Love & Education: How Did We Get Here?
Every year, Inclusive Schooling conducts hundreds of workshops and presentations with administrators, educators, and parents around the country to help them develop loving and inclusive approaches to supporting diverse students. So, at the beginning of a new year, we wanted to offer encouragement to our fellow educators committed to teaching and leading schools from the heart.
Many teachers and administrators, at their core, believe in teaching from the heart and leading with love. Yet they don’t always know how teaching from the heart translates into effective supports and practices for working with students who have challenging behavior. Over the years, we have drawn on incredible scholars like Alfie Kohn, Bill Ayers and Audre Lorde, expert practicing educators, wise and intuitive students, and formalized approaches like restorative practices, humanistic behavior supports and social-emotional learning, to turn educator’s belief in love into actionable, practical, heartfelt practices that work to heal.
The beginning of a new year is a great time to reflect on why we teach and why the work is important. To begin, we’ll share our reflection and then we’ll ask you to reflect.
Why Do We Teach?
We have thought about this question long and hard, and so we wanted to share our thinking with you as you begin to approach the question for yourself. We teach because we believe we can:
- create inclusive and sacred environments where every one of our students can feel safe and valued and loved;
- encourage possibility, transformation and creativity;
- promote compassion and belonging in our students and communities;
- build a society in which we celebrate the diversity of humanity;
- help every human reach an even fuller version of their potential
We also teach because we are hopeful and intent on living a life that aligns with our values. We teach because, although changing systems and communities can be daunting and seemingly impossible, we believe change begins with us.
And, above all else, we teach from a place of love.
Your Turn – Take a minute to write, draw, or sculpt:
WHY DO YOU TEACH?
Happy new year to you, and the students you impact on a daily basis. We look forward to what lies ahead!
