I believe in myself and my ability to do my best.

This post is the second in a nine-part series analyzing the Power Pledge.

I believe in myself and my ability to do my best

I can almost hear some of my kids.

“‘I believe in myself’? If you mean I believe that I can whoop all these n***as here? Then, yeah, sure I believe in myself.”

“Right. Not after failing the last three grades twice.”

“Do my best at what? What does that even mean? What if my best isn’t good enough?”

What does it mean to believe in yourself? One needs a sense of self-worth, self-confidence, trust in yourself and in others. Believing in yourself is not safe. Believing in yourself means you are going to take risks, you gamble that you won’t embarass yourself and hope that others will respect the fact that you tried and gave your best effort.

Believing in yourself relies on that belief being validated from time to time. Some people take this for granted. I know I did. Why shouldn’t I do well in the science fair? I’m smart, I understand my project and the results my experiments generated. I got an A on that research paper? Well of course I did, I always get As.

Would I have believed in myself without this history of success? Would you believe in yourself if you had failed an assignment? A test? A grade? Many of us wouldn’t. Continuing to believe in yourself, take those risks, gamble on yourself and others - it would only open you up to more failure, more ridicule, an increasing sense of worthlessness.

This is the understanding of self my students combat each and every day. We demand them to reclaim their belief in themselves, by making them say it. By saying it ourselves, by believing in them, by believing in each other.

And then we push them further. Not only must they believe in themselves, they must take it a step further and believe that they can do something than a half effort. They have to believe they are capable of something called “best.” Not good, not better - best. Each morning in that warehouse-turned-school-building we make them say not only are we able, we are capable - and not only are we capable, we are capable of “best,” of greatness.

But it is absent the pressure of THE. We do not demand THE best. We demand your best. We promised our boys we would meet them where they are and this is a reflection of that promise. This does not mean that we have lowered our standards; we believe in you and expect that one day you will be The Best, but for now we need to see your best and want to watch that grow.