h/t to David Jakes @djakes for my takeaway from Educon 2.5 this year. The meme actually began a week earlier when he visited this side of the cheddar curtain. We’d get to talking about people who have our attention, and Jakes would say, “_____’s professional growth plan is to be more like _____.”
Among Educon’s Friday evening panelists was Jeff Pulver. He made a bold statement along the lines of, “My focus right now is on me. I’ve recently lost 57 pounds and have another 57 to go.” I was amazed, throughout the panel, at the degree to which Jeff is simply an authentic person. What does Jeff do? ”Jeff Pulver’s professional growth plan is to be more like Jeff Pulver.” :)
Crossed paths again with Christian Long a bit later, pants and all. Many of us know Christian as a blogger, teacher, “papa”, designer. But what does he do? “Christian Long’s professional growth plan is to be more like Christian Long.” Soon after that, along came Gary Stager. ”Stager’s professional growth plan is definitely to be more like Stager.”
I’m fortunate to have met many characters along the way. The interesting peoples’ professional growth plans can be summed up by being more like themselves.
The people who matter in the educational conversation – you and all the people you mention in your post, as a start – will not only do themselves enormous good by being more like themselves, they’ll do others enormous good. By being confident that they’re doing what they should be doing, they can convince others to join in. And if enough others join in, perhaps the system itself can be shifted to where it needs to be.
Words to live by!