In the book “The AI-Driven Leader” by Geoff Woods, the author shares this thought:
“The idea was simple but incredibly powerful: identify the one thing you could do such that by doing it, everything else would be easier or unnecessary.”
It made me think about this answer in education. What would that one thing be that would ensure students are set up for success?
To me, it would be having the ability to read and write.
Of course, other things matter in learning, but the ability to read and write seems foundational to everything. Adam Grant shares this in his book, “Hidden Potential”:
“Basic literacy makes it possible to leverage character skills more effectivel —to be proactive in learning more and learning faster. Prosperity rises as people become more capable of absorbing new ideas and filtering out old ones.”
But we often complicate things when the answer is a straight line.
People often connect with me and ask me how I lost weight, and I tell them that I can give them the answer, but they have to be ready to put it into action. It is simply this: eat less, move more. Simple formula but challenging implementation.
We are often looking for simple implementation through a complex formula. It rarely happens that way.
As I read Woods’s quote, I thought about the following image shared by Alberta Education in the early 2000s. (I feel so dated by using that term!)
The student is at the center of the circle, with the foundation being numeracy and literacy. It is not saying that other things don’t matter, but you have to set up a foundation to get there.
Focusing too much on the aspiration, without clearly articulating the importance of the foundation.
In “The Innovator’s Mindset,” I did share an emphasis on the basics before we can go toward the idea of innovation:
Innovation in any area requires a fundamental understanding of basic concepts. To be a great musician, you must learn the basic concepts of music. The best writers in the world at some point learned how to read and write. The speed at which people learn the fundamentals varies from person to person, but every master first had to acquire the basic knowledge and competency.
The basics are essential in our modern world. We all know this. Believe me, even as someone who is passionate about innovation in education, I still cringe at spelling mistakes. I hate them. I want kids to know their times tables and not have to rely on a calculator for simple math. The basics are important, but we need to go beyond knowing to creating and doing. Understanding how to read and write doesn’t make you a writer. By contrast, if you are a writer, it’s a given that you know how to read and write.
I would love to see kids walk out of school and become authors. But to do that, you must learn to read and write first.
Reading and writing –> Foundational
Writing a book –> Aspirational
And maybe I am wrong. Maybe reading and writing isn’t the “one thing.” Maybe it is. I am not trying to tell you the direction as much as I hope to inspire conversations in your community. If we can focus on “one big thing” that would make everything easier for our students to become successful, what would that be? If you can figure it out, the aspirations are suddenly in play.
Foundational before aspirational.
That one thing can be the key for all students.
The answer may be more straightforward than you think. Just start asking the question.
