The Why, the How, and the What

Welcome back to a new school year!

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Careers and career fields are always in a state of flux (including education). Content is always changing; the careers our students will be applying for have not been invented. Yet, the skills required are always the same: we need people that can be curious and creative, communicate effectively in speaking and writing, think critically and analytically, collaborate, take initiative, and adapt. This blog is designed in part to explore these timeless human skills and how we can teach our elementary content in a way that allows us to teach these skills to our students.

And, it is my hope, that while we are learning how to teach these skills to our children, we are developing them in our own lives as teachers and parents.

Below is a video of Simon Sinek explaining his very basic idea that people don't care what we do--they care why we do it. He says that most people and organizations and businesses know what they do, and some know how they do it. Very few know why they do what they do. He argues that all the great inspiring leaders and innovators (he cites Apple, the Wright Brothers, and Martin Luther King, Jr.) think and communicate in the same way: they begin with the "why" and move on to the "how" and the "what". Sinek demonstrates how this is completely opposite from the rest of the world--and he does it in an engaging and well-organized way.

This has very simple and profound implications for us as teachers, employees, bosses, parents, and spouses. Listen to this: