In my work as a school development coach I have been privileged to work closely with the National Equity Project. Their resources, stance, questions, support and way of being have completely changed me as an educator…and there is no going back.

Implementing Deeper Learning isn’t easy. Delivering on a quality education for kids who need it most isn’t easy. Disrupting an institution so much bigger than myself isn’t easy. Some days I reflect on my efforts to change education and I feel frustrated… I’m quick to blame individuals, policies or systems. I’m always looking outward-listening, observing, analyzing, diagnosing. But recently a mentor held a mirror up to my actions and reflections and asked me to look hard at what I bring to this work and the communities I serve. It stopped me dead in my tracks. I hadn’t thought about me or the things I carry.

What assumptions do I have for when things don’t go as planned- when progress isn’t quick enough? Does what I think success looks like (as defined by my own standards) negate the success as defined by the community I’m working to serve? Does the agenda I come with undermine what matters most to them or what feels most pressing? As I thought about the answers to these questions I realized in many ways I had been reinforcing a bigger agenda that I thought I was fighting- by not pausing to think about how struggling communities receive this work. How are they experiencing me and do I make them and their work feel honored?

I can’t imagine there is a single community in our country that doesn’t want improved learning experiences for their children. When I say that do I assume that means Deeper Learning? For the moment, Yes. But there has to be room to construct this definition and experience together-it can’t be something that is brought in and pushed upon people. And so I’m off with my half-full knapsack- filled with the things I knowingly carry but am trying to shed along the way-  trying to unearth what providing this type of support/coaching/change could look like for communities with children who deserve a shot at deeper learning.

This post first appeared on our blog on (4/17/2014)