Atomic Habit #5: Transform Your Classroom by Doing the Opposite

“There are some things one can only achieve by a deliberate leap in the opposite direction.” — Franz Kafka

The Magnetic Pull of Traditional Schooling

The other day, I arrived home and walked into the playroom of my house. Sometimes, my kids actually play in the playroom as opposed to leaving their toys throughout every other room of the house so I was excited. When I walked into the room, I saw my three kids playing school. My son, the oldest, was the teacher, and my two daughters were the students. He stood at the front of the room, dictating what they should do and what they should write.

It was a cute scene. One that plays out in playrooms across the country and even the world. To them, and to almost everyone else, that was school.

I’m sharing this quick story because it illustrates the magnetic pull of the idea of school. An idea that I believe we must work overtime every day to escape. Educators like me want school to become something far different than what it is and has been. And I’m not alone. Giants like John Dewey, Gordon Vars, and James Beane have been fighting this same fight for over 100 years.

What they were advocating for and what I’m advocating for today is to be different than that schoolroom set up in the playroom of my house and classrooms across the country. My children think that’s school because, well, it is school. It’s what it has been for as long as any of us can remember. And teachers think that’s school for the same reasons.

The Atomic Habit: Do the Opposite

The atomic habit I’m presenting today is this:

Do the opposite of what’s always been done.

Seinfeld is my favorite TV show. There’s an episode where George comes to the realization that every decision he’s ever made has been wrong. So, he starts doing the exact opposite of what he would normally do. And suddenly, his life starts to turn around.

Watch the clip here

This is the philosophy we need to adopt when it comes to teaching and learning. Our instincts about school are often wrong. Our collective experiences consistently lead us to believe that the way we do things in the classroom is the correct way. But the outcomes we’re seeing like low engagement, anxiety, and lack of critical thinking don’t match the goals many of us truly believe in.

So, the only choice is to choose to be different. To actively go against the grain of what others and even our own intuition lead us toward.

Don’t Fight the Current, Step Aside

A rip current is a strong current that can pull swimmers away from shore. Swimmers often exhaust themselves trying to fight directly against it, sometimes fatally. But rip currents are only 50 to 100 feet wide. If you swim parallel to the shore, you’ll escape it easily.

This is how you must approach your classroom. You must purposefully step out of the current and move in a different direction. Fighting the current will wear you down but moving deliberately in another direction can set you free.

Let me be clear. This habit is difficult to practice consistently. The education system, including students, parents, colleagues, supervisors, politicians, and tradition, will constantly make you feel like you’re doing the wrong thing. You must be steadfast in your belief that there is a better way.

Even when you resist, you will get tired. You will feel like you should just conform. This is natural and it’s what most people end up doing.

That’s why school is school when kids play make-believe in a playroom and when teachers teach in 1955 or 2025.

A Simple Act of Being Different

About 15 years ago, I was teaching a class I was really struggling with. Student behavior had become overwhelming and I felt frustrated and lost. I made up my mind to go in the next day, put on my serious face, lay down the rules, and take control.

But then, for some reason, I decided to do the opposite. I stopped at the store and bought expensive, really good chocolate chip cookies. Instead of putting more distance between myself and the class, I shared the cookies with them. And while we ate, I explained where I was coming from and how I felt.

From that day forward, everything changed. That class became one of the best I’ve ever taught. And the cookies? Nothing extreme. But that small act was different from what I felt I was supposed to do.

Most times, it’s best to do something different. Especially when the same old things have stopped working.

The Challenge: Be Different

The challenge of Atomic Habit 5 is simple:

Be different.

Challenge yourself to think differently and act differently because what we all want are different results. You won’t get different by being the same. If you’re looking to transform your classroom, increase student engagement, or embrace progressive education practices, it starts with small acts of rebellion. Of choosing the opposite.

Here are a few simple ways to start being different in your classroom :

• Start class with mindful breathing
• Start every class with a personal emotion check
• Reserve Fridays for hands-on projects
• Start the unit with student questions
• Create a learning wall that makes learning visible
• Let students choose the projects they want to pursue

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Your Turn: What’s Your “Cookie Moment”?

What’s one time you made a deliberate decision to do the opposite of what your teaching instincts told you to do and it worked?
Drop it in the comments below. Let’s build a library of strategies for doing school differently.

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