Stop Speaking in Tongues

Doctors have it. Pilots have it. CPAs have it. Educators do not. What don't we have that doctors, pilots, and accountants do? Why, they have a common language. While we can talk about our craft in general terms and we can describe the decisions and judgments we make in classrooms with sufficient specificity to get along, we don't have a common language. Common language, however, is a primary characteristic of a profession.

Consider the medical profession. Now there's an example of a common language. Generalists and specialists and nurses and doctors have to employ a common language. The repercussions of an imprecise and inexact language can be literally life threatening. We depend on their common language. Our life depends on it.

Consider another example of how important it is to have a common language among pilots and air traffic controllers. Bad things could happen on the ground if a precise and shared language wasn't used to direct planes to the correct runways and taxiways. And if common language wasn't used to direct pilots as they take off and land the results would be quite catastrophic. They depend on their common language (and we do, too).

Here's our chance to employ a common language in schools and classrooms across the state: The NYS Teaching Standards. These have to become our common language. Leaders have to use the language as they interact with their teachers. Teachers have to use the language when they talk to each other and co-labor on the implementation of the Common Core, common interim assessments, and the new APPR. Just imagine if the daily, routine conversations in schools were more often about learning and teaching. That can't happen if we don't share a common language. The Teaching Standards. That's our language. Let's use it.