• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Advertising
  • Write for Us
  • Job Board
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
    • Consulting
    • Advertising
  • Shop
    • Books
    • Shirts

The Educators Room logo

  • Start Here
    • Impact Statements: Teacher Expertise
    • Newsletter
  • Browse Topics
    • Content Strategies
      • Literacy
      • Mathematics
      • Social Studies
      • Educational Technology
      • ELL & ESOL
      • Fine Arts
      • Special Education
      • Popular Topics
        • Teacher Self-Care
        • Instructional Coach Files
        • Common Core
        • The Traveling Teacher
        • The Unemployed Teacher
        • The New Teacher Chronicles
        • Book Review
        • Grade Levels
          • Elementary (K-5)
          • Middle (6-8)
          • Adult
          • New Teacher Bootcamp
          • Hot Button Topics
            • Menu Item
              • Principals' Corner
              • Charter Schools
              • Confessions of a Teacher
              • Interviews
              • The State of Education
              • Stellar Educator of the Week
            • Menu
              • How to Fix Education
              • Featured
              • Ask a Teacher
              • Teacher Branding
              • Current Events
  • Podcasts
  • Courses
    • Practicing Self-Care to Avoid Teacher Burnout- An 8 Week Course
    • Becoming An Educational Consultant
    • Teacher Branding 101:Teachers are The Experts
    • The Learning Academy
    • Books
    • Shirts
  • Education in Atlanta
  • Teacher Self-Care
  • The Coach's Academy
menu icon
go to homepage
subscribe
search icon
Homepage link
  • Advertising
  • Write for Us
  • Job Board
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
    • Consulting
    • Advertising
  • Shop
    • Books
    • Shirts
×

June 18, 2021 Ask a Teacher

Ending the Epithet “Try-Hard” Once and for All in Classrooms

  • About the Author
  • Latest Posts

About Jake Miller

Mr. Jake Miller is the 2016 National History Day Pennsylvania Teacher of the Year, a 2017 NEA Global Fellow to China, and a former candidate for county-wide office. Miller has written more than 500 articles, most of which have appeared on The Educator's Room. He's the opening contributor to TER's book When the Fire Is Gone. Learn more about Jake at www.MrJakeMiller.com
  • The Student-Teaching Model Is Outdated: Here's How We Can Do Better - September 15, 2021
  • Visualize: How Seeing What's Coming Changed My Teaching - August 16, 2021
  • 10 Lessons About Teaching from My Youngest Son - June 24, 2021
  • Ending the Epithet “Try-Hard” Once and for All in Classrooms - June 18, 2021
  • From STEM, Let's Pivot to the BRANCHES of the Humanities - May 25, 2021
  • Would Education Collapse If Teachers Stopped Working for Free? - May 20, 2021
  • 10 Ways to Teach Like Ted Lasso: Part II - April 21, 2021
  • 8 Tips So Your Substitute Plans Don't Suck - April 14, 2021
  • 10 Ways to Teach Like Ted Lasso: Part I - March 12, 2021
  • The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teachers: Habit 3 - First Things First - February 26, 2021

“Stop being such a try-hard, Tina.”

There are many words kids use to insult one another. Most of them are so bad I wouldn’t dare print them here. They’re also so wrong and reprehensible that teachers quickly swoop in and stop it.

But for this term – the “try hard” – teachers just laugh it off.

And that needs to stop -- now.

The completely unacademic Urban Dictionary defines the word "try-hard" as “somebody whose effort level and emotional investment is excessively high for the level of play in which they are competing.”

The example uses a guy who puts everything into a Sunday slow-pitch softball league, ignorant it’s not the World Series.

But here’s the thing. What do we define as the “level of play?” For children between the ages of 5 and 18, there are no bigger levels of play than school. That was evident throughout much of American history. Going back to the genesis of compulsory, state-sponsored public school, academic achievement was considered something worthwhile to improving one’s status and station.

Today, we’ve allowed students to define the level of play. Instead of classes being something to which they attempt to excel, succeed, persist, and exude a commitment to prominence, we’ve allowed the encouragement to fall to a least common… Click To Tweet

Many students don’t want others to project at school; instead, they want their peers to reject school.

Other students accomplish this by defining what is acceptable, and doing all of one’s homework, achieving high grades, and participating regularly is beneath that “level of play.”

I have a hard time understanding teachers’ lack of intervention because we are ballers at this job and often overcommitted in a positive way. They are the “Try-Hard” profession and expect those who work in other fields to do great work. For example:

  • When we get our haircut, we don’t want a slacker
  • When we go shopping, we thoroughly enjoy the sales associate who places their investment in customers
  • At dinner, we seek servers who are invested in us at the table
  • The “try-hard-iest” doctors and dentists who keep up with the latest and greatest research on their fields are going to be the ones I visit

So why would we tolerate students yelling the epithet “try-hard” as acceptable language in our classrooms?

Here’s what I’m doing next year: at the front of my room – right next to my classroom rules – I’ll place a large sign with the word “TRY-HARD” with an equally large red “no” circular symbol overtop of it.

Because I want students to stop trying to convince others to not do their best, and only try to build our community and make one another better.

Instead, I want kids to Try Their Best. Today. Tomorrow. And always.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Related posts:

Teachers In Action: From the Classroom to the Convention Taking the Anxiety Out of Student Placement in Special Education Take One For the Team: The Need for Self-Care Respect in the Classroom: Earned, Not Expected
« Equity Check: Changing Our Teaching Practices in Literacy
When You Can't Reach Every Student: A Different Type of Teacher Guilt »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

The Educator's Room was launched in 2012 to amplify the voice of educators. To date, we have over 45+ writers from around the world and boast over twelve million page views. Through articles, events, and social media we will advocate for honest dialogue with teachers about how to improve public education. This mission is especially important when reporting on education in our community; therefore, we commit our readers to integrity, accuracy, and independence in education reporting. To join our mailing list, click here.

What we do

At The Educator's Room, we focus on amplifying and honoring the voice of educators as experts in education. To date, we have over 40 staff writers/teachers from around the world.

Popular Posts

  • My Union Showed Up for Me, and I'll Never Forget It
  • Your Students Deserve a Diverse Classroom Library. Here's How to Set It Up.
  • You Don't Have to Watch the Tyre Nichols Video, But Be Ready to Talk About It
  • "Let's Make This Happen": Following Student Interests to Interest-Based Mentorships

Featured On

Buy Our Books/Courses

How to Leave Your Job in Education

Practicing Self-Care to Avoid Teacher Burnout

Using Your Teacher Expertise to Become an Educational Consultant

Check out our books on teaching and learning!

The Learning Academy

Footer

↑ back to top

About

  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclaimer
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Accessibility Policy

Newsletter

  • Sign Up! for emails and updates

Contact

  • Contact
  • Services
  • Media Kit
  • FAQ

 

Copyright © 2021 The Educator's Room.