George Leonard's book Mastery is filled with inspirational guidance for anyone who seeks to live life as a journey rather than living only to achieve a specific destination. We are programmed to think of our lives in terms of final accomplishments, and indeed to live life as a master involves surrendering ourselves to finding the path, staying on it, and becoming lifetime learners. Mastery is not something that is suddenly achieved. It cannot be defined by awards, honors, medals, or money. This book was filled with a myriad of messages that I was able to connect with on a personal and professional level. More importantly, it is the trunk that will support my future application of the lessons given in this book.
First, Mastery was an essential tool in helping me reflect on personal issues in my life. I chose to apply this to my ongoing struggle with weight loss and maintenance as this has been an ongoing challenge since my early teens. I was inspired after reading this book because it forced me to look at the process of weight loss and maintenance through different lenses. I have fallen victim to believing that quick fixes and easy relief were the path that I needed to follow. Afterall, that is the message that we are bombarded with on a daily basis. However, this book had a different message. It did not stress quick fixes. It stressed ongoing practice, and it mentioned those dreaded plateaus that we all hate to encounter. It made sense in that it turned the plateau from something that has been viewed as negative into a positive period where one can continue practicing and enjoy oneself without the pressure of gaining results. What a different idea! For the first time in my life, I am being taught that plateaus are something I could embrace instead of dread. I started to reflect on how many times in my efforts to lose weight and stay in control of it, I was discouraged and quit because I was on a plateau. I am guilty of looking for quick results, and when there are not any to be found, I feel I have failed, and it gives me and excuse to quit. I get off of the path. Mastery is a process of learning, development, and change. In order to move toward mastery, I must practice for the sake of practicing, and I must learn that being on the plateau should bring me as much joy as the times when I am achieving my goals. Next, this book struck a chord with me personally because it put a name and a definition to the type of habits and mentality I have developed personally and professionally. I was saddened to discover myself as a Dabbler, Obsessive, and Hacker. I came to the conclusion that I need to rewire my thinking and "practice" weight loss/maintenance in a completely different way.
Second, the messages in Mastery had a profound impact on how I view myself professionally. I asked myself this very important question: "Are you on the path as a teacher?" Am I committed to being a lifetime learner? Am I dedicated to learning, development, and change? A teacher on the path is one who has the courage to surrrender to his or her own teachers and to the demands of the discipline. The author talks about the risks you must be willing to take, the "belly flops" your first dives will be and the attention that those belly flops will attract. If I am on the path, I have to have the courage to take risks, to expose myself, and I must be prepared to take it. Maybe it will manifest itself in a lesson I am teaching or a discipline policy that I try to implement that turns out to be a complete disaster. But by taking the risk to dive and land a belly flop, I have opened the door to learn. This very idea of surrender made me think of myself and other teachers I have worked with. Some had been in education for ten, twenty, or even thirty years, and whenever we were challenged with something new like a new curriculum, a new strategy, a new discipline system or simply a new administrator at the school, these were the teachers who were most unwilling to be flexible and change. They seemed to be set in their own methods of doing things, and they resisted surrendering themselves to being students. Their long careers in education made them the ultimate expert, and they went along with those changes reluctantly complaining, whining, and resisting the whole way. Were these teachers on the path? Probably not because Leonard argues, "For the master, surrender means there are no experts. There are only learners." In order to be on the path to mastery, learning never ends. These very teachers who had earned a lot of respect from administrators, collegues, students, and parents for their long service were as Leonard states, "afraid to let go of the cup of milk in order to get the quart." Furthermore, in Chapter 5 the author argues, "instruction demands a certain humility." Being able to surrender our competence to gain access to the next stage is most definately a very difficult process for many people.
Moreover, Leonard also writes about praise vs. damnation. I think each one of us can remember a moment in our past or present where praise or damnation impacted us. He explains that what doesn't work is "scorn, excoriation, humiliation, or anything that destroys the student's confidence and self-esteem." This statement immediately took me back to the mid 70's when I was a young student in elementary school sitting in Mrs. Smith's reading class. She always yelled and belittled a student when he or she was having trouble decoding a word or having trouble with comprehension questions. She would make a point of yelling so loudly as to make sure the entire reading class was interrupted and if you were the target of her impatience, rage, and frustration, she made sure that you were punished and humiliated for it. How many of us have had a teacher like that in our lives? It is unfortunate, but it is a reality. Mrs. Smith's tactic was to thump her pencil or pen on the side of your head or on top of your head. Those moments made me feel like a failure. Her actions did not provide a welcoming atmosphere. We were all gripped with fear and tension during the entire reading period. Did her tactics inspire me to do my best? No. For a while I hated reading because to go to reading meant that I was going to be subjected to a cruel teacher who made me feel lousy about myself. She made me feel useless, insignificant, void of potential. When a student did do something worth some praise, I do not remember anything greater than a simple, "good job." She never let a student know what he or she was doing correctly. She was always focused on the negative;therefore, for years until I got into Fourth Grade, reading was definately not a positive experience. Fortunately, I have had personal experiences receiving praise. I have an experience to share in my current professional placement. I have had the priviledge to work under the guidance of a person (actually he is an administrator) who is an excellent teacher and mentor and who demonstrates this concept of praise. Classroom observations at other schools in other districts usually always made me uneasy. I never really looked forward to the observations because they always seemed to be filled with such tension which made me feel under a lot of pressure. Fortunately, this administrator I work with now has made this process a positive experience. His observations are always filled with positive feedback. His unique talent is that he is able to make suggestions in such a way to help you improve that did not knock you totally down mentally. He communicates feedback which inspires me to improve, become stronger, and more effective. I am learning that skill from him in terms of relating to my own students in my classroom. As a result, this positive attitude made me want to work harder. I never wanted to disappoint, and I started to look at myself as always wanting to imporve professionally. He is one of my current teachers who has given me a precious gift which is praise. I remember after I was invited to teach a lesson, and after the lesson was over, we walked outside. He offered me the position and told me"Teachers like you are special." I still get emotional thinking about that. His praise in the short time I have been there has made a huge impact on me. I hope to learn this skill and practice it with my students because praise is clearly very powerful.
The next important message I gained in Chapter 5 was the idea that an instructor should, as Leonard suggests, "pay exquisite attention to the slowest person on the mat." Here again is another powerful statement. I am reminded of a situation I had with two students this past year who were the slowest on the mat. Both the literacy teacher and I believed that retention was necessary. I ask myself now if I paid enough attention to those two ...clearly the slowest on the mat. Too often the slowest or the weakest get left behind because we do not want to hold back the rest of the class. I have felt the frustration that comes with working hard with these students. It can be draining at times. For the approaching school year these two students will be in my class again probably not as the slowest, but they will require careful attention. I have thought about my interventions and the modifications I made which were still not enough to get them to grade level. I will need some support and guidance dealing with how to be the most effective teacher with the slowest on the mat because I know I will always have that unique situation to contend with.
Finally, I would like to end this reflection piece by adding that this was a very useful and inspirational book. I know I need to read this book several more times during this first year and maybe in years to come. The messages in this book are so powerful that they cannot be fully understood and appreciated reading them only one time. I agreed after reading Chapter 11 that I do not want to belong to the group of human beings that wears out from a lack of use. I want to tap into my potential energy. I wish to view the world from a positive perspective instead of a negative one. However, I hope to acknowledge the negative too because it is from there that I am facing the truth and can move on. So to answer the question at the end of the book, yes I am willing to wear my white belt.
