At the beginning of a school year (as a veteran educator) there is so much that I own as the adult leader in a classroom environment

I own my responsibility to provide quality information to the people in the room

I own the mistakes in my own analysis

I own the outcomes of failed experiments (knowing that there is as much to be learned in things that don’t work as there is in things that do…perhaps even more)!

These are OPPORTUNITIES to release perfection and lean on the moment. The safety of getting things “right” the first time is often a trap of false security that creates toxic culture and thinking.

This time of year is also the beginning of the end of outdoor sports. I love to watch tennis and CG is emerging as one of the greatest in the game right now. This interview and its key messages about coaching are not obvious by this headline and thumbnail.

As educators, we perhaps have bought into the idea that we can “fix” what is broken:

In schools

In students

In communities

We can’t.

The Truth About Reading and The Right to Read loom large in my thinking about what is happening right now. Who am I? What am I supposed to be doing when so many people are struggling?

“We can guide them, challenge them, hold up mirrors to help them see what they cannot see by themselves…”

We betray the community when we stop believing they can (and we can) be solutions to problems.

We have an important relationship with our work and the people in our workspaces. We can’t fix them (nor should we try). We have to trust that approaching the work with honesty and integrity will be sufficient.

So what ideas am I blaming?

So how am I responding?