“Don’t fit in, fit out.” Lebron James recently said these words to new superstar teammate Luca Doncic before their first game together. I can’t think of a better phrase to share with all educators in the year 2025. Have you stopped for a second to look at the world around us right now? When I do, I see what looks like a lot of chaos in the world and the education space. And, while I hope the chaos will subside and everything, including education, will return to a normal order, I’m not sure it will anytime soon.
For education, I believe we’ve passed the point where we ever will or should return to a past normal. So to all educators, my best advice is, “Don’t fit in, fit out.” It’s time for educators to be disruptors in their space. It’s time for education to become what we know it can be. It’s time for our voices to be heard and our actions felt so that our students can get what they need. This blog will be consistently devoted to sharing ways these goals can happen. For now, here are a few quick ways I think everyone can get to work on fitting out and transforming the system.
What is fitting out?
The way you fit out is first by deciding that fitting out and being different is necessary. If you’ve ever been in a school and found yourself wondering, “what am I doing?” it’s time to fit out. If you’ve ever wondered why we care so much about measures on standardized tests when our students are missing out on thinking, creativity, and joy, it’s time to fit out.
If you’ve ever wanted a better way to reach students as they sit in desks looking like zombies, it’s time to fit out. And if you’ve ever felt the pull of a new and different educational experience that elevates and inspires rather than killing creativity and joy, it’s definitely time to fit out.
After reading those statements, not everyone may want to fit out. You may want to go back to system that was comfortable and the status quo. If that’s you, it’s time to fit in. I’m ready to be different, fit out, and help inspire others to do the same.
How do we fit out?
Fitting out as an educator is doing what you know is right for students all the time. Unfortunately, doing what is right for students is often against the norm. When you’re fitting in, you’re functioning in a system that overlooks the best interests of individuals in favor of the interests of forces outside of and within the system.
To fit out, you must develop and be aware of your core beliefs about what children really need from an education in the present and to prepare them for rich, rewarding lives in the future. To fit out is difficult, unpopular, and even dangerous. When you fit out those within the system who think they’re doing good, but actually working to do the wrong things better, they will take notice. And when they do, you must be armed with your convictions and commitment to the students you serve.
The Future
This blog and the posts that I make in the future will all be for educators looking to be their best for their students as they find ways to be different, fit out, and be the change that they have always desired to be.
Miles O'Shea 