Tell me you are a progressive educator

without telling me that you are a progressive educator

Pic generated by AI

Preamble:

You may have come across this interesting concept in communication. It goes like this: Communication is not about what you said, communication is about what they understood.¹

So this post is not about what I say or write. This is about how you will understand it.

This post could be a sarcasm. This could be a joke. This could be a straight fact.

This post is about what your primary lenses are (eg: social constructivism or pedagogy of the oppressed) and how you interpret the world around you.

Take it however you want to take it.

You might have a laugh at it. You might get angry at me or the world. You may not like facts (because truth is a construct, right?).

Conversely, you might even become more progressive (because of resistance, confirmation bias and sunk cost).

Many of these ideas below are what I’ve heard and read from teachers, institutional leaders, policy makers, professors, and consultants. (And, without shame I share, I too used to believe in many of these ideas. Blindly.)

But remember, this is about you questioning your own existing beliefs about education, learning, and teaching.

Ready?

---

The Top 25 Ideas:

You are a progressive educator if you have said these yourself or agreed about these or posted quotes like these or internalized these in your belief system.

1. We don’t teach students. We educate them so that they can make the world better. Because, “Education is not a process of directing instruction, but to inspire, to feed curiosity, to facilitate.”²

2. I am not a teacher that acts like a sage on the stage and makes students learn passively. I am a facilitator that acts like a guide on the side and makes students engaged in active learning.

3. If the students are not solving real-world problems through hands-on activities, why are they even in the school?

4. I don’t grade answers; we celebrate 'potential,' even if it’s still hiding under a pile of unfinished assignments.

5. Why focus on fixed measurable outcomes when we can celebrate their creative reinterpretation of the assignments?

6. Instead of teaching math, we give freedom to our students to explore how they feel when they discover numbers.

7. Instead of teaching concepts, I let students discover, explore, and construct their own understanding.

8. In my class, assessments are unnecessary — students construct their own criteria for success and then meet them beautifully.

9. Grades are an oppressive construct, so I give everyone an 'A' and allow them to self-reflect on their emotional journey instead.

10. We have replaced history lessons with storytelling circles where students reimagine the past as they wish it had happened.

11. Memorizing facts is an outdated idea from old traditional education system — we encourage students to 'vibe' with the big ideas instead.

12. Motivation doesn’t need structure; I let my students meditate until they’re intrinsically driven to learn. Learning cannot happen due to extrinsic motivation.

13. Motivation can't be graded, so I simply reward every student for 'being present in the moment.'

14. We spend the entire two months building trust and safe space through interpretive icebreakers and bonding activities. Learning “content” can always wait.

15. Most of the times, I ditch the lesson plans to focus on ‘connection circles'—students will write essays when they feel connected and ready to share. Do we even need lesson plans? They make learning so dull and uncreative.

16. Math class starts with an appreciation post or wall of gratitude because connection is more important than multiplication and solving equations.

17. Critical thinking means questioning everything. I even let my students challenge my own teaching. We don’t teach our students to read from the same old textbooks, we teach them to ask questions.

18. Collaboration is key, which is why no one gets individual grades in my class. When they finish their project, we all celebrate, share gratitudes, and clap for each other.

19. Rules stifle creativity, so I let students co-create their own rules. After all, they are the adults of the future.

20. Instead of classroom routines and structures, I embrace spontaneity. Sometimes, we spend the whole class chatting about their lives, that’s valid learning too.

21. Standardized exams are just a way to test how well students can memorize facts. Exams don’t test whether the student is a good human being.

22. “When our students leave our schools and enter life, they will no longer be judged by standardized tests. They will be judged for the rest of their lives by two things: the quality of the person they are, the quality of work that they do.”³

23. “We don’t need to teach the facts. Now we should to teach them skills, especially the 21st century skills: communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity.”

24. “Kids don’t learn from teachers they don’t like.”⁴ Years after they leave school, they won’t remember what the teachers taught. They will remember how the teachers made them feel.

25. “Learning happens in the minds and souls, not in the database of multiple choice tests.”⁵ Instead of MCQs and standardized tests, let’s ask students to reflect and self-evaluate their personal growth by how much they’ve evolved since the start of the school session.

Bonus point:

“I feel inferior or demeaning when I call myself a teacher. That sounds so traditional. I instead call myself an educator. Now, this sounds so cool.”

---

Ideas, not People:

You might ask: If I question these ideas and beliefs, will I become a less of a loving caring respecting human being? Absolutely not.

As a teacher, I love and respect my students as much as I love this profession. And I’m 100% sure, most progressive educators are decent, well-intentioned people who love their work.

It’s not about the any individual person, it’s about the ideas that have been in the mainstream.

And, no idea is beyond questioning. When these progressive ideas in education have become the orthodoxy, that’s the time to scrutinize them, dissect them, and question them.

So, don’t be afraid to challenge these ideas - after all that’s one of things progressive educators constantly lecture about: challenging the norms.

Are you willing to question and challenge the fluff in education, teaching, and learning?

1. I read this communication concept first on Frank Luntz’s book “Words That Work: It's not what you say, it's what people hear.” It’s a solid book if you want to understand how communication works.

2. Credited to: Sir Ken Robinson

3. Credited to: Ron Berger (pblworks instagram post)

4. Credited to: Rita Pearson

5. Credited to: Sir Ken Robinson