Keep the Question Open!

Too often we accept an early answer and close the inquiry. It’s a mistake!

Wonder what I mean? Well, first a little back story…

I’m back home after our team retreat in the mountains of Virginia. You’ll see some pictures here, but they don’t capture the dynamics when 12 passionately dedicated individuals start brainstorming.

It was magical.

Nine of us have family members with disabilities and bring a personal drive to improve special education. Eight of us teach special education courses in higher education and bring a zest for being on the cutting edge. We all listen with respect and compassion. It was contagious!

If I had to select ONE recurring theme, it would be a commitment to keep the question open.

I first learned about holding open questions in 1985 from Art Nierenberg, Executive Director of Breakthrough Disability. I attended his early workshop on empowerment coaching to transform how we interact with disability, and I was hooked. I interned with him for 25 years. He told us that we humans are uncomfortable with uncertainty. If we ask a question, we want a quick answer and we’ll hold on to the answer because - well - problem solved!

Instead, Art would say, ”Keep the question open. Keep exploring. Keep pondering. Invite others into your inquiry. That’s where breakthroughs happen.”

It has become a life philosophy for me, and I kept noticing it throughout the week of our retreat.

Our Open Questions:

What do Principals need to lead their school inclusive practices?
What skills and knowledge do teachers need to support ALL learners to thrive?
What learning activities should we embed in our facilitator guides so teachers get valuable practice with new strategies?
Which students are excluded? What do they need to belong and flourish?
How can we improve our Paraprofessionals in Action course so it truly equips and empowers paras?
How can we simplify our evaluation system so that we focus on the quantitative and qualitative data that accurately measures our impact?
How can we embed Hattie’s Visible Learning in all our packages?
Where does parent partnership belong in our packages?
How can we explain the powerful skills that school-based coaches gain from our coaching packages?
Where can we integrate resources from the new federally funded centers into our packages?
How can AI make everyone’s job easier?
What else don’t we know?

Now, to be clear, we generated countless powerful answers to these questions, but what’s special is our learning culture. We don’t think we’ve arrived at the right answers. Because we keep the questions open. We keep learning.

Can you imagine the experience of living this way for a whole week? And listening intently to the variety of answers that emerged… while knowing we’re not done. There’s more to learn!

In the coming blogs, I’ll share more about some of our new ideas!