It's More Than Trees...
Have you ever heard the phrase, "Can't see the forest through the trees?" Recently, I've been involved in too many conversations that make me wonder if people can even see the trees. In fact, the forest is made up of so much more than trees and most people can't even comprehend it. Our profession has been one of the most drastically transformed professions in terms of expectations in the last 10 to 15 years. However, with this drastic change in expectation, there has not been much adjustment to the structure of education. Meaning, the number of days school is in session, the number of hours kids are in school, the way in which schools look and operate on a daily basis, etc. I know hundreds of teachers and leaders who would reinvent education tomorrow for the better, but every time you try, there is a regulation or law that completely stifles creativity. It's not all that different that teaching. If you know a teacher, ask a teacher what their day looks like and see if you can figure out when during that time they are supposed to teach. Or ask them how many of their professional conversations are centered around instruction and learning. The answers will stagger you as the vast majority of time spent in schools is now dedicated to handling crisis situations in homes, supporting kids and families emotionally, attending to disruptive and/or disorderly students, and the list will go on and on. Schools have been the catch all for society because we are the only place in society where children must attend in mass and we are supposedly the trained professionals. We are trained in education though, not "all of the above." The worst part to me is that almost every person in education I know, would do anything they could for a child. They try their best every day, and when something doesn't go as planned or desired by a parent, family member, etc., they are chastised for it and made to feel like the bad guy when they were going above and beyond for the student. Often times sacrificing their own family and their own children's needs to support the needs of their students. But all of this work is lost on so many people because we can't see the trees anymore. We have lost sight of the details and all of the small things that go into being an educator and schools. We only see big picture things, that to the average person would be a blurry picture at best because they only have 5-10% of the facts that create the picture, and want to attack if the picture is correct from their perspective. If we want our future to be bright, and our children to grow into the people we will need to take care of us, we need to get back to a world where parents support schools, partner with the school, and let the teacher use their craft. Not every teacher is going to be a perfect match for every child, but that is life. We don't always get to chose what we do or have in life, sometimes life throws us a curveball and we have to work with it. As we move toward the end of the school year, I ask that you enjoy the forest, but always remember that there are trees, plants, and life within that forest that you don't know about and probably can't understand why or how they thrive there. The trees in our forest can only thrive if we allow them to do so.
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