The Pedagogical Throwdown
Swen Nater

What’s a “Throwdown?” It’s a head-to-head competition between two entities to see who the best is. The Food Network has a show, “Throwdown, with Bobby Flay.” Here’s the way it works.

Delilah Winder is a local legend in Philadelphia. Her Mac ‘n’ Cheese was voted the nation’s best on the Oprah Winfrey show. She has been dubbed America’s Undisputed Mac ‘n’ Cheese Queen for years. She is about to release a cookbook and The Food Network is throwing her a cookbook release party. But she doesn’t know Bobby Flay will crash it to challenge her to a Mac ‘n’ Cheese Throwdown right there on the spot. Will Bobby’s five-cheese version match up to Delilah’s award-winning seven-cheese wonder?

Because the audience is there expecting to eat, the food has to be prepared in a hurry. So, when Bobby shows up, the incumbent is usually already ready to cook. Bobby and his crew get going and look like Keystone Cops, hurriedly getting set up. In less than one hour, both sides have prepared world-class dishes and the audience is in culinary heaven.   

When you watch the show (I know you’re going to now), you’ll see both parties peaking over to the other side to see what they’re competing against. That often means, unplanned, last-minute adjustments. I saw a chili maker change from Jalapeño to Chipotle because Bobby was using them. I’ve seen Bobby make many changes also. In any case, the point is, for that one hour, there is urgency and the amount of achievement and production per minute is astounding. There is no wasted time. That one moment, when one of them relaxes or loses concentration, could be the difference between winning and losing. 

I believe Coach Wooden conducted practice as if he were in a throwdown. In a real sense, he was. On Monday, he and the coach he was opposing that Friday evening were in competition to see who could prepare his team the best and win. And I truly believe (without seeing the other team practice) the difference between Coach and that other coach was, the other coach had moments when he lost concentration while Coach Wooden didn’t. It could have been not catching a mistake, spending too long correcting a mistake, spending too much time talking, or transitions between drills were too long. But Coach kept right on working, milking every second of a practice for more progress.

Too bad there are no Throwdowns between classrooms in our public schools. Too bad they are not set up for it. But if somebody figured out how to do it—and did it right so that nothing but positive comes out of it—can you imagine the urgency, industriousness, economy, and productivity? For example, can you imagine the skills two 8th grade Algebra teachers would quickly acquire when they agreed to go head-to-head and the winner was determined by an end-of-semester test? I can see one of them, secretly asking students from the other class, what’s going on and then stealing the idea. Imagine the crazy pace at which those students would be learning? I can see the teachers spending their weekends studying for the next week. I can see students holding their hands up in class and saying, “Hold it, Teacher! Slow down just a little. What was that last thing you said?” and the teacher saying, “You’ve got to keep up.”

A Pedagogical Throwdown. It would work, right? But I’m just a dreamer. Don’t mind me.