The start of school, typically in September has a couple of constants. First, everybody gets sick! We have a heightened awareness because of COVID 19, but let’s face it, students and staff often get sick during this first month of school. Students and staff have typically lost some of their immunity factors over the summer and the ramped up schedule for both tends to lead to more illness at home and at school.
The second constant for the school start is the critical importance of adults building strong relationships with students. This year, the need to foster effective and trusting relationships with students, parents and guardians is even greater. There continues to be a high level of anxiety out there, (some warranted and some not) and students first need to feel safe and supported in their learning environment. Media hysteria, social media rants or politically motivated misinformation about how schools are ill prepared don’t make it easy for educators in schools. The good news however is that compassionate educators always tend to push these distractions aside and focus on relationships.
Prior to the start of the school year I was invited to present to an elementary staff on school culture and relationships. With regular in-school attendance being interrupted for almost six months, the general public may believe that the 3 Rs: Reading, wRiting and aRithmetic should be the primary focus coming back into school. However, my contention then and now is that the 3Rs to be attended to are: Relationships! Relationships! Relationships!
Of interest, is that in many standards for teachers and leaders, the first competency is always around fostering effective relationships. Great teachers and great leaders always build strong relationships with their people…little or big! Yet the push from some governments and the general public is to elevate the standards usually by imposing unnecessary high stakes testing. Don’t get me wrong, I believe in constantly improving the educational experience of our students and I’m adamant that data should be used to inform our instructional practice. But higher standards or “better graduates” won’t come about if we don’t first focus on relationships. The issue is well characterized in the photo below.
Dr. Jody Carrington would be all over this slide because it speaks of connection and in essence, that is what strong relationships are…connections.
Why would teacher and leader standards have relationships as their first competency if it wasn’t that important? Every September should be the start or re-start of building relationships that carry on throughout the year. If we don’t get that right…then we really aren’t getting education right!!!
