WWSD? (What Would Spiderman Do?) 

By, Michael Earnshaw 

April 15, 2019 

@mearnshaw158 

Over the weekend we were able to celebrate my nephew’s 6th birthday. It took place at a bowling alley and the kids got to partake in Cosmic Bowling. If you’ve never experienced Cosmic Bowling, imagine your eardrums being loaded with the thunderous cracking of the ball crashing into the pins combined with music escaping through the establishment’s speakers at a ferocious volume. Add to that the overload of your visual senses. Black lights, strobe lights, and flashing lights giving your eyeballs a WOD from Hell! There is so much stimuli going on it’s very difficult to focus on any one task or conversation. 

During this thunderstorm of a dance party, I sat down next to my mom for a while. She asked me how school was going and if there was anything new going on. I told her about the year and then about many of the projects I have going on, both inside and outside of my role as lead learner and principal. Throughout the controlled chaos of the party, with 100% of her attention on me, my mom said with sincerity, “Mike, I’m so proud of you!” 

After hearing these words, I can’t explain to you the feelings of accomplishment, success, and pride that began flowing throughout my body.  It meant the world to me, it gave me drive, it pushed the gas pedal to the floor to keep going!  

I’ve been hearing that phrase from my mom, “Mike, I’m so proud of you!” replaying in my mind over and over these past few days. It has me thinking of how powerful a phrase it is. If at 39 years young it has had that much of an impact on me, what can it do to a child struggling to find themselves? How can it change the trajectory of their path? How can it help you serve the role you set out to accomplish when you first got into education?  

I can already hear the rebuttal to my claim, “Yeah, but that was your mom, it’s different, teachers are viewed differently.” My response, it depends on what kind of teacher you are. If you look at this as a “job”, clock in for your contractual hours, stick to lesson plans and curriculum, then yes, I agree. By you stating that phrase it will have a very minimal effect, if any. Kids see through fakeness. But if you are the educator that builds relationships with your students, pushes them out of their comfort zones to take control of their own learning, helps them learn from their failures, and believes and supports them daily, then when you state that phrase to a child with full attention on them and only them, it is powerful!  

If you’re the latter of the types of educators just described and haven’t yet pulled this powerful tool from your chest, I urge you to do so. Pull that one kid aside and truly let them know how proud you are of them and see what magic unfolds.