Today I felt a glimmer of hope in the most unusual of places–our district office.
I was there with 20 or so fellow educators, discussing how the classes we teach matter. They matter a lot.
And not that Math or Science or English aren’t important subjects–they most certainly are. But I’m in the fortunate position of being in two departments and I teach subjects and skills that are completely woven. Yet too often in high schools, subjects are treated as individual entities and we wonder why kids can’t seem to transfer knowledge from class to class.
But I digress. Let me get back to hope:
That group of 20 colleagues shared idea after idea after idea for how we could improve our schools–and not all the suggestions involved buying new things. (Although of course, a new network would be fabulous…) We were encouraged to be honest with our administration. We were asked to be innovative in our approach to building curriculum.
We were treated like professionals.
It hasn’t always been that way when I’ve been in meetings at the district office, and I don’t know if it will stay that way forever. But today when I left, I felt trusted and a little empowered. I felt hope.
Here’s hoping it continues.
