The Main Thing Needs to be Education

 

Stephen Covey, the author of Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, coined the phrase “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing”. We must stay focused to accomplish our goals. It may be oversimplified, but even in a pandemic transitioning to an endemic, the main thing in the Laurel School District needs to be the education of our students.

If education is our main thing, then the focus is curriculum, instruction, assessment and professional development. Our main thing has been handicapped since March of 2020. The Laurel School District was committed to #REIGNITE the educational fires this year. We believe we have done so. Any responses to the pandemic must answer the question, are we keeping the main thing, the main thing?

When we think of education, we often think about what our children will be exposed to and learn. The teaching staff at Laurel is on a several year journey reviewing, revising, and creating planned instruction. What is to be taught? How is it related to standards? Does it challenge our students through Big Ideas? Do they investigate through Essential Questions that generate inquiry and require justification? Is the plan assessed in a multitude of ways reaching the needs of different types of learners? Do the assessments create a portfolio of experience for the learner rather than a mere snapshot? Finally, is the district providing the support necessary to create a plan that meets the needs of the students? Over the course of the next 3 years, we will be answering these questions and revising the plan. Thereafter, part of the process should be to revisit, revise, and extend. Planned instruction is a process, not a product.

The answers will not be a secret. Our plan will be on our website. The Laurel School District does not need a statute from Harrisburg to encourage transparency in our educational process. A committee of teachers has been working with the administration since before the pandemic to create planned professional learning to assist the teachers in presenting a curriculum through a standardized template. In the not too distant future, the Laurel community will be able to access planned instruction by visiting a curriculum hub (now under construction) on our website.

The cycle of educational improvement stays focused on the student. The student cannot achieve anything unless they are healthy. Healthy students are mentally, physically, and spiritually ready to engage the education process. Students are mentally ready to face the challenges of a rigorous curriculum. Students must be physically ready to actively engage in their experience.  Students must be spiritually ready, however they define that term. Spiritual fitness allows students to learn from others, to listen to alternative viewpoints, and engage in civil discourse. Spiritual readiness will allow students to grow as individuals.

So, the main thing remains the main thing. Education is the main thing. Under the large umbrella of education is the plan of instruction. The plan is ever changing and evolving. Other parts of the umbrella canopy are the readiness of the students. Students will achieve if they are mentally, physically, and spiritually ready to actively engage in the process. Student outcomes determine the effectiveness of the educational process. If the main thing is effective, then the student outcome is one of personal success.