No significant learning can occur without a significant relationship.”
~ Dr. James Comer

[Leave No Child Behind: Preparing Today’s Youth for Tomorrow’s World, 2004 ]

All learning is understanding relationships.”
~ George Washington Carver. [American Scientist, Botanist, Educator, and Inventor]

To teach we must be taught. Our students are our best mentors, that is, if we are willing to learn. From the young we learn how others interpret what we say, how we say it, and why. “To teach is to learn twice.” ~ Joseph Joubert

So much is said about education being the problem and solution. People pose that there are good Teachers and bad. Standards and choice are disparate concepts; yet in education conversations each is lauded simultaneously. Within ourselves, we are discordant; however I trust you would disagree. You know where you stand but where is that? Have you ever thought about that? Rita Pierson, Ed.D has and perhaps we might join her.

Might we reflect on our relationships? Possibly education is empathy. We learn through understanding; relationships are the root of realization. So, the question is, who are our Teachers? Who are our students? Who are we and what did we learn from our relationships with these?

Perhaps, it is as Dr. Rita Pierson proclaims, “You know, kids don’t learn from people they don’t like.’” Or they do, but the lessons differ. Either way, what remains true is that relationships are the root of education. Empathy expands us; antipathy contracts.

Such is the lesson of life. When we are confronted with our differences take time to consider that the problem is the solution, that the good is the bad. Your standards are your choice, and mine may differ. Still, we are one because we relate to the notion that education is.. the problem and solution, dependent on our relationship with it.


To Learn More about Rita Pierson, Ed.D or TEDTalks read below.

Rita F. Pierson, a professional educator since 1972, has taught elementary school, junior high and special education. She’s been a counselor, a testing coordinator and an assistant principal. In each of these roles, she’s brought a special energy to the role — a desire to get to know her students, show them how much they matter and support them in their growth, even if it’s modest.

For the past decade, Pierson has conducted professional development workshops and seminars for thousands of educators. Focusing on the students who are too often under-served, she lectures on topics like “Helping Under-Resourced Learners,” “Meeting the Educational Needs of African American Boys” and “Engage and Graduate your Secondary Students: Preventing Dropouts.”

“Parents make decisions for their children based on what they know, what they feel will make them safe. And it is not our place [as educators] to say what they do is ‘wrong.’ It’s our place to say maybe we can add a set of rules that they don’t know about.”
~ Rita Pierson

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