The Lost Message About Hard Work

For some time, I have wanted to speak out in support of old-fashioned hard work--work that requires we roll up our sleeves, get down to business, get dirty and sweaty, and sometimes even get bored by its monotony. The notion of working hard has fallen out of favor with many people, and this troubles me.

As an educational leader, I am alarmed at what appears to be a growing and pervasive attitude that hard work is undesirable and thus should be avoided. I am convinced this is the wrong message to send our children. The ability to work hard is a valuable lifelong skill and a prerequisite to a productive adult life.

But don't confuse being busy with hard work. They are not the same. Given the pace of modern living, almost everybody is too busy. If you are over 20, you're fired. The exhaustion isn't from working too hard. Rather it's because you, me, and everybody else are too busy running around trying to fit everything into our lives.

Hard work is different. I'm talking about sticking with a difficult or complex task until it is successfully completed--perhaps doing a job you would rather not do, but doing it well anyway.

Labor Savers

As far back as I can remember, the latest invention or household gadget has been advertised as "laborsaving," "quick and easy," and "effortless." As a consequence of this steady march of progress (to self-cleaning ovens, fast foods, and "play now/pay later"), we have allowed ourselves as a nation to be convinced that hard work must be eliminated from our everyday lives. Quick is good, easy is better, and anything that is difficult or tedious is by default bad and to be avoided.

I know I am not the first to notice the adverse effects of progress, and I concede I am not ready to give up my electric blanket or my frozen pizza. Within our schools, I would not return to slide rules or unplug our graphic calculators, nor would I advocate the use of phonograph records over CDs. I'm not anti-progress. Yet I am troubled as I hear more and more justification from educators whom I respect that we shouldn't expect our students today to work hard. The advice that students should "work smart, not hard" is inherently flawed. Better advice is: work smart and hard.

Winning the lottery, marrying rich, inheriting wealth, suing somebody, and moving back home (after college graduation) are sometimes cited as reasonable alternatives to hard work for young people. While I don't want to offend anyone who has benefited from family wealth or dumb luck, I would like to hear more public acknowledgment of the benefits of hard work and less touting of effortless success. Let's face it, even if we are terribly patient and take turns, we aren't all going to win the lottery.

I realize that avoidance of hard work is not limited to physical labor. Its absence is obvious in everything from troubled interpersonal relationships to international conflict. The inability to think problems through carefully to an acceptable solution is the root cause of everything from personal uncertainty to national skepticism. Quick fixes and easy answers too often replace well-thought-out compromises to real dilemmas. Even intellectual thought is suffering from the absence of hard work.

Since this topic deserves considerable thought, let me be specific about the education of our children.

Learning cannot be made quick and easy, and thinking--real old-fashioned, rational thought--takes effort. It's hard work. It's difficult. It requires discipline on the part of the thinker. It is not passive or haphazard, and it may even make you tired. It is seldom the type of thinking or problem solving we see so often demonstrated on TV. Clear, concise intellectual thought is by design hard work.

In a media-driven society that repeatedly sends messages to the contrary, students must come to realize that meaningful learning will occur only as a result of their hard work. We do not serve our students well if we encourage them to look for easy answers or intellectual short cuts to learning. No substitute exists for intelligence. Furthermore, we must expect students to put forth a good effort--to work hard--at everything from learning to read to solving quadratic equations to practicing a musical instrument or kicking a soccer ball.

A Daughter's Travail

My belief in the value of hard work was confirmed recently when speaking with my daughter who is away at school. She's a senior at Haverford College in Pennsylvania, a liberal arts school known for its academic rigor. During our conversation, my daughter inadvertently confirmed her school's ethos when she lamented that, while she was doing well, her class work was too difficult and the weekend parties lousy.

She doesn't know it, but I will enjoy her graduation even more knowing that she didn't attend a school where one parties hard and the course work is easy. As her father, I am convinced the real value of her education is only realized by repeatedly demonstrating an ability to think her way through problems, jobs, and relationships that sometimes will be difficult.

COPYRIGHT 1996 American Association of School Administrators
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group