Success Is More Than Just Winning a Race

John Wooden was the coach of the UCLA Basketball team that won ten national championships in twelve years and seven in a row. His TED talk on true success really defines him as a person, a coach and a teacher.

John Wooden starts his TED talk with a story about his experiences as a high school teacher in 1934; he tells the audience that all the parents wanted their children to get an A or a B in his class to succeed. He followed up by saying that in his book, all the students can’t get an A or a B, but they perform at their best ability to achieve success. He also talks about the topic in a different perspective, as a coach. Relating success to coaching and teaching provided a strong connection to the audience; it allowed them to see his character in the classroom and on the court.  He segways into his definition of success with a pyramid he calls, The Pyramid of Success. It allows people to see the traits that make up successful players; to live up to his definition of success, the players need to have the traits from the pyramid. Wooden was very humorous at times, especially when he called his students and players youngsters. Another amusing comment was his description of the player's attitudes after late practices; he says, “And I tell them, "Don't run practices late. Because you'll go home in a bad mood. And that's not good, for a young married man to go home in a bad mood." When you get older, it doesn't make any difference.” Wooden comes across as a hero on and off the court, but a hero also has his own heroes. Wooden gives inferences of his heroes through quotes and stories about his father and his god. In the seventeen minutes I watched his TED talk I felt the bond of a hero connecting me and his words, but his bond between god and his father lasted a lifetime, which makes him the character he is.

Success in a team sport takes courage and willingness from the whole team, but it is the individual who sacrifices his ego to allow the team to play like a team. In sports this happens all the time and in my experience on the Arapahoe fresh-soph soccer team we carried out that attitude of team. Coming into the last game of the season we were 9-1 and the next game would decide the winners of the league. But it was no easy task; we would be going up against the undefeated Cherry Creek sophomores. From what I had heard they were a cocky group of boys the kind of team that will lose a game in the warm up. From the first five minutes of the game it obvious how cocky they were; they talked trash, mocked the ref and did everything they could just to be a nuisance. With less than two minutes to go, the score was tied 1-1, and we had a free kick near the half-line. Creek was getting sloppy and were committing fouls off their frustration. We took the kick and put the ball in the box; then one of our forwards headed the ball into the bottom corner of the net. Many kids from the other Arapahoe teams were there along with some parents so it was a loud cheer when we scored the winning goal. The final whistle sounded shortly after and the Creek players did not take the loss lightly. They went over to the ref and started complaining to him and even starting pushing us around. Their ego got the better of them.

Success isn’t always winning or getting an A, but it is always doing something to the best of your ability. In 7^th and 8^th I ran the mile in track, I never won a single race, but I gave my best effort and left everything on the track. In the nine meets I participated in, I ran the mile every meet. When I heard my time as I crossed the finish line, it felt like I had won because I knew I had beaten my time from the last meet.  Although in some races I only increased my time by one or two seconds, I had the mentality that I succeeded because I kept to my goal.

Wooden said that all the parents wanted their kids to have an A or a B in his class, but he stated that not everyone can. Although Wooden said that the students could still succeed if they performed to the best of their ability. Many kids in school get bad grades because they don’t try and complete their homework on a daily basis. Last semester one of my friends told me that he hadn’t done his homework in 41 days. I was shocked and didn’t really want to respond to his comment. I just thought where his attitude to succeed went because in the beginning of the semester he was telling me how much of an improvement he had made from middle school. I’m sure he’ll realize his mistake in a year or too. All the kids who don’t put their effort in to school all regret it at the same time, when they have to apply for college.

Today segregation is over, but that doesn’t mean racism is, many people of different ethnicities are constantly stereotyped by the color of their skin. African-Americans have equal rights and freedoms in the United States, but are still targets in the Deep South. People still fly the Confederate Flag, which lost its value (if it had any before) in the Civil War almost 150 years ago; the people of the south say it is part of their culture, but they are expressing their racism toward blacks. Racism isn’t just a national problem in the United States it is a big global issue as well. Religion is also an issue of racism, as there is still Nazism in Europe and Muslims are commonly stereotyped. Racism will never come to a resolution, but many organizations are making an effort to succeed in stopping it. FIFA (soccer) is promoting themselves against Racism in their attempt to stop racism on and off the fields. Soccer is a very ethnic sport, so if fans see all the players unified, then the fans will become unified as well. FIFA may not be winning the world conflict on racism, but they are doing everything they can to succeed.  

1+1=826 National

Dave Eggers’ TED talk, Once Upon a School, talked about the benefits of one-on-one tutoring and how it affects students. He said that 35-40 hours of one-on-one tutoring a year can raise a student’s grade by one level. Although it may increase student’s grades, it also helps them become motivated toward school and gives them the mentality that they can accomplish anything.

Dave Eggers’ TED talk told a story of how his tutoring program became successful. He talked about moving to San Francisco to create the project 826 Valencia. Eggers shared the conflicts that occurred, such as not having any students show up for months. He wanted to show that his program did not go exactly as planned. Egger’s style really focused on lending his heart to the audience to show how compassionate he was for the students and telling the world that one-on-one tutoring allows the students to succeed in school and in life. Eggers also took a humorous approach to his topic, especially when he described the superhero and pirate supply stores. In order to start project 826 Valencia, the landlord said they had to sell retail along with McSweeney’s (his publishing company), which is where the pirate and superhero supplies came from. He described the superhero store as, “A Costco for superheroes,” and “So then you have the villain containment unit, where kids put their parents.” The audience liked his humor, it added a different mood and showed his sympathy for his job. What made people feel sympathetic to his program, was the photos of the students working. It showed the audience that the students were focused and motivated toward their school work. The ending added something I hadn’t seen a presenter do; he made a wish, “I wish that you -- you personally and every creative individual and organization you know -- will find a way to directly engage with a public school in your area and that you'll then tell the story of how you got involved, so that within a year we have a thousand examples -- a thousand! -- of transformative partnerships.”  The wish represents Eggers desire to expand his tutoring program; he wants people to know that his objective is changing students that enter the doors of 826 around the country.

Because of the motivation that 826 National gave students, they had the mentality that they can achieve anything they set their mind to. One student in Brooklyn, nine year old Khaled Hamdan, came in because he was addicted to TV and video games and couldn’t focus at home. After he started being tutored, he became addicted to finishing his homework early and writing books. He wrote books about superheroes, Penguin Balboa is about a fighter penguin and Super Has-Beens about failed superheroes. He even read a book aloud at the Symphony Space in front of 500 people, at a benefit for 826 New York. He comes to tutoring everyday and even brings his cousins, adding three more to the family tally. In San Francisco, a high school teacher asked the tutors of 826 Valencia to come in to her high school class and present the topic for a book they will be writing called How to Achieve Peace in a Violent World with publishing by Isabelle Illende. Because of the motivation to get their book published, the students worked harder than they had ever worked in their lives before. With their own motivation and the help of the 170 tutors, their book was huge success, in fact it can be found anywhere. They even wrote a couple more books, the second one was sponsored by Amy Tan.

Eggers’ moral of the story concludes that a different approach can bring different results. Because the tutoring facility was built into the publishing company and the pirate supply store, it gave students a new attitude about learning. Some of the publishing company’s employees did their work shoulder to shoulder with the students to motivate them to act like adults and take an interest in their work.

 In Eighth Grade, I was in National Junior Honors Society and one of my projects was tutoring. In the couple hours I tutored, I felt like I was helping the students and making it worthwhile for them to come. One kid came to me and asked me if I could help organize his papers. It was ironic because I am not the most organized person, but I helped him anyway. After we went through all of his binders he was very happy because we found a few of the assignments he had been missing, I guess it paid off a little. Eggers’ experience with tutoring shows why his program should be installed around the country. Many elementary schools only motivate the smart kids to succeed, but ignore the kids that need it most. All kids are born with potential, but with one-on-one tutoring their unknown ability can be unlocked. Tutoring is important because teachers don’t have time to tutor every student for 35-40 hours a year, there are too many kids and not enough teachers. 826 Valencia excelled with 1400 volunteers because someone is always available to help. The kids worked so well at 826 Valencia because the pirate shop and McSweeney’s added a nice balance for the students to stay motivated with their work. Motivation is key, so schools and households need to come up with a process that enables their students to learn and work more efficiently.  

There are children in many different countries that don’t have the opportunity to be tutored one-on- one. China, Japan, and the Koreas produce some of the most intelligent people in the world, but are all of the children that come through their education system Harvard quality? Probably not, and I bet there are some students that cannot keep up with the high standards of their countries education system. In China, the education system acts similar to their government, a dictatorship. The parents and teachers FORCE their children to succeed in school. In fact, I heard a story about an Asian mom who wouldn’t let her kids do anything besides work on their studies and practice music all throughout their childhood. It paid off because one of her kids went to Harvard; it seems cruel because the mother threw her children’s childhood away to ensure their admission to a top school.  Some students can’t keep up with the demanding education system of those countries, so with a giving county like the United States, it would be important to establish tutoring programs for students in other countries. Many students will never get any attention, but that can change if we make a difference. On a poster in Ms. Smith’s classroom, Kids from other countries dream of having our job, but with tutoring and attention we can make their dream become a reality.

Youtube Video (826)

Image (SF)

Works Cited

826 Valencia. Prod. 826 National. Youtube. 12 Nov. 2007. Web. 2 May 2011. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-S2ee9fNBk.

 

SF 826 Valencia. Digital image. Nomadig. Web. 2 May 2011. http://www.nomadig.com/stuff/sf_826_valencia.jpg.

 

 

Perspectives: Changing the Way We See

Beau Lotto showed how our brain perceives different perspectives with optical illusions through his TED talk “Optical Illusions Show How We See”. He talked about the sociology of color and objects from different set ups can create the same figure.  

Lotto’s organized presentation started and ended the same, with an experiment followed by a question. It proved to be effective because the audience enjoyed the experiments and his explanations of why it turned out the way it did. With every experiment he gave, he demonstrated the outcome and explained how it related to the question “Why is it context?” The majority of his experiments were dots that were formed with different lights to create the same color. It was funny because after every experiment, a loud “OHHHH” followed. The analysis that he gave was very reflective. With quotes such as “We are defined by ecology”, “Color enables us to see the similarities and differences”, and “The same image can have a number of different realizations”. The quotes he gave allowed me to think deeper about the importance about why it is context. He made some funny statements; one was during the experiment with bees.  He said when the bee would drink the sugar water, it would throw up and there’s the honey. TED talks always need a few humorous comments; it shows the presenter has many different viewpoints within his topic. One technique I had never seen in a TED talk before was end with a cliffhanger; Lotto showed the boards with the colors again and said, “Was that an illusion?” This effective technique leaves the question and experiment in their minds and motivates them to learn more.

Lotto emphasized that we are not the only animals that see the meaning of colors. Bumblebees, with only one million brain cells - 250 times fewer than human retinas - are able to recognize faces, count to five, and use colors to solve patterns.  Lotto showed a video of the experiment with the bees inside of a Plexiglas cage with colored dots representing flowers. The bees were supposed to go to the blue flowers because they had sugar water inside; although the bees wouldn’t always go to the blue flowers, they would go where the other bees went. Their brains could also recognize that green light on a blue flower would still mean the flower was blue.  This is amazing that bees have some of the ability as humans, is remarkable for an animal their size. Color is more than just color, it is also music. Lotto showed two experiments where color was associated with music. In the first experiment, a man had a camera that played different sounds for different colors. The man’s objective was to find a plate in the room with his eyes closed. With the camera he moved it across the floor, listened to the different sounds, recognized a pattern and found the plate. The second experiment involved colorful children’s collages translated into music and played by an orchestra. This opens up many new perspectives to music and color. Every time I will look at an image my brain will think of sounds for the different colors. It makes you think were some of the works of Picasso and Van Gogh representing music or even some architecture in Europe.

Perspective is everything, it makes you think and come to different conclusions about simple things in the world. In art, it makes you think inside of the artists head, what do they want us to see or think. Since I live in Highlands Ranch, every time we drive I always see the logo of a hawk on signs. When I was little, I thought the hawk was a character from the Dr. Seuss books I had read. Now, I can still see the same image I saw as little kid; since that image has always been embedded in my mind, it will never go away. Education is perspective too, in school students constantly question and see things a different way. Perspective is what makes education interesting; it is what makes learning interactive. Novels we read have many different viewpoints and messages that pertain to different people. For instance, Lord of the Flies can be taken many different ways with different opinions about the message William Golding is providing.  One question that was asked in the first semester of English was, what does it take to challenge the system? For the final, we wrote an essay about characteristics of challenging the system and everyone had something different to say. Yes, many people said similar characteristics, but everybody had different perspectives on the characteristics used to challenge the system. Perspective is also important within the United States government; political parties have different perspectives on the government. None of the perspectives are wrong and one is not better than the other. In history we have benefited from different parties in control at different times, both have played influential roles. We have had some great presidents from both parties, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt. They both led us through some of the toughest challenges our country has ever faced. We needed different perspectives to abolish slavery, lead us out of the Great Depression and win World War II. That’s what’s great about the United States, our democratic state enables us to elect the party that we feel will be most beneficial for our government during the crisis or situation we are facing. Perspective will be important in the future, especially since some of the predictions aren’t so positive. Some of the books we read by Ray Bradbury - Fahrenheit 451, and the short story “The Pedestrian” - give a prediction of the world in a couple of decades from now. Bradbury predicts that books will be eliminated, that is starting to become a reality as Borders is going through bankruptcy and closing many of their stores. The companies need find a way to showcase and give different perspectives on the benefits of books. I can’t imagine someone reading their child to bed with an iPad, it just isn’t the same. Although many companies such as Nike, Adidas and Apple are succeeding because they are always coming up with new ideas and staying on the cutting edge. They add different perspectives to their products with color and design that make people want to buy their products. We could be headed to the world of Fahrenheit 451, or it could be similar to today; if we don’t want the situation to look like the end of the movie Wall-E, then people with different perspectives will guide us away from the path leading to a black hole.

Youtube video (TED)

Image (Highlands)

Works Cited

Highlands Ranch Welcome Sign. Digital image. Highlands Ranch Houses For Sale. Web. 1 May 2011. <http://www.highlandsranchhousesforsale.com/images/Highlands%20Ranch%20welcome%20sign.JPG>.

TED Talks Director. "YouTube - Beau Lotto: Optical Illusions Show How We See." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. 8 Oct. 2009. Web. 02 May 2011. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mf5otGNbkuc>.