The Fourth ‘A’: Attitude
For a recent edition of
Education Week Teacher, author Cossondra George wrote a wonderful piece capturing the reality that surrounds the school year “honeymoon" period’s end, usually in October. Though the article is short and aimed at supporting new teachers through a hectic school year, it offers therapeutic advice we all can appreciate, at any time of the year, whether we are teachers or parents, grown-ups or kids:
- Take time for yourself
- Be proactive about your health
- Keep family time sacred
- Exalt the positive
- Build a support network for yourself
- Take time to laugh
- Choose happiness
There are many valuable tips in George’s list, but I would like to focus a bit on the fourth and seventh, most specifically. It might seem self-evident to many readers that exalting the positive and choosing happiness can make for a better day-to-day experience, but we all know from watching the news, reading online, or just from daily living, how few people are truly able to accomplish these goals. However, teaching about, and encouraging, the benefits of the “fourth A" (Attitude) has taken a prominent role during the 2011-2012 school year at Upland.
Why, you might ask? Because with each passing day, I believe more and more that attitude is truly the catalyst for our successes or failures with the first three A’s, Academics, Arts and Athletics. To support that claim, I find myself looking closely at the following short statement on attitude, taped prominently above my desk at home:
“Attitude is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill. It will make or break a business... a home... a friendship... an organization. The remarkable thing is, you have a choice every day of what your attitude will be. We cannot change our past. We cannot change the actions of others. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can change is our attitude."
Recent studies have shown that prolonged and chronic negative thinking can compromise the immune system, lead to sickness, and perhaps even a shorter life span. On the opposite side of the coin, studies have also revealed that individuals with a positive attitude toward life tend to become sick less often, are more successful and lead more fulfilling lives, and perhaps even live a longer life. In short, there is an ever-growing body of literature discussing the connection between mind and body, starting with how we view the world around us. Basically, it behooves us to be positive rather than negative because it is good for our health.
When I was younger, a favorite baseball coach of mine used to talk to the team on occasion about the need for an “attitude adjustment." He would describe it as the release of the negative and the embrace of the positive, essentially. He had a magical way of inspiring his team to look at what we could do instead of what we could not do. To use a baseball cliché, he showed us how “hitting is contagious." What it means, in essence, is that baseball lineups as a sum sometimes take on the characteristics of their individual parts. Or, perhaps, a better way of saying it is to say “lineup synergy" exists: as more and more batters collect hits and get “hot," the more likely it is more hits from other players will be generated. Conversely, when a few players get “cold" and struggle to get hits, it often can negatively influence other players in the lineup. Metaphorically, we are all part of a lineup, a team, not just individual players on the field, and our attitudes matter to the rest of the group. If we are positive, we can change others for the better, and if we are negative, we can change others for the worse. At Upland, we are working to change kids for the better and instill in them a positive outlook on life.
Attitude is important enough that we name it in our school philosophy. We’re not just about coursework, performances, or games. And attitude can have incredible benefits for our classes, teams, productions, interactions with each other, whatever it is we are doing each day as we aspire to greatness. To quote the ninth grade speech of Student Council President Jane Yeatman this past Monday, “A positive attitude is the best friend of perseverance," another bellwether of future success. As Winston Churchill once said, “Attitude can be a little thing that makes a big difference."
I am proud to work at a school where such a “hidden curriculum" as teaching about attitude and values is not at all hidden. And I am proud our students, like Jane mentioned above, understand how a positive Attitude will help them this school year and beyond. Exalt the positive and choose happiness! It can-and we can-make a big difference.
David M. Suter, Head of School
