A Purpose
In his book “The Greatest Generation,” Tom Brokaw speaks of an overwhelming driving force that provided an opportunity for ordinary people to accomplish extraordinary tasks. This force was a sense of common purpose. Brokaw remembers from when he was five, “Looking back, I can recall that the grown-ups all seemed to have a sense of purpose...there was something greater connecting all of us, in large ways and small”(Brokaw, 1998, p.11). The theme is revisited throughout the book in the many stories he shares. This sense of common purpose for Americans to defeat the Axis Powers (Germany, Japan, and Italy), the driving force at the time, provided them the opportunity to rise to the occasion. I can think of no more powerful example of the value of a shared vision or common purpose. The power behind a common purpose can be easily connected to building our school culture through the metaphor of looking at schools as a greenhouse.
The metaphor for schools as a greenhouse works because nurturing takes place in both a school and a greenhouse. In a greenhouse the roots of plants are nurtured so that as they develop they will be able to successfully anchor and support the plant no matter the environment outside the greenhouse. The analogous “roots” of students which are nurtured in schools are the soft skills students develop that are not seen on the surface nor are easily measured. Nonetheless, these “soft skills” or “competencies” help anchor and support the young person no matter where they lay down their roots once they leave school. It is the development of these “roots” or “competencies” of the young people attending Aurora Schools that our strategic vision is built upon.
A Vision
The Aurora City Schools Strategic Vision stresses the importance of focusing on the whole child which aligns with the Ohio Department of Education’s “Each Child- Our Future” vision. We believe today’s schools must not only build a solid foundation of academic knowledge, but also nurture a deep sense of purpose and self in young people. These young people are not merely students, but LEARNERS with a skill set that prepares them to be successful in an ever changing world. This vision, Aurora Learners-Future Ready, is intended to serve as a guide or north star for the day to day learning taking place in grades PreK-12 and is composed of six competencies which help to support Aurora Learners to be future ready.
These competencies: Balanced, Resilient, Innovative, Collaborative, Empathetic, and being a Critical Thinker function as the aforementioned “roots” when thinking about Schools as a Greenhouse. The greenhouse is intended to provide the ideal conditions for the plant’s roots to develop, so that those roots will be able to anchor, support, and provide nutrients to the plant no matter the environment in which the plant is placed once it leaves the greenhouse. So too should the environment in our schools nurture the “roots” of young people as these “roots” will allow young people to be anchored and supported no matter the environment (school, work, or military) in which they place down their roots. As we work to nurture these competencies of the young people who attend our schools these “roots” grow deeper and stronger year by year throughout their PreK-12 experience so that in the end the young people who attend the Aurora City Schools will be deeply rooted and prepared to contribute once they graduate.
A Process
The common purpose of creating schools that act as a greenhouse combined with the vision of providing an environment which will nurture the competencies that prepare young people to be successful once they leave our schools need to be combined with one more element in order to be successful and that is a way or process in which to make this come to fruition. In other words, we need a process that is able to address just HOW the purpose and vision can be fulfilled.
The first step towards creating such an environment is more mental than physical. It is a mindshift for all educators that require us to shift from the mindset of a curriculum delivery model for teachers to one in which teachers instead design environments for learning. These environments ideally put young people in situations which allow them to recognize patterns within the new information, create relationships between the concepts introduced, and make connections to their past learning. This process requires teachers to consider certain requirements or specifications when creating or designing activities and lessons. Considering these specifications when designing lessons are HOW the purpose and vision become reality.
The shift from a traditional model of schools which emphasizes curriculum delivery to a model in which young people are prepared for life can be made if we focus on five main ideas or specifications when designing our classroom environments.
Specification 1: Honoring Identity Through Relationships
Specification 2: Learning is Social
Specification 3: Nurturing Innovation
Specification 4: Process vs. Product
Specification 5: Beyond Points and Grades
How this will look will be very different for a first grade classroom than in a Calculus class, but the five specifications serve as a common framework for teachers to consider. If classroom activities and lessons are designed with these specifications in mind, instead of focusing on covering content through the curriculum delivery model, the purpose and vision we have proposed for young people in schools will be fulfilled no matter the age level.
A school culture in which all educators (teachers, administrators, counselors, psychologists, etc.) focus on a common purpose, vision, and process for developing young people’s ability to learn (Nurture the Roots) more than the curriculum to be delivered or the scores students produce is why we went into education, what our parents want, and how kids need to learn.
References
Brokaw, Tom. (1998). The Greatest Generation. New York, NY.: Random House.
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