In my personal journey for growth, I’ve found that the dearth of positivity amongst involved adults can turn any school, well-meaning or otherwise, into a dumping ground of negative soot. In such an environment, it only makes sense that kids suffer. While I don’t participate in too much negative banter nor do I like simply listing problems that exist if not accompanied by some form of solution, I find it’s the responsibility of all adult parties involved to make sure that the soot stays out of the walls of their buildings.

Here are some #eduthingsIlike I like:

– I like schools that aren’t split apart when architecturally it makes no sense.

– I like schools that do the most with what they’ve been given.

– I like schools that look to find ways to work with a child and develop them as whole children before castigating them as special ed or throwing them out as quickly as possible.

– I like elementary schools that teach their students strong rituals and routines before they get to middle school.

– I like middle schools that assume responsibility for making sure they know high school is the real bridge to adulthood, not the phase they’re in at that point.

– I like schools that empower teachers to become proactive leaders.

– I like schools where the sense of urgency is mediated by careful and intentional planning.

– I like schools that teach the whole child.

– I like schools that balance the academic with the socio-emotional.

– I like schools that speak in three languages: the language of the pedagogy, the language of the community, and the language of the students.

– I also like schools that show students the bridge to success in this country without losing a sense of identity.

– I like schools with active parent involvement and after-school programs.

– I like teachers who buy into a larger vision for the school, working towards the students and their needs first.

– I like teachers who balance their discussion of “What the kids don’t know” with “What the kids do know.”

– I like teachers who want to know more than the 180 or so days of instruction inside their classroom, extending themselves and their voices in other arenas.

– I like teachers who are well-versed in politics but see themselves as change agents without deference to educrats.

–  I like when pedagogues talk about building personal responsibility only after they talk about the factors that lead to current (and often underperforming) conditions.

– I love pedagogues who care. And care a lot.

– I love kids, even when they make me want to hold a piece of chalk the wrong way and run it right off a clean chalkboard.

– I love kids who come ready to learn, breakfast in stomach, mind in heart.

– I love kids who, even when they’re not ready, they’re willing to get ready if given a chance.

– I like when we talk about things we are, and not what we’re not.

Mr. V, who is unfettered and unafraid of honesty as a means of activism …

p.s. – Thanks, @tonnet.