Chapter 7
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The school's culture dictates, in no uncertain terms, the way we do things around here.
—Roland Barth
This book is about preparing students for the real world by teaching them the Formative Five success skills: empathy, self-control, integrity, embracing diversity, and grit. It is about schools where, in addition to academic skills, students learn how to work with others and to understand themselves. This means that we need to design curriculum, teach, assess, and work with colleagues in ways that encourage the development of the Formative Five. It also means that we must focus directly on school culture. Paul Tough (2016) says, "If we want to improve a child's grit or resilience or self-control, it turns out that the place to begin is not with the child himself. What we need to change first, it seems, is his environment" (p. 12). The environment to which Tough refers is the physical setting, but it is far more than that. It is the expectations, attitudes, and norms surrounding the child—the culture.
The power of an organization's culture—the felt, lived environment of the place—to influence people's perceptions and attitudes and to frame their behaviors cannot be overstated.
"Culture is the common core that creates belonging, influences our behaviors, and shapes who we become," say Curt Coffman and Kathie Sorensen in Culture Eats Strategy for Lunch (2013, p. 15). When we visit a school, we can feel its culture within a few minutes. We can feel it even just viewing a school's website (e.g., is it mundane or cluttered, or does it convey an appreciation for students and a sense of excitement?). What impressions do we get? What do we or don't we notice? When we enter the front doors of a school, walk through the halls, and observe the interactions among adults and children, we are feeling the school's culture.
Even if a culture evolved without intent, it will be influential and entrenched. Everyone knows "that's how we do things" even though students and educators come and go. School cultures are remarkably resistant to change. (That said, since the passage of No Child Left Behind, high standardized test results have been much more heavily prioritized over the development of nurturing and creative environments than they used to be. Much of the whole child movement is a reaction to this fact.)
Given an almost maniacal focus on test scores, it's no surprise that most school cultures will need to change—to evolve—if they are to support the Formative Five. For years, most schools have focused almost exclusively on teaching academic subjects; further, many schools operated within a largely top-down leadership framework. A focus on the Formative Five success skills requires modifications to the curriculum, new teaching practices, and more evenly distributed leadership throughout the school.
In The Culture Engine, Chris Edmonds says, "The most effective culture champions are very specific about their beliefs" (2014, p. 42). It's true that principals have the primary responsibility for creating a school culture, but the reality is far more complex. In every good school, and particularly in those that focus on the Formative Five skills, leadership is distributed among all staff members. Everyone shares responsibilities and feels ownership for the school's progress and success. Ensuring this kind of collaboration isn't easy. As Howard Schultz, the chairman and CEO of Starbucks, says, "Turning a culture around is very difficult to do because it's based on a series of many, many decisions, and the organization is framed by those decisions" (2010). If they are going to be successful in pursuing the Formative Five skills, principals and teachers will need to work together in making those decisions. This doesn't mean that principals should abdicate their roles but, rather, that they should engage faculty and build relationships based on respect and trust. "Trust is the foundation of leadership; if you trust people, they will trust you back" say Bob Chapman and Raj Sosodia in Everybody Matters (2015, p. 116).
In a 2013 Harvard Business Review article titled "Six Components of a Great Corporate Culture," John Coleman dissects the six core components:
Figure 7.1 shows the questions that each of Coleman's components of culture raises for schools.
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Working from the questions in Figure 7.1, here are suggestions and strategies for building a school culture that supports developing the Formative Five success skills.
Too often, mission statements are simply word clouds of generic outcomes. Of course we want our students to be "problem solvers" and "citizens who make a difference." But what do these kinds of general phrases really tell us? We can only wonder what kinds of problems they should solve and how they might make a difference. For example, consider the following doubtlessly well-intentioned phrases taken from mission statements that simply do not cast a shadow:
When missions are as broad or as bland as these, they're not meaningful, so we shouldn't be surprised if people in the school aren't familiar with them. Mission statements should do more than offer generalities or list the academic skills that we want to see in our graduates; they should inspire and lead.
Consider the effect on the attitudes and actions of students and staff if mission statements mentioned the Formative Five—empathy, self-control, integrity, embracing diversity, and grit. Such a bold statement would let everyone know that educators are focused on preparing graduates to succeed in the world.
Here are some questions to consider:
Who was involved in creating the mission? Creating or revising a mission statement is a wonderful opportunity for inclusion and a perfect time to reach out to others. Everyone in the school community should be encouraged to offer ideas for consideration. Though the mission statement will ultimately be approved by a small body (presumably the school district's board of directors), this should only happen after a great deal of input from all stakeholders.
Input about the mission can be generated at meetings, either by soliciting individual comments or by having people discuss the mission in small groups. Another way to secure feedback is to ask people to submit ideas on notecards or in a designated space on the school's website. If a mission statement is going be meaningful, it must be shaped by the people who will be bringing it to life. As Hess (2013) says, "Culture, coaching, and inspiration are terrific things. But when staff don't share a common vision, it's tough to build a coherent culture" (p. 135).
Below is the mission statement for New City School. I include it not to suggest that we're perfect, but as an example of a mission that contains specifics that can frame actions. Note that the statement
New City School Mission Statement
New City School develops each child's individual strengths through an integrated Multiple Intelligences curriculum. We prepare children, age 3 through grade 6, to be confident joyful learners who are successful academically, knowledgeable about themselves and others, and who value diversity.
Is the mission statement visible in numerous places? Once established, the mission statement should be pervasive. It should be prominent in entryways to the school and the main hall, visible in the main office, affixed to the cafeteria wall, and posted in classrooms. At New City School, we also included the mission statement on the first page of the Buzz Books and Parent Handbooks that we distributed to families.
Do employees, students, and parents know the mission? If we want everyone to own the mission, we must first ensure that everyone is familiar with it. However, because missions can be long and complex, it may be more realistic to share a slogan that represents the mission statement. For example, at every back-to-school night and at every parent-education meeting at my school, I have found a way to weave the phrase "academics, the personal intelligences, diversity beyond the numbers, and joyful learning" into my discussions. These terms represent the key points of our mission and are easy to remember and articulate. The bulletin boards outside the main office door are filled student work, photos, and interactive activities that correspond to the four terms.
Misty Johnson, principal of Bissell Elementary School in Twinsburg, Ohio, says that the mission statement of her school is read every day during morning announcements (personal communication, April 13, 2016). This kind of repetition is a powerful way to let everyone, including students, know what is valued.
I also worked to ensure that teachers and administrators used terms related to the school's mission in our communications with parents. When I proofed students' report cards before they were sent home, for example, I might respond to a teacher's draft comment "Jose has focused on working with others" by suggesting that the teacher write "Jose has really worked on his personal intelligences" instead. Likewise, we routinely referred to math skills as "skills in the logical-mathematical intelligence." Regularly using the terms from our mission statement and slogan on important documents like report cards helps promote the mission statement. I also made a point of using the phrases "academic excellence," "personal intelligences," "diversity beyond the numbers," and "joyful learning" in my weekly letters to parents and asked our teachers to do the same.
Do all staff try to pursue the mission? One way to ensure that all staff are actively engaged in achieving the mission is to break them into groups of four or five and ask them to identify how they might teach two of the attributes listed in the mission statement. One of my favorite faculty meetings was one in which I asked our teachers to share what they were doing to generate "joyful learning" in their classrooms. The room was so abuzz with the trading of ideas that it was hard to regain everyone's attention.
Similarly, educators might ask parents how they see the attributes noted in the mission statement manifested in their work or communities or what they do at home to develop the attributes in their children. Working from the mission statement to action steps at least once a year helps to ensure that everyone knows and understands the school's mission.
Here are some questions to consider:
How are new hires oriented? We should view the hiring of new employees as opportunities for them to learn both what we do and why we do it. It will be particularly important for new employees to understand the rationale for focusing on the Formative Five success skills. In his 2011 book Start with Why, Simon Sinek says that leaders of great organizations begin by focusing on why. Doing this focuses on purpose and inspires; after that is done, they move to what is done and then how it is accomplished.
It is important to have senior teachers play a significant role in new employee orientations, sharing their experiences, what has worked for them, and what they would do differently. In fact, a good starting point is to ask senior teachers what topics to cover during orientation. All new hires should be taught about the school's mission and culture, not just teachers, and should have the opportunity to hear from current employees who hold the same (or similar) positions.
What happens at faculty meetings? Faculty meetings should really be called learning meetings because learning should be their focus. Unfortunately, these meetings are too often a waste of time. Why assemble people just so they can be read to? To make meetings worthwhile, we should apply the same learning principles to adults that we do to students: learners should be active, instruction should be engaging, and a positive tone should be the norm. To this end, teachers should be involved in planning and leading meetings.
For many faculty members, focusing on the Formative Five success skills will be a new and different experience, so meetings should include discussions of the skills, beginning with why it is important to teach them. Teachers might share what has worked for them, for example, and even engage in some of the student activities related to the Formative Five. Such experiences will not only improve teachers' understanding and practice, they will also make them more comfortable about leading the same activities in their classrooms.
What topics do school handbooks cover? Often, school handbooks contain little more than legalese and negotiated agreements that delineate how people should behave. Beyond that legally necessary information, handbooks should proclaim what is important in the school's culture. At New City School, our employee handbook includes, in addition to information about sick leave procedures, parent-teacher conferences, and maintenance requests, explanations of the multiple intelligences and notes on faculty collegiality. Sections that speak to the school's culture are also included. Here are two examples:
No Surprises
Although this could go just about anywhere, we're placing it here [near the section on parent-teacher conferences] because often the "no surprises" rule is relevant shortly after a parent-teacher conference! "No surprises" simply means that the administration should not be surprised by something that you know. In other words, if you hear a concern from a parent, or if you've made a mistake in dealing with a kid or a parent (which will happen, none of us are perfect!), let us know as soon as possible. Our jobs are much harder when a parent calls to express a concern and all we can say is, "Gosh, I didn't know about that. I'll have to get back with you." Much better is to inform us so that we can begin working to solve the problem as soon as possible.
Customers vs. Consumers
This is Tom's shorthand way of reminding us that there is a difference between those who "purchase" the service (e.g., by paying tuition in a private school, choosing a home in a particular public school district, or selecting a charter or parochial school) and those who "use" it. The former, the customers, are our kids' parents; the latter, the consumers, are our students. Our efforts must be directed at both.
Our parent handbook, which we distribute to every family at the start of every school year, includes a glossary. In addition to the expected entries (drop-off and pick-up procedures, field trips, holidays, promptness), the glossary defines terms that speak to our mission and values (academics, diversity, joyful learning, multiple intelligences).
Are expectations clear? Schools or classrooms that focus on the Formative Five skills need to be especially clear about their rules and standards, because focusing on feelings and attitudes can mistakenly convey the impression that any behaviors are permitted. Being upfront about what is acceptable and what is not can avoid misunderstandings and difficulties down the road. It's also important for faculty to understand that our efforts will make a positive difference for students.
As Mankins (2013) notes, "In our experience, too many companies think of culture as a way to make people feel good about where they work and not as a way to help employees—and hence the organization—perform better. High-performing companies think about culture differently. They know that winning cultures aren't just about affiliation; they are also unashamedly about results." Our focus on culture should not get in the way of clarity about what is acceptable.
Practices—the things we do on a day-to-day basis—are what manifest a culture. Lofty goals and a focus on preparing students for success in life are just syllables strung together if the everyday relationships and instruction are lacking. Teachers are the single most important factor in a child's growth after parents, and good teachers will make learning the Formative Five skills interesting and even exciting.
To be fair, it can be challenging for teachers to go beyond traditional instructional goals and focus on the Formative Five skills. Though teaching these skills requires lessons that are more experiential and interactive than usual, designing such lessons can prove to be an enjoyable challenge for teachers, who no doubt would rather be engaged leaders and coaches than script-readers and lesson executioners.
Here are some questions to consider:
Are students engaged? Engagement should be a goal of all instruction. Some very interesting work on the subject is being done by Robert Brisk and his colleagues at the Wellington School in Columbus, Ohio. Their premise is that students become most engaged when they find their work both deeply challenging and highly enjoyable. The teacher's job, then, is to make content meaningful, design interesting lessons, and require students to stretch a bit in learning.
Students at Brisk's school completed surveys to indicate whether they felt challenged by lessons and loved being in a class. Then Brisk and his colleagues plotted the responses on a table like the one in Figure 7.2.
Ideally, all student responses would fall into the "engaged" quadrant at the upper-right, indicating that they feel highly challenged and also love the class. Responses of students who love the class but don't feel challenged belong in the lower-right "entertained" quadrant. Those students who feel challenged by the class but don't enjoy it fall in the upper-left "grind" area, and responses from those who neither feel challenged nor enjoy the class fall into the "bored" quadrant on the lower left.
Teachers might use a graph like the one in Figure 7.2 to analyze which students, classes, or subject areas fall where on the "engagement" spectrum. Another idea is to track student engagement over time by conducting the survey at regular intervals. The data from this exercise are a starting point and can be extremely useful in reflecting, questioning, and planning. It would be productive to form a faculty committee for the purpose of determining how best to monitor and facilitate student engagement. (If you would like more information on the project at the Wellington School, contact Robert Brisk at brisk@wellington.org.)
Is there a focus on pedagogy and process? Children learn best when they construct their own understanding, which is likeliest to happen when they are engaged in active learning. I believe that the Formative Five skills are best taught when class discussions and experiential activities are regular features of a classroom. The kinds of lessons that are effective for teaching the Formative Five are not typically found in textbooks or teachers' manuals.
To ensure a focus on pedagogy and process, administrators need to foster a climate of creativity and collegiality among teachers. Barth (1990) lays out four components that, taken together, constitute faculty collegiality:
To which I add a fifth component:
Faculty collegiality supports teaching the Formative Five, just as teaching the skills supports faculty collegiality. In teaching the Formative Five, teachers and principals will be planning, learning, and getting out of comfort zones together.
Teachers need to think about times when they can invite people from outside the school—graduates, parents, community members—to discuss the role of Formative Five success skills in their lives. Additionally, teachers might wish to tie a pedagogical goal to the Formative Five (e.g., "I will increase the number of small-group discussions about the Formative Five skills in my classroom and teach students to take the lead in the conversations").
What is assessed and reported? You can tell a lot about a school's culture by looking at its report cards: Is assessment reported solely through grades and check-boxes, or are spaces also provided for teacher narratives? In a classroom or school that focuses on the Formative Five success skills, comments need to be part of students' assessments. This doesn't necessarily mean that they are listed on the report card, but it does mean that progress must be conveyed and shared on a regular basis. (My bias is to include progress in the success skills as part of the report card. Doing so gives a verisimilitude to them.)
At New City School, our report cards are divided according to the multiple intelligences. The first page focuses on the personal intelligences, as we believe they are the most important: assessments of intrapersonal intelligence skills (confidence, motivation, problem solving, responsibility, effort, and work habits) and interpersonal intelligence ones (teamwork and appreciation for diversity). Each area includes a cell for indicating whether the student is having difficulties, progressing toward expectations, meeting expectations, or exceeding expectations. The back of the page is devoted to teachers' narrative comments.
Beginning in 2nd grade, our students participate in the beginning of the first parent-teacher conference of the year to share their academic and personal intelligences goals and how they plan to achieve them. (Typically students then leave the conference so parents and teachers can continue the discussion.) This approach would suit goals related to the Formative Five success skills quite well. For older students particularly, it could be very productive to ask how they think their progress on developing the skills is going. Asking, "How will you know that you've improved?" can elicit deep reflection and discussions.
How is the community informed? All educators benefit when the entire school community knows about the focus on developing Formative Five success skills. Who in the community wouldn't want students to leave school with success skills and understandings for positively contributing to society? Though it can be hard to make the time to share what is happening at school with those outside it, the investment helps build support for a Formative Five–focused education.
Of course, our priority should be the internal school community—those who appear in the hallways every weekday. Schools are remarkably insular institutions; communication often doesn't transmit around corners or across roles. For this reason, teachers and principals need to be proactive about informing everyone of what they are doing in the classroom and why. And informing everyone means informing everyone: I believe that educators should make time to include administrative and maintenance staff members in occasional faculty meetings and start-of-the-year activities.
In every school—in every organization, for that matter—it is the people who make the difference. I know this from experience. Over the years I have frequently run into parents of New City School graduates at the grocery store or corner coffee shop, and it was common for them to tell me how much they loved our school. What they really mean by this is that their children had a wonderful teacher, followed by a super teacher, followed by an excellent teacher. It's the quality of the teachers that sets a school apart, and all the more so in schools that focus on the Formative Five.
Here are some questions to consider:
How are staff hired and fired? Hiring is more than simply selecting new employees, although that is critically important. An inclusive hiring process is a great opportunity to build an interviewing team. Staff members should be actively involved—particularly those who will be working with or in a capacity similar to the new hires—screening resumes and joining in on interviews. If we value teamwork and collegiality, how could we fail to do this?
Once a team is assembled, it is productive for team members to discuss what particular qualities they think the new hires should exhibit. When we reach beyond platitudes ("They will need to like kids, be hard workers, and have the necessary teaching skills"), this question can reveal aspects of the school's mission and values and even tie into the Formative Five skills.
Selecting prospective candidates is always a challenge. It's possible to get a general idea of their skills and knowledge by considering their backgrounds—how and where they were trained and what sorts of experiences they had—by asking them situational questions (e.g., "What do you do when a student _____?"). Getting to the essence of candidates in an interview is considerably more difficult. In one of my Educational Leadership columns (Hoerr, 2014), I revealed strong, unique interview questions that I'd solicited from fellow principals. They range from asking candidates to name a book they think faculty should read to asking where "control" sits in the classroom. You can see the article here.
How are people developed? Educators should have access to professional development opportunities to help them achieve their goals. Periodically, principals should touch base with teachers to see how they're progressing and offer to help. In addition, teachers should meet now and then to share their progress on goals and share strategies to help one another succeed. Teachers working on the Formative Five can learn much from others' efforts, regardless of the content area or grade/age of children that their colleagues are teaching.
The most important factor in the development of educators is holding a realistic attitude about growth—recognizing that it is both essential and messy. The phrase "make new mistakes" comes to mind: Painful as they may be, mistakes are part of life, and it's more constructive to learn from them than to avoid them. All of us, adults as well as children, need to get out of our comfort zones and try new things in order to learn, accepting that we're going to make mistakes. I use the phrase "make new mistakes" often with faculty and parents, particularly when I'm sharing my own errors and what I've learned from them. (They are much more frequent than I would like.) A "make new mistakes" attitude supports the development of grit, trust, and risk-taking. According to Duhigg (2016), a study by Google showed that "allowing others to fail without repercussions" (p. 51) was among the strongest predictors of team effectiveness. Figure 7.3 shows the implications of making different types of mistakes.
Type |
Implications |
These Mistakes Are … |
Old mistakes |
We repeat our errors and do not learn from our experiences. |
Dumb |
No mistakes |
We continue to use the same successful approach. We are error-free, but we aren't learning much. |
Not smart |
New mistakes |
We try new ideas and strategies and learn from our experiences. |
Brave and wise |
How is teamwork supported? Teachers need to be able to learn with and from one another, and this is especially true in schools focused on the Formative Five skills. Faculty collegiality is key to growth, and congeniality is a necessary prerequisite. In our too-busy world, we must make time for educators to get to know one another. This isn't as easy as it seems: precisely because we're all so busy, everyone needs reminding that time set aside for collegial interaction is an investment that will ultimately benefit students as well as teachers. (For a vivid example of how important this investment is, read Jordan Brenner's 2016 article for ESPN The Magazine about NBA basketball team the Golden State Warriors, who routinely eat dinner together on the road because they feel that it makes them a stronger team: "The Warriors' Secret Sauce: Team Dinners on the Road.")
In addition to setting individual goals, all educators should find ways to create team goals with colleagues (e.g., math department goals, 3rd grade teaching goals). Teachers in these teams must reach consensus on strategies to reach their shared goal and sign a document to indicate their commitment. Collaboration—working together as a team—should always be among the strategies. For example, schools might focus on one of the Formative Five skills each year, rotating them on a five-year cycle. Team goals and action plans, signed by everyone on the team, would stem from this schoolwide focus and should be posted in a common area (e.g., teachers' lounge, work room, main office) and periodically revisited at faculty meetings.
How is faculty collegiality supported? Collegiality—adults learning with and from one another—is an essential feature of good schools, but it doesn't happen unless everyone commits to invest the time. The first two of Barth's components of faculty collegiality, teachers talking together about students and teachers working together to develop curriculum, can occur without much difficulty, although focusing on them explicitly helps. However, the third and fourth components, teachers observing one another teach and teachers teaching one another, require intent and tenacity. The component that I added, teachers and administrators working on learning committees together, is a win-win: Administrators can learn much from teachers, and it's always good for teachers to hear administrators' perspectives.
Finally, we need to remember that collegiality is quite different from congeniality. Certainly, we want congenial staff members who ask about one another's families and vacations. But that's just the beginning: What we're really striving for is collegiality, a culture in which people learn with and from one another.
Mission statements and handbooks are important and necessary, but culture is primarily conveyed through stories, traditions, and artifacts. These are the elements that shout the culture in every organization; the question is whether they develop organically or intentionally.
Here are some questions to consider:
What distinguishes the school? Educators should address this question every year as well as during formal planning, considering what makes their school unique and a source of pride. All schools should strive to improve, and an important part of that is thinking about what sets our school apart from the one across town.
The perceived value of any service, including education, derives from the combination of relevance and differentiation. This idea was introduced to me by Larry Zarin, formerly the chief marketing officer and senior vice president of Express Scripts. (You can learn more about it here.) Relevance refers to how much consumers (i.e., students and parents) desire the service, and differentiation to how unique the service is. We want our schools to be both relevant (desirable to students and parents) and differentiated (distinct from competing schools). The relationship between relevance, differentiation, and value is shown in Figure 7.4.
Because the Formative Five skills are so necessary yet considered an afterthought in most schools, educators pursuing them have an opportunity to generate enthusiasm for their efforts by ensuring that their school is High Value.
Is culture reinforced? If it's midnight and there's no one in the school, is it still clear what the school culture values? Do decorations in the hallways and classrooms reflect the mission statement? Signs, posters, student work, and even furniture can all reinforce a culture, so we need to be intentional about the messages we give.
What stories are told? The stories we choose to tell and retell can affect perceptions and frame a school's culture. Simply put, if we say something enough and with enough conviction, the effect is cumulative. To quote Earl Nightingale, "Repetition causes more repetition. Whatever we plant in our subconscious mind and nourish with repetition and emotion will one day become a reality." Author Robert Collier echoes the sentiment when he notes that "constant repetition carries conviction." For example, beginning each faculty meeting by sharing stories of students who have overcome odds reinforces the value of grit. This kind of routine sharing related to Formative Five success skills can also be a part of every parent-education meeting or PTA gathering.
What are the school's traditions? A day or two before the first day of the school year, all New City School staff members receive a t-shirt featuring some sort of unique slogan on it. The shirts are unveiled at a staff meeting after our performing arts teacher plays a special song written for the occasion. The school's name and logo are always evident on the shirt, and the slogan makes a statement about the school's focus for the year. One year, the slogan was Got Grit; another year it said Good Failures; yet another year, Multiple Intelligences School.
Another example of a longstanding tradition at New City School is the awarding of "longevity pins" to staff who have been employed for five years (or any multiple of five). We award the pins every year at our May school picnic, prior to which we solicit positive stories about those receiving the pins from their colleagues to read aloud during the ceremony.
Additional traditions at our school include a Welcome Back Coffee and Donuts event for parents at the start of every year, a Diversity Dinner and Dialogue, and a breakfast where students meet and get to know their pen pals. These traditions show our values. If your school doesn't have these kinds of habits in place, designing them could be a fun and productive task for a school culture committee.
The physical environment where we work has a lot to do with our effectiveness and our happiness. We should consider place an opportunity to reinforce culture and to support and highlight the Formative Five success skills.
Questions to consider:
Is the school clean and safe? Everyone in the school community should share the goal of maintaining the cleanliness and safety of the school, students definitely included. This includes, of course, emotional safety—students and staff knowing that they can be themselves without opprobrium. The Formative Five success skills can easily be taught in this context.
Is the school inviting? We want our schools to be settings where everyone feels invited and comfortable, and we need to consciously design them to deliver that message. Are the front doors inviting? Is someone present to welcome visitors and provide security? When people call the school, is the voice on the other end friendly?
Parent-teacher conferences are opportunities to ensure an inviting atmosphere, as they can make everyone anxious at times. If difficulties are being noted, parents may view their children's struggles as reflecting poorly on their parenting and become defensive. Seating for parent conferences should be comfortable (adult seating, not student desks), and that includes seating in the hall where parents await their time to meet. Coffee or water should be provided. These little comforts convey much meaning.
What messages are posted? We want evidence of achievement in the Formative Five skills to be as prominent as evidence of academic achievement. In addition to posting the honor roll where everyone can see it, educators should post lists of students who have displayed empathy, self-control, integrity, embracing diversity, and grit. Posting a separate chart for each of the Formative Five success skills can help to highlight students' progress on them.
Another idea that helps to reinforce a culture of growth is to create a poster titled "Made New Mistakes" that lists examples from students and staff about lessons learned from errors. The dialogue leading to creation of such a poster and the process of creating it help educators to focus on the stories their school tells.
Does space support learning? I believe in "ambient learning." That is, I believe that we learn from experiencing what is around us, even if we are not aware that we are doing so. We should consider halls and walls as spaces to inform and to inspire; they should be filled with the work, presented through both words and pictures, of students who are exhibiting success with the Formative Five skills.
Sadly, the physical spaces of schools and prisons have much in common. They each feature hallways with doors leading to spaces (classrooms and cells) on either side, some common areas for eating, and a focus on timely and quiet passage. To a degree, this makes sense; after all, these buildings are meant to hold hundreds and sometimes thousands of people, so an efficiency and hierarchy is necessary. But focusing too much on institutionalizing the environment can sap inspiration and create an impediment to learning. Cathy Davidson (2011) notes that every element of modern office buildings is "designed to signal that this is not your home; this is not fun; this is not personal; this is not about you" (p. 183). This is precisely the type of sterility we want to avoid if our students are to thrive academically and successfully develop the Formative Five.
One aspect of space that educators often overlook is the degree to which it supports collaborative student learning in different-sized groups while also providing room for individual self-reflection. As Cain (2012) notes, "Our lives are shaped as profoundly by personality as by gender or race. And the single most important aspect of personality—the ‘north and south of temperament,’ as one scientist puts it—is where we fall on the introvert-extrovert spectrum" (p. 2). She continues, "We're told that to be great is to be bold, to be happy is to be sociable. We see ourselves as a nation of extroverts—which means that we've lost sight of who we really are. Depending on which study you consult, one third to one half of Americans are introverts—in other words, one out of every two or three people you know" (p. 3). We need to be sure that learning opportunities and physical spaces accommodate both extroverts and introverts.
Culture is the key to our effectiveness and growth. Like the water in which fish live, it is all around us, all of the time; a school's culture affects how we feel, think, and act. Educators must work collaboratively and tenaciously to create a school culture that prepares students for a future in which the only constant will be change.