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What's the purpose?...

What is our purpose? Why can't I describe it? 
I am fortunate to be part of a fellowship that meets monthly to discuss how schools can be redesigned to better serve all students. The fellowship urges divergent and critical thinking and pushes on every paradigm we as educators hold sacred or essential. Nothing about how schools are and what schools do is off limits to this group of educators but recently the our conversation has switched to a simple topic that has left me silent.

In a room full of educators ready to and willing to change the educational landscape the fellowship director asked us one very simple question: "What is the purpose of public education?"

This seemingly simple questions is one in which I should be able to answer with fluidity and conviction but when I sat down to write the purpose, our purpose, I was at a loss for words.  I know that I have a purpose for doing what I do but I could not distill it down to its component pieces and when asked why public education exists I said nothing. As a group we took shots using words, descriptions and images but we as a group could not determine why we serve as educators. I initially thought this to be a problem but I came to believe that we may never have a corporate understanding of we are in public education and that is just fine; what we must do is realize that whatever our reason for participation in this work we never deviate from our personal purpose because it is so easy to internalize what we are told to believe about public education which all too often is not what is best for kids.

What Causes us to Lose our Purpose?:
As educators we all dive into the profession with a purpose. Maybe we had a teacher who inspired us, parents who were educators or a belief that shaping our future as a nation or society starts at the ground floor with our kids. Our initial entry into the work in many ways is guided by a sense of broader purpose and belief in education and it is odd but truthful that the longer we work the more our personal sense of purpose is diluted and often our vision of the work starts to sound an awful lot like the loudest voice at the table. We move away from works such as "joy", "liberation" and "passion" and towards a vision of "growth", "achievement" and "readiness." If these latter terms were not our initial passion than why are they are driving force now? Growth can be superseded by a desire for more growth, achievement is never high enough and readiness is subjective and while we articulate these as virtues they may be the very reason why passionate educators are using their passion in other fields. The driving force for our inability to articulate the broader purpose of education is that passion seems fuzzy and data is king so we default into what is communicated as important instead of what initially brought educators into the field.

What are the Consequences of Losing our Purpose?: 
If our vision for education is not our own and if our passion is adopted from 140 character sermons or bullet points on a slide then it is of no surprise that our initial passion can lead to cynicism and distrust of the system. In order to be at the highest level of influence we must teach from our core and not from the common. I found it fascinating that, in a room of nearly 30 school leaders not one had the same vision for the purpose of education yet each of them was highly influential and remarkably passionate. The experience of naming my purpose made me realize that we may all have a different purpose and belief in education but as long as our values are aligned and what we want for kids are connected then we can all move forward. Our methods may be similar but our purpose may be far different and that disconnect is not a problem. The only problem is when we force others to change their purpose or adopt one that is not theirs then we suppress what made a teacher great in the first place. As educators we must maintain our individual purpose for education because it is in that space where we are the most influential. As soon as we compromise our purpose and adopt that of others then we are holding hostage the very thing that made us effective and passionate in the first place. Purpose is an individual choice and purpose drives impact.

So though our purpose may not be shared, our values and vision can be and that is when teachers work the best together and work the best for kids. So my purpose is simple: "To inspire joyful creators who will solve the problems we see and those we do not know we have yet."

In this work, what is your purpose? 

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