{"id":141,"date":"2018-10-07T01:14:39","date_gmt":"2018-10-07T01:14:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/grahamvogt\/?p=141"},"modified":"2018-10-07T12:15:17","modified_gmt":"2018-10-07T12:15:17","slug":"let-your-students-go-surfing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/grahamvogt\/2018\/10\/07\/let-your-students-go-surfing\/","title":{"rendered":"Let Your Students Go Surfing!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cohort21 for instance is without a doubt the gold standard of a supporting culture and the outcomes as measured through the amazing initiative of hundreds of empowered educators speak for themselves.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

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I read this memoir by Yvon Chouinard – he\u2019s the guy who started Patagonia – over the summer, and it offered such a powerful recalibration of so many of my life\u2019s choices and outlooks as a global citizen, husband and father and (yes) educator, that I\u2019ve been meaning to organize and connect my thinking through some form of reflective piece. It only makes sense that on the eve of another Cohort21 season\/adventure, I try to make sense of it all here, in the context of teaching and learning and the potential power of community at large.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was the title that drew me in: <\/span>Let My People Go Surfing. <\/span><\/i>Yes please! It\u2019s a beautiful metaphor worthy of extension into the daily flow that is too often characterized by a looming sense of urgency (and how often is that urgency unnecessarily fabricated – by us, the educator, or the environments we interact with?). Surfers don\u2019t get to decide when the surf is up. In fact the very sport runs counter to conventional routine. So what happens when the surf is up before quitting time? Bummer dude. But more importantly, what are the possible outcomes if the surfer feels freedom to seize the moment and hang 10? <\/span><\/p>\n

I was recently revisiting Maggie Cox\u2019s plea for a \u201cmentoring culture\u201d in <\/span>Walking the Tightrope<\/span><\/i> and I was struck by this description of culture: \u201cBusiness people, even in an initial meeting, (are) much more open to sharing ideas with me than teachers I have known and worked with over the years. After all of my years in education, I am still puzzled by the reluctance of educators to share and work together.\u201d Crazy! I\u2019ve been doing a bit of a deep dive lately into what it means to be a culture of \u00a0\u201cmentoring\u201d as opposed to \u201cjudging\u201d, asking these very questions that Cox is provoking: why are teachers so quick to close their doors? Is there something inherent, perhaps in an industrialized approach, that places judgement (evaluation!) ahead of support and empowerment? Of course, the implications of all of this runs counter to, well, EVERYTHING we advocate for – in our students, in our learning cultures – in a 21st Century teaching and learning context. Cohort21 for instance is without a doubt the gold standard of a supporting culture and the outcomes as measured through the amazing initiative of hundreds of empowered educators speak for themselves. Now, this could easily turn into a long diatribe against standardized tests or grades or any system of ranking that inevitably diminishes spirit; however, an essential concept we keep at the forefront of our Cohort21 action plans is the \u2018sphere of influence\u2019: clearly understanding who we\u2019re capable of affecting and to what extent. We can\u2019t literally allow all educators to go surfing whenever they choose (at least, I don\u2019t yield that power), but the essence is within our grasp – perhaps simply by opening, sharing, inquiring, supporting and celebrating. <\/span><\/p>\n

This is a bit of an aside, but at Rosseau Lake College, we begin each day with a whole-school circle (\u201cthe small-school advantage!\u201d as my friend, colleague and predecessor @edaigle<\/a>\">@edaigle<\/a><\/span> used to say ) in which we acknowledge our place and give thanks. This simple gesture\/routine, emphasizing the very symbol of a circle, holds many deep implications that collectively grounds our thinking through an entire day or approach. Of course, in a circle no one stands above and we are all connected; we are witnesses to the cyclical nature of community – however large or small – and better understand our impact. It\u2019s pretty powerful to have the beauty of Lake Rosseau, so visible in these moments, as our backdrop, and so we can imagine ourselves as part of a much larger circle or series of circles. From the perspective of teaching and learning, there is an absurdity to then entering traditional classrooms and closing our doors and standing in front of a group that is sitting. Indeed, Chouinard prefers to describe Patagonia \u201cas an ecosystem\u201d with its many users as an \u201cintegral part of the system\u201d in which a \u201cproblem anywhere affects the whole, and this gives everyone an overriding responsibility to the health of the whole organism\u201d. This is a pretty eloquent way to consider empowerment isn\u2019t it? What if this was how our students always felt in the learning environments we create? I really hate being presumptuous, but shouldn\u2019t we all be at least a little bit terrified of any action or convention that removes us from the role of advocate, placing us in the role of judger? <\/span><\/p>\n

Chouinard creates even deeper context for this belief when describing his own path as an entrepreneur. He is sure to reinforce an approach that is at the essence of any amount of success or excitement or fulfillment in his life: \u201cthe entrepreneurial way is to immediately take a forward step and if that feels good, take another, if not step back. Learn by doing.\u201d Pretty cool right?<\/span><\/p>\n

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And now I\u2019m taking a moment to advocate for writing or maybe just \u2018mindfulness\u201d in general: stopping, stepping back, noticing, reflecting, connecting; understanding the symmetry (the circles!) between all things. Example: throughout this morning, as I\u2019ve been writing this, my three year old son has been busy in his own world. He has flipped through Babar\u2019s Yoga<\/em> book practicing poses; he has sat down with a notebook and a marker copying letters from that same book; he has stared deep into the wood-stove quietly studying the motion of fire; he has brought wood – one log at a time – in from the outside stack; he has put on wings, transformed into \u201cFairy Boy\u201d and defended our cabin and his family from evil goblins. Quite a morning filled with adventure, reflection, discovery and learning. All, perhaps, because I stayed out of his way. I let him go surfing! And because the world is cooperating and staying just enough out of my way at a moment of inspiration (I too am surfing!), I\u2019m left with an epiphany. Circles!<\/span><\/p>\n

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In education, and perhaps especially at Cohort21, we have begun to talk a lot about the entrepreneurial mindset: dispelling the myth of failure, creating excitement for getting messy, embracing challenges that seem just beyond our grasp, taking the moonshot. But really, aren\u2019t we \u00a0just working to reconnect our students (and ourselves!) with a past spirit, the child they\u2019ve been distanced from? Most infuriating, we\u2019re trying to undo what\u2019s been done. It\u2019s easy to acknowledge the tension present in converging philosophies. Chouinard, for instance, is also careful to describe the other side of the dichotomy: \u201cif you take the conservative scientific route, you study the problem in your head or on paper until you are sure there is no chance of failure.\u201d The real challenge that I confront all the time is that we\u2019re living in a blurred world. It\u2019s easy to feel undermined by certain conventions that still prevail. The students themselves – \u201coutcomes\u2019 focused by the time they get to us – can be resistant; they believe they\u2019re looking down a straight path – convention it seems works in lines not circles. So what do we do? <\/span><\/p>\n

Chouinard implies that he got a little lucky; he was terrible at school and a bit of a loner. He did not excel in conventional ways or forums, but his isolation allowed him to cultivate his own pathways: \u201cI learned at an early age that it\u2019s better to invent your own game; then you can always be a winner. I found my games in the ocean, creeks, and hillsides surrounding Los Angeles.\u201d His is a good story, but how many of the isolated are so fortunate? Perhaps we do for our students or communities what cohort21 does for us: we let them go surfing. Sadly, however, they (and we) are not kids anymore. Too infrequently do they just race towards the surf with board in arms. We have to help them see the wave, to understand it\u2019\u2019s potential and excitement. Sometimes we even have to push them out to sea. And maybe, we have to keep doing that until finally they feel free again.<\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, how about this piece of gold from Bell Hooks’ Heart to Heart<\/em> as a way to end:\u00a0\u201cThe mind motivated by compassion reaches out to know as the heart reaches out to love. Here, the act of knowing is an act of love, the act of entering and embracing the reality of the other, of allowing the other to enter and embrace our own. In such knowing we know and are known as members of one community . . .\u201d (p. 132).<\/p>\n

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Cohort21 for instance is without a doubt the gold standard of a supporting culture and the outcomes as measured through the amazing initiative of hundreds of empowered educators speak for themselves. I read this memoir by Yvon Chouinard – he\u2019s the guy who started Patagonia – over the summer, and it offered such a powerful … Continue reading “Let Your Students Go Surfing!”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":142,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-classroom-reflections"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/grahamvogt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/grahamvogt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/grahamvogt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/grahamvogt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/grahamvogt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/grahamvogt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":146,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/grahamvogt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141\/revisions\/146"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/grahamvogt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/grahamvogt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/grahamvogt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/grahamvogt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}