How's Your Game?

Each August, I take time out to watch the Little League World Series which is held annually in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.  Without exception, I am amazed at the baseball skills of these 11 and 12 year olds on the baseball diamond.  This tournament has a special place in my heart because 43 years ago, I played in the same tournament and on that same field.  My head floods with memories with each game – my teammates, my coaches, our group leaders, and trying to communicate with other kids that spoke in languages far different than my “Da Region” dialect.  Of course, there was a lot of competition between the lines as well.  It was a blessing to compete in this tournament, in several sports in junior high and high school, running on scholarship at Butler, and then decades of coaching kids in several sports.  A constant that you hear coaches talk about is the need to “Bring your A- GAME!”  I lived this as an athlete and preached it as a coach.  Anything short of giving your best effort was unacceptable.  Your goals could never be reached with a half-hearted effort.  Your team would be let down if even one slacked off.  Successful teams have each and every player bringing their best effort (A-GAME) every single time.

What kind of game to you bring to the classroom every day?  Do you bring your A- GAME or do you just bring a game?  There is a huge difference.  Could you imagine if your doctor did not bring his or her A-GAME to the examination room or worse yet, to the operating room?  Seriously, imagine that you are going in for a heart procedure (been there) and your cardiologist just wasn’t into it that day.  How would you feel about that?  Maybe your mechanic just didn’t feel like putting their best effort into fixing your car and did a half-butt job but still charged full price.  Would you go back and demand a refund?  Maybe the grain farmers in America collectively decided that they just didn’t feel like plowing and planting this year.  Would that affect you?  We all have days that we are not feeling up to it.  No one can deny that.  There are days when you are just worn out and your personal life is in tatters.  It happens.  As a teacher, there are hundreds of students that are counting on you to bring your best every single day.  That’s not an absurd expectation – it’s what we should be doing.  We expect the best from anyone who provides a service to us or for us.  Our kids should not expect anything differently. Bring your A-GAME EVERY DAY!

The Browns travel to Massachusetts this weekend to take on the Patriots with a starting quarterback who just joined the team…oh, my.