Quandary

There are many things that we do in schools to impact student learning. There is growth planning, assessment development, instructional discussions, curriculum development, social-emotional learning activity planning, health and wellness programming. All of these things and myriad others are part of the big picture of student learning and success. However, these discrete pieces can sometimes take on lives of their own, in that particular attention gets paid to areas of need, and then effort and resources follow. Sometimes, these discrete things take on a large proportion of time and thinking and the big picture takes a back seat. I have found with school vision and mission this can often be the case; that is, we focus on the needs of the day intensely and don’t carve out needed time to talk about the why. The “why” is so important and as Simon Sinek articulates in his book, Start With Why, knowing the WHY helps the what and the how, the discrete items make sense.

My thinking led me to dig into the why again, to read over our school’s vision statement, to reflect on what our hopes are for our students. Our hope is so important in what we do. We desire to see the best possible future for our kids and giving them the tools to influence and be a part of that future effectively is the heart of all our efforts.

Vision: Empowering a community of life-long learners who are socially responsible, mindful, and resilient.

Looking at the statement again it resonates with all the discrete pieces. But it resonates mostly with a deep rooted desire to ensure our kids are capable and critical thinkers, kind and caring citizens, and able to navigate the unpredictability of life with a whole heart and sound mind.

I think the discrete aspects of what we do as educators serve the most crucial purpose in our society. We are developing the most precious resource that any society has, it’s children. We are trying to be keenly attuned to their needs and support them in their whole selves and bring to bear a better future in our world through their future prospects. We must envision this preferred future in all we do. Judy Halbert and Linda Kaser say we must empower all students to have “dignity, purpose, and options;” this is an idea foundational to developing our students into the people who will shape their, and our, preferred future.