Things We Can't Accept in Education

As a loyal twitter follower I often share information and a variety of things I find with staff.  I found this on a Blog titled- Life Of An Educator By Justin Tarte-  Justin is currently Director of Curriculum and Support Services in the Union School District, Union, Missouri.  He is also a former school administrator.  I really liked his thoughts on what is not acceptable in schools:

We can't accept what's been done in the past as the only way to do things in the future. Obviously changing just for the sake of changing is not appropriate, but we can't ignore the changes that are happening all around us, and as such there must be corresponding changes in education.

We can't accept not teaching the 'whole' child. More and more frequently our students are entering our schools with needs that extend far beyond just 'learning.' In order for education to be successful, we can't ignore the external factors that play a critical role in what we do in education.

We can't accept working in isolation and working in silos. The world is rich with opportunities for collaboration and there is no possible way to argue that we aren't stronger as a team and stronger working together.

We can't accept that our content is more important than the relationships we establish with our students. It is with almost absolute certainty that students won't care about your content if they don't care about you. Develop strong relationships to truly bring your content to life for your students.

We can't accept and continue to allow educators to believe that integrating technology into instruction is optional. As individuals, we can choose to ignore the influence of technology in society, but as educators we are robbing our students of experiences they will need to be successful.

We can't accept and continue to think that learning is limited to what happens within the four walls of a classroom. Learning can't be contained and learning can't be defined by man-made structures. Learning is everywhere and learning is all around us... education needs to acknowledge it.

We can't accept and continue to believe we have an achievement gap. In reality, we are facing an 'opportunity gap' that continues to divide the 'haves' and the 'have-nots' between equitable and equal access to educational materials and resources.

We can't accept and can't allow ourselves not to be held accountable. We as the educators are responsible for what happens in our schools, and it's that responsibility that makes working in education awesome.