Stay in Your Lane

Good advice? Or bad?

There are times when it’s important to stay in your lane - for everybody’s safety. But there are other times when your lane inhibits your potential. Do you know the difference? Three examples from education.

• Transcript

  “Just stay in your lane.”

  Have you ever heard somebody say that to you? Is it good advice or bad advice? So to answer that question, let's think about it.

  If you are in one of these situations: either you are swimming in a competition, you are riding in the bike lane on a very busy highway, you are driving along a multi-lane highway, or you're running a race where the measurement is really important that you stay in your lane and don't get in the way of another runner.

  So, if you're in one of these situations, who benefits by you staying in your lane?

  You do and so does everybody else for your safety.

  So, sometimes, “stay in your lane” is great advice and we need to follow that. But sometimes, “stay in your lane,” is a way of limiting your power and your impact. And I'm going to talk about three situations in schools where “stay in your lane” may not be such a great idea.

  First one: consider a special ed director who's told, “stay in your lane.” What does that usually mean? It means stay in your office. Look at all of the data about special education indicators, the 17 indicators. How is our district doing compared to the state compared to the national expectations? Get those numbers up. And furthermore, get the numbers down about parent complaints and the cost of expensive lawsuits.

  So stay in your lane. Just handle special ed compliance. Don't bother your pretty little head about other things.
  
  Well, the truth is if you're a special ed director, you can't impact the effectiveness of special education instruction. You can’t improve student outcomes if you're not involved with the Department of Education and the Department of Student Services. So, you can't stay in your lane. You need to make sure that special ed inclusive practices, strong instruction, tier one instruction is available to all students, including those who have IEPs.

  So, if you're a special ed director, don't stay in your lane. Get bold and go forth.

  Okay, what about another one? You're a special ed teacher and you're told, “stay in your lane.” You're responsible for your kids. You're responsible for providing the interventions that are on the IEP. And don't worry your pretty little head about instruction in the classroom. I've got instruction. I've been doing it for years. I know what I'm doing. most of my kids are successful. Your kids may need some of your help.

  Well, in this case, once again, stay in your lane is limiting your power. What you know about student interventions and what you know about strong instruction. Tier one instruction for all kids and universal design for learning providing multiple access points for all kids would be helpful for those with IEPs and everyone and would improve the instructional abilities of the general ed teacher.

  So when you're told, “stay in your lane,” maybe that's not such good advice.

  Third one, parents. There is a body of research that shows parents are often told “stay in your lane.” You are responsible for what happens to your child after school hours, before school hours. Make sure they have a good breakfast. Make sure they have a place to do their homework. Make sure that they get plenty of sleep. We'll handle what happens during the school day. Stay in your lane. You don't know anything about instruction. You're not a teacher. Yes, you were a learner back in the day, but things have changed.

  So, here's another place where “stay in your lane” is not good advice. Teachers need to know what happens to your child during the day when they come home and they take off their mask or their exhaustion and they let you know what happened today. They were being bullied. That teacher didn't explain things in a way that they could understand it. They don't know what to do next and they're terrified and maybe they don't want to go to school tomorrow and then it looks like an attendance issue.

  Parents need to let schools know what's going on with their child right now. Parents also have the whole history of things teachers have tried in the past that worked and didn't work and that history makes you a valuable contributor.

  So parents, if you're being told, “stay in your lane,” not such good advice.

  So bottom line, when somebody tells you, “stay in your lane,” think about who benefits. Is this something for my safety and everyone else's safety? Is this part of the rules and it's important because that's how we operate? Or should I go outside my lane, make some contributions to help everyone become more effective? Maybe you should go outside your lane.

  Be wise, my friend. It only takes one person to spark Joyful Inclusion for everybody.

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