What Grows After We Let Go: Coaching, Collaboration, and Continuous Growth By Dr. Nicole Moriarty & Mrs. Patricia Broderick, M.S.Ed
Source: https://beyondthebox.substack.com/p/what-grows-after-we-let-go

The Orchard as a Metaphor for Learning

In their reflective essay What Grows After We Let Go, educators Dr. Nicole Moriarty and Mrs. Patricia Broderick use the turning of autumn in the Northeast as both a literal and metaphorical backdrop for exploring how coaching and collaboration nurture authentic growth in schools. Strolling through an apple orchard, they see in the falling leaves and ripening fruit a vivid metaphor for education’s cycles of learning, letting go, and renewal.

Their central argument is simple but profound: true growth in schools happens not through new programs, but through coaching that builds reflection, trust, and shared purpose. Just as trees must shed their leaves to prepare for new growth, educators and leaders must also release outdated habits and top-down systems that hinder learning.

The Paradox of Modern Schooling

Moriarty and Broderick describe a troubling paradox familiar to teachers and administrators alike. School systems constantly adopt new curricula and prepackaged programs, each promising transformation but rarely delivering sustainable change. Teachers, fatigued by cycles of reform, feel torn between autonomy and compliance—wanting to be trusted as professionals while also yearning for clarity and structure.

This contradiction, the authors argue, is not evidence of teacher inconsistency but of systemic misalignment. When decisions are outsourced to commercial vendors rather than guided by educators themselves, coherence and purpose are lost. The authors call for districts to reclaim professional agency: to design curriculum and instruction collaboratively with teachers, grounded in the science of learning, universal design, and enduring principles such as the Habits of Mind—skills like persistence, flexible thinking, empathy, and curiosity that equip students to thrive beyond the classroom.

The Three Essentials for Sustained Growth

Moriarty and Broderick identify three conditions essential for meaningful educational progress:

1. Time and Space for Instructional Leadership School leaders, they write, cannot truly lead if they are consumed by managerial tasks. Principals and district leaders must have protected time to coach, model instruction, and learn alongside their teachers. Instructional leadership must be reclaimed as the heart of the principal’s role, not an afterthought squeezed between meetings.

2. Educator-Led Design, Not Outsourced Solutions The authors challenge schools to stop purchasing prepackaged programs and instead trust educators to create contextually relevant curricula. The most powerful instructional design emerges not from corporate publishers but from the collaboration of teachers who know their students. When literacy, inquiry, and social-emotional learning are integrated across all disciplines, schools achieve coherence over compliance.

3. Coaching as the Engine of Implementation Real change, they emphasize, does not end with curriculum writing—it begins there. Implementation is a human process, marked by excitement, doubt, and eventual mastery. Skilled coaching helps teachers navigate this journey. Effective leaders recognize that growth requires patience and feedback, not mandates or evaluation checklists. “When leaders coach through the process, rather than simply manage it,” the authors write, “teachers feel supported, capable, and empowered.”

Building Systems That Reflect Our Values

Before launching coaching initiatives, Moriarty and Broderick urge educators to examine their own organizational frameworks. Key reflection questions include:

• Do instructional coaches have manageable caseloads and access to ongoing professional learning?

• Is coaching equitably available across schools and grade levels?

• Do administrators have the time and training to coach effectively?

• Does the schedule itself communicate that reflection and collaboration are valued?

“The way we design our systems,” they write, “reveals what we believe.” Coaching cannot thrive in a culture that prizes compliance over creativity. When reflection and collaboration are embedded in the structure of the day, teachers stop chasing morale because culture itself becomes the source of joy.

The Season of Letting Go

The essay closes where it began—in the orchard. Watching their children and niece wander off to pick apples independently, Moriarty feels a surge of pride and nostalgia. That moment, she realizes, embodies the purpose of coaching: to prepare others to grow beyond us.

In education, letting go is not a loss—it’s a testament to trust. As schools shed outdated routines and make space for curiosity and reflection, they mirror the natural rhythms of the orchard: dormancy, renewal, and eventual bloom.

Their message is ultimately one of hope: When we invest in people rather than programs, we cultivate sustainable growth. Coaching becomes not an add-on but the soil in which collective efficacy—the shared belief that educators can make a difference—takes root.

Original Article

Source: Nicole Moriarty & Patricia Broderick, “What Grows After We Let Go,” Beyond the Box, October 19, 2025. https://beyondthebox.substack.com/p/what-grows-after-we-let-go

------------------------------

Prepared with the assistance of AI software

OpenAI. (2025). ChatGPT (4) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com