Building Strong School Communities: Educators who Own their Mistakes

"What are your strengths and weaknesses" is a question often asked in an interview or on a job application. And for many of us, the advice on how to answer this question was to be honest about your strengths, but to reframe your weaknesses in such a way that it could be questioned as to whether the quality shared is indeed a weakness. Thus, to admit to a professional mistake or mishap would be an absolute 'no'. However, as I now sit on the other side of the interview table, listening to the responses of various candidates, I find myself disagreeing with this approach. I believe there's something about a person's ability to be honest with themselves and the way they respond to and deal with that honesty in a professional setting that is a good indicator of the type of educator they truly are. 

I would argue that one foundational pillar to building a strong school community is emotional and physical safety. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs provides a theoretical understanding for our innate human need for connection and current educational data around belonging further supports this theory. Our sense of belonging or connectedness impacts our ability to feel safe. And where I do not feel safe, I am not strong. I do not act in my full potential and thus am unable to thrive. You cannot build a strong school community if its members do not feel safe. 

The question then moves to, "how do we create safe spaces?" My response to this question is through owning our mistakes, a responsive way of living that is rooted in vulnerability and empathy. The most effective, hardest working, innovative, community building, and authentically student-connected educators I have encountered have been those who were able to acknowledge, admit, and learn from their mistakes. When I own my mistakes, I become the owner of my life trajectory. I own my story and have the power to determine how that story ends. The mistakes no longer hang as a badge of shame, but rather serve as an armor of strength. This is a critical skill to have as educators not just theoretically, but practiced in real life as well. As an educator at an all-girls institution, I would argue that possessing this skill is even more paramount in such environments. It is important that girls embrace the messaging that making mistakes is okay. It is vital that young women are reminded that perfection is not the goal. However, we cannot just say these things, we have to embody them and that begins at the interview stage.

My role in the interview process as Director of DEIB is to approach the conversation through this lens, but I'm not necessarily looking for DEI-certified candidates who know all of the jargon and terms because knowledge is only powerful when it is effectively used. I am looking for the person who demonstrates the ability to be self-reflective, owning their strengths and mistakes, and then harnesses the empathy that results from such authentic self-awareness to build safe classrooms, safe hallways, safe schools. In order to build strong school communities, schools need educators who at the interview stage are able to articulate their greatness, while also owning all of the ways in which they have achieved such because they recognize that greatness is attained through both trials and mistakes. When educators are able to embrace their mistakes and then unabashedly share how they have grown from those mistakes, students benefit and school communities are stronger because of it.

So, what are your strengths and weaknesses?