Like it or not -- change happens.

During a recent meeting, a teacher spoke about how often she moved in her district. She enjoyed the change of culture from moving to a different building. She felt that it kept her fresh, and prevented her from falling into a rut.

I had a similar discussion with the WEA human resources director. He shared how working for several different companies had broadened his perspective, especially when problem-solving difficult or complicated situations.

I moved around a lot as an engineer, and I experienced how each jobsite had its own culture on the proper way things should be done. I had to quickly learn how people expected things to be done so that I did not make them nervous with unexpected change. But when an “impossible” situation arose, I knew there were several ways of approaching the situation, and perhaps only one of which was impossible. Sometimes people thought I was really smart. I thought I paid attention to details and tried to learn from all my experiences, not that I was really smarter than others.

An extreme example is when I taught anger management classes to aggressors in domestic violence. Often, they became angry with people who did not see the world as they saw it. As we sat around a table, I would put a pop can in the center and ask what they saw. All would agree they saw a pop can, but then I would show them how, if they drew a detailed picture of what they saw, it would be different from mine because I saw the label from a different angle than each of them. In fact, we all saw something different and the only way to know how someone else saw the world was to sit in their position (seat), or take the time to hear how they see the world, not how we think they should see the world.

So why is this important? Some of us are comfortable with differences and can handle the differences that come with change. Some of us resist change because it makes us uneasy. But change happens; it is part of life. The trick is to be calm enough to evaluate which change to embrace, because some change will help us and some will hurt. And no matter what decision you make, it will have a life-long impact on yourself and others. So you can agonize over every decision, or you do the best you can with the information you have. And remember that the people who say you did not make a good decision are just looking at a different side of the pop can.

It takes a thousand voices to tell a single story.

Several years ago, I was forwarded an e-mail that had a number of sayings attached. The e-mail did not include any authors for the sayings, although some sound familiar. I read them periodically and they always get me thinking.

It takes a thousand voices to tell a single story.

This got me thinking about a couple of weekends this month. WEA has a program to assist members seeking National Board Certification. The first two weekends in March were Homestretch events — end of year events that bring candidates together with teachers who have already achieved National Board Certification. There were about a thousand WEA members in attendance at the two events, working together to improve the quality of their teaching in order to make public education the best it can be. WEA member dues supported the efforts, so even if an individual member was not there, they chipped in to make the events possible.

And that really is the story. We join together to help each other in order to make public education the best it can be for students, staff, and communities. I have always considered it a privilege to join with you.