Olympic Lessons for Educators
Posted August 15, 2012
Olympic athletes always inspire me. It’s easy to be impressed by the natural abilities they possess and the finely-tuned skills they have developed. It would be an incredible experience to be among them, but alas my sport is not yet included in the games – power napping. My family tells me if medals were given for snoring, I could be the Michael Phelps of my generation. It’s nice to dream.
My favorite parts of the Olympics are the in-depth interviews with athletes. I often hear, “I’ve trained for this my whole life.” It’s easy to let those words rush by without much thought. When we stop and consider what they really mean, however, we begin to get a glimpse of what it takes to prepare a successful Olympic athlete.
Watching the coaches provides some clues about the formulas for success in enabling outstanding athletes to compete well. Before and after the event, coaches are present to the athletes. We expect this. But think about it. We see many things manifested in the coach-athlete relationship. There are words of correction and adjustment; expressions of encouragement and enthusiasm; and often an embrace to console or celebrate. Such relationships are developed over months and years. As coaches work with athletes, they know the strengths and weaknesses, motivational factors, and personal obstacles, among many other elements. The coaches know how to approach preparation in order to maximize the possibility of success.
There are clues for educators in this example. The interaction between coaches and athletes is fundamentally relational, not transactional. It’s likely that coaches provide some reading materials, videos and online information to expand and deepen understanding of performance. However, could an athlete be adequately prepared for global competition simply by reading articles, viewing videos online and completing assigned tasks?
The same question applies to faculty and students. For millennia we have understood education is rooted firmly in relationship. The tools and technologies have evolved dramatically over the centuries, but we always have looked to those who are learned and experienced to spend time with those aspiring to gain knowledge and develop skill.
We expend significant resources to make it possible for very experienced coaches to spend intense amounts of time preparing talented athletes. We choose to do this because we value the results. We also expend significant resources to make it possible for very experienced teachers to spend intense amounts of time preparing students.
There is a movement underway to severely reduce, even eliminate, the relational aspects of education in favor of a more cost effective model of mass online delivery. There is no doubt we can handle this on a transactional level, and in the end it would cost less. I wonder, however, if we will be happy with the results.
Perhaps we should try this out first on our Olympic athletes. Let’s experiment by removing the high cost of coaches and facilities. We can have far fewer coaches, virtually no facilities and establish a low cost, high productivity model for preparing Olympic athletes. Track athletes can use local tracks; swimmers can go to the local pool. Just think of it. Our virtual coaches could arrange chat sessions to keep athletes connected, post materials on websites and view films of performance online. Feedback would come by email exchanges. The coaches could then sit back and watch the Olympics with the rest of us – at home.
As our athletes enter into global competition for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio we will know the results of our experiment. If we maintain our medal count from 2012, we will know we can dramatically increase productivity through virtual coaching and achieve impressive results.
Would we risk this in an environment of global athletic competition? I doubt it. Would we risk this in an environment of global economic competition? It appears so.
This piece was originally written for The Des Moines Register’s A Better Iowa, where President Mark Putnam served as a featured columnist.
About the Author
I'm the lucky individual who carries the title, 21st president of Central College in Pella, Iowa. Passionate about higher education and the issues facing it and the world today, I hope to invoke an engaging conversation with all who are ready to dig in, make a difference and build for the future. Share your thoughts. I'm listening and interested.