WHAT STUDENTS REALLY NEED TO HEAR
It’s 4 a.m. I’ve struggled for the last hour to go to sleep. But, I can’t. Yet again, I am tossing and turning, unable to shut down my brain. Why? Because I am stressed about my students. Really stressed. I’m so stressed that I can only think to write down what I really want to say — the real truth I’ve been needing to say — and vow to myself that I will let my students hear what I really think tomorrow.
This is what students really need to hear:
First, you need to know right now that I care about you. In fact, I care about you more than you may care about yourself. And I care not just about your grades or your test scores, but about you as a person. And, because I care, I need to be honest with you. Do I have permission to be honest with you — both in what say and how I say it?
Here’s the thing: I lose sleep because of you. Every week.
Before I tell you why, you should understand the truth about school. You see, the main event of school is not academic learning. It never has been. It never will be. And, if you find someone who is passionate in claiming that it is about academics, that person is lying to himself or herself and may genuinely believe that lie. Yes, algebra, essay writing, Spanish, the judicial process — all are important and worth knowing. But they are not the MAIN event.
The main event is learning how to deal with the harshness of life when it gets difficult — how to overcome problems as simple as a forgotten locker combination, to obnoxious peers, to gossip, to people doubting you, to asking for help in the face of self-doubt, to pushing yourself to concentrate when a million other thoughts and temptations are fingertips away.
It is your resilience in conquering the main event — adversity — that truly prepares you for life after school. Because, mark my words, school is not the most challenging time you will have in life. You will face far greater challenges than these. Sure, you will have times more amazing than you can imagine, but you will also confront incomparable tragedy, frustration, and fear in the years to come.
But, you shouldn’t be worried about the fact that you will face great adversities. You should be worried because you’re setting yourself up to fail at overcoming them. Here’s the real reason I lose hours of sleep worrying about you: You are failing the main event of school. You are quitting. You may not think you are quitting, but you are because quitting wears many masks.
For some, you quit by throwing the day away and not even trying to write a sentence or a fraction because you think it doesn’t matter or you can’t or there’s no point. But it does. What you write is not the main event. The fact that you do take charge of our own fear and doubt in order to write when you are challenged — THAT is the main event.
Some of you quit by skipping class on your free education. Being punctual to fit the mold of the classroom is not the main event of showing up. The main event is delaying your temptation and investing in your own intelligence — understanding that sometimes short-term pain creates long-term gain and that great people make sacrifices for a greater good.
For others, you quit by being rude and disrespectful to adults in the hallway who ask you to come to class. Bowing to authority is not the main event. The main event is learning how to problem solve maturely, not letting your judgement be tainted by the stains of emotion.
I see some of you quit by choosing not to take opportunities to work harder and pass a class, no matter how far down you are. The main event is not getting a number to tell you you are worthy. The main event is pulling your crap together and making hard choices and sacrifices when things seem impossible. It is finding hope in the hopeless, courage in the chasm, guts in the grave.
What you need to see is that every time you take the easy way out, you are building a habit of quitting. And it will destroy your future and it will annihilate your happiness if you let it. Our society cares nothing for quitters. Life will let you die alone, depressed, and poor if you can’t man or woman up enough to deal with hardship. You are either the muscle or the dirt. You either take resistance and grow stronger or blow in the wind and erode.
As long as you are in my life, I am not going to let quitting be easy for you. I am going to challenge you, confront you, push you, and coach you. You can whine. You can throw a tantrum. You can shout and swear and stomp and cry. And the next day, guess what? I will be here waiting — smiling and patient — to give you a fresh start. Because you are worth it.
So, do yourself a favor: Man up. Woman up. No more excuses. No more justifications. No blaming. No quitting. Just pick your head up. Rip the cords out of your ears. Grab the frickin’ pencil and let’s do this.
– C. Mielke
Consider the following:
- According to Mr. Mielke, the main purpose of school is not academic learning and it never will be. Do you agree with this teacher's message in terms of the purpose of school?
- This sample of writing has many examples of powerful and exciting language. Is there a quotation or line in his writing that speaks to you? Choose one or two lines and explain what makes them so meaningful to you.
- Can you personally connect to the message of Mr. Mielke? How so?
- As people commented on Mr. Mielke's post, he was criticized for some of the language he used and for telling students that school is not the most challenging time they will have in their lives. What do you think?
- Think of someone who has made sure quitting is not easy for you. Tell the story of how that person has made a difference in your life.
26 comments:
I agree with Mr M. School does teach you other things rather then just math or science. If you didn't come to school your be walking around and being a potato. You wouldn't know how to handle situations like when things don't go your way. You learn self control and you make friends and how to socialize. Mr. Mielke sent a great message to students saying education isn't the main purpose of school.
I think it was a great peice of writing that he's done. He was definantly brave to post this. I say brave because not all teachers want to reveal the bad side of things that happen in the school. Some try to sugar coat it, but he put out the flat reality of it. He kind of opens your eyes to the fact that school isn't about the learning. You need to be able to communicate, it gets you ready for the rest of your life, it teaches you hardships, and so much more. I also like the fact that he made this like an encouragement. It seems more like he was trying to encourage students rather than jut blow off steam into a blog post. He makes it clear to you that teachers are there to help you through anything and everything. They hold no grudges and like he said "I'll be there the next day with a smile on my face". I sincerely enjoyed this post and believe it was very well written.
I would agree with Mr.Mielke he is telling students about the truth of life that school will never be the hardest thing in life and that we should just go with it get done and over with and push through school no matter what and not to quite if it's too hard. It doesn't matter about the language he made he's just trying to get through to his students and tell them that it isn't hard to do school and that it's not about the academics or grades, etc.
I agree with Mr. M with how he thinks that school is not about the academic learning. I disagree with how some of the comments in Mr. M post said that he used not apporite launguge in his post. If that's what you think is the worst thing your kids hear you should listen to your self when you drive.
Mr. Mielke said that school is not only about the grades it about how you get there. So what I thought about is that we shouldn't worry so much about the grades we get but how much work we did to get it. People always think that you have to get the best grades to do good in life. That isn't always true if someone in the class gets 90% on a test and you get 70% and you tried your hardest that's your best. In our schools we always try to get the best grades but are we actually learning it all and remembering it? Or are we just memorizing it and than forgetting it? The grade system will never change, but people can change the way they think and try there best because it's your best not someone else's. There will always be people doing better and people doing worse at you in life.
After reading his post, it stands out to me that he's quite brave to write these words on his blog for everyone to see. He shows the emotions that many teachers with the same problems have failed at expressing this to the world. Mr. M does make it clear that he really loves his students, but they're also a big pain. He wants to show them that quitting will only make it harder for them in the future. I do agree that school isn't all about adversity, but at the same time, why is it that we are taught to learn different subjects? I think that school should be a good balance between adversity or challenges, and actually learning.
I think that Mr. Mielke is absolutely right. People do quit. But not just in school, in sports too. School isn't just about learning about the ancient Egyptians or how to add and subtract fractions, there's more to it. Of you didn't go to school, how would you have friends? Sure, you'll have the odd friend that lives down the street and friends on sports teams but how else would you meet different people?
People do quit at school. They just give up. You can still attend school, but you might not be there mentally. You might be sitting in class and totally zoned out, not listening to a word your teachers saying. Mr. Mielke's post is letting us know that going up isn't worth it. Just keep chugging.
I think school's main purpose is to prepare you for life but, it still doesn't do a great job. Just university is way harder than high school. My dad went to university and said it was way harder than high school and that high school prepared him for nothing there. The main courses you take are really just to prepare you for low paying jobs. I think that people should try hard in school and maybe even do IB so they are more prepared for university or college. This is what I think school helps with.
I agree with this essay. Mr. Mielke brings up many good points that are reality in a students life. Our school system seems to be fixated on grades. The better your grades are, the more likely a chance you have at getting a better job. I don't think this will ever change because this is how life goes. However, I feel that teachers can focus more on the progress of a student and not so much on their grades. Although having a high mark at the end of the year is nice, students should be taught that how you achieved that mark is what is most important. Comparison between grades will most likely never go away, but we can try to teach students that progress and development is the highest priority at the end of the day.
I feel like the school system is a place where kids feel that if they don't get 100%, they aren't good enough. Even though they may be working as hard as they can. They will never be good enough because they aren't reaching that goal that teachers set out for them. I also feel like kids are quitting school because they feel like what they are learning is completely irrelevant to them. They most likely feel like why should they learn something that will never help them in everyday life. I think it would be more benifietal to students to have their teachers explain to them where they can apply these skills I'm their everyday life! This could teach students how to use these applications, and to motivate them. They would now know why they need to learn this, instead of just being told that you need to know this because it's I'm the curriculm.
After further conversation about this topic, I think it's safe to say that Mr. Mielke is right when he says that school isn't all about academics. Some people quit at their academics because they don't try or they don't have confidence in their abilities. Confidence is an unbelievable thing. When you're a quarterback going into the season with confidence, you break the passing and touchdown records. When you're the starting goalie for Team Canada at the Olympics with confidence, you win Best Goalie. When you're about to do your grade 5 piano exam dressed in a suit and you full confidence, you score 87%. The same thing happens with school, when you're confident, you'll excel, when you aren't, you're not so lucky. Some people don't have the same confidence as others do and they lose interest in school because of it. Growing up, I was always taught that academics is the most important thing, but I don't think that's the case. Kids today need that confidence, it's how they will be successful
I think that the language he used was perfectly fine because one of the points he stating was that life will not always be easy and that there will be roadblocks at times and that is why we should quit school because we go to school to learn how to over come those roadblocks and succeed in life. He used that language to help get his point across to all of us. So in the end he is basically saying that if we quit in school,we most likely won't succeed in life.
I had my post ready but it reset 😭
According to Mr. Mielke, the main purpose of school is not academic learning and it never will be. I agree that school is not about academic learning. Its about how to solve road blocks that come in life, when they come you'll know how to solve them. It's the moments in life when a problem accours in life you'll be ready for what comes at you and you know what to do hand how to do it.
I think that the main point of school isn't all about the academics. Yeah, it's still important but not the main part. You'll be learning life skills in school. How to communicate with others, how to not give up, even self confidence. You'll learn how to deal with other people you don't want to be with at all. When you get older and you go to your job you might not like someone there or you might have to work hard to get to your job. School should be teaching you not to give up. I also don't think the language he was using was bad. When he said that school won't be the hardest thing in our life's, that's true. People can't get mad at him for saying that, it's reality.
I really agree with how he is saying that school isn't just about learning it is about meeting new people learning how to deal with tough situations. If we didn't go to school we wouldn't have any friends and we won't know how to control are anger. For example, most if us make friends at school and if we don't go to school then we won't have any. Also for another example, we were playing a sport and you got really frustrated you wouldn't know what to do, at school they taught use to take a walk if you need one or do something that won't affects others.
I think mr. Mielke is talking more about that if you give up or "quit" in school you won't get far in to life with like a job or really good education for a job. He has also exalent word choice in his essay or writing to make it feel like it's coming from him. I also feel bad that he has to put up with it every day but he mans up and deals with.
This is straight up eye opening, if people want to try and prove this man is lying, it isn't going to happen. When this world discovers what the hardest thing to do in the world is, school will look like heaven. The people who don't agree can have their opinion, but when they understand this, they're going to looked like idiots.
School is not the most challenging thing you will ever come across but it will sure help you deal with challenges and tough situations later on in life. School will sure be a journey with challenges but he's also trying to say to keep going and don't quit on it you can get better.
It doesn't matter the language he used toward his students he's trying to get the point across that they can over come anything that challenges them. Secondly he's trying to help them understand to stay strong towards it and don't back down. So by him saying man up or women up he's only using those words to help and strengthen them.
The one thing I don't understand it why are grades important. All anyone tells us is to get the best grade ever but if school isn't about the grades then why do we have them. Also sometimes you get the best grade you can get, but then you get told that it's not good enough. Some of the things we learn in school the teachers even tell us that we aren't going to need this in life but you have to learn it, well if we aren't going to need it why don't we learn something that I will need to prepare me for life. I believe we should be learning but I believe we should be leaning things that are important to my education and that grades shouldn't be the number one priority. This is what I think about school.
Mr.Mielke has a very strong opinion and this shows. I understand how this could be offensive but I think he needed it to sound a little rude to show the point. What I got from this post was that even though yes you do need those school skills like being able to add and subtract there are other things to it, if you quit and don't come to school how will you learn to deal with gossip or forgetting your password. You learn life lessons that they don't have a class for their is no class "you will need this in your life when your older." so that's why in my opinion we go to school so we can learn valuable lessons. Although he swar it made sence he did to make it sound more persuasive. It's not like he was swearing for the sake of swearing.
I agree with Mr. Mielke that school is not going to be the most challenging thing in their lives. Their lives are just going to get harder. I think one of schools main purposes is to prepare you for life. People in the comments are over reacting about the words he used I think he was just trying to prove a point.
This post is inspiring to teachers and students . We all know students can be a handful especially at school but they quit a lot. Kids are kids and kids will be kids no matter what they will quit and they will cus and throw tantrums and disrespect there elders but that's cause they are kids. But they don't have to quit just do your work and everything will be fine
I kind of agree with mr.mielke on how he said that school isn't only about academics. Its true because showing up to school and meeting people is just as important as grades.
I agree with Mr. Mielke when he said "school is not the most challenging time you will have in life.", because you do not know what may happen past the bad times, for all you know the very best point of your life is right around the corner. So don't just throw your life out the window, you may regret it if you do.
I didn't get the impression that Mr. Mielke was saying that grades aren't important. What I took from his writing is the idea that it isn't the final mark that we should appreciate as much as the journey we took to get there. School is definitely about learning; but it might be just as much about learning knowledge about new concepts as much as it is about learning some bigger life lessons - like learning how not to quit. It is on the journey to learning some of those lessons in school that we will be faced with conflict or things we can't get started on or don't feel we will have success with. However, there are so many other options other than quitting, and these are the options you must learn and practice each day. I hope you all realize, both this year and in all the years you have ahead of you, that you all have at least one Mr. Mielke in your life who is trying to make it difficult for you to quit and hopefully, you will remind yourself of that if and when you ever feel yourself giving up.
On a personal note, I would hope that you do see that learning is fun! I have learned something from each of you today as I read your comments. I hope that each of you leaves your schooling experience with a love of learning...as that's a lesson that will prepare you for anything that comes your way in the years ahead.
Ms. Toth
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