What is our Education System’s just cause?

When you study successful businesses, their "why" is clear. The reason for why this company exists and the message they aspire to get across to the general public.

Take Apple for instance. Their company's initial mission statement was "To make a contribution to the world by making tools for the mind that advance humankind." This is something that even to this day, almost 50 years later, remains true. Their employees are some of the most loyal and respected by their employers. Their pay is high and their turn around rate is low, even in retail settings.

Educators are working for a system that has no face or just cause. There is no bigger cause we strive for that is aligned with what we do everyday day in and day out. You ask most teachers and they say they teach because they like working with kid and “creating the future for America”. But the why does not stay consistent across the board and it definitely does not stick on a day to day basis. There might be some good momentum in August when the year first starts, but there is not a single customer (student) or employee (teacher) who is not desperately counting down the days until winter, spring, or summer break. We ever-so-quickly lose the "why" of teaching. And I am not just speaking for the individual teacher.

Simon Sinek writes in "Start with why" and "The infinite game" that in order to truly be a successful long-term business, the "why" must be seen in every decision and action made for the business. It must be a top-down approach. You can only have so much drive as a teacher before the environment of the company wears you down. Employees base their efforts off of their employers, whether conscious or not.

When an employee does not feel valued, they work less intensely, cut corners and avoid doing anything extra. While you can have your own opinions on teacher strikes in Chicago's public schools, one thing we can hopefully agree on is that the "why" behind their teaching is not aligned with the school board's vision.

What I am trying to get at is that teachers surfaced level why that we live by is not sturdy and impenetrable. It is shaky at best. If the education system could truly create a solid and clear why as to WHY we do everything that we do, this will better guide HOW we decide to teach students and WHAT we decide to teach them.

When we ignore our why, we get so focused on the surfaced level of "What" we teach, that we don't even have a good answer for students when they ask "why do we have to learn system of equations as 8th graders?" As a teacher, that's what I am told to do. Follow the standards and move on. Of course we know their minds are growing and they are learning skills, but WHY does it have to be systems of equations to grow their mind? How does that serve education's just cause?

If we are able to hone in on WHY we are really educating students, then maybe we can better tune HOW and WHAT we teach them.