Being in education has never been tougher. No matter how hard you work, it never seems to be enough. Increasing numbers of students are turning up at school with complex needs and there isn’t enough money or adults to go around. There are lots of people talking about what education needs to look like in the future and we are starting to see agreement about the critical capabilities our students will need if they are to be successful post-school.
But the problem is that even though there is a growing agreement about what education in the future might look like, the world is grappling with how to get from where we are now to where we need to be. This is what I call Education’s Learning Pit, and we are down in the bottom and unsure about what the rungs of the ladder look like that will help us climb out.
Meanwhile, educating our tamariki continues, and educators need strategies in order to survive and thrive as education starts to haul itself out of the pit.
Below are some ways you might do this either on your own, as a team or even as a whole staff.
I believe that education will slowly pull itself out of its current learning pit. I don’t think anyone knows exactly what its future state will look like nor how we will get there. What I do know is that if schools do not evolve then they will be disrupted from forces outside the current system.
Change is hard and we are living in a time of accelerating change. The good news is that if we make the most of the opportunities technology is providing we can all have abundant lives. There has never been a time in history when we have had greater potential to solve global challenges such as poverty and disease.
In the meantime, take time to look after yourselves and those around you. Anchor yourselves to the reason why you became an educator in the first place. Kia kaha.