Carol Ann Tomlinson
One to Grow On
For the Unlikely Ones
An act of faith
begins when a
teacher looks at
a young person
and says, “This
one’s not doing
well enough.”
Carol Ann Tomlinson is
William Clay Parrish
Jr. Professor and Chair
of Educational Leadership, Foundation,
and Policy at the Curry
School of Education,
University of Virginia
in Charlottesville;
cat3y@virginia.edu.
She is the author, with
Marcia B. Imbeau, of
Leading and Managing
a Differentiated
Classroom (ASCD,
2010).
Ihad dinner recently with a group of col- lege students. Our host was my friend Terry Greenlund, who’d been a teacher and men-
tor to the students around the table. As they
reflected on their history with Terry, Andre said,
“Know what my first memory of you is, Terry?
When you made me sit down next to you to do
my homework. You made me stay there for five
minutes. I thought I was going to die for sure.”
When Terry met Andre, he was an elemen-
tary student who spent too much time in the
principal’s office. His schoolwork was weak. He
came from a low-income, complicated family
situation and was in danger
of becoming the wrong kind
of statistic. The kind of kid
that hovers between “easy to
overlook” and “Why did he
end up in my class?”
Andre continued with the
story. When he could finally
sit and attend to work for
five minutes, Terry required
10; when he could handle
10, Terry asked for 15.
“I was thinking the other
day when I was studying,”
Andre mused, “I can keep at
That’s a story starter, but the real story is long,
painful, and exhilarating. Along the way, there
was tutoring; medication for attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder (ADHD); visits to a coun-
selor; mediocre grades; outings to museums;
and a trip to South Africa—too many things
for a short space. The sum of it is that Terry
and Andre constructed a dream. There may be
nothing more demanding or rewarding within
the reach of a teacher.
I’ve learned lots about teaching from Terry,
mostly by watching him and listening. I once
asked him to say in a nutshell what he does to
guide students from low prospect to high success. He listed four principles.
1. Engage in acts of faith.
An act of faith begins when a teacher looks at
a young person and says, “This one’s not doing
well enough.” It takes on a form when that
teacher pledges, “I’ll be a catalyst for a more
promising outcome.”
Terry explained how he approaches a student
who worries him. He communicates to that
student that he sees him or her—and observes
something worthwhile. Delivering that message
requires what Terry calls a concrete manifes-
tation of belief. He might simply say, “Here’s
something I read yesterday that reminded me
of you. Read it and tell me
what you think.” Or, “I
have a chance to nominate
someone for an after-
school program that seems
pretty interesting. I want to
nominate you.” The mes-
sage might be embedded in
an invitation: “I need help
getting labs set up twice a
week. Would you come up
on lab days and help me get
the room ready?”
Terry takes kids like
Andre to their first college-
level basketball game and asks them to imagine
themselves playing in the game. That begins the
journey from believing a dream is possible to
realizing one’s dream—to seeing the possibilities
and acting on them.
2. Offer opportunities.
When a kid lives in a constricted universe,
ruts come to look like the horizon. For Andre,
attending graduate school was initially a
dream too far; even summer camp seemed like
something from an alternate universe. Terry
shows such kids what’s possible. He’ll give a
young man a set of brochures for space camp,
basketball camp, and a summer music program, and ask him to decide which one sounds
