Why No Rules is the Best Rule

I was reading Let Me Tell You a Story: A Lifetime in the Game, written by Red Auerbach. Red won eight straight National Basketball Association championships with the Boston Celtics. He was named NBA Coach of the Year in 1965, and in 1968, was elected into the NBA Hall of Fame. As General Manager, Red Auerbach teams won seven more championships. He is credited today as being the main factor in building the popularity of the NBA.

Red had one rule when it came to team rules: he didn't have any rules.

If you make rules, set curfews, things like that, then you put yourself in a position where one guy screwing up can hurt the whole team. I never had an ironclad rule on anything because I wanted flexibility. If I had ironclad rules, then I had to enforce them equally. That's not always the best thing for the team.

I started thinking about how this relates to the classroom. A strict, law and order based classroom might work for some teachers and students, but for the majority it fits like a shirt collar that is too tight. It starts out causing a little irritation. As the day goes on, it begins to chafe more and more. By the end of the day, little else matters but to get free of the irritation and get on something more comfortable. Or, in the case of the classroom, get to some place more comfortable.

Bill Russell, the Hall of Fame Center for the Celtics, said about Red:

He never made any pretensions about treating players the same. In fact, he treated everybody very differently. Basically, Red treats people as they perceive themselves. What he did best was to create a forum, but one where individuals wouldn't be confined by the system. And he understood the chemistry of a team. People tend to think teamwork is some mysterious force. It isn't. It can, really, be manufactured, and he knew how to do that, to serve each player's needs.

If you were to ask, I am sure all students would say they want to be treated fairly. But, this brings up the often argued point that being treated fair is not the same as being treated equal. No one could ever argue for treating students unfairly, but there are a lot of reasons for not treating all students the same. This would only work if all students were the same.

In Reading Workshop, there are only two rules:

1. Work your hardest;

2. Treat others with respect.

If students follow these two rules, they will be successful. Every student I know of that followed these rules was successful. I think Red had it right--treat every player student as an individual, and help them find the way to their own success.

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Failure, and the Right to Succeed

Da dada da da da da da, the Lone Ranger is on his way. He will solve all problems. He will rescue poor grades. He will ride in on a white Accord and save the day. No chance of failure here. Just raise your hand and he will come to your rescue. Wait a minute.

Micheal Jordan said:

I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.

So what is reasonable to expect from a student when they walk into Reading Workshop? Should I expect failure? Or better yet, demand it? Shouldn't students have the right to fail? Shouldn't students have the opportunity to fail? If I rush in as soon as a student struggles, it seems like there is no chance of failure. This means a there is a limited chance to succeed.

So often in schools today, we will go to absolutely any means to prevent failure. If students even struggle, someone is demanding a parachute to immediately stop the decent. Many educators see our job as rescuers. Failure is seen as a terrible thing that must be avoided at any cost.

Perhaps we should redefine our role. Our job is not preventative maintenance. At the first sign of a break-down, we should not be coming to the rescue. There is no need to charge in at the first sign of a raised hand and save our students from struggling. Better yet, let them work through a problem, and figure out how to succeed.

In the words of Samuel Smiles:

We learn wisdom from failure much more than from success. We often discover what will do, by finding out what will not do; and probably he who never made a mistake never made a discovery.
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