2017: Know Your Why

In 2017, we started a trend at Lincoln School Costa Rica of beginning our year as a full-faculty with a theme that we could come back to throughout the year. We started that year by telling our team the story of the Three Bricklayers. Its a great story, but since then I’ve been retelling it as my interpretation of the better known story of The Three Little Pigs.

My version begins as so many great fables do: Long ago in a land far, far away…three pigs were tasked with building a new house. The first was simply instructed to build a house and left to his own devices. He, as you may have guessed, set about building his home as quickly as he could with what he could find most easily, which in his case were sticks and branches that had fallen from nearby trees. Of course, when the local wolf came by shortly after, it was easily able to huff and puff and blow the house down. The second pig, also simply instructed to complete the task of building a house, decided to use straw as there was plenty in the nearby field and he knew he could accomplish his task quickly and easily. Again, the hungry wolf quickly huffed and puffed and blew that house down too. It’s the with the third little pig that the story becomes interesting. This pig, instead of being told to simply build a new house, was tasked with building a home that could withstand a visit from the dangerous wolf and other creatures that might visit him in the night. This pig, the third pig, knew that his home needed to be strong and sturdy, and so he set about building it with bricks. It took more planning and time, but he knew the importance and purpose of his task. You know the rest. Shortly after laying his last brick, the third little pig was visited by the wolf but refused to open his door. The wolf, knowing what worked before in his visits to the houses of sticks and straw huffed and puffed, but the house of the third pig stood strong and the wolf quickly tired. Defeated, the wolf moved on to easier prey, and the third little pig stayed safe and warm (his home being fire resistant as a side benefit of its construction and therefore capable of indoor heating) in this house of brick.

I like that story; its simple, familiar, and fits well with the point that when someone understands the purpose of their task they’re more likely to do it well. But to really drive the point home, and to help our faculty understand how it related to them and their students, I played them this video:

Now that’s powerful, and again it’s pretty easy to relate to teachers and their lives. So, we watched the video together and I shared my why, which is “to help others be and become their best selves, however they define that to be.” I explained to them that I’m no saint, that this isn’t an exhibition of pure altruism, that instead by working towards my why I find that I am my best self, and that it makes me feel great. And then I gave them time to define their own why and to write it down and keep it with them or at their desks. I asked them to share it with one another and with their students, and to include it in their goals for 2017 so that I could support them in their personal growth. And I told them if they wanted to dive deeper into this idea to check out The Golden Circle by Simon Sinek.

Later in 2017, we brought faculty back together to talk about their progress in living their whys and took the opportunity to pivot into a conversation about our why. We spoke about the need to lean into creativity and innovation in order to create a dynamic learning environment focused on relevant learning. Honestly, it was three years ago so I’m not sure if that was our exact vocabulary, but I do know that was our message. And then we shared this video:

It’s an exciting video, and it worked in driving home the point that at Lincoln, while we value our history and tradition, we were no longer interested in the status quo. Instead we were ready for a revolution in the why, how, and what of education. I’m honestly not sure we knew then what direction this would take us, but 2018 was set to be turning point for us all.