How Will You Make the World a Better Place?

Photo is mine

Love this question. It is most certainly not messing around.

As always, a bit of context. I’m a straight white male with a Masters degree who lives in the United States. I don’t have any visible physical difficulties. I appear that I could be Christian.

In a nutshell, I am the epitome of privilege in this world.

It is my belief that, given my extreme privilege, if I am not going to try to make the world a better place, who should I count on to do that?

This is why I teach. It’s the best weapon I can think of, given my skill set, to fight for social justice in the world.

This what I believe.

But.

But that’s the short story.

I also think it is my job to maximize the good I can do in the world: again, given my skill set I need to make sure I am affecting the most positive change that I possibly can. That’s why I teach. That’s why I put so much energy into organizing edcamps. That’s why I share what we do in my classroom. That’s why all my curriculum is posted on my class website, there to be taken by anyone that wants it: please use it!

However...

Sometimes I wonder.

I’ve enjoyed the shift within my classroom to a more student-centered place over the last few years. I’ve written already for #youredustory that I am going to try to shift instruction at my site to be more student-centered. However, as a teacher with no official leadership role on my campus, that’s a tough sell.

Sometimes I wonder about making the jump into administration. I’d like to be in a place where I could support teachers to try to make their classrooms more student-centered. I’d like to try to support teachers already doing that. I’d like to ask teachers what risk they plan on taking in a semester, and how I can support them.

Sometimes I wonder if I should try to make a bigger impact beyond a single classroom. I wonder if I could facilitate a school-wide change towards a more student-centered mindset. I wonder if I could change more classrooms than just mine.

I wonder how I can maximize the impact I make on the world.