The Best You Can Isn't Always Good Enough

Note: Gratuitous generalizations to come shortly.

There's a lot about America I'm critical of, as my readers probably know, but one thing I love about it is the philosophy that if you work hard enough anything is possible. It's a wonderful thing to believe, that no matter what you're born with it's within your power as a human being to achieve whatever you want. It's also a cornerstone of my teaching philosophy; I make it clear that I value the hardworking student far more than the student who's naturally good at English but slacks off.

As the Radiohead song goes, "You can try the best you can, you can try the best you can. The best is good enough." (P.S. I know they're not American)

But today I saw a perfect example of how, while this is a good belief to embrace, it's important to realize the world doesn't follow it like a law of science. At lunchtime the results of yesterday's dance competition were posted, announcing who had made the finals (taking place on December 28). The 4th graders I had been raving about yesterday dominated the 4th grade class - only one 4th grader from another classroom will be represented in the championship dance-off. But one of my students, a quiet but curious 5th grader, was in tears because her team had failed to advance. I remember after seeing their dance that they had some good ideas and obviously cared a lot about their presentation, but they just weren't great dancers. That was all there was to it.

Did she fail because the others worked harder than she did? I don't believe it for a second.

And this is the biggest problem with this charming belief in self-ability: When we (Americans) sees a person who hasn't met success, we're inclined to believe it's largely their own fault. They didn't work hard enough; it was their choice. This is especially true with respect to poverty. In our economic system we believe that a poor person could, theoretically, improve their situation through hard work and perseverance. This is simply not true.

In addition, this creates a sense of ownership replacing where generosity would be. If we have money, we're inclined to believe we've earned it, so we're less willing to give to charities - it's our money that we worked for and therefore deserve. Why give to someone who doesn't work as hard as us? Why do they deserve it?

I can't believe I'm saying this, but thank goodness for religion, because otherwise it'd be very difficult to find generosity built anywhere into this capitalist mindset.

With the finals coming up on Tuesday, a lot of hardworking dancers are going to be left crying after finding that their best wasn't good enough. Because as much as I'd like to be in control of my future success, flipping it on with hard work or off with laziness, the world simply doesn't work that way.

It's amazing how obvious that statement seems, but still I find myself instinctually forgetting it in everyday life.