What's the point of all this?
Gaining clarity on how we want to our students to emerge having spent time in our schools.
Imagine a parent who is school shopping asks, ‘What will my child be like at the end of her years in your school? What can you promise me if all things being equal?’
What will your answer be?
The importance of having a clear vision is taught in nearly all self-improvement or organisational improvement manual or master classes. Vision is the north star, the guiding light we all work towards attaining. The question again is this, ‘What is our vision for the students who spend their time in our school?’
They have given us their years. What do they get in return?
I am asked this many times by parents, teachers, and school leaders whom I have the privilege to coach.
After a lot of research in the last year, I would like to share some of my findings with you in this newsletter.
At the end of their time in our schools, we must be intentional about ensuring our students are:
a. Successful individuals who work hard and enjoy learning, achieve, are scholarly and make progress, are continually engaged in learning new things, are capable of more than they thought possible, eager to utilise the brain to think, research, study, experiment, and find results.
b. Confident individuals living fulfilling lives, not dependent upon other people finding out the answers and handing them over but thriving in their own thinking, avid readers, culturally aware, good listeners, analytical by nature, with good comprehension skills, eager to discuss and reason.
c. Spiritual individuals who are compassionately sensitive to the needs of others and ‘self’, instilled with a heightened sense of morality and with a readiness to challenge all that would constrain the human spirit, for example, poverty of aspiration, lack of self-confidence and belief, moral neutrality or indifference, force, fanaticism, aggression, greed, injustice, the narrowness of vision, self-interest, sexism, racism and other forms of discrimination; individuals with an appreciation for the intangible - for example, beauty, truth, love, goodness, justice, order, as well of for the mystery, paradox, and ambiguity.
d. Motivated individuals with a purposeful and aspirant direction in life, a love of learning, a sense of vocation, and are flexible for future work needs.
e. Responsible individuals who live contented, safe and healthy lives, making a positive contribution to society and who have a heightened awareness of both citizenship and charity instilled with a strong sense of community; individuals with a sophisticated understanding of the importance of courtesy, appropriate behaviour and care of others; individuals who shun bullying and work to eradicate it; individuals who care about the environment; individuals who look to the future and without forgetting to enjoy the experience of the day.
I know! A lot done and lots to do right?
Absolutely.
When parents give us their children for years, and children give us their attention for years, we MUST do much more than ensuring they ‘pass’ their examinations.
Next question is this, with what we know now, how do we begin to reverse engineer this outcome, ensuring learning experiences, our school culture, our school’s structure, actions and all work together to fulfil this promise to all children who walk through our schools and who we are privileged to call student?
How do we ensure we are developing the whole child rather than settling for a narrow set of academic outcomes?
Our pursuit of academic excellence can never be extricated from the challenge of developing responsible, mature, compassionate citizens who are able to channel their talents towards healthy, productive ends.
That is the work we have been called to do.
Love and Light,
DAO
Super!
It seems to be a lot but it is the work we are called to do!