Those first two words have to go hand in hand with our school. What are we calling it anyhow? Lets think on that. Is it a system? I think we should find a new word for it. District, System, Archdiocese, Diocese, Corporation, Charter, etc; None of these seem to fit with what we really hope for in this experiment. Something that hasn’t been done, and something that also inspires hope.
Anyhow, Trust and Mistakes. They are so incredibly crucial to creating an environment that creates amazing results. Now, obviously, there needs to be boundaries on mistakes, but I feel like Mistakes are where we learn so much. Nothing new or innovative will ever take place in a school if people are terrified to make mistakes. We have to celebrate these, share them and share what they learned from them.
Trust, that is a heavy word. It is also liberating. Leaders who trust their faculty, have a faculty that will trust them in return. There has to be this underlying peace that comes from real trust in order to be effective, enjoy your work, and find ways to grow together. Trust makes mistakes palatable and moments for learning instead of fear. Isn’t that what we want for our students in class? We want them to trust themselves and their classmates enough to be able to make mistakes that they can learn from. We want them to trust their classmates enough to be themselves, be vulnerable and in that vulnerability they can grow as people. How can we expect them to do this, if we can’t on our end?
Platform.