Learning is hard. It takes time, it’s uncomfortable, it’s not always clear what the best path forward is. And when we’re in the middle, it can feel like we are failing. And sometimes we do, but that is part of the process. As you experience that breakthrough or the success that you have been working so hard for, the struggle and challenges that you faced become part of the journey and in retrospect, are necessary.

People are always going through challenges at different times and in different magnitudes but what we’ve experienced living through 2020 has provided a collective learning experience. The pandemic has turned us all into beginners as the usual ways of doing things were no longer an option. Virtually every business and organization had to design new ways of operating accommodate social distancing and keep everyone safe. This meant that as individuals we had to reimagine habits like going to restaurants, movies, and working out. We had to have difficult conversations about bias and equity that challenged our actions, interactions, and systems. Traditions like birthday parties, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and graduations were reinvented. 

The Beginner’s Mindset

Having to learn new processes, procedures and tools can be hard when you are used to being an expert, but it can also provide us a fresh perspective on how we not just go back to normal but design a better way forward. The concept of a Beginner’s Mind comes from Zen Buddhism and is called Shoshin: “having an attitude of openness, eagerness, and lack of preconceptions when studying a subject, even when studying at an advanced level, just as a beginner in that subject would.”

As Shunryu Suzuki says in Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind:

“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, in the expert’s mind there are few.”

When something is new, there is no expectation to know anything about it. This allows you to approach the situation with a different mindset than one of an expert who has a preconceived notion of what should happen, and can put you on autopilot rather than thinking about new and different opportunities. 

A beginner is: 

• Open to how things works and new possibilities
• Free of expectations about what will happen
• Curious and wants understand things more deeply

Specifically in education, this collective experience has challenged educators, administrators, policy makers, families, and communities to reimagine how we educate young people. For so long school has been a place where we would take our kids as parents and show up to work as educators. The schedule kept us all in place and moved us from class to class so we could make sure to cover and essentially learn all that was required of us in our given class, or semester, or year. It was a system that was predictable and that allowed for us to feel safe going through the motions. The tests tell us that the majority of students are learning and therefore they were on track as they moved from grade level to grade level. We rarely question this process, because the structures have existed for so long have allowed us to keep the system in place that look very similar and function as they have for over 100 years. 

In 2020 all of that changed. It has been hard and many of us found ourselves having to learn how to do new things to connect with students and teach them in new models. As a result, this provided more lessons and opportunities than many of us wanted to challenge our thinking about what matters most. As many educators have leaned into the challenge and looked to learners, we have seen new practices and models emerge. 

Here are 5 examples I have curated that I hope allow you to use a beginner’s mind to reimagine common practices in education. 

1. What if we reimagined homework and all the stuff that we require students to do to create assignments, work and accountability that aligns with our goals? 

Mary Davenport shared her transformation in an Edutopia article, Rethinking Homework for This Year—and Beyond, as she reevaluated homework and the benefits that she and her students have realized because of this shift. 

I’m now laser-focused when designing every minute of my lessons to maximize teaching and learning. Every decision I make is now scrutinized through the lens of absolute worth for my students’ growth: If it doesn’t make the cut, it’s cut. I also take into account what is most relevant to my students.

For example, our 10th-grade English team has redesigned a unit that explores current manifestations of systemic oppression. This unit is new in approach and longer in duration than it was pre-Covid, and it has resulted in some of the deepest and hardest learning, as well as the richest conversations, that I have seen among students in my career. Part of this improved quality comes from the frequent and intentional pauses that I instruct students to take in order to reflect on the content and on the arc of their own learning. The reduction in content that we need to get through in online learning has given me more time to assign reflective prompts, and to let students process their thoughts, whether that’s at the end of a lesson as an exit slip or as an assignment.

2. What if we expanded options for students and provided access to a variety of courses that would meet requirements and based on their interests, challenges, questions? 

In The Time to Redesign is NOW- Kelly Young, provides some ideas and examples that currently exist : “Virtual learning platforms like Galileo and Outschool are connecting young people to teachers and courses that interest them. Galileo serves young people eager for self-directed learning, introducing them to amazing educators worldwide through such offerings as their Nanodegrees. These are one-month, project-based courses on topics like genetic engineering and design thinking, where young people learn a new skill and present their final product or presentation during the final week of the course. Outschool is a platform through which educators can offer virtual classes of any length and topic. Some popular classes right now are “Writing Club for Screenwriters, Authors, and Poets,” “Babysitting Basics,” and “How Money Works.” 

3. What if school was more like camp? What if we learned solving problems, tackling challenges, and having a lot of fun doing it?

In School Wasn’t Great Before the Pandemic Either, there are many great provocations and data to examine on the current status of education but I particularly love this:

“What if we give every kid in kindergarten through sixth grade in America the option to spend the academic year engaged primarily outdoors in a kind of “pandemic camp” instead of traditional school? The focus would be on achievement that is not narrowly academic—physical challenges; acts of service; and the development of self-regulation, independence, and friendship. Academic goals would also be part of the program; you can learn a lot of science while roaming a municipal park. But the emphasis would be on creating a new set of challenges for students to master, not on an ersatz version of school as we know it. We could suspend state-mandated testing for a year. We could replace the standard playbook with a new one that rejects the cognitive and emotional harm done to children who sit in taped-off squares in a mask all day and that values instead the broadest definition of learning. Among other benefits, spending money on universal year-round summer camp would do more to help poor kids close the achievement gap than would spending it on remedial phonics lessons.”

4. What if we create opportunities for smaller learning communities with mentors or advisors that create a sense of belonging, connectedness, and accountability for students?   

Jenee from Transcend has written a great series about reinventing education, and in particular I find this example of the Lakota Oyate Homeschool Co-op to be a powerful example of how we can create smaller learning communities that foster belonging for diverse communities.  

“This pod is taught together in this multi-aged group, which is supported by a whole community of family members. Marie serves as the “proctor” and Lakota Language and Culture teacher, working one-on-one when needed and leading the group during non-virtual learning portions of the day, such as nature exploration and hosting elders. Core academics like math and science are pursued in hands-on, practice-based ways. Students also spend time in nature during science learning, and math is grounded in culturally-relevant practical examples – a future lesson will be on how to erect tipis for maximum occupancy and egress. After the morning sage and cedar burning, the group then moves to a talking circle where the child with the feather or rock holds the floor. This is designed to be a reflective space for setting intentions grounded in Lakota values of respect, generosity, bravery, and courage. The children might reflect on the question, “What is a way that I can be generous today and share with others?” 

5. What if we created personalized pathways for students to meet them where they are and ensure they get what they need?

The Chiefs for Change have authored a report, The Return, and while I don’t agree with everything in this report, this provocation around an individual plan for each student and reallocating staffing models, is worth considering. 

“As students reenter schools, it will be more important than ever that each student receives an individualized plan for their academic, social, and emotional needs. Individual learning plans are not new—these are required for students with special needs—but will now be something all educators should do upon reentry as they diagnose student learning, set specific learning goals, identify social and emotional learning needs and supports, and coordinate interventions with multiple providers and educators. The suggested staffing model makes meeting these very different needs more likely. Reconfiguring teacher and paraprofessional roles to maximize high-quality instruction and connections with individual students is therefore a priority that will place our students and schools on better footing in the years to come.”

Let’s Not Aspire to go Back to Normal

The pandemic forced us to rethink many routines from how we get our favorite meal at a restaurant, entertainment, working out and of course how we work, live, and go to school when we can’t be together. People traveled less for work and still managed to get work done and in many cases more efficiently.  Doctor’s started seeing patients virtually, which took 15 minutes rather than 2 hours to travel, wait, see the doctor, and then drive home. The forced change of pace, more time at home, less rushing from place to place caused many to slow down and reflect in many places, but too few educators actually had the space to do this. 

Margaret Wheatley reminds us that, “Without reflection, we go blindly on our way, creating more unintended consequences, and failing to achieve anything useful.” My hope for 2021 and beyond is that we can collectively create the space in schools to pause, and reflect on what matters most and work together to make it happen. Let’s not aspire to go back to normal, let’s use the beginners mindset to stay curious, free ourselves from the expectations of what school should be, and explore the possibilities of what it could be.