An Educator’s Guide to Using Your 3 Eyes

Why are self-love and self-compassion essential for educators? Because it is natural for educators to put up their armor; there is not a lot of time or space to attend to personal needs and feelings while teaching a class, running a school, or leading a district. Any teacher knows that even having the chance to go to the bathroom is not a given! Education is a very public profession. It is where you must learn on the job, in front of an oftentimes unforgiving audience, be those students, fellow teachers, parents, or supervisors. From the onset of our careers we are also expected to navigate the balance between being experts and learners. As teachers, we are expected to be able to hold the attention of our students while we are also learning the craft of teaching. As administrators, we are expected to understand the intricacies of leading with little or no prior training beyond what we gained in the classroom. For all, regardless of years of experience, we are expected to continue to hone our skills while on the shifting ground of the wider educational landscape. A landscape where policies and measures of success change regularly, and where funds and training are limited. Added to all of this, we must adapt to meet the needs of our students, who come to us with their own unique strengths and needs; sometimes wildly different ones within the course of the same day. Given these challenges, it makes sense that many of us close our doors and retreat to private practice (literally and figuratively). It is natural to be wary of opening ourselves to others, and their criticisms, when the pressures on us are already so high. So, why self-love and self-compassion? Because educators are amazing and deserve to feel that way! This is why self-work is important. While these are good-enough reasons for educators to do the self-work, I'll be honest, I've also got a very big ulterior motive: creating schools where children and adults are welcomed, nurtured, and empowered. What's the connection? By doing self-work, we deepen our self-appreciation and motivation to change. When we feel better about ourselves, we are able to lower our armor and to open-up to truly knowing others. When we know others better, we can come together as a team to support, challenge, push, and hold one another through the process of transforming our schools. School-work is where we address the issues that are preventing all students from learning at their full potential. School-work comprises addressing the conditions that must be in place to create change, and the change itself. The conditions center on building a culture of trust and accountability amongst staff, students, and community. The change is context-specific, and can include things like improving student attendance rates, implementing a new curriculum, or addressing implicit bias. The 3 Eyes framework supports us through it all. Intellect, Insight and Intuition provide us with the clarity of sight to identify the areas for change. The self-work and school-work provide the processes to implement change.