Sometimes, during the opening sequence of our class when I played Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier Book One Prelude One as the kids walked in and sat down or after our “Hello” song, I would quietly give one or two attentive children a guitar pick. After the music finished, I would ask them if they knew why they were given the pick.
They rarely did.
Sometimes they had good guesses.
They sang the opening hello song really well? They moved their lips when they sang? They were watching my lips as they sang?
“No, you are sitting as if you are the smartest person in this classroom. Just look at how you are sitting. How does someone sit when they're smart? The way you were sitting.”
At least two-thirds of the class would immediately sit ramrod straight while the other third didn't change.
“It's not just a question of posture; it's also a question of attitude, of focus, of some degree of intellectual curiosity that is displayed on your face.”
I would always caution that I was only going by my first impressions, but those first impressions were often correct and more often than not, if I thought someone looked like they were the smartest person in the room, they would probably be somewhere in the top five.
There are many ways to sit like you're smart.
You can sit like you're smart while you're playing guitar. You can sit like you're smart when you're singing in chorus. You can sit like you're smart when you're playing piano.
I wanted to make sure the kids understood that someday, they would want to stand out in a crowd, and the best way to do it was to look like the smartest person in the room.
Sitting up tall also has a positive effect on the way we envision ourselves. The action precedes the personal emotional response.
Our classroom had a tiny window that visitors sometimes peeked through. I impressed on the students that if someone looked through that window, they wanted to look like they were the smartest person in the room to the visitor. The idea was to do the things and adopt the habits that smart people do in school.
When an administrator would stop by our room, they were usually quick within their first few sentences to compliment the class on how attentive and engaged they looked while sitting quietly.
I've gotten push back from other teachers on advising kids to sit like they're the smartest person in the room.
I was sharing this idea at a workshop I was conducting with elementary and middle school specialist staff members. One of the teachers reacted with “But aren't you saying the other kids look dumb?”
“Absolutely not. They are all smart. And I treat them like they are smart. It's just that a few have been taught at home that it is important to be perceived in the best way possible, as respecting and understanding kids. If they do that, that will be the way the world sees them. It’s my job to make sure all children develop that mindset”
I continued to get push back. I told them that I was not ready to negotiate on this point and that we were going to move on.
No more than forty-five minutes later, the head of school unexpectedly stopped by our workshop to see how things were progressing.
What do you think every single teacher did as that administrator walked through the door?
They adjusted how they were sitting so that they would look like the smartest person in the room.
So while they say that life is not an audition, sometimes it actually is. It's important for kids to know they are being watched in schools and if they want to get ahead and rise above, sometimes they can start the process by the way they carry themselves through the day.
I briefly discuss the logistics of kids sitting in chairs or on the floor in “S.T.A.R.: Sit Like You're Smart - Part 2.”
They rarely did.
Sometimes they had good guesses.
They sang the opening hello song really well? They moved their lips when they sang? They were watching my lips as they sang?
“No, you are sitting as if you are the smartest person in this classroom. Just look at how you are sitting. How does someone sit when they're smart? The way you were sitting.”
At least two-thirds of the class would immediately sit ramrod straight while the other third didn't change.
“It's not just a question of posture; it's also a question of attitude, of focus, of some degree of intellectual curiosity that is displayed on your face.”
I would always caution that I was only going by my first impressions, but those first impressions were often correct and more often than not, if I thought someone looked like they were the smartest person in the room, they would probably be somewhere in the top five.
There are many ways to sit like you're smart.
You can sit like you're smart while you're playing guitar. You can sit like you're smart when you're singing in chorus. You can sit like you're smart when you're playing piano.
I wanted to make sure the kids understood that someday, they would want to stand out in a crowd, and the best way to do it was to look like the smartest person in the room.
Sitting up tall also has a positive effect on the way we envision ourselves. The action precedes the personal emotional response.
Our classroom had a tiny window that visitors sometimes peeked through. I impressed on the students that if someone looked through that window, they wanted to look like they were the smartest person in the room to the visitor. The idea was to do the things and adopt the habits that smart people do in school.
When an administrator would stop by our room, they were usually quick within their first few sentences to compliment the class on how attentive and engaged they looked while sitting quietly.
I've gotten push back from other teachers on advising kids to sit like they're the smartest person in the room.
I was sharing this idea at a workshop I was conducting with elementary and middle school specialist staff members. One of the teachers reacted with “But aren't you saying the other kids look dumb?”
“Absolutely not. They are all smart. And I treat them like they are smart. It's just that a few have been taught at home that it is important to be perceived in the best way possible, as respecting and understanding kids. If they do that, that will be the way the world sees them. It’s my job to make sure all children develop that mindset”
I continued to get push back. I told them that I was not ready to negotiate on this point and that we were going to move on.
No more than forty-five minutes later, the head of school unexpectedly stopped by our workshop to see how things were progressing.
What do you think every single teacher did as that administrator walked through the door?
They adjusted how they were sitting so that they would look like the smartest person in the room.
So while they say that life is not an audition, sometimes it actually is. It's important for kids to know they are being watched in schools and if they want to get ahead and rise above, sometimes they can start the process by the way they carry themselves through the day.
I briefly discuss the logistics of kids sitting in chairs or on the floor in “S.T.A.R.: Sit Like You're Smart - Part 2.”
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