply didn’t have time to fish.

One day, Jake, a newcomer to the Fisherman’s Fellowship was so moved by a stirring meeting that he actually went fishing. He tried a few things, got the hang of it, and caught a nice fish. 

At the next meeting, Jake told his story, and was honoured for his catch. He was then scheduled to speak at all of the Fellowship chapters and tell how he did it. Now, because of all the speaking invitations and his election to the Board of Directors of the Fisherman’s Fellowship, Jake no longer had time to go fishing.

But soon, Jake began to feel restless and empty. He longed to feel the tug on the line once again. So he cut the speaking, resigned from the Board of Directors and said to a friend, “Let’s go fishing.” And they did. Just the two of them, and they caught fish.

The members of the Fisherman’s Fellowship were many, the fish were plentiful, but the fishers were few.

As I finished the story, the traffic began moving again and the message was clear.

If we want to keep the excitement in teachers, maybe we should just let them teach. Forget about all of the curriculum reviews, certification courses, professional development programs, provincial testing and just let them teach! 

If children are to have fun playing hockey, baseball, soccer, football or whatever, we must let them play. Forget about systems, rules, house leagues, travelling teams, uniforms, training, certification and such. Maybe what we have to do is just give a bunch of kids some  hockey sticks, a ball, a few chunks for goal posts and then leave them alone for a few hours.  

NEXT TIME YOU NEED A BREAK - JUST TEACH

My advice to young teachers is to remember the story about Jake. I am sure that if you are in your first few years in this profession you already feel as if you are part of the "Fellowship of Fishermen". You likely have asked yourself hundreds of times how you will ever find time to teach with all of the reports, evaluations, IEP's, IPRC's and meetings to which you are expected to attend. 

My advice to experienced teachers is also the same.

The next time you feel yourself getting caught in a rut where something you once enjoyed isn’t fun anymore, think about Jake and the Fisherman's Fellowship. Put everything aside for a day and spend it with the children. Rediscover the excitement and passion which first brought you to this profession. Just for a change, go and teach the children with no thought about evaluation, special needs or reports. Just go and teach.

Let me use a little story to demonstrate what happens to a lot of good young teachers.

Once upon a time a very strong woodcutter asked for a job with a lumber company, and he got it. 

The pay was really good and so were the work conditions. 

For that reason, the woodcutter was determined to do his best. 

His boss gave him an ax and showed him the area where he was supposed to work. 

The first day, the woodcutter brought 18 trees. "Congratulations," the boss said. "Continue what you were doing!"  Very motivated by the boss’ words, the woodcutter tried harder the next day, but he only could bring 15 trees. 

The third day he tried even harder, but he only could bring 10 trees. 

Day after day he was bringing less and less trees.  "I must be losing my strength", the woodcutter thought. 

He went to the boss and apologized, saying that he could not understand what was going on. "When was the last time you sharpened your ax?" the boss asked.  "Sharpen? I had no time to sharpen my ax. I have been too busy trying to cut trees..."

The message today is very short and sweet.

Don't get so caught up in your enthusiasm for teaching that you forget to do sharpen your own ax by getting to know your students and their parents. Remember that you are a university graduate. You did well in school. You had high marks. You had an excellent attitude towards learning. Your family was very likely very supportive and encouraged learning in every way.

YOU ARE VERY DIFFERENT FROM MOST OF THE CHILDREN IN YOUR CLASS...

Most of the children in your class will never even set foot on the property of a university campus let alone get a university degree. For many of your children, education is boring and is something they are "forced to do". They do not share your enthusiasm.

So if you find that the harder you work, the less you seem to be getting through to your children, ask yourself if perhaps it is time to "sharpen your ax" and take a day or two to get to know your children a little better. Find out who they are and what is important to them in their life right now. Discover the barriers that are preventing you from "getting through to them". Get down to their level and see the world through their eyes.

Only then will you be able to maintain your "strength" and be able to do your best for your students.