Shagging balls

We live in an affluent school district where many families have the resources to sign their children up for athletic teams, clinics, camps, and workshops at an early age. Our school district is also relatively large and “making the team” at the high school level is a very competitive process. Some parents invest a lot into their kids’ activities at a very early age.

At age 13, one of my children is now suddenly interested in volleyball. She played it in gym class this year and enjoyed herself. Meanwhile, some of her peers have been playing in more competitive environments for 5 years. I signed her up for a local clinic and she was so excited to go. We both knew she had a lot to learn. She was brave! She had fun despite being one of the oldest kids there and a total beginner.

As I sat and watched, most of the new(er) players were together during a specific drill. The coach running the clinic was yelling (I suppose that is somewhat necessary in a loud gymnasium) for the girls to shag the balls if it wasn’t their turn with the drill. He said this multiple times. The girls just stood there.

I knew my daughter had no idea what shagging balls meant. He yelled it a few more times and offered no explanation. As an educator, I sat there, somewhat frozen. I wonder how many times this has happened in my classroom (without the yelling).

A few years ago I observed a colleague teach a lesson in a spacious studio with the typical white noise caused by a ventilation system that is a safety necessity in such a space. The colleague was wearing a mask and I was sitting in the back of the room, only about two feet behind the students. After the professor talked and demonstrated for almost 25 minutes, she released the students to work on their projects. I asked the students if they heard anything my colleague said. They hadn’t, and neither had I.

When I communicated this to my colleague after the observation, she asked, “why didn’t they say something?” I bet the volleyball coach would have asked the same thing. And yet, we have all been the 13 year old beginner on the volleyball court. It’s hard to admit when you don’t know something and sometimes interrupting may appear disrespectful to the “expert” in the room or on the court.

I have a slide that says “shagging balls” prepared for my first day of class next week as a reminder to talk with my students about what it means to learn and to teach. If I want my classroom to be a different place than that volleyball court, we need to talk about courage and discomfort on the part of learners and about power and classroom culture on the part of teachers.