bridging the gap: put your heart into it!

Most educators have known for years that there is an achievement gap between students based in large part by their racial demographics and their family’s economic positioning. What most educators have struggled with is how to bridge the gap, which only seems to increase as technology advances.
There are many reasons that can be cited for this disparity. Everything from household make up, lack of resources, lack of access, to lack of interest. Regardless of the cause, as the years have progressed one thing that cannot be denied, our young people need our help and our guidance. Truthfully speaking, our children aren’t failing, we are failing our children. As the adults, parents, educators, and community leaders we have to roll up our sleeves, get engage, and place a sense of urgency to this. We must begin to actively participate in the bridge building. It is no longer about determining who or what is at fault, instead we must accept that regardless, we are all responsible.
So, you may be asking, “But where do I begin?”  Start with HEART!
Here are 5 HEART centered action steps you can take, starting today, to begin to do your part.

1. Have a conversation. Get to KNOW your students, not just their names and the clinical data in their files. Make a concerted effort to engage in genuine conversations with them. This will require some rapport building. If you are an elementary school teacher make it your mission to know what’s hot in their world. The latest toys, video games, shows etc. Incorporate those items into your engagement with the children. Middle School and High School, similar approach but broaden the scope. Our teens and tweens are also heavily impacted by social issues. Sure, they appear to live in a ‘me’-centered universe, but the rest of the solar system is at their fingertips and they are being impacted from all angles. Stay up on the pop culture, learn who is in and who is out. Learn follow influencers on Instagram, educated yourself on Tik Tok and Snapchat. Familiarize yourself with their world.  Again, being well-versed on these seemingly “unrelated” social details will be key to building rapport and establishing trust.\
2. Exchange the polaroid snapshot in for a wide-angle lens. Yes test scores will tell you a lot but they are merely a snapshot in time. Numbers do not tell the whole story. They certainly won’t disclose the human story. Remember those conversations from step one? THIS is where the investment you made to connect with them on their level, will set you apart.  We used to live in a world where kids trusted adults because they were adults, no other credentials were required. Now, sadly, we live in a time where in many cases, the adults charged with protecting children are the very ones violating them. So, it is up to us to take the extra step to demonstrate they are safe to trust. It may take some subtle probing, but as they open up you will begin to identify areas of opportunities to make a shift. This is where you will begin to apply the diversity training and yes, you may feel stretched by it. If these children are from a different culture, community, or upbringing than yourself you will have to remind yourself to view their story through a wide-angle lens. You will need to challenge yourself to not deny their experiences, but instead accept that those experiences exist, even if you personally have never lived it. As you have asked them to trust you, trust them, to allow you to see their world, through their eyes.
3. Abolish the “If this, then” mindset. There’s a relatively new term now, they say we live in a “CANCEL CULTURE”. Meaning if we feel something is wrong we rebuke it and shut it down by any means. If we are going to buy into cancel culture, here is a perfect and justifiable thing to exercise it on. Too often we ‘assume’ we know what someone is thinking or feeling based on how WE THINK we would feel in their shoes. Newsflash, that’s a habit that also needs to be cancelled. Because guess what, you aren’t living or walking in their shoes so you cannot assume you know. What happens is we borrow from our own lived experiences and try to overlay ours on top of theirs. What happens then is we attempt to frame their experience through our own lived experiences, which most times are eons apart.  Leaving one to deduce that if this is what it look here and now, then that must have happened or then they won’t want to do X, Y, or Z. Remember those test scores????? When you look at those and allow your mind to operate on auto-pilot you risk missing the real opportunities and teachable moments. Auto pilot will signal If this is their score, then they must not care.  If this is their grade, then there’s no way they can get into college. STOP !IMPOSING your limiting beliefs onto them based on numerical statistics and instead ask questions. Back to the beginning, have a conversation. You will be surprised at what you can uncover.
4. Raise your Expectations. As a general rule, most children will strive to live up to, or down to your expectations. If they know the bare minimum is all that is expected, they will not feel compelled to attempt to do more. They may not even be aware of that “more” is an option. They certainly will not be incentivized to stretch themselves. And suddenly that “If this, then” mindset will kick in to gear for them. If this is all that is expected, then this is all I HAVE TO DO and in turn, this is all I’m going to do.” In turn, if you as a leader have not cancelled that mindset for your self you too will move into auto pilot mode. If this is all the effort they put out, then he or she must not care. Which may be the farthest thing from the truth. In reality, for many students, if someone would be willing to set a higher standard with clear expectations of achievement established, they are quite capable of rising up to the challenge. By raising your expectations, you affirm, that something more is possible.
5. Trade the map in for an Atlas. Often times our own beliefs can impact the path that we set forth for a child and we choose to map out only one way to accomplish a goal or reach a target. When in reality, there may be 15 other ways to get there. I challenge you to familiarize our young people with the whole atlas and teach them to explore various routes. The route that may seem easiest in your mind may not be the route that is the most appealing to them. One of the hardest things we do as parents, educators and leaders is to take our hand off the wheel and give our children the freedom to chart their own course. Our job is to show them the world of possibilities and reinforce their ability to accomplish anything they set their mind to.  At the end of the day be willing to accept that the path they choose may be quite different than the one you may have chosen for them. And that is OK.

Bridging the gap starts with a conversation but the conversation never ends. Keep your heart, eyes, and ears open. Change the lens and be willing to see the world through new eyes. Cancel outdated beliefs limiting mindsets. Keep your expectations high, just because we have never touched a star doesn’t mean we can’t appreciate they are there. And finally, your job, is to show there are various routes, be available to course correct when necessary, but in the end let them explore.
Bridging the gap starts with HEART! 

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