What does educational leadership look like if you’re only giving guard rails?
In my position as a Scoutmaster of a Boy Scout troop, it’s been impressed on me that my leadership is secondary to the youths’ growth. My job is to empower youth leaders, facilitate learning and growth, and make sure they are safe.
As an ensemble educator I feel, I believe accurately, that it’s my duty to compel growth and learning – to make sure my students learn, no matter what!
Those are two very different definitions of mentoring roles. And the more I perform those roles side-by-side, the more I consider what it would look like to move more of education into a model that is “Guard Rails Only.”
The risks are that students don’t grow, that they take advantage of the system, that test scores go down.
The benefits are that students take charge of their own learning, that they reengage in being curious during school, and that we truly empower all students to be leaders and strivers.
The truth is, there has to be some middle ground. What’s currently happening in education doesn’t work for everyone, and it leaves far too many “successful” but uncurious and burned out on learning.