The recent finals of the American college basketball championship tournament, known affectionately by basketball fans as March Madness, pitted the University of Connecticut, with over 30,000 students, against Butler University, with just 5,000.
It was a classic David and Goliath match-up.
As I am prone to do whenever students are highly interested in something, I used the final contest to emphasize what a David and Goliath match means.
This is certainly not the first time I’ve used this analogy as, from an educational point of view, it’s a particularly good one. Many young people see themselves as lost in a crowd, or small cogs in a big wheel that is their school and social setting. Some will directly express, when they are under stress, that they don’t matter much in the big scheme of things.
We are, of course, all Davids. In a world with seven billion people, our presence is almost imperceptible if we stand back and look at it. But that is not how the world operates. With the exception of a few individuals who become well known on the political, sports or entertainment platform, the majority of us work in very small spheres of influence: our family, our friends, our colleagues, our school. Yet, within these spheres, we each have the opportunity to be successful, to be happy, to contribute to others in a positive and meaningful way.
It’s not about being a Goliath; it’s about being a David. The story is about a young boy who defeats a large enemy through fearlessness, hard work and intelligence. We cannot all be world-class athletes, entertainers or politicians, but we all can take on daily challenges without paralyzing fear; we all can persevere against the odds and work hard enough to be successful; we all can develop our intellectual capacity and skills to be good at what we do.
Butler University does not have the selectivity of athletes that a UConn team has, but on the basketball court, the size of the schools and selectivity of athletes is not a factor. It is the belief that each individual has in himself, his knowledge of the game, and the work he has put into conditioning and skill development that matters most in being successful.
I was rooting for the David, of course. I have been in small schools all my life and I know the value of being a big fish in a small pond from a personal perspective. I have played and coached on teams that should not have been competitive, but were.
Even more importantly, I have seen young people who have believed in themselves become important and vital members of their families, workplaces and communities. I’ve been blessed to be in an occupation where I get to see many Davids as they begin to blossom.
UConn won the game so this particular story doesn’t have the perfect ending but it does have a happy ending. A team of young men from a small school challenged the odds and made it to the finals of the biggest competition of their lives.
They showed to anyone who was watching that there are no limitations to your success if you set a goal that is important, believe in yourself enough to put in the time and work to become excellent at what you do, and play smart.
We all need to be reminded, but particularly young people need to be reminded, that we are all important members of the small spheres of influence in which we exist and the more we do to develop our talents, the greater will be our influence and perhaps the more extensive will be our sphere.
Graham Hookey is an educator and writer (ghookey@yahoo.com).