WHY DO I LEARN?As human beings we are designed to learn, but not to think. I believe that we all have a responsibility to leave the world better than we found it, and we all have a responsibility to contribute positively to the best of our abilities. Plus, learning is fun.
I recently did an interview for Dr. Punya Mishra's Value Laden: Conversations with Educational Leaders podcast. The program is designed to explore the role that values and principles play in what leaders do. The focus of this episode was Trojan Horse leadership, changing the system from within.
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My goal, as an educator, is to improve the life of every child. There are many ways we can do this, but most importantly, we must do this in partnership with that child and with their best interests always in mind. By design and decree, our public education system has approximately 13,000 contact hours with our students: what do we do with that time? Our responsibility, as a system, is to prepare productive citizens for our community and those citizens, in turn, recreate our community based on their beliefs, passions, aptitudes and skills. I concur with the Networks of Inquiry and Indigenous Education that our goal should be to have “every child cross the stage with dignity, purpose, and options,” and within that mandate we have many values based decisions to make.
Granted, every era has had its challenges and uncertainty; however, the speed with which change is occurring in the 21st century makes predicting needs for the future particularly challenging. Therefore, I believe it is especially incumbent upon us as educators to prepare our youth for the dynamic world they live in and will shape. Few would argue this point; however, how we do this and what we teach will constantly be debated, often at the expense of action. I believe that too often we take ourselves way too seriously and over-complicate things. Our students will do well if we constantly keep their best interests in the forefront of our thinking and our actions. What follows is my framework for improving the life of each child in order of priority.
- Make sure, to the best of our ability, that their physiological needs are met.
- Make sure, to the best of our ability, that their safety needs are met.
- Make sure, to the best of our ability, that they feel and know that they belong and are loved for who they are.
- Make sure, to the best of our ability, that they develop the basic skills for meaningful participation in society.
- Literacy
- Numeracy
- Citizenship skills
- Support the development of a combination of cognitive skills, noncognitive skills, and domain-specific knowledge and abilities (Zhao, 2019, p. 269) that are unique to each learner’s context and needs.
I rarely have seen debate about priorities 1 through 3, though I too often see them ignored due to assumptions and ignorance. Where significant debate occurs is in the fourth and fifth priorities, and that is healthy and necessary. In my practice and work, my actions are guided by a belief in meeting each person where they are and moving them forward along a continuum of growth. I am guided by a belief that the learning needs to be meaningful and valuable for the student and that they should understand that value. I am also guided by the beliefs that learning is natural and fun, but also takes hard work. Finally, I am guided by the belief that public schools can add significant value to the development of our people and communities and are a necessary part of our prosperity. Unfortunately, as Dr. Gary Stager recognizes “schools tend to undervalue the things to which they actually add value” (Stager, 2020).
Stager, G. (2020, May, 30). This is why schools exist. Silver Lining for Learning. https://silverliningforlearning.org/this-is-why-schools-exist/
Zhao, Y., Wehmeyer, M., Basham, J., & Hansen, D. (2019). Tackling the wicked problem of measuring what matters: Framing the questions. ECNU Review of Education. Vol. 2(3) 262-278.
MY LATEST ADVENTURE
Doctoral Journey
In January of 2019 I joined a unique cohort of outstanding professional educators in British Columbia to learn together working toward a Doctoral Degree with the University of Kansas.
After 29 months of academic work, I successfully defended my dissertation Assessing Core Competencies in British Columbia on May 6, 2021. A copy of my dissertation is on the research page here and a summary of my journey is on my personal blog.
In January of 2019 I joined a unique cohort of outstanding professional educators in British Columbia to learn together working toward a Doctoral Degree with the University of Kansas.
After 29 months of academic work, I successfully defended my dissertation Assessing Core Competencies in British Columbia on May 6, 2021. A copy of my dissertation is on the research page here and a summary of my journey is on my personal blog.
I am driven by a relentless restlessness.
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