20,000 HOURS

By Tony Holler (*Edited and annotated by John O’Malley)

John O’Malley spoke at TFC-9. John was the first distance coach to speak at a TFC. John spoke to a room full of strength & conditioning meatheads, football neanderthals, and high-strung sprint coaches. Tough crowd. He owned it.

My main memory of John’s presentation is the subject of this piece, “20,000 Hours”. John O’Malley dropped the question, “Kids spend 20,000 hours in school. What are they good at?” Seems like I’ve been trying to answer that question ever since.

Malcom Gladwell made *10,000 hours* famous in his best-selling book, Outliers. One of Gladwell’s main points was that people at the top of their field spent 10,000 hours of practice to get there. If kids spend 20,000 hours in school, they should master something. But what?

*Editor’s note: Having Tony Holler attend your presentation is intimidating. You wonder what a guy like that will take away. I spoke about a lot of sports related stuff and this question engaged him. Tony was a couple weeks into his retirement as a teacher and this question, about schooling, struck a cord with him. What does that say about the nature of good coaching? I once asked Tony about his longevity in teaching and coaching with passion. He said that he is insanely energized by a room full of people who want to learn.

Cell Phones

What are kids best at by the time they graduate from high school? Cell phones. Yep, cell phones. Kids take no required courses to become experts. Zero. None. Nada. In matter of fact, cell phones are discouraged at school. At my high school, cell phone use during class results in a detention. Keep that computer in your pocket!

What can cell phone expertise teach schools? Kids are really good at what they like. When motivated to learn, kids are relentless. Who motivated kids to become experts at cell phones? NO ONE. No one gave grades. No one provided rewards and consequences. Nothing was mandated. Nothing was required.

*Editor’s note: See Daniel Pink’s research on motivation. Sticks and carrots are highly demotivating for creative and problem solving tasks.

Sports

Six years ago I wrote, What Can Coaches Teach Schools?. In the article, I argued against the prevailing thought that kids were lazy, soft, and unmotivated. Despite the huge demands of high school sports, student participation is at an all-time high. Kids often go though hell to be a good athlete.

What should we learn from the enthusiasm of kids towards their athletic endeavors? Kids are really good at what they like, even if its hard. Motivated athletes will go through physical pain and suffering to be the best they can be. Kids will fight through failure and heartbreak with no guarantee of success. No one requires sports participation. No grades given.

Coaches often use the quote from Field of Dreams, “Build it and they will come.” Who is building attractive courses in schools?

Editor’s Note: One of the first things that attracted me to Tony’s philosophies on coaching and teaching was his unapologetic advocacy for students and athletes. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard overweight coaches in bag chairs twirling a stopwatch lament about their “soft” athletes.

Cheating

Ask a high school kid if there’s much cheating going on in school. His answer is usually, “Hell yes!”. Casually ask a classroom of kids, “What percentage of high school kids cheat?” The random answers usually range from 75% to 100%. Sometimes you hear 110%.

Many schools are making standardized tests the only tests given to students. This makes the experience of all students the same. For example, if all chemistry teachers are giving the exact same tests and using the exact same grading procedures, all chemistry students get the same experience. It’s fair.

But here’s the problem. I have yet to see a well-written and “fair” standardized assessment. Ask high school students what they think about standardized tests. Oh, I forgot, no one asks high school kids what they think.

Guess what high school students do when they are given poorly-written, unfair tests? You guessed it. They cheat. They cheat their asses off.

I’ve caught the nicest kids in the world cheating like villains. I’ve known brilliant, mature, National Honor Society students who typed answers into their graphing calculators and put those answers up for sale. Once I caught a kid, who was too shy to speak in class, taking a picture of a test on my desk. Students are playing a high-stakes game and the game is bogus.

What’s the answer? Schools have put tons of effort into fighting the problem. Tests are randomized so every test has the same questions but the questions are in a different order. Cell phones must be placed in backpacks. Backpacks must be place against the front wall of the classroom. Schools are buying classroom sets of calculators as an attempt to thwart the recording of answers on student’s personal calculators. And, of course, the consequences of getting caught are severe.

We can treat obesity by stapling the stomach, or we can prevent obesity by eating right. We can conquer fatigue with energy drinks, or we can get a good night’s sleep. We can make rules, policies, and consequences to prevent cheating, or we can stop giving bad assessments. I believe in kids. I believe that kids will give an honest effort when they see meaning and significance in what they do. When the test is fair and kids are well-prepared, they won’t cheat.

*Editor’s note: 1. Equality in education does not mean “sameness.” In fact, having everything the same guarantees inequality. If you are a parent of multiple children, you are aware that despite sharing genetic traits, despite growing up in the same environment, your children need different methods of parenting. 2. The cheating issue definitely is related to poor tests and lack of motivation. As I say, grit is not worthwhile unless it has meaning. Beyond that, students are competing in education. I once had a colleague critically respond when I said I had a class with a bunch of A’s in it, implying I was inflating grades. I said, “Yeah, I’ve had a great year teaching. My students came through.” I was proud of their A’s. If a teacher magically was given a roster of only “A” quality students, how many A’s do you think would actually be given? Would they find a way to get some kids some B’s and C’s? Are we educating or are we sorting?

Compliance

On my first day of school, 55 years ago, I learned that you had to raise your hand before you talked. I learned compliance on day-one. As Barney Fife once said, “The first rule is: OBEY ALL RULES.”

Compliance keeps students safe and allows for a healthy learning environment. It allows hundreds of teenagers to coexist and thrive. Compliance is a huge priority at schools and it is something schools are really good at.

But then again…

I’m now a retired teacher, but back in the day I tried to encourage a rebellious spirit. I modeled a rebellious spirit. I tried to teach kids to question the answers. I had two classroom rules. One was the “Vegas Rule”, whatever goes on in my classroom, stays in my classroom. This rule was broken every damn day. In every parent meeting, I heard that the shenanigans of my classroom were discussed over dinner on a regular basis. The other rule? You can’t raise your hand and ask to go to the restroom. You simply get up and leave. I thought I was such a rebel.

Editor’s note: At the core of curiosity is rebellion. Science is not a subject matter, it’s a way of thinking.

Math? Science? Reading?

But what about getting really good at math and science? How about developing a life-long love of reading? Why do American kids take four years of a foreign language and still can’t speak it? They spend 20,000 hours in school.

I believe that answer to be obvious. Stop mandating. Stop requiring. Stop the standardization madness. Stop prioritizing compliance. Instead, take advantage of the fact that kids are really good at what they like. Make school more likable. Schools are all about what is required, not liked. The happiness of kids, sadly, is not a priority. It should be.

Malcom Gladwell in Outliers reported that the Beatles played over 1200 live shows before they burst onto the seen in 1964. Maybe their *grit* had something to do with writing their own songs. Maybe the freedom to play their own songs, their way, made the process likable. Maybe, just maybe, they liked playing music. People don’t become great at what is required of them.

I’m in the process of adapting Feed the Cats to other sports, to the classroom, and beyond. One of my new slogans is, “DO LESS, ACHIEVE MORE”. I fed the cats as a chemistry teacher. On many days, we did 25-35 minutes of work in a 55 minute class period. I enjoyed getting off-topic. I refused to be a 55-minute robot. I refused to do “bell ringers” (questions on the board to get students occupied immediately while the teacher took attendance).

My goal was never *how much* I could accomplish. My goal was to provide a spark that might grow into a flame. The topics learned in Honors Chemistry were not important. It’s like saying that the love of reading is more important than reading The Grapes of Wrath. The greatest complement was when parents told me their kid loved my class, loved chemistry. The second greatest compliment… the kid wants to take AP Chemistry. The third… the kid wants to be a chemical engineer or a pharmacist.

*Editor’s note: The science of learning and skill development is completely complementary to the Feed the Cats philosophy. Exhaustion and volume without rest is a terrible way to learn. I was asked yesterday by my son’s teacher what I want out of my son’s education. My first and primary answer was, “His excitement for learning grows.” By the way, if you never get off topic, then your so-called education is wholly predictable and linear, which of course lacks inquiry, exploration or creativity. And learning is not linear.

Filling the Pail

“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” W.B. Yeats

But, schools, by nature, have pails to fill.

I’ve always told my students that the number one mission of high schools is teenage daycare. And, high schools do a damn good job at it. Safe. Professional. Orderly.

If you don’t believe me, ask yourself this question: If a study proved that high school kids learned 100% more by taking only three classes per day with school beginning at 9:00 and ending at 12:00, would schools go to a three hour day? Hell no. Teenagers need to be in a safe place during the work day. Free daycare is perfect for working parents.

Sports are really popular with parents because they serve as after-hours daycare. If you ask a parent whether they would rather have hour-long practices or two-hour practices, they probably would ask for three-hour practices (with lots of conditioning). Tired teenagers don’t get into trouble when they get home.

So, we FILL a school day. We FILL a class period. We FILL 20,000 hours. Too much filler, not enough substance. Too much required, not enough choice. Too much mandated, not enough love.

What Are Teachers To Do?

In my 101 Bits of Advice article I wrote for my son, Quinn, the first two bits of advice were, 1) BE LOYAL and 2) BE REBELLIOUS. Balancing those two ideas is how I survived 38 years of teaching. I was loyal to my school, my superiors, and my profession. But, I was also loyal to my students. In addition, I told myself every day, when I close my classroom door, the classroom is mine. 99% of my teaching was done without another adult in the room. It was just me and the kids. I could be a rebel and no one would know.

Teachers need to walk the line between what is expected of them and what is best for kids. Teachers need to walk the line between loyalty and rebellion. If kids are going to spend 20,000 hours in school, they need to find something they love and get good at it.

*Editor’s Note: If you are reading this article it’s likely because you or someone who forwarded you this article has caught on to the Holler Feed the Cats philosophy, which has become wildly popular. My contention is because it’s not a cookie cutter program; it’s a philosophy. It challenges you to think differently. And Tony Holler is fired up about it. He’s not delivering the content in a lukewarm way. If this is true, then our classrooms should have the same components: instill curiosity, challenge people to think differently, and be fired up about it. And here we are. a room full of people who want to learn. Go light a fire.

By Tony Holler, *edited and annotated by John O’Malley

Don’t forget to read John O’Malley’s The 20,000 Hour Journey.

Tony Holler
@pntrack
630-849-8294
tony.holler@yahoo.com

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