​​​About a week ago, I was sitting in my car at a red light, headed to my office. While my mind and eyes wandered, waiting for the light to change, I noticed a mother pushing a stroller and her young son trailing behind her by about 3-5 feet. I immediately took notice of the young boy, because he was wearing a pair of sneakers similar to mine and - with his athletic gear and definite toddler swagger - had all the trademarks of a cool cat in the making!

As he and his mom approached the street corner, he darted away from mom and made a beeline to the crosswalk button. Standing on tiptoe, he pressed the button and fixed his gaze on the light, anticipating the desired change of color. I could tell by the way he walked, pushed and waited that this was not his first time at the crosswalk pole. Once assured the light had changed, he quickly redirected back toward his mother and continued to trail her as she made her way down the street.

That brief moment of time, while I waited for my light to change, and he waited for his, made me think. Children are inquisitive. They are thinkers, and more important, they are "touchers." When a child pushes a button - even a child as young as 2 or 3 - the child expects something to happen!

This is the generation that is coming to our schools where, by and large, we don't have a dynamic and interactive system. The real world, the one which they explore now and will face after high school graduation, is dynamic. It's interactive, ever-changing and responsive. Like the boy, our students push a button in these worlds and receive immediate feedback, or an instant response.

We offer plenty of hands-on experiences ... but are we interacting with our learners? Are schools meeting learners where they are, and preparing them for where they will go next?

In the book Inevitable Too! (Chuck Schwahn and Beatrice McGarvey), the authors suggest our younger generations (digital natives or DN) expect interaction. They write:

• "DN expect interaction; they no longer accept one-way broadcasts. They are not only consumers of information; they are also creators of information."
• "DN learned to manipulate technology early, and have never been afraid of it."

When my children were young, we brought them to a museum that allowed, even encouraged, them to touch everything. You see, back then, this was a destination, a place to visit. Today's children and their parents do not need to visit a museum or destination to have a hands-on experience with learning. Just watch a young child today when her parent hands her a device. She immediately consumes it, touches it and expects something to happen from this interaction.

Our children expect to be hands-on learners in and out of their classrooms. They do not just like interaction they expect it, as Schwahn and McGarvey point out in their book.

How can our schools, then, embrace this coming tide and become more interactive, more dynamic and more responsive to our learners, while still maintaining the public good and educating the masses?

As we begin another school year across this country, join me in pausing a moment to to acknowledge the human element in our schools.  These are our teachers, principals and bus drivers. They are also our nurses, assistants of all kinds, coaches, Board members, maintenance, custodial and  food service workers. They are our parents and community members and, of course, our learners.

The human element makes THE critical difference in a child’s education. Nothing can replace a caring person’s set of eyes on a student, whether it is their first day in kindergarten or their first day of their senior year. 

Let me give you some examples.

• The first day for kindergarteners to ride the bus is a big day for the child and for the parents, standing, nervously, 20 feet away.  After the final hug and wave to mom, a young child’s eyes fix on the bus driver’s as the child takes her first steps onto the bus. That first step for a kindergartener is a big one, both metaphorically and physically.   As she makes it to the second step, firmly holding onto the handle, the driver’s face, expression and eyes will tell you everything about the human element.  
• Your teacher, whether elementary or secondary, has a tremendous influence on your educational experience.  We receive letters all the time from students who talk about the power of the human element.  Here are three such statements from Central students:
  
  “I am always going to remember sitting with her after the coffee house and talking.  She talked to us like real people and actually cared about our feelings and who we are.  She made me fell like I mattered here.”
  
  “She was the best teacher, because she made me feel included in the class."
  
  “I remember when she told us her story on the first day and did a cartwheel.”
  

• If you injured yourself on the playground - running around the kickball bases or trying to break through "Red Rover, Red Rover,  send Michael right over,” the nurse would fix the raspberry on your knee and be ever so gentle, even though it still hurt.  
  
  

The human element comes in many forms in public schools across this country. These are just a few examples  worthy of mention that, day in and day out, make public education a wonderful public good. 

There is much talk today about technology and its impact on public education, with good reason.  When a device provides access to the sum of human knowledge, we must rethink our role in the classroom and schools across America. As we rethink our roles, however,  we must not lose sight of the critical role of the human element today.

Geoff Colvin’s book, Humans Are Underrated, emphasizes the need for humans to do what we do incredibly well.  As Colvin writes, and as the bus driver and Kindergarten family illustrate, “To look into someone’s eyes – that turns out to be, metaphorically and quite often literally, the key to high-value work in the coming economy.”

In an environment where people are predicting the end of jobs everywhere, the book reminds us that the most valuable people are, increasingly, relationship workers ... like the very people we mentioned above.

So Happy (New) School Year! Let’s celebrate the human element, the relationship workers who make a difference day in and day out in schools across the country.