Wait, what?
Wait, what?
Over the summer, I came across a commencement address delivered by James Ryan, dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. His talk has gone viral on YouTube, and, like many YouTube hits, it has now been expanded into a book. While I haven’t read the book yet, I did like the list of five essential questions that Dean Ryan suggests we use to understand the world around us. Simple and eloquent, his first question, “Wait, what?” is “at the root of understanding.”
Resisting the seductive power of assuming we know what someone has said challenges us to make sure we truly understand what someone is saying. The question made me think back to conversations I have had in which I jumped too quickly into agreement or dissent because I heard only a portion of what was uttered. When we agreed too quickly, we lost the nuances of our perspective that might have deepened our understanding. And when we were so righteous in the infallibility of our viewpoints, our conversation devolved into wins and losses, and we accomplished nothing.
In our efforts to look at how we do our very best to educate our students at Poly, we need to commit to saying “Wait, what?” more often if we are going to be truly a “community of learners,” as our mission articulates. New research on adolescent brains, sleep, teaching and learning, changing demographics, and the lack of civility we witness almost daily in the news and through social media all demand that we bring our very best selves to our work together as parents, students, and colleagues. Without doing so, our efforts will be diminished, and the integrity of our decision-making will be compromised.
Wait, what? Two simple words that just might be the catalyst to how we honor the promise of our mission in the years to come.
JWB
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Over the summer, I came across a commencement address delivered by James Ryan, dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. His talk has gone viral on YouTube, and, like many YouTube hits, it has now been expanded into a book. While I haven’t read the book yet, I did like the list of five essential questions that Dean Ryan suggests we use to understand the world around us. Simple and eloquent, his first question, “Wait, what?” is “at the root of understanding.”
Resisting the seductive power of assuming we know what someone has said challenges us to make sure we truly understand what someone is saying. The question made me think back to conversations I have had in which I jumped too quickly into agreement or dissent because I heard only a portion of what was uttered. When we agreed too quickly, we lost the nuances of our perspective that might have deepened our understanding. And when we were so righteous in the infallibility of our viewpoints, our conversation devolved into wins and losses, and we accomplished nothing.
In our efforts to look at how we do our very best to educate our students at Poly, we need to commit to saying “Wait, what?” more often if we are going to be truly a “community of learners,” as our mission articulates. New research on adolescent brains, sleep, teaching and learning, changing demographics, and the lack of civility we witness almost daily in the news and through social media all demand that we bring our very best selves to our work together as parents, students, and colleagues. Without doing so, our efforts will be diminished, and the integrity of our decision-making will be compromised.
Wait, what? Two simple words that just might be the catalyst to how we honor the promise of our mission in the years to come.
JWB
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