Another school year is under way, and educators are doing what they do best: connecting to kids through well-crafted lessons, engaging instructional strategies, and tending to the whole child with their whole hearts. Sadly, most of what occurs in classrooms and schools will go unnoticed by the public. Media outlets will be quick to write stories of children left on buses, stagnant test scores, dissatisfied parents, and teacher burnout. We rarely experience stories from the major news outlets about the everyday heroes who turn kids' lives around by playing several roles at once, including counselors, social workers, advocates, resource finders, and nurses.
During a deep dive into my summer reading list, I came across a concept that grabbed my attention: essentially, the feeling of joy we get when we see another person experiencing joy.
During my first teaching role, I was assigned to 32 second grade students whose differences were as broad as any ocean but whose hopes couldn't be more similar. Each of my students wanted to grow as an individual, to learn, to be appreciated, and to know I cared. I remember the joy I felt when one student, Nicole, reached out to another who needed a reassuring hug. When Juan read an entire chapter book for the first time and his proud smile illuminated the room, I felt his joy especially because I knew he had faced many challenges in pursuit of that achievement. Throughout the years, that same type of joy returned, not consistently or predictably, but more than I thought possible.
Although educator preparation programs focus on content knowledge, instructional strategies, and other skills necessary to provide safe and effective learning environments, they focus little on the joy we experience with our students. Even more importantly, they offer little guidance or recommended practices for celebrating these moments.
As this school year unfolds, imagine how the public perception of education could change if media outlets and social networks created continuous narratives of joyous happenings—an intentional effort to capture and share those special moments that sing to educators each day. Rather than focusing solely on what is wrong, let's focus on and communicate what makes education the magnificent profession it is, by lifting those moments of shared joy and incredible successes.
During my career, I have been fortunate to encounter outstanding educators, in all types of contexts, who work magic. For them, embracing the joy of others' successes is an outcome of many long hours of reflection, practice, advocacy, and encouragement. Take, for example, the superintendent whose incredible leadership orchestrated a volunteer-run home visitation program. I was inspired when, on a visit to one of the homes benefiting from this program, a mom shared that because of her engagement with home visits, she had successfully achieved her G.E.D. and was now enrolled in a teacher preparation program. The ambient joy of this mom's triumph radiated out to and was absorbed by all of the educators volunteering to conduct home visits. When your efforts play some part influencing others' joy, that joy becomes contagious.
I once had the honor of observing migrant students presenting a community proposal to their town council, a culmination of a problem-based learning project. When the town council accepted their proposal, the joy in those students' eyes spoke volumes—they were heard, they knew their ideas mattered. Witnessing that joy made my spirits soar, just like it did when I observed schools in an isolated Appalachian region that had combined resources to provide advanced placement classes for students and collaborative professional learning for teachers. Feeling great joy for others who find their joy is the essence of what constitutes caring educators. Where are those stories in mainstream media?
During this past summer, a rash of teacher protests surfaced, and most news reports narrowly focused on teachers' demands for raises and enhanced classrooms and schools. Don't all of us want classrooms without leaking windows and ceilings and schools with adequate bathroom facilities? Isn't it reasonable to expect educators to be compensated fairly so that they don't have to take on additional jobs just to make ends meet? Nowhere amidst the negative coverage of teacher protests did I find reports of the miracles educators perform every day—helping students and their families maneuver learning and life with the aplomb of a super hero. Where were the stories of shared joy?
Perhaps it is on us to model to the world beyond our school communities how to share in each other's joy, to sing the songs of our colleagues' and kids' successes, loud and clear. It is time for us to stand up and share those qualitative moments lost in the data reported from standardized tests. Let's hold each other accountable for catching moments of shared joy, and let's tell the world that we are strengthening our country one child at a time. We are educators, we stand proud, and every once in a while, we get to stand back and experience shared joy.
Here's to the kids who teach us so much and to the educators who learn from them every day! ASCD is proud to be a partner on this journey.
