It's About People

As an educator, we are constantly inundated with new! exciting! important! methods and strategies to get skills across to students. Sometimes they work. Sometimes they don't. The skills deemed important changes. The way students learn changes. The arrangement of the furniture changes. What doesn't change: people. And education is built around people.

Education is a profession that is built around making people better. People are our product. People are our bottom line.

Teachers are told to prepare students for the future. They are told to prepare them for anything. We are not fortune tellers. Administration is not a fortune teller. But how do you define the future? When does it start? How can we decide what skills are important in a world that is changing faster than it ever has before?

We can't. The one thing that we do know is that the future, whenever that may fall, is still going to mean dealing with people. So instead of focusing on shiny new tech tools or the latest in educational pedagogy, it is important to teach students how to deal with other people. Empathy. Teamwork. Asking for help. Accepting help. Advocating for yourself. Contributing to the greater good. Coping skills. This is where our focus should lie. They are not soft skills. They are the skills needed to succeed, no matter what the future holds.

Education is about people. If we can teach students how to survive in a world with others, we have shown students the path to future success.