The Story of One

It is sometimes surprising where you read information that confirms and supports your beliefs and ultimately your actions. Recently I have been listening to the book The Hole in Our Gospel by Richard Stearns. In it he shares the following research:

In 2006 researcher Paul Slovic at the University of Oregon and colleagues Deborah Small of the Wharton School and George Lowenstein of Carnegie Mellon University performed a simple behavioral experiment. A test group of ordinary people was divided into three subgroups. The first read the story and saw a photo of a poor, starving seven-year-old African girl name Rokia. The second group was given a statistical portrait of seventeen million Africans in four countries who were desperately hungry because of crop failures and food shortages. They were told about yet another four million who were homeless. In other words, group two read about hunger and suffering on a massive scale. The third group was given the story about the little girl Rokia but was also given the statistical information given to group two. Finally participants in all three groups were asked to donate money to relive the suffering. Amazingly, the group that heard only Rokia's story gave the most money. The group that was given the statistics about twenty-one million suffering people gave the least, and the group that received both pieces of information was only slightly more generous than the statistics-only group. The story of one child was more compelling than the suffering of millions.

The story of ONE child... 

Now I don't want to take away from what Stearns was communicating here because what he shares is so important when it comes to helping others in our world. But I couldn't help but relate it to what we do in education. 

As educators we are constantly looking at data. We love our numbers. In Georgia the ultimate number looked at is CCRPI (College and Career Readiness Performance Index). I won't go into great detail about what that number means (most states have some method of grading their schools), but basically it is a grade that comes about by looking at end of year test scores and other factors. So, it is a number that evolves from other numbers. This number is used to label and group students, schools, and school systems. Somewhere in all of those numbers is the story of ONE child. 

Do you see the disturbing significance of the research shared above and how it connects to our current reality? Ever since NCLB more and more focus has been placed on test scores, grading schools and labeling schools and students. Because of this we have taken our focus off the very purpose we went into education to begin with, which is to improve the lives of children. 

Brad Gustafson, is a voice shouting in the wilderness that it is time to reclaim our calling. What he says in his book Reclaiming Our Calling completely lines up with the research I presented above. He says, "If you're anything like me, you're growing weary of watching assessment data used primarily to label and group learners." Yes! I agree, Brad. It's just like those people who were given only the statistics of suffering people. By being given the statistics about suffering people in Africa they inadvertently dehumanized the very people that needed their help the most. Stearns said, "If we are able to objectify whole classes of people so that we don't think of them as persons equal with us, the unthinkable becomes possible."

Our students deserve more. They are more than a number. I daresay it is time to shift our mindsets from numbers to individual students. I know that seems a little scary because in essence we are going against the flow, but it is time. It is time to look at Johnny and David and Beth and Lisa and Luke. Who are they? What do they need? How can we help them grow? This change will not happen overnight but if we will just take small steps we will begin to see the benefits. 

One small step we have taken at the school where I am a principal is using our PLC time to discuss individual students. We have "data cards" for every student in our building. These data cards have their picture along with their data. We can't ignore the data and the fact that we are held accountable, we just have to keep our priorities in the right place. This one small action is yielding a lot of dividends in how we view our students and the plans we make for each one of them. 

It is time to know and value ...the story of ONE child.