Sunday, September 10, 2017

Urgency?

There are those times in your life when someone says a few words that stick--unforgettable words that truly impact your work and living. When Austin Buffum visited Wayland to jumpstart our RTI efforts years ago, he encouraged us to work with urgency to teach all children well. He noted that one big problem in schools is that people don't take urgency seriously, and that's why important changes and targeted services sometimes don't occur.

I took Buffum's words seriously, and think about them all the time because I see that some meet issues related to young children with urgency and others do not. In fact, sometimes people chide me and ridicule me for the urgency I feel with regard to programming. Why get so passionate?, they question with their words, looks, and responses.

In my lifetime, I have seen the good that can come from great teaching and service to children, and I have seen the destruction that a lack of urgency can create too. While our students and children are resilient, they are also fragile. They demand the best that we can give, and that is why I take the job seriously, and I write with urgency to make change, advocate, ask questions, and forward the work I can do.

As I always note, I don't have all the answers. I am not always right. I make mistakes. Yet I'm always on the look out for how we can do things better--how we can improve the way we teach with and for students to empower, energize, and improve their lives and opportunities. I am passionate about the development work that is education, the development work that finds us growing our skill, knowledge, and understanding to teach, serve, and lead better.

I do think that because children are young, and that they don't have much of a voice, they are easily overlooked. I also believe that when those making the decisions about how we teach and what we use to teach are mostly removed from the day-to-day operations of a classroom, their urgency is often diluted. In fact, some of those decision makers who are mostly removed from the day-to-day operations of school, find urgency to be child-like, silly, and not important at all. But those of us on the front lines of teaching, have that urgency because we are right there with the children--we see the excitement, need, and interest in their eyes, actions, speak, and longing.

I am a great fan of professional autonomy. I am often baffled as to why many decisions regarding what teachers do are made by those who rarely to never visit or spend time in a classroom. This happens on all fronts--local, state, national, and international. Though there are efforts in all of those realms to create greater teacher voice and choice too. I serve on the state's Teacher Advisory Cabinet, and find that to be a powerful way to include teacher voice at the state level. Similarly we have committees and protocols at the local level that invite teacher voice in ways that matter too. Sometimes sadly, there are protocols and committees in place that seem to invite voice, but truly obstruct that voice instead. It's important to look deeper at distributive leadership models to really see if the voices, experiences, and commitments of educators on the front line are honestly represented, or if its more of a mask or marketing technique to appear to represent teacher voice, choice, and leadership.

I take urgency seriously. I know that every word we say, act we promote, and effort we invest in have the opportunity to make a difference for children. I also know that in this knowledge age, an age that is revolutionary when it comes to how we learn, the need for urgency is greater--we can work together vigorously to improve the way students learn today, and how they apply that learning  to best affect their lives today and into the future. It's an exciting time in education, but also a serious time because what we do will affect the future. We need to help students develop future-ready skills, knowledge, outlooks, and resiliency.

Of course, one can be too serious, and there needs to be room for humor, personal life, and enjoyment too. Like all things, there's a balance, but too often, I believe that balance shifts towards a lack of urgency, and I believe that has to change when it comes to teaching all children well. Do you agree? I am interested in your thoughts about this matter.