justplainbil

Just Plain Bill

“Never won anything before”

I must admit that I was surprised when a student in one of my college classes shared with me that he’d “Never won anything before” when informed he’d won a gift card for responding to a challenge question in my online course.

I guess many of us take our triumphs for granted when we “win” something, whether it’s a contest or a prize of any type, and we probably think that “everybody” wins something during his or her lifetime.

I know I often say that I “didn’t win” something when that something is substantial, like a lottery or a vacation, or when my candidate is unsuccessful in an election, and especially when someone other than me wins those Publishers Clearing House millions for life.

When I hear of someone else winning, I guess I just chalk it up to chance - those random acts that seem to go on around us - without too much thought about whether we’re just lucky, or not.

When I was a competitive athlete in college, I remember rationalizing that when I “won”, it was a result of my skills and preparation, but when I “lost”, it was due to bad luck. The thought my opponent might be more skilled than I occasionally occurred to me – but it was hard for me to admit. After all, I had statistics to support my rationale! My overall won/loss record was 78% over a three-year period (including winning a conference championship), which I attribute more to my skill and experience, rather than my own “luck”, and in retrospect, I’m sure that my objectively suffered.

Not that I’ve ever taken lightly the results of the competition I include in many of my teaching activities. I’m now determined to pay more attention to what the possibility of “winning” holds for my students and what it does to support the degree of their engagement and participation. After all, I’m engaged in the most important endeavor, sport if you will, that influences the contributions towards a better world that my students, my fellow learners, and I are about.