Start now.
This is a different kind of post - i.e. there are no job postings to be found here. Starting today, I’ll be sending out a blog post and a collection of links each Sunday designed to make you think and get you closer to the job you want. If you like it, please let me know (or better yet, let me know and get a friend to sign up). If you don’t like it, keep it to yourself (jk, please tell me that, too).
What I’m thinking about
Start now.
Tomorrow, I start my third week of teaching. The seventh and eighth graders in my classes have flown from China, Singapore, Germany, Texas, New York - all over the world - to this town of 14,000 people in New Hampshire. And they’re taking classes for five weeks from me, someone who’s never taught in a classroom before.
It’s been a steep learning curve.
Now, I think I’m doing a decent job. I designed my curriculum for my class, which is called ‘Entrepreneurship: Moral Money Making’ and have successfully gotten the kids to show up on time, have civil discussions with each other, and hand in homework every day (for the most part). They’ve had the chance to talk with founders and are well on their way to developing their own startup ideas, which they’ll pitch at a Shark Tank-style competition at the end of the five weeks.
But that moment at the beginning of class when I look up from my notebook at twelve expectant pairs of eyes trained on me, waiting for my direction, always makes my heart rate quicken. What right do I - not a teacher by profession or training - have to be teaching these students? What can I tell them about entrepreneurship? Or morality, for that matter?
At some point, I think we all experience that ‘oh shit’ moment when all those years of hard work and being told that we’re the best-and-brightest-leaders-of-tomorrow fail us and we’re faced with the fact that sometimes there really is no substitute for experience, and we don’t have enough of it yet. I’ve had more than a few of those moments, but the most recent one came sitting in a weekly faculty meeting on Harkness, the discussion-based pedagogy that my school uses in all its classes.
Some of the faces around the table were new and nervous, like mine. Many were not. And what became immediately apparent to me was that some of the experienced teachers were operating on a completely different level than I was. Their command of the classroom, their understanding of how young minds comprehend information, the nuances of interactions between students that they could perceive - it was like I was playing tic-tac-toe and they were playing four-dimensional chess while helping the pawns evolve into bishops and rooks.
A class that doesn’t want to start discussion? They knew a game for that. Quiet student that writes beautifully but can’t seem to get a word in edgewise during class? Here’s what to do. One student makes a comment that another finds hurtful? Here’s how to defuse the situation, make a point about the value of diversity, make all the students laugh, all while keeping the discussion on track. Damn.
Now, I recognize that most teachers are doing far better work with far fewer resources in more more difficult circumstances than I am. Still, here are eight things I’ve learned in my two weeks teaching in a discussion-based classroom so far:
If you stay silent for long enough, someone will start discussion.
As a teacher, there’s a gravitational pull around you. If you make eye contact with a student that’s making a comment, they’ll start speaking to you instead of the class and every subsequent comment will be designed to get your approval instead of moving the discussion forward.
8th graders have no idea how to use email.
Time spent preparing for class, grading, and answering questions from students > time spent in class.
Classrooms can spiral out of control very quickly.
Device addiction is real - I constantly have to remind kids to put their phones and laptops in their bags and keep them there.
Student that contribute frequently to discussion don’t necessarily understand the material and students that are quiet may understand it very well.
Everybody likes games.
Teaching, I’ve learned firsthand, is one of those professions where mastery takes time. Master teachers can change the trajectory of their students’ lives and so can terrible teachers. I’ve had both, and the gulf between the two is vast. What’s the recipe for becoming a master teacher? I’m not sure, but I think the ingredients must include years of deliberate practice, humility, a constant drive for improvement, mentorship by other masters, and patience.
Mastery in other professions must look different, but I imagine that, at least for some, the recipe is similar. The wildly divergent outcomes must be, too. So the questions you must answer at some point are: do I want to master my profession? Am I willing to do the work necessary to become a master? And when should I start?
The answers to the first two questions only you can know. The answer to the final question is now.
What I’m reading
How I practice at what I do by Tyler Cowen - the process behind one of the most wide-ranging minds at work on The Internet today. Key line: “What is it you do to train that is comparable to a pianist practicing scales?”
Learn like an Athlete by David Perell - the post that inspired Cowen to write his post.
Liu Cixin’s War of the Worlds by Jiayang Fan - one author’s perspective on the differences between how China views the future and how the U.S. views the future.
“How Couples Meet” chart - updated July 2019 from Derek Thompson’s twitter (here’s the original paper). Note the big spikes in online dating numbers around when Match.com and Tinder launched.
The Decline of Dean & DeLuca by Laura Reilly - where do you do your grocery shopping?
Real Hedge-Fund Managers Have Some Thoughts on What Epstein Was Actually Doing by Michelle Celarier - on leverage (personal, not financial), evil, and why it’s hard to make a billion dollars quietly.
100-Teen Poll: What is Actually Cool to Buy? by Trupti Rami - some of what you’d expect, some not. Note: 100 teens is actually not that large of a group. Is teen consumer culture becoming more or less homogeneous? Potentially a good indicator of whether the internet as a whole is tending towards one end or the other of the niche communities-monoculture spectrum.
Working by Robert Caro - for a master class on research, interviewing, obsession, power, and examples of (and a meta-commentary on) how the prospect of dying brings out long-concealed truths.
Night Sky with Exit Wounds by Ocean Vuong - simply stunning.
What I’d like your help with
Do you own a Peloton bike? Do you know someone who does? My wife and I are thinking of jumping on the Peloton bandwagon and would love to hear what you think of yours, if you have one.
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