The Three Things I’ll Miss the Most About Teaching

Depending on the source you believe, between 40% and 50% of teachers will leave the classroom in their first five years. In just over a month, I will be adding to that particular statistic by leaving teaching, possibly permanently. This will have been my fifth year teaching and the decision to change careers has not been one that came easily. It seems like each year there are more and more articles published in which former teachers and soon-to-be former teachers explain all the reasons why they are leaving teaching. At this point, it has all been said, often by professionals more eloquent and intelligent than I am.  If you want to know some of the reasons that so many teachers are leaving, Google “Why teachers quit” or check out this article, or this one, or this one. While those three articles range from informative to regretful to scathing and all have some viewpoints that I have shared at one time or another, I would rather end my tenure by reflecting on the three things I’ll miss the most.

1. The Kids (Most of the Time)

First off, it is time to admit that not all students get along with all teachers. Just like with adults, there are people you like and people you do not like. However, for the most part, I really like a lot of my kids, especially the ones who fly under the radar. By that I mean the kids who show up, do their work, laugh at my corny jokes, and are generally successful. Those are the students I feel bad for as I have to stop what I am doing and discipline the same students for the eighth time in a week.

This is what you get for assigning homework.

Realistically, even some of the students who are “problem children” are some of my favorites. As a grown up ADHD kid, I fully understand the ones who are bouncing off of the walls and need to roam the classroom a bit more. Teaching primarily freshmen over the past five years has allowed me to see some very bright and interesting young people (especially the problem children) mature and develop into impressive young men and women. I will really miss trying to push kids out of their comfort zone and helping guide the ones who are willing to take that push and run with it.

The Four Things that Young Men Can Learn from Fantasy Novels

In news that is not a shock to anyone who knows me, I spent a lot of time in trouble as a kid. I was rebellious, stubborn, and (to quote my mother) “lacking in any tact at all,” all traits that I am still waiting to grow out of. When I was grounded to my room (which was often), I had no TV, no cell phone, no video game system, and definitely no computer or internet access. However, what I did have was a shelf of books and could usually convince my dad to let me borrow some of his when I ran out of things I wanted to read.

A couple quick disclaimers before I get to this fancy list of mine. First off, I am going to be discussing a lot of things that happen in two sets of pretty commonly read fantasy series: The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter along with a few events from other novels. If you haven’t read those books before, crawl out of your cave and get on it! I mean at least check out the movies. You also may not want to read any more of this post.  There are probably spoilers here, but they are necessary. “But I want to read your blog!” you desperately say? That’s cool. Check out some of the old posts, like the one where I talk to myself or the one with all the ways to fix modern sports.

The second thing to keep in mind is that I am a man. When I pitched the idea for this week’s post to my girlfriend, she asked why I am focusing on young men. The best answer I can give you is this: I can only tell you why I believe young men should read these novels based on my own experience, and since my experience as a young female is severely lacking, I can’t speak to experiences with the ladies. If you have more experience growing up as a member of the double x chromosomed population, feel free to drop a comment on here letting me know how much of this applies to you!

Without further ado, my nerd card is being renewed below. Read on while I grab my glasses, pocket protector, and dice with too many sides.

1. When the Going Gets Tough, the Hobbits Save the Day (or Something Like That)

I believe Shakespeare was the first author to pen the lines “Crap rolleth downhill” or something of the like. Some days/weeks/years are just rough, especially for the walking hormone smoothies that are teenage boys. As a teacher/coach/retired teenager, I totally understand that. Nevertheless, you have to persevere through the difficult times or accept an inability to ever accomplish anything, a task modeled fully in fantasy novels.

It’s a fairly common element of literature that the protagonist has to hit a low spot before the climax and redemption, but who could ever have more persistence than Frodo from The Lord of the Rings? Frodo crosses miles upon miles, covered in cliffs, swamps, and volcanic ash, all to save the world at the risk of his own life and sanity. As he journeys closer and closer to Mt. Doom in Mordor, the ring gets heavier, much as our tasks appear more difficult when closest to their achievement. Yet Frodo, a simple hobbit from the Shire, is able to destroy the ring (with the help of Gollum’s pearly yellows) and save Middle Earth. Admittedly, no man (or hobbit) is an island, and even Frodo needed the help and support of Sam, bringing me to my next point…

Why Your Kid Should Totally Play Rugby

With rugby a year away from making a return to the Olympics, it is time for United States to embrace the sport as another opportunity to dominate (or at least partake in) international competition. “But Benn,” you say, “What does that have to do with me?” Well, person-who-doesn’t-read-the-title-of-blogs, you can help by getting your kid involved with a local club. I have been involved with rugby as a player and a coach for the last decade, starting within a week of my arrival at Christopher Newport University. In that time, rugby has had a major influence on my life, from helping me find a group of solid friends in college to helping me help kids fit in at the high school I teach.

It’s Football without Pads! 

Except that it’s not. Sure, there is an odd shaped ball and there is tackling, but that is about where the similarities end. Parents regularly ask me about this and I tell them all the same thing: football is a game of position and rugby is a game of possession. In rugby, the best tackle is not necessarily one in which you lay out the other player or prevent his forward progress, but rather a tackle that allows you to get back into the game quickly. If that means that a 300 lb prop is running with the ball at a 175 lb wing, no one faults the wing for performing a slip tackle; essentially tripping up the opposing player and allowing him to gain the extra yard in exchange for ensuring a tackle. The wing certainly appreciates the opportunity to get up quickly enough to steal the ball and make a scamper up the sideline.

Additionally, to coach tackle rugby (the younger ages are typically touch rather than tackle), a coach must be level 200 certified. A level 200 certification requires a concussion course, a course on the basic rules of rugby, and a class in which coaches are taught the basics of safe rugby tackling and coaching. Safe tackling is one of the first things that I teach players and I do not allow players to participate in any full contact drills until I or another level 200 certified coach have given the player direct instruction and have seen the player tackle safely. The way in which rugby players are taught to tackle caught the attention of one of the more arguably forward thinkers in the NFL, Pete Carroll, several years ago.

Surely the lack of pads would cause more unsafe play and an increased number of injuries though, right? Well, according to the National Safety Council, not so much. Even if you allow for the difference in the sheer number of participants in both sports, rugby has a much lower rate of injury in the United States than football. The presence of a helmet and pads can lend a feeling of invulnerability that just is not present without pads. The lack of a helmet also takes away a potential weapon as Hines Ward, commonly viewed as one of the toughest receivers in the history of the NFL, states in an interview.

There are strict rules against unsafe tackling in rugby. Penalties include the oft reprimanded high tackle, tackling without an attempt to wrap, and dump tackles and can result in anything from a warning to a red card. According to the International Rugby Board, high tackle can be called if the player attempts to tackle an opponent “above the line of the shoulders even if the tackle starts below the line of the shoulders.” A tackler must also wrap up the other player, rather than delivering a spear or the flying shoulder/helmet combo often seen in football. A dump tackle can be called any time in which a player’s opponent is lifted off of the ground and opponent’s feet are failed to be put back on the ground before the rest of his/her body. All of these rules ensure that safety is of paramount importance, especially at the youth level.

Why Do I Coach?

People often ask me, “What made you want to become a teacher?” There is a lot to that question, but a big part of it was so that it would be easier to be a coach. But that just raises another question: why be a coach? Why do coaches do this to ourselves? It is Valentine’s Day night, a night on which almost everyone I know has made plans of some sort, even if it is a singles thing. Yet, as a head coach, I am worrying about Field Day tomorrow and our first scrimmage of the season, pouring over my roster, making sure my paperwork is all taken care of, debating groupings of players, and wishing that we had not lost Wednesday’s practice. So what makes a person prioritize a sport that they don’t even typically play anymore over their personal life? What makes us invest days of our own time? And tons of our own money?

So I sat. And I thought. And I pondered. And synonyms to make me sound smart. And I had a beer. And came up with this:

It fuels our inherent competitive nature.

Along with several other people who I have had the pleasure to be coached by, my high school football coach, Karl Buckwalter, has been a huge influence on my life.  One day at practice, he said something that perfectly illustrated the way I feel about winning: “I don’t care if it is football or tiddlywinks; I want to win everything. If my mom is going up for the last point in a game of 1 on 1, I would cut her legs out.” While paraphrased and obviously used as hyperbole, that is absolutely the best way to describe how competitive I am. Anyone who has ever been unfortunate enough to play a board game against me can likely attest to this, as can four years of rugby players at my school. As I have reflected on my athletic career, I begun to realize that I am not all that fast, strong, big, or naturally talented; any personal success that I have had as an athlete and member of a team has been almost solely due to my desire to win and soak in every possible ounce of technique; to try to be great, even when that was out of my reach. Coaching has allowed me to demonstrate and encourage a desire to be great in the kids that I am around, even though I hope most of them do a better job than me of not being overly competitive.

You see the kids differently.

Many of the kids whom I have coached during various rugby and football seasons have troubles in the classroom. However, it is rare that I see those same issues when we are out on the field. In many ways, an athletic practice is many things that a perfect lesson would be; it is constantly engaging, everyone gets attention in turn and participates, the coach never talks for more than about five minutes, and individual help is typically available. There is one key difference that keeps these kids coming back: they chose to be a member of the team. Kids don’t choose to go to school every day and, if given the choice, many would opt out of most of their education. Part of being a teenager is not necessarily being able to see the benefits of education, yet a sport allows these young men and women to see almost immediate gains and results. An increase in the weight you can lift, boosted endurance, a positive change in physical appearance, or victories in competitions are all more tangible and important to an athlete than the number that represents their grade in a class. Coaching gives the opportunity to see kids that may be knuckleheads in a classroom work towards something they are passionate about; it is hard to argue that there is anything more exciting than seeing someone living out their passion.

We love these kids.

On average, a student that we teach for a full school year will be with us for a maximum (no absences or extended time out of the classroom) of about 135 hours (90 days seeing the student for a block of an hour and a half). Compare that to about 150 hours which the rugby players will spend with me this season alone (about three hours a practice, three times a week for 14 weeks, plus at least six game days). This will be my fourth year coaching, which means the players who have been with me for four years will have spent somewhere between 500 and 600 hours with me, assuming they ONLY played rugby. The bond that this creates cannot be overstated – there is a reason that I regularly call one of my four year players my “son.” No matter how my day went teaching, I get to start over with these kids for practice. When I have a bad day, it is inevitable that we will have one of the best practices in weeks and I will head home wondering what was so wrong earlier. I have been lucky enough to hug every senior after the last game of their season and tell them that I was proud of them and (sappy as it is) that I love them. When I was engaged last year, I was not sure if I would be able to continue working at my school after this year. If I ended up teaching at another school next year, the thing I would miss most by far would be coaching these young men (and now, women).

We needed to be coached too.

This is the most important of all my points. I will be the first to tell you that if I had not played football and run track in high school, then I would not have graduated. Not a chance in the world.  Without sports, school had almost no meaning to me at that age. A remarkable number of the coaches that I have spoken to about this topic have voiced similar opinions. We went to school because you had to be there to practice. We passed classes because there was a minimum GPA requirement to play in games. We were respectful (usually) and paid attention (sometimes) because our coaches, some of the people we respected most in the world, told us to. Without Karl Buckwalter, Tori Arther, Allen Baskin, and several other coaches, I would not have made it through high school or the death of my younger brother my senior year. When I had to be strong for everyone else, these are people who saw me weak. When I thought it was OK to switch to lazy, these are the people who gave me a swift kick in the rear. When I was ready to quit, these are the people who showed me what it meant to push through adversity.  When I think about my greatest influences in my life, these are the people who I think of.