Each summer as students engage their assigned summer reading, the entire JCHS Professional Community (educators and staff) also have assigned reading. This summer it’s Elana Aguilar’s “Onward: Cultivating Emotional Resilience in Educators.” I selected this book for the JCHS professional community to deepen our individual and collective reservoirs of reflective learning, self-awareness, and ability to engage in thoughtful conversations about growth and learning for ourselves and our students.
Ironically, it is the lack of these same attributes that dooms the biblical Korach and his followers when Korach launches a rebellion against Moses in this week’s Torah portion. Korach has a fixed mindset believing he is infallible, smug about his talents, and lacking doubts about his abilities. Korach’s rebellion falls because of his intellectual and political hubris. Moses, by contrast, faces the Korach’s rebellion with open humility and eagerness to learn more about and grow in his leadership. As a result, Moses leadership endures.
JCHS is blessed with dozens of educators and professionals whose growth mindset empowers students and inspires colleagues. Our professional community’s commitment to a growth mindset began a decade ago when the JCHS 2009 summer reading was Carol Dweck’s seminal book, “Mindset.”
