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Can Doug Lemov Save US Soccer?
Illustration by John Cuneo
Illustration by John Cuneo
Teaching guru Doug Lemov (MBA 2004) is taking his teaching talents to the pitch.
Profiled in the March issue of The Atlantic, Lemov was contacted by US Soccer in 2010 in an effort to improve their youth development coaching. Much like Lemov’s approach to classroom teaching, his method for soccer education doesn’t rely on drills that focus on “rote” learning:
“The thing that makes elite players is decision making,” Lemov told me. “They need to integrate not just how to do something but whether, when, and why.” He sees parallels to the difficulty many American students have solving problems independently. “If you give [American] kids a math problem and tell them how to solve it,” he said, “they can usually do it. But if you give them a problem and it’s not clear how to solve it, they struggle.”
The piece goes on to show a few scenes of Lemov’s work with the coaches, employing the skills that he detailed in his 2010 book Teach Like a Champion: 49 Techniques That Put Students on the Path to College. (For more on this, read the Bulletin’s 2013 article detailing Lemov’s work as director of charter school organization Uncommon Schools.) It’s a fascinating look at how Lemov’s work can possibly transcend fields—though we might not have a full answer until these youth players take the field in the 2026 World Cup.
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