Education in the Eye of a Hurricane: Rediscovering Purpose in the Midst of a Pandemic “Adversity does not build character, it reveals it.” -James Lane Allen Unprecedented times provide fertile ground for reconceptualizing priorities in education, and to align instruction with what is urgent and real. The crises beginning in 2019 peeled back layers of misguided policy to reveal three key essential goals public schools must prioritize and sustain: find our children and understand where they are, both academically and in need, and feed their bodies and souls, including their families; connect our children both technically and in genuine relationships with each other and their adults; and inspire students through meaningful instruction that engages and provokes them to want to come back to investigate more again and again. Accountability is the gatekeeper for dynamic school change. As long as policy makers prioritize standardized assessments as markers of public school success, instruction is held hostage to superficial basic learning that meets requirements of existing high stakes and biased tests. Cunningham Park Elementary School presents as a case study of possibilities that open to our children and staff when accountability becomes authentic. Focusing on the three priorities that were made evident by crises, we saw the roof of testing come off of learning, as we handed the world to its future - our children. Katie Goodman Le Katie Goodman Le is an aspiring poet and essayist with a passion for growing young critical and creative thinkers who are constructors in their own learning, and who see themselves as essential to the world around them. Katie is Principal of Cunningham Park Elementary School in Vienna, Virginia, a richly diverse community school where neighbors, parents, staff, and students come together to elevate our children as scholars. She holds degrees in Educational Leadership (MEd) from University of Virginia, and Sociology, Early Childhood Education, and Music (BS) from James Madison University. Connect with Katie at ktle@ fcps.edu and on her Facebook page. 2021 Vol. 18
VASCD Journal
vascd.org
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