# week 15 reflection - Putting it all together When I finish a course like this, especially one with so much valuable content, I like to break it down into manageable chunks that I can take with me and use as part of my belief system, my why, my values, so that I can internalize it and make it meaningful for the rest of my life. From this class, I have two things that I want to take with me. These ideas are ideas that I have already believed, but that I can better articulate now going forward. ## 1. Education is about who we become, not what we do. I've found myself quite bothered by the emphasis on grades, testing, and accountability measures over the last several years. Being in this graduate program has especially been tough when it comes to grades, because grades are all made up, and we can just cancel grades and testing whenever we want (Jones, 2020). This was evidenced by the recent cancellation of Commencement at USC due to potential disruption because of the valedictorian speaker, thus resulting in graduating seniors of this particular class having their high school graduation canceled due to COVID school closures and now their college graduation also being canceled. All that to say, these things that we value so much in school are ultimately meaningless. For the last several years, I've asked audiences at my speaking engagements what they remember about school that shaped who they are today. Never has anyone mentioned any typical school structure that we spend so much time on: schedules, standardized testing, grades, assignments. Rather, it is always about how their teachers make them feel and who they become. I've said before that these skills are the only things worth teaching in schools, and I'm going to double down on that even more (Jones, n.d.). ## 2. Hands, Head, and Heart The real value of what we do in education needs to be done with our whole selves. We cannot simply see this as a J-O-B, but rather as a calling, where we put our hands, head, and heart into the work. Whatever we do in schools needs to include all three areas, not just one of them. If it's missing them, we need to go back to the drawing board to include the others. ### References - Jones, J. (n.d.). _The Formative Five with Tom Hoerr_ (225) [Mp3]. [https://transformativeprincipal.org/s5/225](https://transformativeprincipal.org/s5/225) - Jones, J. (2020, April 2). _Is anything actually going to change? Or are we going to do the same things we always have?_ [https://www.jethrojones.com/blog/corona-change](https://www.jethrojones.com/blog/corona-change)