Veteran Educator Writes Book About the Unlimited Potential in Children

By Neil Armstrong

Karl Subban, author of "How We Did It: The Subban Plan for Success in Hockey, School and Life," and Itah Sadu, co-owner of A Different Booklist Cultural Centre in Toronto.

A Jamaican Canadian father whose sons are playing in the much sought-after National Hockey League (NHL) has written a book about unleashing the potential in children.

Karl Subban immigrated to Sudbury, Ontario with his parents in 1970 and together with his wife, Maria, who came to Canada at the same time with her parents from Montserrat, they have raised five accomplished children.

Their sons, P.K., Malcolm and Jordan play in the NHL, and daughters, Nastassia and Natasha are teachers, one a university basketball star, the other a talented visual artist.

P.K. was traded from the Montreal Canadiens to the Nashville Predators and Malcolm and Jordan have been drafted and signed by the Boston Bruins and the Vancouver Canucks.

Subban has been an educator for over thirty years and after retirement from the Toronto District School Board he started thinking about writing a book.

Collaborating with Scott Colby, opinions editor at the Toronto Star and a freelance writer, they have written “How We Did It: The Subban Plan for Success in Hockey, School and Life” published by Random House Canada.

“Maybe in the last seven years I started thinking about writing a book because I’m really passionate about working with children. And, I know I have lots to say so I knew that I would have a lot to write about.”

Subban said as time went by with his boys playing hockey, the popularity of his eldest, P.K. began to rise because of the way he played the game, the teams he was on gaining media coverage, and because of his personality.

“He stood out and so we started to stand out as a family because P.K.’s two younger brothers also play the game and they started to shine also so this question came up because of the boys’ achievements. Everywhere I go people wanted to know how we did it, how did we manage to raise three boys who were drafted and signed by National Hockey League teams?”

Subban said it got to the point where he told himself that his first book would not be about education, though education is included, but it really is about answering that question – “how we did it?”

He said if one were to do a Venn Diagram with three connecting circles and a common point, in one of them would be parenting, the other, teaching, and the third, coaching.

“Where they meet, that common point, write the word ‘potential’ because that is the job of a parent, a coach and an educator. No one has ever told Karl Subban this in my years in education that potential is the lens through which we must see all of our children.”

He said this is how all parents must see their children – “potential is their ability to become something more down the road. It gives them the ability to do something more and to become something more.”

“Potential is that suitcase that houses their skills, their talents, all those things.”

Subban said their geography – his wife being from Montserrat and he from Jamaica, both coming to Canada at the age of 12 – in the first twelve years of their life did not lend itself to producing hockey players.

“We weren’t born into ‘Hockey Night in Canada,’ which is a big thing here in this country. We missed out on that. Every child who is born in this country after they say mom and dad, they say ‘Hockey Night in Canada.’”

Subban said the math was not on his side of his son making the NHL. Five hundred thousand kids sign up every year to play hockey in Canada, only a few will make it, he said, noting that that there are players from the USA and Europe in the NHL as well.

He said there is no such thing as a ‘hockey gene’ but, like Usain Bolt, his boys were born with potential, which he calls “their gift at birth,” something that will not let a person down if they put in the work.

“I look at potential as a three-legged stool. In the seat of the stool write the word ‘potential,’ one leg stands for dream, a second stands for belief because you need a strong belief system, and the third leg stands for action. Because a lot of us will conceive of a dream but we don’t make it actionable.”

Subban said his boys had a dream, especially P.K. “He said, daddy, I want to play hockey like those guys on television but he also need a fortified strong belief system because when you chase your dreams or your big goals you will have doubts.”

The coach, educator and parent said he and Maria planted this seed in their children.

[This story has also been published in the North American Weekly Gleaner, Nov. 9-15, 2017 issue.]