Priorities and Mirrors: Developing Personal and Institutional Integrity

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    Those of you who know me, know that I skew toward the cynical and sarcastic. But I like to think that it's because of a deep conviction that "we" and "I" can always do better, make the world better. Naturally, given my cynical nature, I suspect I might only be easing my conscience by choosing to believe that I believe we can do better. Whatever. At some point you still have to chop wood and carry water, as the zen proverb says. You have to do something, so it might as well be helpful.

    Lately I've been thinking a lot about the pandemic as a transformative opportunity for systems, specifically school systems, to revise what we mean by success. For maybe the second time in my life, I actually looked at our school board goals, and it struck me that there are other people who regularly think about my students. I was a little embarrassed. It shouldn't come as a surprise to me that other people, including administrators and governing boards, think and care about the success of my students. But remember I'm a cynic, we tend to think we're alone in everything, and that no one is transparent.

    To my further surprise, I found the goals to be pretty great. I mean, anytime huge swaths of experience like being educated from the ages of 4-18 are reduced to a few bullet points, you tend to leave out some details, but in general, the goals were direct, specific, and attainable. More important to me, however, the goals seem to be based on a sincere and wholistic perspective of students as individual people of diverse backgrounds, interests and talents who move in and out of groups and experiences in need of guidance, meaning, care, love, community and purpose. These goals are really affirming.

    But....

   I've got a gift, people, and that gift is the gift of questions. 

    There's this clause. To be fair, I'm not sure how the clause fits in to the goals, conceptually. I don't know if it is a foundation, addendum, after the fact, or what. I wasn't a part of the discussion; I don't have the contextual background of the conversation; I know the nature of this type of document is broad and thereby somewhat vague. It's not even my place, really, to be a part of setting the goals. But this clause made me question our institutional faithfulness. The sentence reads:

Our aim is to foster a culture that provides each individual with the tools and opportunities needed to succeed now and into the future, and which prioritizes the social, emotional, and mental wellbeing of our students and staff. 

    Let me be clear; my questions aren't about the value or importance of this aim. I applaud the aim in the statement wholeheartedly. I love being a part of an institution that includes this language in its goals.  I see it as in line with my own personal goals. But, just as I question my own daily actions as a father, husband and teacher, I question whether we make daily decisions that show our priority. 

    Forgive me for putting on my teacher hat, but a list of I wonder... statements might help illustrate my thoughts. So, I wonder...

  • to what extent do our current grading practices prioritize the social, emotional, and mental wellbeing of our students and staff?
  • to what extent do our current homework practices prioritize the social, emotional, and mental wellbeing of our students and staff?
  • to what extent does our current credit based criteria for graduation prioritize the social, emotional, and mental wellbeing of our students and staff?
  • what supports are in place to prioritize the social, emotional, and mental wellbeing of our students and staff?
  • does our current positioning of traditional academic coursework in dialogue with educational stakeholders prioritize the social, emotional, and mental wellbeing of our students and staff?
  • when social, emotional, and mental wellbeing are prioritized, what is un-prioritized? 
  • is there room in our curricular imagination to prioritize wellbeing over content?
  • do we have the courage to forego "requirements" in the face of social, emotional, and/or mental crisis?
  • does the current daily schedule reflect this priority?
    The questions could go on, of course. Not in the spirit of criticism, but the spirit of critical questioning. Any time we have a foundational goal or priority that guide our choices, we should evaluate our choices on the criteria of whether or not our choices advance the goal or not. That, I believe, is one way to define integrity.

    My goal in this piece is not to answer all the questions I've raised, but to raise them in the hopes that they can provide a mirror for my daily choices. Even when I don't live up to my goals, keeping them in front of me is crucial to my development as a person and an educator. 


    


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