Assistant Principal - Pastoral Care

Character Every Time

Last night while commentating during the Storm-Bulldogs game, Andrew Johns explained that he believed the Storm’s exceptional success could be put down to one key factor: “they choose people with character over ability every time. Character wins out every time.”

In particular, he was noting how the lesser known players in the team regularly and reliably executed their role to create a platform of success. Over the years commentators have noted how players enter the Storm system and become much better footballers as a result. In short, this is often explained by a culture that values and emphasises work ethic and character above all else.

If you do some research you quickly discover that these beliefs are widespread in elite sport. Hall of Fame Basketball coach, John Wooden said: “ability may get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there.” Likewise, Bear Bryant, one of the most successful College football coaches said: “show class, have pride and display character. If you do, winning takes care of itself.”

With Progress Reports being sent home last week you will notice that there is a deliberate emphasis in the areas that we report on that reflect ‘character’ rather than ‘ability’. Four of the five areas are explicitly character-based:

Contributes to a calm and collaborative classroom
High regard for the work of students and teacher
Brings equipment and is quickly to work
Shows persistence in the pursuit of learning goals.

None of these areas are related to an innate ability but they are based on specific habits and behaviours that a person (excluding students with diagnosed Social Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties) has the capacity to choose and thus reflects their character.

In the past I have written extensively about the idea that ‘Learning Character’ is the most important quality students form and take with them when they leave school. However, what actually constitutes ‘character’ is an increasingly contested idea in a time when the forces of detraditionalisation, secularisation, pluralisation and globalisation are rapidly disrupting and dismantling what we all agree upon. Unfortunately, many of the character qualities that young people are drawn to in the digital world are harmful and counterproductive to learning at school.

With this challenge to what we actually believe is ‘essential character’, more than ever, the formation of young people needs to be the work of both home and school - working in partnership so that the ‘character’ formation is powerful, enduring and deep and thus resistant to or at least resilient against some of the more negative influences within the broader culture.

Partnership is the nexus. Wendy Berliner and Deborah Eyre have written a wonderful book which I have quoted on previous occasions - Great Minds and How to Grow Them. They argue that:

Based on the overall body of research, we believe the balance of evidence is that genetics have minimal significance on how well you can perform at school … we believe that a combination of potential and motivation underpinned by learning opportunities and support delivers high performance … and that parents are crucial in helping to mix that learning cocktail.

The more parents are seen by their children to be working in tandem with the school the more this reinforced the importance of learning to students.

The book argues that first and foremost, parents need to support the school as an institution. If teenagers receive conflicting messages from their parents about the school, then this will undermine the student’s approach and attitude to learning. That is, the more parents run-down, challenge, ignore rules and procedures, and speak disrespectfully about staff, the more likely a student is to underperform in their learning.

This is not to say that schools should be blindly supported – of course issues arise over time (schools are made up of humans and humans are flawed) but the authors argue that parents need to follow appropriate procedures to resolve an issue and always be mindful of what they discuss and how they talk about the school with their children. The bottom line is – how you speak about the school significantly impacts on your child’s perception of the school which influences their approach to learning.

So I urge you to discuss the Progress Report with your child carefully and with the lens of character in mind: what character are they exhibiting, what qualities do they stand for, how will these character qualities help them achieve in life, how are you supporting them to develop these qualities in partnership with the College because, as we know, character wins out every time.

Mr Mick Larkin - Assistant Principal - Pastoral