Is There a True Concern in Your Speaking Up?
How to discern noise from the true concerns
In parent group meetings, we speak up and want our voices heard. Among these voices are true concerns as well as noises. Being able to tell noise from true concerns is one step closer to making positive school changes.
In her book Atlas of the Heart, Brené Brown used the example of moral outrage on social media. She explained that even with the same anger, there are two human experiences: righteousness and self-righteousness.
They can look and feel the same but for different reasons and outcomes.
Righteousness is anger based on the true concern of social injustice, while self-righteousness is self-serving and self-enhancing.
These two causes lead to how people do everything following from the anger. Righteousness leads to real change, commitment, care, and persistence, while self-righteousness causes disconnection and social division.
When we speak up, these questions might be helpful to ask ourselves and the people around us:
Do I speak up to serve myself or the betterment of the whole?
Am I speaking up to win or to make a change happen?
When speaking up to win, play the status game in the group, or fit in for our convenience, I'm afraid our voices have become a noise.
Advocating for our children's learning experience is a true concern.
Advocating for helpful status (instead of the status game) to bring equity in a school environment is a true concern.
Advocating a school model that serves all children is a true concern.
Advocating for funding based on the school model that works is a true concern.
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A true concern stands through time no matter how the world changes or will change. And learning to see them is the first step.
