There are millions of teachers out there in the American educational community.
And all of them, in one way or another, are striving to be successful.
I know from my own experiences and nearly 30 years of observation that significant percentage of these men and women will fail.
Despite their best efforts, they won’t be able to live up to their expectations, the goals they set for themselves upon entering the teaching profession.
They will become frustrated, burned out, and eventually just quit the field altogether.
If you are a teacher, you may be struggling with these issues right now.
And one of the major concerns is the lack of trust.
That’s right: trust.
Success in the classroom is achieved when trust exists.
What is more, long-term success happens when high trust exists—when you are a trustworthy teacher directing a trustworthy learning environment; when it’s clear to your students that you are a person of integrity who will not only do what you say but also a person who has the sanctions to deliver what you promise.
It’s one thing to be a trustworthy person with a teaching job; it’s another to be a trustworthy teacher with the job mandate to deliver promising results.
A trustworthy person will do everything in his power to follow through on what he has promised—and that’s important.
But if a trustworthy person is not able to deliver what is necessary, trust will only go so far.
It may land a success or two, but it will rarely last beyond that.
High trust is necessary to climb to the top of any profession, whether you are selling cars or copiers, footwear, or financial services.
And high trust happens by design, not by accident.
It’s earned and preserved, but never commanded or finagled.
It takes more than fortitude and flattery to become a great teacher.
It’s no happy accident that the best teachers you remember from your youth were successful in their field because they gained an element of high trust from their students.
They were recognized as trustworthy advocates among their peers, even among their superiors.
But that trust in American education seems to have diminished over the past two decades.
The reason that educators are scuffling with governmental mandates is a definite lack of trust on both ends of the equation.
State education officials have lost their trust in school systems and administrators; administrators have lost their trust in classroom teachers; teachers have lost their trust in parents; students have lost their trust in the classroom.
As a former teacher I have fallen victim to it myself.
And you probably have too.
Simply put, the problem facing teachers today is the result of trying to please everyone and consequently pleasing no one—trying to be everything to all and being nothing to anyone.
The law of scale is just as applicable in education as it is in the marketplace. If you are unable to provide goods and services to your clients, you’re business will suffer.
Customers will look elsewhere.
During the past two decades classroom numbers have risen dramatically while teaching staff has been cut drastically. Teachers, in every sense, are spreading themselves too thin to be effective.
Solving the dilemma of trust in education might start with reducing the number of students in the classroom environment and concentrating on meeting the needs of fewer youngsters at a time.
Until this issue is resolved by educators and politicians, the public-school problems are bound to continue.
You can trust me on that.
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Top of the morning!