Despite grappling with the issue of trust and how that plays into learning, I am convinced that trust is one thing that could transform public education.  The research shows that the most important thing to achievement is one’s belief that they can achieve; that they are capable; the one thing that creates this belief is trust.

When I was in Finland a teacher said to me, “we don’t worry if a child doesn’t learn to read on our timeline; we trust that they will eventually; we believe that they will learn to read”. The fact that the words “trust and believe” are right next to each other in this sentence is very important because trusting that it will happen sends the message that the teacher believes in the child. Getting that message is very important because when somebody believes that they are capable, they are likely to persevere in order to achieve or succeed. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. This same teacher also shared that they provide services to students who may not be learning at the expected pace. All students access this assistance if they need it.  There is no stigma associated with the interventions because there is no evaluation process overtly being used. This same method works for adults as well. When administrators trust that teachers will do the right thing; when they trust that they are qualified; that they do know what’s best for their students and are given the autonomy to do those things then teachers get the message that they can do it and they do.

The intent is not to give people free reign to do whatever and then never check-in. But is it best practice to assume the worst? Maybe a better way is to assume the best, provide clear expectations and accountability measures and trust people until they are not trustworthy. Trust is not about getting people to do what we want them to do.  That is a really difficult and important distinction to make.   For example, if a teacher assigns an open ended project to a student and they do not complete the project as planned, one response might be to conclude that this student can’t be trusted to complete projects independently.  If we assume that this is not an indication of untrustworthiness, we might have a different response.  It could be a time to conference with the student and identify what worked and what didn’t.  This demonstrates that you trust and respect their ability to grow and change.  

So, if a student doesn’t learn certain material or complete a task as planned, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you were wrong to trust them. This is very hard to come to terms with but in order to send the message that you believe in the student, this is a necessary step. It’s important to understand that part of trusting is allowing people to fail and being okay with that. Responding to this failure is where all the action happens. Setting new goals based on the failure allows us to meet people where they are at and this is a very effective way to make progress. The quickest way to learn is to fail, so processing those mistakes, processing those failures leads to quicker change. Most people are trying to avoid failure (a natural instinct), but in reality failing is a very efficient way to learn. If setting new goals doesn’t work over and over again, well, then trust becomes an issue. Or maybe there is another issue to address.