My daughter is very fortunate to have been offered the opportunity to attend and play lacrosse at The University of Michigan. This opportunity presented itself after a long and rigorous recruiting process. Recently, I was at a lacrosse event and several parents just starting the recruiting process inquired if I had learned anything through my daughter’s experience. One thing that I found, and I believe the lesson transcends lacrosse recruiting, is that when engaging in an endeavor of that sort, or a school/college application, or a job interview, or even just being a student – one should focus on the process and not a presupposed outcome.
Many of the parents that asked for my insights were less than impressed with my answer. What they really wanted me to tell them was how to specifically achieve a certain outcome. In the case of lacrosse –they wanted to see if I discovered how to successfully get recruited to school X or school Y. I truly don’t know how, and I really don’t think that anyone else really does either.
In schools, I see this occurring in similar ways. The questions are different, but still focused on achieving a specific outcome, like – How does my child get an A in X class? or What should my child do to get into this school or that school. Like my answer to the eager and anxious lacrosse parents – I am not sure that anyone can provide insight as to how one achieves a specific outcome. I do think, however, that if one focuses on the way one goes about learning and being a student, those outcomes will work themselves out.
At The Beech Hill School, we assess the way a student goes about the process of learning and report that in a grade called the “Learning Process Grade.” To assess this, we ask three questions: Is the student ready to learn? Is the student trying to learn? and, Is the student allowing others to learn? Teachers will evaluate and aggregate the daily assessment of these questions, so that our students can focus on the process of learning and recognize that the process has connection to the outcome.
Too often, I find that people devalue process required to achieve outcomes. At BHS and certainly in my experience as a “lacrosse dad,” I have come to believe that outcomes are not haphazard, rather they are the conclusion of a process of work – in class, on the field, and in life.