Trying Times

When was the last time you heard a student say they tried hard? Parents and teachers alike want students to grow, discover strengths, and overcome weaknesses. We know that each one of them has potential, but the path to unlocking it isn't always easy. School culture can throw some roadblocks in the way of the growth mindset we want our students to grasp, the idea that I can't do it yet, but I'm still trying, and I will get there. This is the story of the phrase try hard.

A Quora search produces this commentary: "The people who say others are “try hard” are the same people who want to have succeeded in those same areas that the try hard is succeeding in but don't have the focus to complete the necessary, menial tasks. The American culture, in particular, has this huge obsession with potential" (Sawar, 2017).

The phrase is offered a distinct flavor in Urban Dictionary, where try-hard denotes someone who displays overkill in trivial pursuits: "Somebody whose effort level and emotional investment is excessively high for the level of play in which they are competing" (Psalhf, 2017).

Weighing these two perspectives on the phrase casts some light on a problem. The appearance of working hard to learn difficult content seems to have developed a less than positive connotation. Teachers must select texts within everyone's reach, so we cater to T-Rex readers who have grown out of proportion with their reach, which stopped growing somewhere about 6th grade and may actually be shriveling. Shakespeare is now almost untouchable in public education. Conscientiousness and intellectual curiosity are becoming an underground movement in school culture. Many teachers now avoid noticing someone's excellent work publicly, in order to save those students from being different. If we all can't have a trophy, then no one should, right?

It used to be said that all work and no play make Jack a dull boy. Conversely, all play and no work may be making Jack something quite different. It remains to be seen whether the adjectives, employable, successful, and fulfilled will be associated with students' avoidance of being called a try-hard. The exceptions who prove the rule may afford to be smug about it. Teachers know better than to engage in the fallacious reasoning that failure in school will lead to a life of flipping burgers.

However, what of the average student who has been led to believe that being dubbed a try-hard nerd is a far worse fate than not learning to write a coherent paragraph or working diligently to succeed in upper-level math? Is it fair that a strong work ethic is applauded for athletics, but not so for academics? No sport to stay eligible for right now? Relax--don't be such a try-hard. Such an attitude is toxic to those whose work ethic might carry them above the level of their natural talents, if only it was safe to be seen trying hard.

An irony in all of this is that seeking greatness is actually still in fashion, and athletic success guru Josh Medcalf proposes "hard work is the price of admission for the opportunity to be great at anything" (Pound the Stone 90). Clearly, those using the phrase don't believe it universally. Perhaps it just applies to English class, but wouldn't that be sad?

The Riverside MS/HS Language Arts department stands by our big idea: Language is a powerful tool to stir emotions, challenge ideas, and call people to action. We renew our commitment to challenge students to be aware of that power and use it for the common good. For those students who have been silenced by the unkind label try hard, let us offer a better one, actually, a very old one--Sapere Aude--dare to know. When it comes to how we choose our words, we can all try harder.

Ruth Hardy, 2021.