PBIS: Achievement and Excellence

Sample Lesson - Introduction

Lesson 1.01: Schoolwork

 

I will not text in class. I will not text in class. I will not text in class. (Source)

For some of us, achieving at school means doing the bare minimum so we can get by. Sure, you go to class and do the homework so your parents don't get on your case, but that's about it.

Hey, we get it. Sometimes you just want to chill without a bunch of people yapping about homework and class projects.

But achieving stuff at school isn't just about keeping your parents and teachers off your back. In fact, it's actually all about you.

For starters, you can't get into a good college or get a good job if you don't keep your grades up. Even though that might be way down the line for some of you, it's easier to develop good study skills now than regret it later.

But even if you're not all that interested in college or a job right now, you should still care about achieving stuff at school—and we'll explain why in this lesson.

It's not just about grades. It's not even about the glory.

Sample Lesson - Reading

Reading 1.1.01: Achievement at School

Remember when you were little and your biggest concern was who would be your buddy at recess? Don't even get us started on naptime. Why did that stop after kindergarten, again?

Now that you've made it to the big leagues, you've got the system down pat. You know how to do the least amount of work possible. While some of your classes are challenging, most have a less-than-rigorous workload. Nice. Time to take it easy, right?

Wrong.

Floating through your classes and not really putting in your best effort is only going to hurt one person: you. Why? Well, either you're going to graduate and go into the workforce, or you're going to head to a college somewhere. Doing so with lazy habits and poor follow-through isn't just not the best idea... it's the worst idea. Trust us.

College-Bound

The top schools turn out the best candidates for the top jobs, but they also start with a pool of pretty dang spectacular students who already know how to swim in the deep end. No floaters allowed. Colleges are incredibly picky about a high school student's academic performance, and if they see your report cards littered with B's and C's, you're probably just going to be an afterthought.

You might be proud of that "B" you got in biology. It might be better than any of your other siblings. Go ahead, brag about it. A "B" isn't too shabby.

But if you're planning to be, say, a doctor, it's not a grade that's going to cut it. Here's the brutal truth: med schools are looking for people with a slew of A's to their name. And hey: even if you're not planning on being a doctor, your GPA is insanely important, and important to keep insanely high if your dream job involved a college degree.

If you slack early on, it's going to be that must harder to suddenly decide "Time to be a straight-A student!" That's the academic equivalent of being a couch potato all winter, getting up on March 1st and saying "Time to train for the marathon on April 15th!"

It's not impossible, but it's incredibly hard.

Workforce Bound

But say you're not really looking for a top college, or any college for that matter. Can't you skip all the hassle and hard work? After all, you're not chomping at the bit to become a neurosurgeon or an art historian.

You know what you want and what you don't want: that's awesome. But we're not going to give you a pass on achieving excellence in school. Why not? Because habits stick.

If you get in the habit of doing a great job on whatever you turn your eye to, that becomes part of your character. It becomes second nature. But if you get in the habit of floating, that also becomes second nature. Some of the most influential people didn't necessarily excel at academics. What they did do was set out to achieve something.

You want to start doing gigs as a musician? We applaud you. You want to join the Navy and see the world? Ahoy, sailor: we salute your choice.

But what we don't salute is the idea of just floating along like a bobbing cork, when you could be blazing on your chosen career path like a dang battleship. (Nautical similes, woo-hoo!)

Money Talks

Here's the cold, hard (cash) truth: you can make more money if you excel at school. Sure, there are probably a handful of millionaires out there who graduated from high school and then—through loads of hard work, a few brilliant ideas, and probably a bit of luck—became super rich. Steve Jobs, anyone?

But these select few only make this legend all the more dangerous. The reality is that college graduates will earn an average of a million dollars more over a lifetime than high school grads (Source). Think about that for a second. What could you buy with $1 million?

Get Proactive

It should be simple. Go to high school and you will be ready for college or a job.

Unfortunately, there are some weak links in this chain. First of all, just going to high school doesn't cut the proverbial mustard. Why? Because almost 25% of high school students drop out before they earn a diploma. So that leaves 75% ready for college or a job, right? Wrong again.

Looking at college-readiness exams shows that 75% of those students aren't equipped with the skills to succeed in college. What do all of these numbers add up to? The fact that you can't count on learning by osmosis in high school. You have to put your nose to the grindstone in order to be excellent.

And again—if this doesn't apply to you now, it will. Start getting your excellence on in the here and now. Academic excellence is a bit like running. Sure, you might start out having to force yourself to do it, and you might have to reward yourself when you finish. But eventually you're going to find that your own sense of excellence is way more awesome-feeling than whatever reward you come up with to get yourself going down the path of achievement.

If that's not incentive, try this: everything is linked. Colleges and employers are looking for students who do well in classes, gain skills, and have extra-curricular chops. And those things don't just happen. They need to be worked up to.

Starting French 1 in 6th Grade will mean that you'll be Baudelaire-quoting champ en français by 12th Grade. Picking up that clarinet in 6th Grade means you'll be giving Sidney Bechet a run for his money by the time you apply for college. And paying attention in 6th Grade Math means that you'll be more likely to be breezing through Calc by the time you can vote.

In the Real World

Think dropping out of school is the way to go? Seems like a fad these days, right? Yeah, you might wanna rethink that.

• "The Myth of the Successful College Dropout: Why It Could Make Millions of Young Americans Poorer"

Sample Lesson - Activity