How Do You Cook Your Roast?

A newly married couple was sitting down to enjoy a meal together. The wife had prepared a roast, with all the trimmings. There were vegetables, bread, and a nice bottle of wine. The husband looked at the roast and noticed there was a portion of the end cut off. He asked his wife, "Why did you cut off the last two inches of the roast?" "That's how my mom cooked it," she said.

The wife called her mom the next day and asked why the last two inches of the roast was always cut off. Her mom responded, "That's how grandma always cooked it." When the wife called her grandma and asked why the last two inches of the roast was always cut off, her grandma told her, "That's how great-grandma always cooked it."

The wife called her great grandma about the roast. When she asked her why the last two inches of the roast was always cut off, her great grandma told her, "When I was first married, I wanted to cook my husband a nice meal. I went down to the butcher and got a roast. When I got back to the house, I realized the roast was too big for the pan. So I cut off the last two inches to make sure it fit in the pan."

I heard this story recently at a meeting, and it made me laugh. It also made me think about our work in education.

I'm proud that we work in a state that has mandated proficiency-based graduation requirements and personalized learning plans. We know that there is so much more than just content when it comes to a high-quality education. These initiatives require a substantial shift in our thinking about how we teach our students, how we assess their progress, and how we plan our instruction as educators. This work pushes our thinking away from how we've always done it.

In the St. Johnsbury School District we have started to have conversations and training around new safety protocols. When children are compelled to come to school by state law, it is incumbent upon us as the adults in their lives to do everything we can to make them feel safe and welcome when they come to school. This too requires a change in our thinking and challenges past practices.

What I hope will never go away, what I hope will never change is the focus on the relationships that we form with our students. I can still remember some of my favorite teachers by name to this day, and while I can usually place them with the grade I was in when they taught me, there is very little else that I can clearly recall. I remember how those teachers made me feel, how I always felt welcome in their classrooms, and the ways in which they cared deeply not just about my education, but about me as a person.

We need to challenge old assumptions and past practices in education. We need to ensure that we are doing everything we can to make our schools safe and welcoming for every single child that arrives at our doors. We need to push the boundaries of our own comfort zones for the benefit of all our learners.

And the one thing we must never let go of is the focus on relationships. Let's always do it that way.

Photo courtesy of www.zazzle.com