A slide from the same presentation by Dr. Andy Jacks (@_AndyJacks)
This, roughly, is a quote from this past weekend. "Your school should be judged by the way it treats the least of these."
It is often said that great teachers - great schools - make their decisions based upon their best students, teachers. And I fully stand by that. When we create lesson plans, when we consider the future of our school, it is the best students, the best teachers, that dictate what we will and won’t do, can and can’t do. We make decisions based on the top students and teachers, not the least common denominator.
And this is where the above quote convicted and challenged me this past week, because I desperately want my school to be considered the best, to lead the state and the nation in academics and excellence! Yet, ultimately, that is not how we will be judged, how we should be judged. If we have the highest GPA’s and ACT score but graduate jerks and kids who are not considerate of others, we have failed. And everyone will know it.
How we treat those kids who are at the bottom of the social ladder (be it academic, financial, popularity, whatever) is what defines us as a person, and us as a school. Do we spend extra time on some kids, and less on others? Do we send some parents emails and neglect others? Are we kinder, more patient with some kids and not with others?
If we’re honest, or at least if I am, the answer is yes. At least sometimes, anyway, and not because I like one kid more than another or because I think one has more value than another. But because, largely, the kids who have better home lives, more supportive parents, or more stable living conditions (generally) work harder, are more polite, and are better students. They’re easier to work with. Easier to spend time with. But they're also the ones that need us and our resources more.
“Are you spending as much time being concerned about and brainstorming ways to help a child’s behavior as you are a child’s reading or math scores?” This was another question posed, and I thought it a perfect distinction, or manifestation rather, of how we can love each child equally, yet differently, and according to their needs.
Perhaps you’ve heard the phrase, “Maslow before Bloom.” If not, it is simply implying that before we can work a child through the increasing stages of Bloom’s Taxonomy, we must first consider Maslow and the basic needs that each child must have in order to live.
Just today, I saw this play out with a particular student who bombed a test. And I mean he BOMBED it. When he and it were brought to my attention, the student spent a good deal of time explaining the morning he had had the day of the test and how that difficulty, that upheaval of a morning affected his day and ability to work. We then spent a little bit of time discussing his emotions, his normal morning life, and how he could have handled those frustrations in the near future. We spent time working through his Maslow needs: safety and love and belonging. And it only took about 10ish minutes.
Then, he retook the test and it was RADICALLY different.
As teachers, as educators, we must always be pushing our students to achieve great things. We must never settle for mediocrity or ordinary - we aim towards and teach towards the best! But we also equally love on and support those who, for one reason or another, cannot achieve such great heights because their foundation of life - their basic needs - are absent or threatened. We reach and teach those kids, too.
We didn’t come to be teachers to serve and teach to the best of the best, but to change lives, to inspire lives worth living, and to improve the world around. Sometimes that means pushing the extremes of Bloom’s higher levels of Taxonomy. Other times, it is working through Maslow before attacking Bloom because that is what that kid needs, and because that is what we can provide. That’s why they call us teachers!
Although it is hard work, exhausting work, and at times extremely frustrating, it is the best work.
It is a great time to be an Educator.