I listened to Untamed at the beginning of quarantine when it first came out and loved it so much I had to order the hard copy (if you are one of the 5 people who haven’t read this yet, you should). There is a lot that resonates but there is one idea that I can’t get out of my head but have been hesitant to write about because I know there will be push back but here it is. Glennon writes, 

A woman becomes a responsible parent when she stops being an obedient daughter. 

Just for a refresher, here is what obedience means according to Google:

Obedience: compliance with an order, request, or law or submission to another’s authority.

“children were taught to show their parents obedience”

In addition to my role as a mom, this section in the book got me thinking about my experience as a teacher and many of the expectations and rules placed on the profession. I was once told there is a reason that educators get a discount on car insurance–as a population, they are more compliant and don’t often take risks. For this reason, many will trust the administration or the “authority”, which can be the department head or more experienced teachers too, and just follow the rules to avoid getting into trouble. Now as the world has changed, many rules and policies in schools are quickly changing and I have heard many educators struggling with their role and starting to ask: Do I need to do these things that admin is telling me when they make no sense? 

I have grappled with questions like this and I know that many others have wondered this throughout their career, but especially now. I believe that administrators (and everybody for that matter) are doing the very best they can right now and so are the people in the district and state departments but guess what, they have never done this before either and they don’t know your kids and their circumstances nor do they have visibility into what your day to day is as an educator.  To be fair, the administrators I have worked with have the weight of the world on their shoulders and want to do the very best to ensure kids are safe and fed and have the very best access and opportunities to learn. Some of us are operating out of fear want to control the situation because that is how we cope and manage. But simply being obedient will never create the experiences that our students need nor get us to the outcomes we desire. 

What if we reframed this statement from Glennon and said, 

A teacher becomes a responsible educator when they stop being an obedient employee. 

Gasp, I know!

Hear me out– the best educators I know have always looked to their learners and used their experiences, background, and professional expertise to make decisions. There will be challenges- lots of them. There is no precedent set for how to teach in a pandemic or what “best practice” is. We are all learning, drawing on experience, research, practice, intuition, and putting ourselves out there to figure it out. So here is the deal, I am not saying that we do whatever we want without regard to the rules and regulations, that never goes well. But I am encouraging us as educators at all levels to not just blindly follow the rules just because someone with more authority made them. 

To be clear this is not about bashing administrators or teachers but to simply acknowledge that we don’t all have this whole teaching in a global pandemic thing quite figured out yet.  As I get to see regularly, there are many approaches to leadership in schools and districts and views on education but regardless of this, what we know is that the way we have always done things is not currently possible, which can be scary and hard but it can also allow us to try new things and ditch some practices that were ineffective. Educators all over the world seemingly overnight had to modify their teaching and learning to meet kids where they were and teach from the confines of their homes. As we learn to meet the needs of students remotely with varied access, support, and resources, there is no mandate or one right way that is going to best meet the needs of students at home. 

I wrote this in Learner-Centered Innovation and it still applies: 

There is no substitute for a teacher who designs authentic, participatory, and relevant learning experiences for her unique population of students. The role of the teacher is to inspire learning and develop the skills and mindsets of learners. A teacher as a designer and facilitator should continually evolve with resources, experiences, and the support of a community.  It is becoming increasingly clear that we don’t necessarily need to transform the role of teachers, rather create a culture that inspires and empowers teachers to innovate in the pursuit of providing optimal learning experiences for their students.

You might think that following the rules is the easiest course of action but it’s not always the best thing for kids or as fulfilling as an educator. Most teachers get into teaching and feel a greater sense of efficacy, a belief in one’s ability to meet the need of students, when they see the impact they are making on their students.  As one teacher shared with me, “there is nothing worse than teaching something in the pacing guide when you know that there is a better way to teach it.” I would argue that there is something worse, not doing it.  If you know that there is a better way to meet the needs of learners, you owe it to them (and yourself) to try it. 

Instead of being obedient (or expecting teachers to be obedient), let’s understand that the best educators are most effective when they are responsive and adapt to the needs of their students to meet the desired outcomes, not when they blindly follow the curriculum and policies.