Fishing for People

I'm always on the lookout for ideas to write about that relate to my life as an educator. One of my favorite places to get ideas is church and last week, I was presented with an idea that really resonated with me. My pastor started his sermon with a verse in the Bible about fishing for men. As I reflected on the sermon over the course of the next week, I came to the realization that in schools, we all need to be fishing for people in order to make our climates and cultures the best they can possibly be.

You see, as a leader in schools, it is important to cast a wide cultural net and catch as many people as possible. Failure to do this will result in a number of different "schools of fish" swimming around your building and going their own separate ways. While some people might be okay with this, it really doesn't create a sense of community in your school. To keep the extended metaphor going a little further, at some point, you need to ask yourself if you want to be a community of schools or a school community. There is a distinct difference between the two.

A community of schools as it relates to school culture is one in which you have disparate groups of people who work together in harmony, but don't necessarily work towards a common vision and shared purpose. A school community on the other hand is one in which everyone is swimming in the same direction towards achieving the same awesomeness. The latter is what we should be striving for in our schools and in order to do so, we need to fish for people.

A school's culture is not developed overnight. It takes years of work and attention to detail to get it just right. Additionally, it is the job of everyone in the school community to maintain that culture so that as new people are added, the culture stays on the same path. In order to do so, we all need to be fisherman and bring in the people.