Live Your Convictions and Beliefs…
Do your actions match what you believe? Do you just talk about relationships in the classroom or do you live it out loud? Do you tell your staff that you want them to be engaging and bang the drum for out of the box lessons and activities that give students voice and choice but run staff meetings that are the antithesis of that? Why? What is the disconnect between your words and your actions?
In the punk/hardcore scene there is a subset of folks who would declare themselves vegan straightedge. Some of my favorite hardcore bands fall into this category. Veganism is when you don’t eat meat or use any animal products and try to live a life that is cruelty free to animals. Straight edge is the idea that you should live a clean life, no drugs and no alcohol. There is some baggage with straightedge and some more nuances that I wont get into but you get the idea. Claiming those things, singing about them on stage, writing whole albums about them is yelling (literally) your convictions to the world. In the scene if you saw your hardcore hero eating a hamburger after singing songs about animal rights you’d see a giant disconnect. You would have trouble believing what they say. You would see their entire set of convictions as a sham.
It’s no different in the classroom and in educational leadership. In my role, I sit in a lot of meeting with district leaders, principals, and teachers. I get to walk into offices, classrooms, and schools that aren’t my own all the time. I get to hear people talk about what they believe in and how they put it on display in murals on their school walls, little wooden blocks on their desk, and the books on their shelves. I’ve never once seen a sign on a desk that says ”kindness sucks, be mean instead” and I’ve never heard a leader do a PD telling teachers to make kids listen to a lecture all day and yet we see words and convictions not matching actions all over the education world.
There are leaders who tear down students with the word “kindness” emblazoned behind them in the cafeteria. There are teachers who will demean students while wearing a shirt that says “teaching is my superpower.”
I am sure I am guilty of my convictions and actions not always matching and this isn’t a blog to point my finger at others because we all live in a world where our aspirations are not always the same as our actions. It’s reality. But we need to own that. We need to reflect and every day get better. Because when we cheerlead for one idea or rally around a set of principles, people are watching. Your students are watching, your colleagues are watching, and if you are a building leader, your staff is watching. If they don’t see you practicing what you preach they lose faith. When they see that your convictions don’t match your actions, they lose trust. That trust and faith can be built back but you gotta earn it and not just through shouting your convictions on stage but living them off stage as well.
So if we want to be credible and if we want people to believe what we say we need to make sure our actions in the building, in the classroom, in that meeting, and even in those one on one conversations match we talk about. People don’t follow people they don’t trust. If we want to be educational leaders in our buildings or a leaders of students in your classroom, actual leaders who people trust and listen to, we need to make sure our convictions match our actions.
What can you do?
Take a look at what you are promoting, saying, and living. Does it match what you believe? Does it match what you do?
If your words and actions don’t match, you have two choices. Change what you say and promote or reflect and get better. So you can either paint over that mural that says every kid is important or you can actually treat kids that way.
Own when your actions don’t match what you tell your staff, your students, and your colleagues. If you catch yourself not living up to what you are espousing as what is the best for schools and students, own it, apologize, and work to get better.
Get yourself someone who will keep you honest. Ask your crew to hold you accountable. Listen to them. Accept what they tell you and get better.
