I’ve recently read an excerpt from this book: In Schools We Trust: Creating Communities of Learning in an Era of Testing and Standardization by Deborah Meier. The excerpt I read, Chapter Four, was for a course I’m taking as part of my graduate studies. Chapter Four is about teachers trusting teachers. I loved it, and I daresay I’m intrigued to read more of this book (I’ve added it to my ever-growing wish list!).
In this chapter, Meier talks about the different types of trust — trust in personal relationships, trust in professional relationships, friends versus colleagues, and how trust as colleagues ultimately makes us better teachers, and makes our schools better places of learning. If you don’t already know who Meier is, you’ll find her examples quite heavily American but that is because of her context — she is an experienced educator, administrator, and academic in American education. However, the details and specific aspects of her examples are easily transferable to any school because what she gets at is why community is so important to learning.
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In a tone reminiscent of Barack Obama’s election mantra of “Yes, we can”, and inspired by CAS Coordinator Adrian Thirkell, a group of dedicated CAS students at the British International School (BIS) have launched the first school in the Asia Pacific region, if not the world, that is run entirely by CAS students.