I have been thinking a lot about Core Values lately. There are many reasons for this, one of which is that I am a part of the district’s Strategic Planning team. We are tasked with setting the next set of action goals for Spectrum’s future. You are invited to join in with your ideas, opinions, and feedback. This is the time to be in collaboration with one another. I hope for many of the elementary and middle school families – the most-ever – and their voices to be heard! This is the time that all the different perspectives, experiences, ideas, suggestions, and hopes can come together to create something truly great. This is why I am thinking about core values, and it has me wondering if there could ever be a time to consider changing or even giving up on one.
For many of us – I count myself as a part of that “many” – by definition that it is a core value, we think there would never be a time or circumstance to give up on one. Yet when I was listening to the audio book My Friend Anne Frank, there was a horrible scene that made me wonder that there actually might be one. It had to do with Kosher practices about food. Kosher food is in how it is sold, cooked, and eaten, and this is very important for those following Jewish law. While there is actually kosher bacon (not made from pork), it certainly was not available during the Holocaust. The author, Anne’s friend, Hannah Pick-Goslar remained committed to this practice despite the extreme hardship. However, there were many, many others that did not. For these prisoners, the Jewish legal principle of Pikuach Nefesh (preserving life) took precedence over their dietary restrictions, meaning eating non-kosher food was permitted to prevent starvation. As I listened and heard her describe this struggle, the question of changing or giving up on a core value made me pause. Possibilities and questions were spinning in my head. Did I have a circumstance or a turning point when changing a core value could occur? What conditions would need to be present? Could any of these be positive? Am I at least open to looking at my core values to try and see them in a different light?
As a former language arts teacher, a past educational example had to do with plagiarism. While many/most consider this clearly cheating, I again found myself pausing to consider other possibilities. The event did not involve one of my students as I was teaching at a junior high at the time, and the student was a high school student. I was tasked with determining if the student plagiarized and given his composition. This was before AI and even before when a teacher had the ability to use technology to help determine authenticity. We were not in the practice of typically accusing students, but as this piece would affect the course’s final grade and credit, they wanted to get some outside-the-situation opinions. But when my pause came, it was not about plagiarism; my pause was about the need to plagiarize. What was happening where the student felt the need to plagiarize, what conditions were happening that cheating entered into the course of action, and did I need to look at this situation in a different light?
I will let you wrestle with these questions, coming up with your own possible answers and outcomes – stop by at the next conferences if you’d like to share them with me :) – as years later I now wrestle similar situations with what is known as positive reappraisal. A common technique of cognitive reappraisal, an emotion regulation strategy, this strategy is focusing on the positive of a situation. When our thinking limits us by the boundaries of our personal experiences, knowledge, and beliefs, if we share our concerns with others and ask for them to poke holes in the narratives we tell ourselves, we can interrogate our assumptions in order to encounter new perspectives that can help us forge new mental pathways. Putting my “unlearning” (see the February 2 blog) into action: I used to think that my core values were set, but now I think that they should constantly be reappraised in order for me to grow either by abandoning the parts that are no longer applicable or by strengthening my understanding because I have stretched my boundaries to include a world of possibilities.
Come stretch your boundaries, use your voice, grow within yourself, and contribute (via an upcoming Listening Session) to Spectrum’s 2031 Strategic Plan.
Weeks at a Glance
- High School Student-athlete Academic Suspensions - Wednesday, February 18
- End of Trimester 2 - Friday, February 20
- Teacher Professional Development - Monday, February 23: No School
- Trimester 2 Grading Day - Tuesday, February 24: No School
- Beginning of Trimester 3 - Wednesday, February 25
- 7th Grade Field Trip to Baker Park Reserve - Wednesday, February 25
- 6th Grade Field Trip to the Minnesota History Center - Friday, February 27