A couple of weeks ago, my wife and I found ourselves wandering around a real bookstore, the kind with actual books in it, reminding ourselves what print on paper actually looks like. It's not that neither of us no longer read paper books, we still do. (The local library is about 50 steps from our front door.) But we're almost at the point now where we have more books stored on our Kindles than we do in the two floor to ceiling bookshelves we have in our living room. Which is a good and not so good thing all at once, like most things electronic these days. Anyway, we turned a corner and found ourselves in the philosophy/meditation/self help section of the store. A full row of shelves on either side of us, probably close to a thousand books on how to navigate the world and maintain some sense of sanity in the process. And after about 30 seconds of just walking and scanning some titles, I turned to my wife and said, "It's incredible how many books and words have been written that … [Read more...]
Are We All Powerless?
It's interesting, to me at least, that whenever I have conversations about the role of power in school cultures, it seems everyone feels powerless. Students, who sit at the bottom of the "power org chart," feel they have little or no ability to influence the ways in which they experience school. School isn't a choice for those that find themselves there, and they rarely exist in school cultures where they have a determining voice in what happens to them in classrooms or within the larger system. While some students may be given a bit more agency to choose what they learn and how they learn it, to call those students "empowered" would be far from accurate. Teachers may hold power over the students they teach, but few I've met would describe a great deal of agency or self-determination in the larger context of school systems and cultures. They may participate in PLCs or in "shared-decision making," but when it comes to their ability to engage in choosing and implementing new or … [Read more...]
Power and Change in Schools
"Existing power relationships in schools are part of the problem and can never be part of the solution." ~Seymour Sarason, Revisiting The Culture of The School and The Problem of Change A few years ago in a Q&A session with a group of about 40 teachers at a school outside of Detroit, one teacher raised her hand, looked me in the eye, and said "What you don't understand is the we are powerless to make any of the changes you're talking about." I noticed a number of other teachers nodding their heads in agreement. "With respect," I said, "completely powerless? You can't change anything?" "Nothing that doesn't have anything to do with raising test scores, no," she said. "And that just means more focus on the curriculum and grading and test prep, not less." It wasn't the first time I'd heard a similar theme from an educator, and I'm sure it won't be the last. But the absoluteness with which she said it struck me. Her sense of true powerlessness was real. The question of who … [Read more...]
Schools are “Totally Predictable.” We Good With That?
Here's a question you may want to ask a representative sampling of your students: On a scale of 1-10 with 1 being "not at all" and 10 being "very," how predictable is your school experience? As in how much of your school day (or school year) pretty much sticks to the script? Whenever I get to work with students, as I did this weekend, I always bring up this question. And you probably won't be shocked to hear that the consistent answer I get from those kids is "totally." I'd actually be shocked if you didn't get the same answer from the kids you ask. (Let me know if you don't and why.) Now, I ask you, is that a good thing? No doubt, we don't want to be offering up a steaming hot diet of chaos for our students every day. None of us function very well in a climate of total uncertainty where we have no anchors in behaviors or routines that ground our lives and our work. But, and this is a serious question, shouldn't we be creating at least a little bit of intentional … [Read more...]
“In the Best Interests of Students”
One of our favorite phrases to use in education when we're reflecting on the decisions we make in schools is "in the best interests of students." As in we need to consistently put our kids ahead of anything else when we think about our practice and our systems. And no one disagrees with that sentiment, right? No educator or parent would ever come out and say "Well, this isn't in the best interests of our students, but we should do it anyway." Yet, now that the new school year is upon is, at least in the Northern Hemisphere, it's important to ask whether or not we are actually living that belief. And, it's important to assess just how willing we are to put everything we do through that lens. As in, do we have the courage to be honest in answering that question. (My favorite Peter Senge quote works here again: "Leadership actually grows from the capacity to hold creative tension, the energy generated when people articulate a vision and also tell the truth (to the best of their … [Read more...]
Game Over
One story of school that we rarely acknowledge but that runs beneath almost everything we do is that school is a game to be "won." At a minimum, students win it by doing what they need to do to graduate and attain whatever academic status is expected of them. Parents win it by doing what they need to do to get their kids into college, or even better, a "good" college. Teachers and administrators win it when graduation rates or AP scores or ACT scores or other scores go up year over year. The problem is, you can "win" the game of school without learning very much in the process, except of course how to win the game itself. That in part is the premise of Robert Fried's The Game of School, that since we put so much emphasis on grades and scores and tests, we chip away at kids' natural tendencies to learn. And another problem is that in the case of students, parents, and schools, cheating becomes an option. Sometimes, a necessity Parents Gone Bad In that vein, I've been so … [Read more...]
We Choose the Stories We Tell
Starting in August, we're kicking off a new theme in our Modern Learners Community on "Story." Through our podcasts, book studies, special events and more, we're going to dive into the many https://modernlearners.communityways that stories define our work in terms of the paths we choose to follow, the ways we measure success, the way we define our roles, and much more. I'm of the mind that we're in a moment where many stories that we tell in education either explicitly or tacitly are beginning to break. The idea that you need to go somewhere to get an education, or that teachers are the ultimate experts of curricular knowledge, or that grades and scores define your intelligence...all of those narratives are shifting in response to a modern world that is increasingly privileging learning over knowing. In Between Stories Arguably, like most other institutions today, we are in-between stories. While the traditional K-16 story of education is now coming under some serious question, … [Read more...]
Inspecting for Signs of Decay
I've come to read predictions about the future of work with a healthy skepticism. So much click bait. So much preying on fears. So much focused on the technologies instead of the choices we make about the technologies. So much...period. Today more than ever we need to be careful consumers of what's being written about change. That's especially true when we consume it through the lens of being educators trying to figure out what our kids will need to navigate those changes. That's why more and more I find myself drawn to longer form, narrative journalism that makes a real effort to mine some truth from a sea of uncertainty. And I have more trust in authors who freely admit that they don't really know what the truth may end up being, but they're willing to share the best evidence they can find in that search. Which leads me to this Atlantic piece by Jerry Useem titled "At Work, Expertise Is Falling Out of Favor." If his well-researched, thoughtful conclusions are true, it's even … [Read more...]
Fulfillment Beats “Success”
If you're looking for a pretty compelling read for the summer, Todd Rose's newest book Dark Horse should probably be on your list, especially if you're at all interested in education and the shifts that are currently underway in our thinking about schools. In short, it's about the need (if not requirement) these days to move away from what Rose calls the "Standardization Covenant" that puts everyone on the same or similar path and embrace, instead, a much more individualized, personal way of finding your way through the world, one that moves us away from traditional ideas of "success" towards, instead, personal fulfillment. As with many books of this ilk, Rose situates the discussion in the context of a fast changing world: The world around us is changing so rapidly that it can often seem unrecognizable. Institutions, attitudes, and norms are in a state of flux, leaving people anxious and confused. But concealed inside this chaotic upheaval lies immense promise. Opportunities that … [Read more...]
How do we make the world better than we found it?
How do we make the world better than we found it? This is a question that has been raised in a number of our community conversations. Gary Stager mentioned it just last night in a chat with Will and Bruce. It's posted on classroom and school walls to inspire and promote a reason for learning that's something grander than ourselves. If we truly and honestly believe that the goal of an education is to help students do just that, where do we start? We are wrapping our month-long exploration of Belonging inside Modern Learners Community. The content, questions, and dialogue shared have sparked several a-ha moments among members in thinking about how belonging is truly established in our schools. Are learners seen? Do they feel as though they have a place learning within the classroom walls? Do they see themselves as an integral component of the life of the school? Do teachers feel a sense of belonging among colleagues? Do they feel seen? Is their school culture one … [Read more...]