Ever since the opening session of the Deeper Learning Conference this past spring I have been intrigued by the term “courage”, or “academic courage” as defined by Ron Berger of Expeditionary Learning Schools. Check out this series of videos from the Teaching Channel (https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/deeper-learning-challenges-students-exl) or this overview by Berger himself (https://www.teachingchannel.org/blog/2014/03/26/building-academic-courage/). If that doesn’t inspire you, I don’t know what will!

The way I see it courage is “agency +1”…I mean how can we talk about one without the other? It takes courage to have agency, and agency builds courage. As I sat through a PD session a few weeks ago at a New Tech school I work with it dawned on me how much we ask of our students when we ask them to have agency. They aren’t comfortable in their own skin, and yet we are asking them to put themselves out there-to have persistence, ask questions, to seek feedback and be open to challenges. That all takes courage! And by developing all these skills and attributes we hope to impact their way of being-to help them be their best, courageous selves.

So if that’s what we hope for our students what does that mean for us as educators, and our way of being? How do we dig deep to be our best selves? What kind of courage does that take-both in and out of our classroom? In The Courage to Teach Parker Palmer brilliantly explains that “we teach who we are”. If this is true, how do we model what it means to have agency and courage? How do we inspire our students at the intersection of these two crucial roads we ask them to walk every day?

A director I worked with at High Tech High North County once asked us at the beginning of the school year to think about something we wanted to learn that year. I will never forget it- I learned to swim in the open-water that year and it forever changed my life. I had to dig deep to find courage to be my best self-as an individual, an athlete, a parent and an educator. It taught me what it meant to face my fears and tackle challenges, and how to support others in this walk of life-all before there were buzz words for it (agency, deeper learning). Most importantly, it changed how I supported my students and the kind of teacher/cheerleader/support system I became for my kids.

And so I invite you to do the following: Start with thinking about something you want to learn or grow into. Then think about what you need from people in your life to help you get there. In what way will this require courage and agency? As you go through this experience consider the parallel experiences of your students. What do you need in your times of apprehension and struggle? How can you be that for your students and children? How can you inspire others by being your best self? How can we help each other to have courage and become agents of our life-long, deeper learning?