Why Are We Afraid of Why?

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Welcome to this first blog post as I venture out into a new world of social media! Needless to say, this is somewhat stressful as it is a new experience. Ironically, as I put the page together I found myself asking, "WHY has it taken me so long to make this leap?" Then I thought, WHY are human beings, and more specifically those of us in education, afraid of asking WHY?

As teachers, we ask our students WHY all the time. It's second nature to ask a student to explain their thoughts and push their thinking to go deeper. However as colleagues, we often view the word WHY as an attempt to weaken our sense of being. When we question WHY certain practices exist, WHY policies are enacted the way they are enacted, and WHY decisions were made, the word has almost universally a negative connotation. If it is okay for us to question our students in this manner for the pure sake of understanding the students' thought better, why as colleagues can we not do the same. After all, a school or community is a sense of family and should be there to support each other and share ideas. Asking WHY should be a compliment as it is a gesture of curiosity, understanding, and growth.

In this time of turbulence within educational institutions, we need to ask WHY a lot. WHY do we do what we do on a daily basis? And do we need to continue doing those things, or make some changes. As we ask WHY of ourselves, students, colleagues, and communities, we also need to listen. Listen to each other to understand WHY and learn how to move our profession forward. We are doing many many good things in the field of public education, and have been for a long time. Perhaps it is time to question those good practices and learn how to make them great!! I wonder WHY we don't do that more often?

Worth the Read...



Take a Moment to Self Reflect and Grow...

Find 1 new initiative that you have implemented this year that you feel is working and ask yourself WHY? Can you apply these reasons for success to others areas of your room/building to improve those aspects?

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