1)
The
Culture of Complaint Curse – I am saddened by how often conversations
between people start with a complaint. Don’t get me wrong, I fully understand that
one of the quickest ways to build an ally is to find a common enemy. But to be emotionally healthy, this can’t be
our only relationship-building strategy.
As educators, we need to hold ourselves accountable to model positivity
for our students and one another. Those who
suffer from this curse fowl the nest that is our school culture.
2)
The Curse
of Knowledge - The curse of knowledge is a cognitive bias that leads
better-informed parties to find it extremely difficult to communicate concepts
at the level that a novice learner needs.
Students can become intimidated and reluctant to ask questions for fear
of looking less than smart. Educators
who suffer from this curse often make inaccurate assumptions about their
learners. They believe their students
are disengaged and “just don’t care.”
Teachers carrying this curse lack the skill set necessary to meet the learner
at their current level of mastery and bring them where they need to be.
3)
The Curse
of Invulnerability - This curse drives educators to not allow themselves to
be truly seen. The focus for those with
this curse is concern of appearing
to be smart, strong and capable. It is
often masked by what people describe as “professional distance.” This curse interferes with relationship building,
transparency, and true connection to others. Shame leads to blame and true discourse about
real issues never happens. If you are
not among the 24 plus million people who have watched Brene Brown’s TED talk
about vulnerability, do yourself a huge favor and do so today! (Click here to view)
4)
The Curse
of Complacency – This curse manifests itself as a quiet voice in the mind
of the individual that whispers, “I have arrived personally and professionally.”
It kills the drive to receive feedback or seek further growth. Author Jim Collins captures it perfectly with
the quote (below) from his book, Good to Great. Acceptance of the status quo is the order of
the day for those afflicted. This can be
a huge issue for leaders working to transform “high performing” campuses as
measured by standardized testing.
Teachers in these settings are especially susceptible to the curse since
their current practice seems to be effective based upon test scores. The insidious
nature of this curse keeps these teachers from actively seeking best
practices.
practices.
5)
The Curse
of Standardization – This curse has reached epidemic proportions in
education. It is a sly curse disguising
itself as high expectations, clear direction and tradition. Whether it is the federally supported Common Core,
or state-based standards such as our Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, our
learning targets are too numerous to be truly learned at a deep level. In an attempt to fully cover the wide breadth
of standards, teachers fall victim to the curse by providing the exact same instruction
for rooms full of learners with a great disparity of competencies. Despite
the obvious need for differentiation, the Curse of Standardization
keeps us in a traditional lesson cycle of lecture, independent practice,
homework, test, grade and move on. In an
effort to create "well-rounded" individuals, creativity is killed and students
disengage. What a tragic curse that
directs us to standardize rather than build student’s strengths, support them
in following their passion, and ultimately owning their learning.
6)
The Curse
of Experience – There is an old adage that says, “Experience is the best
teacher.” I agree with that statement. I
also know that experience can be a killer of the creative problem solving
needed to be successful. People carrying
the Curse of Experience are incapable of novel problem solving. They seek to apply the same set of processes
to new problems. They become frustrated
when they have different results from before, not recognizing that different
variables are currently in play. Frequently those carrying this curse suffer
from “mistalgia.” Beware the educator that always starts the
conversation around problem-solving with, “At my old campus….” This individual
might be suffering from this curse.
7)
The Curse
of Low Expectations – This curse kills our ability to help students reach
their potential. When afflicted,
teachers no longer believe that certain students can be successful. They will actively seek new instructional strategies, but nothing
works because the real issue lies with the teacher himself. One can sometimes detect those who suffer
from this curse when they judge entire groups (class periods, grade levels, etc.)
of kids as incapable. If you hear a professional make the statement,
“Bless his heart.” you can be assured that the Curse of Low Expectations is
raising its ugly head.
8)
The Curse
of Hypocrisy - This is the darkest and most dangerous curse. When afflicted,
the curse bearer engages in the same behavior or activity for which he
criticizes another. At its onset, the
individual simply lacks self-awareness.
Once the curse has reached its apex, the individual is aware that they
are passing judgment on others while demonstrating the behavior they
are judging. Despite this awareness,
they lack the self-honesty or motivation to change. An example of this is the principal that
reprimands the teacher who does not differentiate, but provides no differentiation
for his teachers during staff development.
Another example is the man who attends church and while processing the sermon,
sees the sins of others and never recognizes them as his own. For this reason some refer to this as “The
Church-goers Curse.”
At the beginning of this post, I challenged
you to identify specific people that came to your mind as you thought about
each curse. Did you ever identify yourself?
If not, you might be suffering from the Curse of Hypocrisy yourself. :-0)
As a reflective leader, I have spent time lately trying to
understand the factors, biases, and distorted thoughts that interfere with our
success as educators. It is easier to
recognize these problems than it is to ameliorate them. How does one go about curing these
curses? Here is what I recommend:
·
Start with self-awareness. We all have fears, biases and prejudices that
influence our actions. Becoming aware of
those that potentially limit us from being our best self is critical. Reflect on your curses. Perhaps you will want
to identify a curse that is a roadblock to your success listed in this post.
·
Once identified, be intentional with how you
guard yourself against the curse. Shift
your self-talk. Mind what you do and say when interacting with others. Model
what you expect.
·
When you see others who are afflicted by a
curse, be willing to have a courageous conversation with them. Help them with their journey to become the
best-of-the-best. This is at the heart
of what it means to be a servant leader.
