Tradition vs. Habit

Today is Grandparents Day, which is a long-standing tradition at my school. It is so fun to share in the excitement of the middle school students who can show off their grandparents. Even the high school students love having their grandparents come to school with them - though they are too cool to admit it! We do a great job of building that family-school relationship: we feed them, set-up photo booths, show off our fine arts programs, and the grandparents get to meet some teachers and experience a class or two. Though, I think the favorite part of Grandparents Day for the students is that they get to leave early and spend the rest of the day with their family.

In education, there is so much talk about tradition - is it good or bad? Working at an independent school, we have many traditions. The question isn't whether tradition is good or bad, but rather; is it a tradition or is it a habit?

I absolutely love the quote I have seen lately floating around social media. "Tradition is just peer pressure from dead people." I agree with it, to a point. Take our version of Grandparents Day. It is a great tradition to invite the grandparents to spend the day with the students and show off the school. The way we run it has become a habit.

Traditions need to be separated from habits. The idea behind a tradition is great, because it keeps our legacy going. However, one must remember that legacies can continue even if they are evaluated and tweaked over time. We can't let "tradition" keep us from evolving.