All These Wonders
Wisdom from the Field #27
Ten days before an unmanned spaceship is supposed to reach Pluto, it’s primary computer shuts down.1
Cathy Olkin, a scientist working on this decade-long exploratory mission, gets the message while taking a day off. She heads back into her NASA sitaution room with her team. After going over all their options, they successfully restart the primary computer on the spacecraft and are able to capture first-time images of Pluto.
After celebrating their accomplishment, Cathy reflected on the experience.
“I couldn’t believe the beauty and the details that were awaiting us at Pluto. We would have never expected the unusual terrain we’ve seen. We saw a heart-shaped glacier made out of nitrogen and carbon monoxide ices. At the edge of the glacier there were huge mountains - mountains as tall as the Rocky Mountains - made out of water ice. Pluto has a large moon named Charon, and on that moon there’s a deep canyon, deeper than the Grand Canyon.
All these wonders awaited us.”
Imagining Students’ Futures
Teachers and leaders might relate to Cathy Olkin’s experience. We are asked to imagine our students not just as they are, but also who they might become.
The difference is, each child’s learning trajectory is not a linear flight. Many obstacles can impede growth. Our jobs as educators is to guide this journey, to:
provide the supports for their success,
remove unnecessary obstacles, and
ensure the learning is relevant to their lives.
This is equity work: wondering from a source of possibility all that our students can do and who they might become.
Wisdom from the Field is also a feature in my book Leading Like a C.O.A.C.H.: Five Strategies for Supporting Teaching and Learning (Corwin, 2022).
This story is featured in The Moth Presents: All These Wonders, edited by Catherine Burns.