Teaching and Baseball

Teaching is a lot like baseball. Both are games of mistakes, of nearly constant failure, of a kind of foolish faithfulness.

It's a cliche that baseball is a game of mistakes. The hitter who succeeds 3 times out of 10 is a star; 3 1/2 time out of 10 and he's a superstar. The pitcher who allows "only" 3 or 4 runs every 9 innings can have a long and successful career. And no fielder goes through a season without making an error. To play baseball is to be imperfect just as a matter of course.

(The Hall of Fame 3rd Baseman George Brett has a personalized license plate that says "E5".)

Teachers, too, are engaged in an activity of such complexity and such subtlety that it is almost impossible to get through even a single class without making some kind of mistake. Most are minor, many are not even noticed, but mistakes they are. A piece of paper forgotten, an assignment not clearly described, a student's name misspoken, a lecture mistimed, a meeting missed, a key piece of information left out --- a game of mistakes.

Maybe it's not so much that teaching is like baseball but rather that teaching and baseball are both a kind of art and the artist --- especially the performance artist --- never gets it exactly right, and every failure is an opportunity to hone one's craft, to do it better.

But to pursue the baseball analogy, what can we learn about how to teach?

First, always hustle. Play hard all the time. Come prepared, fight through failure, and give it your best.

Second, never lose sight of the fact that your teammates are depending on you. Be ashamed to let them down.

Third, lead. Lead by example if that's what suits you; lead by saying what needs to be said, in private or in public, if that's what suits you. But lead. Volunteer, suggest, take responsibility, for your own work and for the work that someone else didn't do.

Fourth, and this I think is the most important part of this, support your teammates when they fail and praise them when they succeed.

This is where the baseball analogy is most informative. If a baseball manager criticized every player who made a mistake, his team would not trust him very long and he would not be able to lead. Players know that baseball is a game of mistakes, that they are playing hard and doing the best they can, and that mistakes are made despite their best efforts. From their manager and from their teammates, they need a pat on the back, a "hang in there," to help them take a deep breath and get back to it.

Teachers, too, from one another and from the administrators they work for, need the understanding that we're all on the same team, we're all working as hard as we can and learning as much as we can, and that mistakes are made despite our best efforts. Like baseball players, teachers need a pat on the back, a "hang in there," a reminder that they are trusted.

But there should be praise, too. There should be real praise, not the canned, formulaic obligatory "compliments" that no one means and no one believes, but real praise.

For example, during the 2010 baseball season, Roy Halladay of the Philadelphia Phillies threw a perfect game during the season, threw a no-hitter in the playoffs (only the 2nd no-hitter in post-season baseball), and won the Cy Young award in the National League. He dominated.

During the playoffs, the N.Y. Times ran a long piece on the catcher for the Phillies, Carlos Ruiz. Within the story, several players were quoted saying very positive things, but the line I liked best was, "Carlos is the Roy Halladay of catchers."

Like catchers, teachers labor mostly in obscurity. But there is much that teachers do that is worthy of praise, real praise. They will seldom be praised in a long feature piece in the N.Y. Times, but they deserve to be praised by their colleagues and their administrators.

A pat on the back and a sympathetic "hang in there" when things go badly, and a quiet "Great job" from a fellow professional can go a long way.