I had a short stint as a math and business teacher in public high schools. I loved it, but for reasons outside of the classroom, I am no longer there.

One of my favorite classes to teach is geometry to high school sophomores. One of the hardest classes to teach is geometry to sophomores. Why? Because geometry is unlike any other math class they have taken up to this point. Angles and theorems and proofs. And solving for X. They just got used to solving for X in the previous year’s algebra class, now we have to do it with shapes?!? It’s very much a foreign concept to many.

Why else is it hard? Because math. I still remember to this day my first day at a new school, my first class, a girl walks in and says, “Is this math class? I don’t do math.” Why is it culturally acceptable to say such a thing? Yet it is not uncommon, in high school or social circles. But I digress…

Geometry is one of my favorite classes to teach exactly because it is so foreign to the students, because it’s so hard. Or so they think. I get the greatest pleasure in, over the course of the year, proving to them that they are smarter than they give themselves credit for being and capable of so much more than they thought. But it doesn’t start this way…

As soon as they get settled in on day one and attendance is taken I introduce myself with they following:

“Good morning, students. My name is Mr. Durant and my goal is for you to fail.”

Pause for dramatic effect. But not too long – we don’t want a mad rush to the Guidance office.

I go on to explain the geometry takes everything they’ve learned in math so far and adds to it some concepts they have never before been taught. But what about the failing part, the part they really care about? I go on to explain that unlike everything they have done so far in high school, I want them to make mistakes. I want them to try things they have never tried before. And I want them to fail.

I go on to alleviate their fears by saying that I do not want them to get an F on their report card. But I wouldn’t mind if they got an F on a test or two. I even explain that I come from a large family of teachers, and my Dad taught me one of the greatest pillars of my teaching philosophy, “Any student that shows up, does the work, simply shows effort and tries, does not fail my class no matter what the results of their work might show.”

While I say this with pride, they’re still a bit skeptical. So I have to go on and explain why I want them to fail. So I find the biggest guy in the room, typically a football player, and I ask him, “Do you work out?” I extend the question to the whole class, “By a show of hands, who hear goes to the gym and lifts weights?”

Inevitably a few hands raise throughout the room. I go on to explain, “As you can see, I’m a math teacher so the gym and I aren’t really friends, but I do know what happens when you go to the gym and lift weights. Does anyone here know what happens at a molecular level when you lift weights?”

This is day one in a class full of high school students with a teacher they’ve never heard of. They’re still feeling me out, and I’ve already shown signs that I might be crazy, so rarely do I get an answer. So I continue, “What happens when you lift weights is that you actually tear the muscle. You break it. That must be a mistake, right? Why would you want to tear down the thing that you are trying to make bigger? It turns out that you have to break some things down before you can build them back even stronger. And your muscles are one of those things. And your brain is a big ole’ muscle, so…”

“It turns out that you have to break some things down before you can build them back even stronger.”

Do I win them all over? Does one of them stand on their desk saying, “Oh Captain, my Captain!” only to have the rest of the class join in? Certainly not. Simply because I shared this lesson with them doesn’t mean they’ve learned it – but that’s a post for another day. However, with this introduction to my students I have started breaking down some of their old beliefs about math, and more importantly, themselves. It will take the entire year of working with them to get them to believe – and some will never.

Failing is not something anyone generally strives for. And in high school especially, you don’t want to try new things or make mistakes; in high school you want to conform, fit in, look like everyone else, and just get by. High school isn’t the only place where we are expected to conform, fit in, look like everyone else, and just get by.

How’s that workin’ for ya?