The Dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education suggested to the class of 2016 that there are 5 essential questions you should regularly ask yourself. He noted that if you get into the habit of asking these questions you have a greater chance of being successful and happy.
He was posing these suggestions to people who have spent time at Harvard preparing to transform education in ways both large and small. I absolutely agreed with everything he said and I want to take it a step further. You see, he told these graduates that there is no higher calling than the field of education. There is a higher calling and that is being an educator who also bridges the gap for parents.
When we, as educators, forget that our students are not just learners of a subject, but beings destined for their own unique greatness we become trapped in a tunnel of teaching ‘to a test,’ to a ‘field,’ to a curriculum. We can be the models who remind parents that the present moment is as important as achieving a future goal.
