“School is an institution that is deeply, systemically, designed for compliance. The whole apparatus of rules, punishments, timetables and bells, syllabuses and set texts, marking and examination requires and rewards the disposition of diligence, obedience, conscientiousness and correctness: of willingly doing what you are told regardless of whether it seems senseless or untimely. Student choice…
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This week I found more energy, thanks to a shift in the conversation about coming up for air. Government officials began to consider what it might look like to ease the isolation and closures; and, school in other parts of the world are starting to open back up in phases. It has been a long…
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Increasing tuition, emerging data on demographics, and the surfacing of admissions scandals casts a long shadow of doubt over the ability of colleges and universities to prepare our students for the future. Couple this with the increasing speed of change in the exponential future, and we as high school educators must be attuned to this…
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The latest book from Todd Rose, co-authored with Ogi Ogas, entitled Dark Horse: Achieving Success Through the Pursuit of Fulfillment, captured my imagination. It is not only about how individuality leads to fulfillment, and ultimately why fullfillment can lead to success, it outlines – more significantly for educators – the paradigm shift as the world…
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“What skills will be needed in the future?” “What does it mean to be future ready?” As educators we ask, or are asked these questions often – what is your answer? I think that the body of work that Brene Brown has amassed over her years of researching vulnerability, has the most compelling answer. On…
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“This is the hope represented by Meaningful Student Involvement, that schools can move from being done to students towards being done by and with students. That’s the future of learning.” (Fletcher, 99) You would be interested in reading this book if you: * are looking to refine your understanding of, and implementation of student voice…
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The Monday versus Someday dilemma: If we plan for a great, ambitious goal to happen in two, maybe three, or even five years, we can forget about getting started. If we implement new initiatives every Monday without a vision for what it will look like in two, maybe three, or even five years, we lose…
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I took up this book in an effort to contribute understanding to a shared language around school transformation. This book, written by James Rickabaugh and Tony Frontier, was published in 2014, but much of what they say still has important implications to educational transformation, and the forces acting on education’s systems and structures. This book…
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U2 is one of my all time favourite bands. Beautiful Day is one of their biggest hits. We are hoping that our version of “Beautiful Day” in education is just as successful in our community! This year, my school is attempting some new – we are calling them “Day 9”s. These are 4 calendared days…
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If we would have new knowledge, we must get a whole world of new questions. ~ Susanne K. Langer The world’s citizens need to think and act differently. In many ways, this begins with our education system. In a recent blog by Grant Lichtman, entitled “The Problem is Not Climate Change; the Problem is Irrational…
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