Impacting ALL students by reaching EACH student

There is a big difference between a school mission to deliver high-quality education for all students and delivering a high-quality education for each student. The difference between all and each is significant. If the goal is to reach all students, it is easy to settle for most students, because it is justifiable to say that reaching 100% of all students is impossible. Most is a great achievement. Is most 90%, 75%, 51%? The word all leaves plenty of wiggle room to claim success when there are still many students whom the school fails to reach. 

Now each student is another challenge. Each student is an individual. Each student has a story. Each student has gifts, strengths and unique abilities. Each student deserves the best effort of their teachers. Each leaves no wiggle room. Either each student is reached or they are not. It is 100% or 0%. There is no middle ground. Each student is entitled to a high-quality education. Each student can achieve at high levels. Each student has assets that make him or her uniquely gifted to do something great with their lives. Each student comes into this world for a specific purpose. 

Somewhere along the way, each student encounters circumstances and challenges in their lives. These experiences can create strength or they can cause damage. Regardless of the road each student has been on, they come to school as individuals and their teachers become a part of their individual story. Teachers have the ability to play a powerful part of each student’s story. Teachers can bring strength, teachers can help repair damage, and teachers can help each student become more aware of the part they play in their own story and the story of others. Teachers have this type of impact and schools can be an amazing place for all students. It begins when schools and teachers turn their focus from all the students to each of their student's. 

Radical school change begins with the individual: an individual teacher with an individual student discovering what each student needs to achieve at high levels and helping each student get what they need. It is not lowering the bar, but opening the ceiling.