What If…the power of words in transforming education

 

This weekend I virtually attended Educon Philly.  What a great opportunity to learn, think, dream.  So many thoughts are in my head that it will take me some time to sort it all out.  But one thought has risen to the top, stuck in my head and won’t let go of my thinking…language.  We, as educators use language all the time to convey meaning, assess understanding and communicate thoughts but have we ever thought critically about the words we use.  The words that describe out profession.  Some of these words have been around forever, indeed they are so commonplace we take them for granted, but what if we reexamined them, reevaluated them to see if they still serve our common purpose in education as it is today.  What if…

What if…instead of saying students we said learners.
What if… instead of saying of saying classrooms we said learning environments.
What if…instead of saying my students we said our learners.
What if…instead of saying teacher we said learning leader.
What if…instead of saying school we said learning centre.
What if…instead of saying social media we said learning network.
What if…instead of cell phone we said mobile learning devices (thank you Tom Whitby for creating this one).
What if….

What it really comes down to is taking control of the words we use to describe what we do, where we do it and who we engage in this work with.  If we want to transform education we need to change mindsets.  So why not start with the words we use?  What if…