Friday’s Thoughts: Swift to Hear, Slow to Speak

Posted on August 3, 2012. By Jeff Raderstrong.

“While here, your job is to be swift to hear and slow to speak. The most important thing for you to do is to invite and invest colleagues who are already here, to work alongside the strength and capability that exists right now. Encourage and inspire people to enhance what we already know and what we already do so that we can make it better together. Look for strengths. They are here. You aren’t bringing light and hope. The hope is here. Walk in it.”

–Camika Royal, Ph.D., “Swift to Hear; Slow to Speak: A Message to TFA Teachers, Critics, and Education Reformers,” 7/12/2012

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About the Author

Jeff Raderstrong

Jeff Raderstrong

Jeff Raderstrong is the Founder and Editor of UnSectored and a community engagement consultant. He has run successful, long-term online campaigns in the social innovation space, such as developing and executing the social media strategy for Leap of Reason, a … Continue reading →

  • Mark

    It’s a great message, and one that should be heard by anyone entering a new profession. There are a couple tertiary points I take issue with, however. Dr. Royal explains her purpose in speaking at the Philadelphia institute in her article:

    “I know that TFA’s recruitment model has led to some of its teachers approaching the communities they’ve been assigned to serve with missionary zeal and notions of martyrdom in efforts to close this gap. Addressing that mindset was the point of my speech.”

    My first criticism is that she should have been more direct if this was her primary goal. It’s true that some new TFA teachers show up with the attitude she describes, but not all and probably not anywhere near the majority. Of course one cannot be said to simply have or not have zeal, and everyone falls somewhere on that spectrum. I would say that among the teachers that begin with this attitude, a significant percentage are quickly humbled; they learn to shift focus locally, to the unique challenges that exist in their own classrooms, and look to the more experienced colleagues for advice.

    The other point I’d like to make is that for TFA’s vision of every person in this nation having an opportunity to attain an excellent education to be realized, the new recruits (and many, many others) will have to take the lessons they learn in the classroom and translate them into actionable ideas. It seems to me that this pendulum goes unrecognized, and she offers no advice regarding when a person has done enough listening and not enough speaking. At what point does a young teacher receive Dr. Royal’s permission to join the side with which hope presumably already resides and begin offering solutions to some of the problems that exist with education in the United States? She herself made this transition from her classroom in Baltimore in 1999 to the podium at a 20,000+ person conference in 2011. When, in those 12 years, did she begin to offer her perspective?

    • http://www.unsectored.net Jeff Raderstrong

      Thanks for these thoughts, Mark. I think you are right about your points. I think it is very easy to say things like “observe before you act,” but note nothing about when you have observed enough. There is a constant tension between inaction to learn and action to create change. I personally believe managing that tension is defined by the individual, and can’t really be taught. Those that are successful in living in those “in between” spaces are those that will create the most sustainable change.