“All great achievements require time.” Maya Angelou – Patience

Transcript

Steve Fouts: 0:03 

Hello everybody. It’s Steve and Dan Fouts here. We are teaching different with African American poet Maya Angelou with a quote about patience. “All great  achievements require time.”  Patience is definitely one of those character traits that not all people have in the same amount. Some people really believe in patience, and take their time with things, while others are extremely impatient.  Patience is about giving up on your own needs, wants, and desires for that period of time. You want to get this right now. Patience is sometimes not an easy thing to have. Dan, what would you say the claim of this quote is? 

Dan Fouts: 1:08 – Claim

Waiting things out is the best way to approach situations. You can’t jump into situations expecting immediate gratification or immediate satisfaction. To achieve great things you have to be patient, you have to wait it out, because over time it’s going to create something better in the long term. 

I’m thinking about what you might say to the students. Maybe ask them to talk about a time when they had to wait for something for an extended period of time, and because they waited, they were able to achieve something great as a result. They could come up with a bunch of things.  The first thing that just popped into my mind is when a student struggles with subject matter at the very beginning of the year.  There’s an immediate source of frustration. They want to understand immediately, but it doesn’t come immediately.  What teachers have to teach students is to wait it out, stick with it, and adopt a growth mindset. Over time, they will realize that when they put in the hard work, it will pay off.  At least, that’s what we share with them.

Steve Fouts: 2:33 

Right.  The idea that great achievements require patience and take time is an important aspect of this quote. What is it about something that takes time that makes it possible for it to be a great achievement or does it make it more likely that you’re going to have a great achievement if it took a lot  of time?  Can you build on that?

Dan Fouts: 3:05 

There’s a satisfaction that you get when you stick with something for a long period of time. That’s another angle to take with the kids. Why do you get more satisfaction when you’ve stuck with something over a long period of time before you’re successful?  Think about that introspectively.

Steve Fouts: 3:31 – Counterclaim

There’s something about the passage of time that makes it feel like a great achievement.  When you think about how long you’ve been wanting something, anticipation builds over time. When you actually accomplish it, the fact that you believed in it for so long makes it a greater achievement. 

Now, let’s push back. Some things take a long time, but they may never end up materializing. You may find yourself realizing, wow, I just spent a long time trying for something that I never ended up getting. I don’t see why it was worth the time, and I can’t say I achieved anything great. Honestly, by having patience I feel like I’ve wasted my time. What would you say the counterclaim is?  What’s a simple way to talk about the counterclaim?

Dan Fouts: 4:42 

Well, being impatient might be a good rule of thumb sometimes. Wanting  something now, moving quickly on it without delay, puts you in the best possible position for success. How would you approach this with the students?  I’m thinking about a discussion in class where some students jump in with their ideas quickly and aren’t patient enough to wait until the end of the discussion to share their ideas. Getting their thoughts out quickly is a good way to be successful, right? You’re not competing with anybody by getting your thoughts out before others; therefore, you feel confident with your participation. That’s a small example of when being impatient can be okay. 

Steve Fouts: 5:42 

I would add to that any team sport that a young person is involved in.  There are going to be playoffs, or a championship, to achieve and obtain.  If you’re spending all of your time being patient, and telling yourself that if we don’t get it this year, we’ll get it next year, you may have the wrong approach for competition. Ask someone like Michael Jordan if you should have patience when you lose a game? Should you have patience and not overreact to the loss, because there are going to be more games in the future? A highly competitive person might say, that’s not the right frame of mind. You have to remain impatient and always think this is your last game, this is your last opportunity, because that keeps you in the right mindset to succeed. 

Dan Fouts: 6:51 

I just thought of another example when students are assigned a multiple day, one or two week, project. One approach is to be patient with it. I don’t really understand the project right now, but I’m going to be patient with it, and figure it out a day or two before it’s due. Well, no. You have to act immediately. Don’t procrastinate.  Sometimes patience can become procrastination. Talking about procrastination with the students might be a good angle to take.

Steve Fouts: 7:32 – Essential Question

Yeah, I like the procrastination angle, because a great deal of patience can turn into procrastination. Let’s look at an essential question we could use to wrap up a conversation like this about patience, is patience a virtue? Okay, now this is a question where you might want to talk about the word virtue before you share this question with students. Talk about virtue being one of those character traits  that everyone should have. It’s something that we should all aim for. When you find yourself overly impatient, you need to do the right thing and have patience. I think this question will bring out opinions that emerged from the conversation, and will get the students to defend their opinion. 

Dan Fouts: 8:40 

Definitely, and I see the curriculum connections where you can study people in novels, in social studies, or in science, who have done great things as a result of never giving up and having patience, versus other people who acted immediately and got what they wanted. Depending on the subject matter, this would be a really interesting quote to hook to academic content. 

Steve Fouts: 9:13 

Yeah, I agree. That’s a great point. 

We hope you enjoyed Maya Angelou this week with a quote about patience. Make sure you visit our Conversation Library where we have many conversations like this, each with a different quote, a sample claim, counterclaim, and an essential question to get you started.

So that’s it for this week. We will talk to you soon with another conversation and another quote. Take care everybody.