Thought of the Day: Tuesday, April 16th

My thoughts and prayers go out to every single person affected by the brutal and senseless attacks that took place today at the Boston Marathon. Lots of talk on Twitter today about how horrible the acts were and how bad we all feel for the victims of this horrendous tragedy. As we all try to make sense of what has happened, we should also be reminded of the great power that we have as educators to make a true difference in the lives of our students. 

In this age and time, we all talk about our own views about where we feel education should be heading. What should our student be able to know, learn, and do? We hear about so many teachers under pressure who must ensure that their students achieve certain standards in testing. We talk about how to better integrate technology into our lessons and in our classrooms. We discuss our views on curriculum change and teacher appraisal. The list goes on and on and will continue to go on and on despite the tragedy that took place in Boston.

How about this? How about really having a look at the powerful roles that compassion, empathy, consideration, grace, kindness, and love can play in a young person’s life. How about truly taking every learning moment possible to instill these traits within our students. How these traits cannot take priority over specific subject area content, I will never know. 

I am only throwing my thoughts out there, but I believe our world can be so caught up in achievement that we sometimes forget what is most important. We can forget about the traits and characteristics that will help our young people be great adults. In the famous words written in one of my favorite books of all time, Tuesdays with Morrie, “We must love one another or die”. 

Our education systems of today need to do a better job preparing young people to be great adults. Once again, my thoughts and prayers go out to all those affected by the Boston Marathon attacks.