My good friend, Tom Hoerr has an article worth reading. It’s about the five essential skills every student needs: “The qualities [he] calls the “formative five”—empathy, self-control, integrity, embracing diversity, and grit—comprise these intrapersonal and interpersonal success skills and become human literacy.”
While these five are important, I would sub out embracing diversity with shared purpose. People that our diversity is our strength, but it is only our strength if we are unified with a shared purpose.
If we are not unified with a shared purpose, then our diversity becomes a hinderance that gets in the way of what? We don’t know because we don’t have a shared purpose.
The emphasis on diversity causes us to draw lines in the sand, and what we really need is to say, “Are you with me in this shared purpose? And if you are, then bring your diverse perspective and life experiences and let’s make something good happen in order to accomplish our shared purpose!”
You see, when we focus on what is common among us, our diversity brings additional value to the table. When we focus on what is different about us, we create an “us versus them” mentality, usually not intentionally.
Tom argues, “these success skills are too important not to be directly taught throughout the curriculum. When we teach empathy, self-control, integrity, embracing diversity, and grit, we are developing people who will make a positive contribution in every situation, whether solving a problem at work, coaching a 3rd grade sports team, or being a good friend.”
Hoerr suggests repeatedly that we should teach these skills, but I fear the word teach is too strong a word for most educators to understand what really needs to happen.
Rather than “teach” as we typically do, with a learning objective and a measurable standard, these organic skills require us to understand that they grow with the children and are not discrete, technical skills that are demonstrably mastered in a given course.
They need to be discussed, again and again, in different ways and with different people to really emphasize the ongoing nature of them.
If I were starting the school year and wanted to be sure we focused on these skills, I would track our “formative conversations” whether as a class or individual, for both approaches are needed. “Teach” these skills implies have a lesson plan. That’s no good.
“Discuss these skills” implies that you’re going to be constantly looking for ways to bring these discussions into your classroom.
As the principal, I’d model these discussions and have them with my teachers as well, starting from the first day of teacher workdays all through the end of their contract! These skills are that important.
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