“McFarland, USA” is an inspiring sports movie that features a largely Latino cast and stars Kevin Costner as a track coach at, the predominantly Latino, McFarland High School in rural Central California. Based on the true story of a 1987 cross country team comprised of Mexican farm laborers’ children and a “white” coach, the story tells the tale of forging athletic champions out of novice runners and leading them to competitive glory as they compete in the state’s first cross-country championship.
“McFarland, USA” is an inspiring sports movie that features a largely Latino cast and stars Kevin Costner as a track coach at, the predominantly Latino, McFarland High School in rural Central California. Based on the true story of a 1987 cross country team comprised of Mexican farm laborers’ children and a “white” coach, the story tells the tale of forging athletic champions out of novice runners and leading them to competitive glory as they compete in the state’s first cross-country championship.
Why am I discussing a Disney “feel good” movie? Because as an immigrant from Mexico, I know the importance of competent academic coaching, healthy mentorship and sustained role-model guidance. I attended Pierce High School in Arbuckle, a small agricultural community in Northern California. I, too, grew up as a Mexican farm labor kid and I was a member of the 1976 Sacramento Valley League Championship Pierce High School Freshman track team that was led by a “white” track coach, Mr. Robert Walker.
Mr. Walker was first and foremost a science and math teacher, who happened to also have the duty of being a track coach. Mr. Walker, also included in his professional duties how to not only achieve athletic prowess, but most importantly academic success in spite of all the obstacles that poor Mexican farm laborer’s kids encounter. In my freshman year of high school, he patiently, kindly and yet emphatically, explained to me and numerous other Mexican kids that if we wanted to be “on track” academically, we must do things differently. Not only differently from the way we had been doing them, but completely different from the way all the other students, including the excellent students—did things. I recall him telling me on several occasions, “If only the other classroom teachers were as diligent as ‘athletic coaches’ in recognizing and appreciating that most students can’t psychologically face the reality of their own weaknesses until they discovered it during an exam.” He would say, “Joe, this is the wrong place to discover that you don’t know the material, right Joe?”
Mr. Walker, as a dedicated, committed and seasoned professional educator, understood that the single most important factor for rapid academic success for any and all students is to have a general understanding of the role motivation plays. Specifically of intrinsic motivation—doing something simply for enjoyment, without regard to money, power or prestige. The ability to manage your time, set goals, prioritize, strategically plan and reflect on one’s decision-making was necessary to learn. It is only through an understanding of the role of motivation, and the aforementioned practices, will the student learn how they stand with regard to independent learning. It is the understanding and implementing of these practices that determine one’s attitude to work in middle school, high school, college and later.
Mr. Walker understood, all too well, that in his classroom it was imperative that we (the ones from farm working Mexican families) find a competitive edge that would enable our academic performance to stand out as exceptional. He, therefore, encouraged, nurtured and most importantly relentlessly coached us to engage in a bold exploration of the motives behind our behavior; always reminding us to develop a profound self-awareness. This was not a Mexican or Anglo skill, but a trait of an educated person.
Mr. Walker provided us with the knowledge that self-awareness is a tremendously powerful competitive edge (the “self” is the most “fascinating” topic to most teenagers). He invoked President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s definition of leadership—“…the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it”—into his coaching and thus provided us the inspirational platform to develop intrinsic motivation and drive us to perform the important activities in our lives. The most important activities being: time management, self-awareness, goal setting, prioritizing our responsibilities and never giving up.
In short, Mr. Walker’s signature pedagogical approach of successfully addressing and meeting the learning needs of his Mexican farm laborers’ students was his philosophy that it was his professional duty and responsibility to directly inculcate the core concepts and principles of study skills, study habits, study strategies, motivation, critical thinking and strategic planning into the very fabric of his math/science teaching and his track coaching.
What is disturbing about the movie “McFarland, USA” is that the cross-country track team continues to win State Championships, and yet, in 2013 McFarland High School’s current California Academic School Ratings is:
“If only the other classroom teachers were as diligent as ‘athletic coaches’ in recognizing and appreciating that most students can’t psychologically face the reality of their own weaknesses until they discovered it during an exam.” Both as a teacher and coach, Mr. Walker motivated, not through intimidation, but through teaching and inspiration. He instilled in his students and athletes what it means to be an independent learner and the value this has in later life as a lifelong learner. Most of the Mexican farm laborers’ kids automatically resigned themselves to working in the fields, like their parents. Mr. Walker recognized and valued these students’ work ethic and fidelity to contribute to their families economic well-being. He also keenly understood that these responsibilities, and other obligations, left little time for academic pursuits.
Mr. Walker respectfully and relentlessly challenged his Mexican farm laborers’ students to think deeply about how education could play a role in their future. Specifically, he challenged us to envision a life outside Arbuckle and the agricultural existence. He would alway pose the question, “why not the best?” and reminded us that we did not have to be resigned to outside expectations; he encouraged us to develop a new game plan for our future by doing our homework. He would remind us that the Arbuckle Pierce Bears were perennial football league champions because the head coach, the school administration, the faculty and the community made it a priority to know the statistics of its players and team opponents.
Almost everyone in Arbuckle engaged in analyzing strategies and tactics on the gridiron. In other words, the Arbuckle farming community took the game of football seriously enough to study it. The community would look forward to Friday night games with passion and enthusiasm; thinking about and having strong opinions about what the tactics and strategies the Pierce Bears needed to use against the opposing team were voiced robustly. The community expected the Pierce Bears to win, a performance based evaluation.
Mr. Walker would emphasize that technically, getting a competitive edge was not that complicated and to achieve it was not that difficult, however the caveat was that psychologically, it is a barrier that we would find very difficult to overcome. He suggested that to overcome this barrier, the KEY was to develop a high degree of self motivation to make and stick to the commitment of habitually monitoring our behavior and evaluating whether our actions were aligned with our articulated goals and aspirations. He made it very clear that if we were unwilling to do this, then, in all probability, we would not achieve our goals or aspirations.
Mr. Walker’s teaching and coaching legacy is defined not only by his extraordinary professional expertise as an educator, but also his unwavering commitment to lead students to discover that to study for themselves is critical for academic success. Working in the fields placed a limit on how much time we could spend studying, so it was a major challenge to truly balance academics and real life responsibility. Mr. Walker accepted his students reality by relentlessly encouraging students to engage in, thoughtfully and systematically, deconstructing the forces at play that affect their performance in both the athletic and academic setting. By teaching, coaching, and suggesting subtle adaptations in their learning strategies, Mr. Walker made competent, confident and self-reliant students. He utilized the existing strengths of his students to compensate for their weakness. Through his guidance, we came back to school from summer “vacation” working the fields, as better students, with a “competitive edge.”
Mr. Walker, through his individual action, made a profound difference in the lives of Mexican farmworkers’ kids and consequently inspired those of us to advocate, as concerned citizens, that our current America public school educational hierarchy accept their duty and responsibility to deliver on providing Latino, and other minority students, the foundational tools to develop and master all the skills required to be both educated and economically competitive in this new global, 21st Century Economy.
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