The Stuff that Works – catchy. I came across this song in the movie, The Rookie. (By the way, what a great movie about the importance of great coaches who never quit dreaming, and the effect that has on their own players.) Anyway, I think in education we are afraid to hang onto ideas which work. We feel that we are old-fashioned if we use things which worked years ago. Sometimes we will repackage those old ideas and market them as authentic like we do with Restorative Practices. But in general, we are guilty in education of forgetting that there are threads which run through the fabric of education which worked 100 years ago, and they still work today. You know, the same is true for veteran teachers (code for older teachers) – they might be old, but they still have what it takes. Old doesn’t mean it doesn’t work. In fact, ideas which have survived the passage of time might be seen more as ancient truths which are still with us today. Here are some things that we learn how to do in schools which are pretty useful and which don’t show up on a TCAP assessment:
- Tell the truth
- Respect your elders
- Stand up to bullies
- Getting along with others
- Following the rules
- Dealing with consequences to bad behavior (sometimes negative consequences! gasp)
- How to clean up after yourself
- Differentiate between friend and foe
- Making friends and keeping friends
- How to win and how to lose
- Organize and manage our own ball games
- To be on time
- Say what you mean, and mean what you say
- Think
I am sure there are many more, but if we are running our schools the right way….all of this is built right into our culture. Embedded is the word that educators would use for things which are built in or baked into the cake so to speak. “The stuff that works” is embedded into what we teach. We don’t need a program or a sign on the wall. It is the kind of stuff you don’t don’t hang on a wall. The stuff that’s real. The stuff you reach for when you fall.
Good principals worry about test scores. Great principals build a culture full of the stuff that works. Good ones worry about brief snippets of time which revolve around the finite moments of standardized assessments. The great ones work to build lives which hold up to the test of time. It is short term learning vs lifelong learning. And folks, the two (good and great) will come into direct conflict with each other as one has deep roots which hold up when drought comes and the other has roots which are shallow and are not tolerant of adversity. Building a school around statistics is the recipe for failure. Building a school on “the stuff that works” is construct which will stand the test of time.
This might be my anthem for teaching and for great schools…
