At the heart of every great woe is a contraction...

People in the Panhandle complain about the wind all the time. Heck, I complain about the wind. When I moved to Dallas, the only thing I didn't miss was the wind. Did you ever think that when you complain about the wind, you are really explaining what it isn't? Weather in the Panhandle isn't calm. About the time I was having this thought - the wind buffetting my car into other lanes- I neared the wind turbines just outside of Dumas, Texas. The somebody who put those there didn't define the Panhandle wind in terms of what it could not do, but in terms of what it could. That brilliant somebody thought about what could be done differently. Sure, that somebody probably still gets their hair in her lipgloss and sand in her contacts...the reality of the wind didn't go away. But that different way of thinking led to innovation that is solving a lot of problems.

Education might not be any different.


At the heart of every great woe is a contraction: can’t, won’t, shouldn’t, isn’t. 

When describing a class overburdened with ESL students, the message is: My class isn’t white. My students can’t speak my native tongue. Explaining students who come from disadvantaged backgrounds hides the cacophony of realities in: my students don’t have money, food, or opportunities. Or perhaps a more sinister complaint: My students aren’t like me.

I just read a book called One Word that Can Transform Your Life. If the words that permeate our talk are contractions…what kind of changes do we perpetuate? What kind of changes to we ensure won’t occur?

Of course classes have too many ESL students. Of course diversity reigns more prominently than ever before. Of course students struggle with their economic and demographic realities. And of course, that ultimately means that in schools, these same kids can’t or won’t do what is expected.

We are surrounded by what we can’t change.

Teachers tell administrators that students don’t want to do what is required. They are right. Teachers are still right, even when the administrator admonishes them for making excuses.

Yet…

If administrators or society agreed, would it make the situation any better? Has anything changed for the better?

At the heart of every great solution lies innovation. 

Solutions come from asking, "How can I see or respond differently?" If all of these contractions are true - can’t, won’t, doesn’t - , we must revise our thinking to transform and modify the contractions with another kind of word, an adverb that defines the way we go about our work. 

My kids can’t, yet. 

My kids won’t, until… 

Solutions come from teachers who rightly recognize the realities and seek solutions as masters of their craft, creating new approaches to educate past and beyond the can’ts, won’ts, shouldn’ts, and isnts.