Robert McCreary, teacher of North Penn’s Performance Psychology class. (Credit: Ty Bryson/The Knight Crier)
A feature from the North Penn High School student newspaper, "The Knight Crier"
In a time when mental health and performance are increasingly in the spotlight, Robert McCreary has put together a new one-of-a-kind course only available at North Penn High School.
If you were to ask McCreary about his Performance Psychology class, he would tell the one-of-a-kind course was inspired by the struggling of students over the past decade or so with coping strategies and stress.
“As a teacher, in the past 10–15 years, I’ve noticed a lot of students seem to be struggling more and more with coping strategies, handling stress, and anxiety. That was something that impacted me as an athlete," he said. "I thought, instead of just complaining about the issues that people were having, let me just create a course and teach young students how to handle these issues.”
As a former baseball player and coach, McCreary knows all too well about the struggles that come with performing.
McCreary graduated from Villanova University with an education degree after a very successful baseball career with the Wildcats. He was later drafted to the Minnesota Twins in the 19th round of the 1989 MLB draft, where he played five years of Minor League Baseball before deciding to move on. He also had a successful 13-year stint coaching the North Penn Knights baseball team.
McCreary described how Performance Psychology could’ve helped him as a young athlete.
“This course was something that I probably needed, the higher I went up in baseball. The physical side, I pretty much had down. The mental side, I really didn’t know anything about that and that was the hardest part of my baseball career," he said.
McCreary created the high school course in 2022, and started teaching it during the 2023-24 school year. He described this course as a mix between positive psychology and sports psychology.
However, this class is not solely designed for athletes: Performance Psychology helps develop students to be more prepared to face challenges in the real world.
He said it is designed to help students develop strategies tailored to their needs to get them through any performance setting, whether it’s testing, public speaking, or even creating art.
McCreary emphasized that Performance Psychology is for all students.
"Everybody’s in performance settings all the time: When you sit down and take a test, that’s performance. When you have to get up in front of your class and give a speech, that’s your performance. People get anxious and stressed out before they take a test, or they forget their lines because they’re stressed out when they’re in front of the class," he said. "If you learn some basic coping strategies on how to calm down, then you can perform better.”
Some of the course's most essential topics include managing stress, handling anxiety, and developing a growth mindset
“Performance Psychology can be super important because it can help give students a better understanding of how the brain functions in action compared to just normal," said student Jaden Carmona-Gallagher, of his reason for taking the course.
The result of McCreary’s Performance Psychology class is more than just credits for graduating; it is a crucial step toward helping students build the mental tools they need to succeed in all areas of life.
