The soul of a school

The soul of a school, like the soul of a person, guides decision-making. What are our north stars? What do we see as essential? When difficult decisions have to be made, when there’s not enough time to do it all, what are the things we won’t sacrifice?

Alma Partners can help your school act from soul. We believe that some of the practices that make a school resilient and compelling to families, students, and faculty/staff include:

  • putting children’s needs first

  • building strong relationships throughout the school community and in surrounding communities

  • facing truth and speaking truth

  • prioritizing diversity responsive pedagogy and diversity, equity, and inclusion at all levels of the school; ensuring BIPOC families and students and other diverse voices are represented in leadership

  • developing and articulating goals clearly, transparently, and in community

  • creating strong, efficient infrastructure and systems

  • being flexible and courageous

  • taking responsibility for ourselves and our choices—as individuals and as institutions

  • learning from the past and from each other, as well as from others in our field and in the world

  • walking our talk every day.

You’ll notice that some of the above are skills (developing and articulating goals, creating infrastructure and systems) and some are capacities (being flexible and courageous, facing truth, taking responsibility for ourselves). I have long believed that schools must teach both and must model both. A school that focuses too much on specific skills limits students and leaves them unprepared for a future that we can’t see today, with our limited ability to predict tomorrow. A school that develops capacities without grounding students in hands-on, experiential skills risks drifting into abstraction.

Schools are always contending with difficult decisions: it can feel like there’s never enough time or funding and it can be tiring to feel beholden to so many stakeholders (who sometimes have competing agendas). What makes our work inspiring and what allows schools to persevere through tough times is working from soul. When we see we’re making a difference to young people, their families, and our communities, when we believe in the value and urgency of our work and do it authentically, creatively, freely, with integrity and accountability, we keep going. We radiate purpose and joy, and we change the world, one school at a time.

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A call from the Lakota Waldorf School