The Adults Must Learn, Too

We ask a great deal of schools. We ask them to close gaps, to build character, to prepare citizens, to heal wounds they did not cause. And then, having asked so much, we routinely underinvest in the adults who must do the asking.

A school improves, I have come to believe, at the pace its adults learn. This is a simple observation with radical implications. It means that professional learning is not an accessory to school improvement; it is the engine of it. It means that the leader's attention to adult development is not a courtesy to staff but a duty to children.

Adults, like children, do not grow under conditions of fear, shame, or perpetual evaluation. They grow under conditions of challenge met with support, of high expectations paired with genuine regard, of being treated as professionals capable of thought rather than technicians in need of correction.

The constructivist insight, that learners build understanding rather than receive it, applies no less to adults than to children. A staff meeting that treats teachers as meaning-maker rather than message-receivers is not merely more respectful; it is more effective. It builds the very capacity the school will need.

This is hard work, and it is slow. It asks the leader to be a learner first, to be willing to be changed by the people they lead. But I have seen, again and again, that the schools that sustain improvement are the ones that take the learning of their adults as seriously as the learning of their children. The adults must learn, too.

Written by

Dr. Rhema Stradford Dai, Ed.D.

Experienced Elementary School Leader · Scholar-Practitioner · Author · Speaker. Her work explores the development of people as the central work of educational leadership.

© 2026 Dr. Rhema Stradford Dai. This article is an original work and is protected by copyright.

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