And right now, there’s no story that will lead educators out of this historical wilderness. Winning the global battle for jobs, higher standards, more ‘rigorous learning’, teacher evaluation, merit pay, and testing requirements are all themes drawn straight from the technocratic approach of the last 100 years. It’s not the future, and those initiatives, though useful for daily use, don’t inspire—not in a world that so obviously demands joy and genius.
The New Story
Tapping the deepest energies of teachers, or any employees, requires a connection with big, meaningful themes that promise a significant, positive effect on the world. The themes contain simple, truthful, future-oriented plot lines—the elements of a story—that provide context for the daily work and help one refocus on larger goals. The more whole hearted the embrace of the goals, the more the hidden resources of the inner self are activated.
At a time of great transformation in the world, there are no shortages of themes to pick from. But teachers have special opportunities to tell a magnificent story about themselves and their profession:
Appreciate the power, beauty, and challenge of the present moment. If you’re a teacher, you have placed yourself in the most enviable, challenging, fulfilling role possible in the 21st century: You are responsible for co-creating a future that no one can imagine, and helping an untested generation of youth navigate unknown waters. Nothing—nothing—really prepares you for this role. But the future will be invented—and you will be part of it. Your passion, vision, and sense of mission will determine your level of contribution, but those qualities are liberated by appreciation and gratitude. The more grateful for your opportunity, the better the outcome and the more joyful the work. The same, by the way, applies to your students
Contribute to a global vision. Thinking about test scores is important for job security and job satisfaction. But confining performance to your school or district, or even your country, is a small slice of reality. Instead, imagine how 300 million youth under the age of 18 world-wide will rise out of poverty, find decent jobs, seek fulfillment, and design a livable world. Know that a significant shift has taken place world-wide: The concerns of teachers everywhere have converged, and every forward-focused teacher can be not just a local teacher, but part of connected network of educators trying to rally the world on behalf of youth. It’s a noble effort.
Redefine smart. The image of success associated with the old model is breaking down. A college degree and technical mastery are enormously helpful, but they don’t capture the essential attitudes necessary to succeed in a global environment that teeters every day on uncertainty. Test scores may affect funding and hiring, but nearly every teacher recognizes the passivity that testing encourages. ‘Smart’ these days includes grit, resiliency, empathy, curiosity, openness, creativity, and evaluative thinking. Figuring out how to teach, instill, or elicit these strengths in children as they move through school is the most acute challenge education has ever faced. No one really knows how to design a system that leads to ‘better’ people—and yet that’s the task.
Live the collaborative reality. The level of stress reported in high-performing organizations is considerable, so it’s not all roses, even when driven by passion and commitment. The answer is to share, either in person or beyond. Just signing up for Twitter, for example, will alert every teacher to the daily flow of powerful, hopeful ideas about education that are flowing 24/7 across the globe. If you’re a teacher in the U.S., try posting a wonderful, inventive insight about your classroom and watch Australia light up. See yourself as a cyber-partner. Get your personal learning network Think of yourself as living in a peer-driven world, in which ideas and change come from within and below, not from the top, and you can make the difference. Be part of these amazing times.
Thom Markham is a psychologist, school redesign consultant, and the author of the Project Based Learning Design and Coaching Guide: Expert tools for inquiry and innovation for K-12 educators. Find many more resources on his website, www.thommarkham.com or tweet him @thommarkham.
