Following the AVE Gala, like every year, on the one hand I am very happy (being deeply impressed by what the award winners and their teams do) but on the other hand I also feel a distraught (thinking about the approximately 8,000 educational institutions where children need both the majority of school principals and teachers to approach the mindset and performance of those that are in the spotlight at the Gala).

I think that without a formula for identifying and rewarding these superheroes throughout the year, with only the best of the best making it to the Gala, scaling this will take us several hundred years.

One potential direction would be publishing a set of criteria / observable behaviors that are visible to everyone and having companies and / or the Government reward those who identify principals / teachers who succeed in demonstrating these behaviors (following rigorous selections, with interviews, reference checks, reputation, and background). 

The model could be similar to sports championships: rural, municipal, county, and regional competitions, with the AVE Gala representing the finals where the best are awarded.

This way, valuable and meritocracy-based recommendations are stimulated while creating a new phenomenon in education: identifying and rewarding educational values starting from rural areas and ultimately covering the entire country through a rigorous process.

A second direction could be involving private sector specialists in high school teaching. For this, we need to find a formula with the administration where the 'accreditation' process for new tutors is easier than it currently is for those who haven't studied pedagogy separately. A business friend who studied and worked in London recently told me that today the process is more complicated than becoming a visiting lecturer at a top international business school.

Children are certainly more vulnerable, and therefore the accreditation process for external people needs to be different, but I strongly believe that if we open a channel for ideas and solutions, if we create a context for co-creation, acceleration can happen in under 20-30 years. Maybe even faster.

Imagine how things would look if this mindset and type of performance became predominant  in the system... 

I encourage us all to think about these two questions:

What ideas do I have to contribute to identifying, promoting, and scaling values in education?

How can I financially support this endeavor?

For solutions, I encourage you to write to Andreea Nistor, the person from AVE designated to centralize ideas/solutions and fundraising.