Small & Gutsy Features Harper for Kids, a Program that encourages every child (& adult) to be their best self

Two former competitive tennis players spent their careers inside a sport where somebody wins and somebody loses every single time — and watched the disappointment on parents' and coaches' faces when it went the wrong way. 

Host Dr. Laura Scherck Wittcoff sits down with Tim Harper and Peanut Louie Harper, who built a free character education program around Coach John Wooden's definition of success and brought it into roughly 50 California elementary schools, with the single goal of getting children to measure themselves against nobody but themselves. It's a conversation about why Wooden was teaching this to college athletes who were never going pro, what happens when you ask a room of critics which blocks they'd take out, and why a third grader settled an argument the adults couldn't.

Tim Harper, President and Co-Founder, Harper for Kids. Tim has spent his life working with young people to help prepare them for a successful future. He owns and operates ITP Design — a graphic design, advertising, marketing, and publishing business — and is an avid painter and tennis instructor. He and Peanut met during their competitive playing years. On the recording, he's candid that nobody ever asked him as a child what he was good at or what he liked to do; his father's position was get an education, then get to work. He says it wasn't until Harper for Kids that he found the thing he genuinely loves doing, and that he still runs Wooden's standard on himself daily: am I doing everything I can today to be the best Tim I can be today?

Peanut Louie Harper, Co-Founder, Treasurer and Program Director. Peanut played professionally for 16 years, reaching a career-high world ranking of No. 19 in 1985. As a junior, she won 14 USTA national titles, reached the final of the Wimbledon junior singles championship, and held the national No. 1 ranking in the United States in her age groups. She is a co-author, with Coach John Wooden and Steve Jamison, of the award-winning children's book Inch and Miles: The Journey to Success, illustrated by Susan F. Cornelison. She runs the program side of the organization, handles the school relationships, and does the asking — including the cold outreach to prospective guest speakers.

What is Harper for Kids? Harper for Kids is a nonprofit character development program, founded in 2008, that helps schools implement UCLA coach John Wooden's Pyramid of Success — a teaching tool built around becoming the best you are capable of being rather than measuring yourself against anyone else. Based in San Francisco and now in its nineteenth year, it is the only charity working with the Wooden family, and Tim says that it was the only character development program Coach Wooden himself authorized.

• It's free. Always has been. As Peanut puts it, they don't want there to be a hurdle for kids not to learn about this. The only cost is commitment — specifically a school-wide commitment carried through the full school year.
• Scale. Roughly 50 schools across California, plus some out-of-state schools that find them. They began with a single school around 2010.
• How a year runs. Schools get a sample calendar that typically opens in September with hard work and enthusiasm — the cornerstones — and adds a block each month through May, finishing at a personal best. Beyond that, teachers adapt it however suits their classroom.
• Visits. About 30 minutes, to a whole school, a grade, or a single class — reinforced continuously through the year rather than once and done, which Zoom has made far easier.
• Special guests. Hundreds to date: Olympic champions, engineers, writers, and, recently, an astro farmer working on how to grow crops in space for long missions. Every guest is asked for a word or phrase they use for positive self-talk.
• The core exercise. Students are asked to write down, on paper, how they define success — so the definition is theirs rather than inherited from social media or from home.
• A clearinghouse, not a curriculum company. Teachers send in their own lesson ideas and classroom projects; Harper for Kids collects them, keeps them as shareable PDFs, and posts them so nobody has to reinvent the wheel. "We're not expert educators," Peanut says. "The teachers are the expert educators."

Key Topics Covered

• Why two tennis players built a program about not winning. Tim's framing is the premise of the whole organization. In tennis somebody wins, and somebody loses every match, and Peanut spent her career watching the disappointment land on parents' and coaches' faces — and then there's another tournament next week. What they want children to understand is that success isn't about winning or losing, and isn't about fame or fortune. It's whether you can find the thing you genuinely love, give it your best effort, and be a decent person while you do it.
• Nobody asked him what he was good at. The block on Wooden's pyramid that hits Tim hardest is enthusiasm, which he connects to happiness — what are you good at, and what do you like to do? Nobody put that question to him as a child. The instruction at home was get an education and get working, and while he says he's had a good life, it took founding Harper for Kids to find the work he loves. That gap is a large part of why the program exists.
• Wooden wasn't coaching only future pros. The clearest explanation of the premise. Most of Wooden's UCLA basketball players were never going to play professionally — he was trying to set them up for a happy and successful life regardless. So Tim and Peanut asked the obvious next question: if it works at the college level, what happens if you start at elementary school? "Then we'll be way ahead of the game."
• How the children's book happened: Steve Jamison, a professional author, was a member at the tennis club where Peanut practiced. She read the first book he wrote with Wooden and immediately thought the material belonged in a book for parents and kids. Jamison had heard the same request from others, including Wooden's granddaughter, a teacher. Getting Wooden to agree to anything with his name on it was normally hard — he was, by Jamison's account, deeply humble and uninterested in attention — but a children's book was the easy yes, because it was for kids. Then at book signings teachers kept telling them they were already using Inch and Miles as a character education program. A philanthropist friend and Wooden fan told the Harpers that if they became a nonprofit, he could support them. That was 2008.
• Teaching kids to be proud of nothing external is Peanut's most quotable line, and the one aimed squarely at the world children actually live in now. She and Tim grew up without social media; today's students see comments about themselves constantly, which she calls deeply detrimental. What she wants is for kids to find a way to be proud of themselves based on nothing external at all. The companion idea: Wooden's philosophy locates success inside the person — so a child without much support at home can still believe it's still within me.
• Two founders, two takes on failure. Peanut notes that every single special guest they have ever hosted treats failure as a prerequisite for success rather than its opposite, and that the pressure on kids today is nothing like being told to go outside and play. Tim goes further: throw the word out entirely. It carries too heavy a connotation. Things go right, and things go wrong, and if they went wrong, the only useful question is what do I need to do to get to my goal.
• Role models, and the ones you choose. Asked how teachers counter role models who model the opposite of all this, the answer is notably apolitical: talk with students about who they surround themselves with. What traits do you admire in other people — and if you admire them, why wouldn't you want them for yourself, and look for them in the people around you? Laura adds a useful corollary: a good role model isn't someone happy all the time. It's someone who, on a bad day, says I'm having a tough day rather than putting it on somebody else.
• Energy as a superpower: A radio host friend came into a school with them and asked the students whether they could feel the energy she was putting out — then asked them to send it back. Without saying a word, you can sense it. You also always know whether you're raising the energy of a room or lowering it. Be mindful of which, and people want to be around you.
• The stories that tell them it's working: A sixth-grade teacher in Chino Hills who's worked with them for years was invited to the high school graduation of former students — who wrote her notes mentioning the Pyramid of Success. A school in Indio sent their yearbook, where a fifth grader's artwork of the book's two characters became the cover. And early on, when they were getting feedback that it was simply too many blocks for young children, Peanut's answer was a question: which blocks would you take out? Then she asked a third grader after an assembly what he thought of the pyramid. He said it's always with me. She asked what he meant, and he pointed at his heart: it's right there. "And I said, okay. I'm done. I'm good. We're keeping all those blocks."

How to Get Involved

• Schools and teachers: Harper for Kids has an inquiry form, and Peanut replies to submissions generally the same day
• Volunteer as a special guest. This is the easiest and most concrete way to help. The ask is roughly 30 minutes to talk with students about what you do, how you define success, and any words of wisdom someone passed to you. They host Olympic champions and engineers and writers — and they are actively looking
• Follow along: Harper for Kids on Instagram and Facebook
• Read Inch and Miles: The Journey to Success by John Wooden with Steve Jamison and Peanut Louie Harper
• Website and donation details: HarperForKids.org

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