What am I doing here?

"What am I doing here?"

I ask myself that question a lot lately. Not because I'm second-guessing my career choice after 24 years, and not because I think there must be a better situation out there for me somewhere else.

It's because my learning, as a result of changing the focus of my classroom, instruction, and assessment processes has led me to be more reflective, more deliberate, more empathetic in my approach to the work I do and the people I work with.

And I see differently what's happening around me. I see two tides rising. One from the outside that has an unshakeable faith in the power of data to reveal the truth about teaching and learning. The business/science of education.

The other tide, the one I'm swimming with, is also rooted in an unshakeable faith. Faith in the humanity of learning, the power of relationships, the empowering nature of learning to learn, and the confidence and optimism that comes from being respected for our individual gifts. The art of learning.

So it's not "What am I doing here?" it's more "What am I doing here?"

And if I had to put one in front of the other I think I'd rather do good than well.

"The apparent ease with which children learn is their ruin. You fail to see that this very facility proves that they are not learning. Their shining, polished brain reflects, as in a mirror, the things you show them, but nothing sinks in. The child remembers the words and the ideas are reflected back; his hearers understand them, but to him they are meaningless."

Excerpt from Emile, Or On Education,  by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1762.