I was sitting in a CAFE earlier this year when a principal stood up to introduce herself and share a bit about her school. She said something that caught my ear and I have been thinking about since.
“We believe that there is going to be something in this building that will change a child’s life, a child will experience something in this space that will spark an interest they may pursue for the rest of their lives”.
Most of us would nod along with this idea. Of course schools change kids’ lives. We have heard statements like this before and probably expect it as a baseline for our education system. But she was not handing us a slogan. She was describing how her staff actually live expectantly.
Because they believe it, they act on it. They raise chickens. They breed axolotls. They bring in a petting zoo. They host art nights. They build math games to take home. None of those things are required. They happen because educators decided their school would be the kind of place where a child could find the spark that ignites a life’s pursuit. They know that one day, a student from this school may be a farmer, a professor, a marine biologist, or a veterinarian. They could trace that passion back to a first exposure in their elementary school.
Imagination vs Immediate
Educators live close to imagination. Just walk into any classroom and you’ll be prompted toward possibilities, toward new frontiers, to paradigms beyond where you are.
The rest of us tend to drift the other way. Somewhere in the journey between school age to adulthood, many of us trade what could be for what is. We stop asking questions of imagination and start managing what is already on the calendar or the reality of what is in front of us.
That principal was not just describing her school. She was holding open a door that many of us had walked past a long time ago. We could learn a lot from educators like those who seek to expand realities within this school’s walls. Possibilities, frontiers, and paradigms are still worthy of pursuit, especially as we navigate through adulthood.
More than a building
A school could be seen as merely a building full of math problems and lunch trays. Or it could be seen as a portal. A portal to expanded realities, lifelong passions and curious pursuits. When a principal tells her staff that something in this building is going to change a child’s life, she is standing against the status quo, pressing toward what could be.
Educators are awesome. They dream. They challenge us to aim for places like the moon. It has been an honor to build villages around these leaders and add a bit of “fuel.” By helping them gather community partners, our hope is to join in these dreams and align resources to help them go farther.
Educators will always find ways to spark a child’s life. The rest of us have an incredible opportunity to walk alongside.