Schools: there is not one style

Schools don't have to be the same!

Why does everyone thinks the word school has to have a unified vision. No one thinks the word business means the same thing. Big, small, public, private, different management styles, different production models, some produce things, some manage things, some sell things, it goes on and on...
Just like we all don't need to eat vanilla ice cream, we want it our way.

But for some reason we think schools should be the same thing. Four walls, teacher upfront with chalk (now dry erase marker), text books, photocopies, etc, AND ONE METHOD THAT WORKS. The notion is ridulous. There has never been one thing that works for everybody, maybe water? How about we agree that everyone is right.
Montessori is right.
Waldorf is right.
Public is right.
Private is right.
Christian is right. In fact all religious schools are right.
Home schools are right.
Farm schools are right.
And all the other models of education are right.

Now let students, parents, and families CHOOSE what is best for them.

Clearly the model of public education works for some students! And that is great. Clearly Waldorf works for others. As an educator I can learn being in a Montessori classroom. I love seeing technology being integrated into classrooms. I love and learn from these things because I see students getting excited to work with information and grow.

Public education would take monumental leaps forward by injecting more methodologies into the mix, not creating a standard script.
And yes you would loose number to standardized tests, but who cares. They are indicative of very little. Finding superman missed its own point. World test scores are indicative of anything.

The gentleman, Anand Giridharadas, on John Stewart last night brought up the most compelling factor about India and China. He wrote "India Calling". It had nothing to do with test scores. It was about the fact that nationalism and the belief in hope were growing in India and China, while distain and antagonism is growing in the United States. That will bury us, not Math Scores.

Conference thoughts and ideas

Cyber bullying Conference-
Thoughts and rants…

TANGENT: Choice. I.S. – Independent study. Creating a period at least once a week for student to do independent study of Choice.

Microsoft- Do something! Really that is what you are bringing?

Cyber bullying seems to be too narrow a topic! This is about personal responsibility and how we treat others. This seems to be one issue that religious schools do seem to have an advantage (not that I agree) but the have the dogma of their religion, like the Ten Commandments, that allows them to teach a framework.

How do we educate moral citizenry? Reflective questions do not seem to help intervene…

Who doesn’t bully? Why?
Students that are busy and interacting in things or with people that are passionate don’t bully.
Bullying comes from boredom and fear. Or the need for a resource, like money, food, or belonging.

Maybe a way to chapter the book would be problems? Or does that give into those problems rather than lead to the solutions. Gangs, teen pregnancy, bullying & Sports teams lesson.

Students (young people) are smart enough to see injustice and hypocrisy. Trust our young people. Teach them to see though the crap and believe in themselves. Critical thinking skills.

Why is there the perception that consistent and fair discipline is what students needed? Is there data to support this?

Test Scores & gay index

International Test Scores do not correlate to Anything!  Plain and simple.  Sorry Superman you can go back to the ice cave.

What does matter?  I am with Florida, the author, not the state.  Hyperpowers matter.  That is what we should be teaching.
Technology, Talent, and Tolerance!

I also appreciate Florida's use of the gay index. And living in Seattle is the perfect example.  This city is the world leader in technology.  It is full of talented people with terrific educations.  And it is extremely tolerant of others.  And it has a great gay population flourishing in this city.

My friend Mark Galbo, creator of the real "Rock and Roll Academy" in Telluride, always spoke of turning students from consumers to producers.  He was on to something!  It needs to go beyond music.  Education need to work with strengths.  Students need personal learning of their own choice and design.

And my last idea today is a little off the previous thread.
Coltrane saw the Circle of 5ths.. Some time you need to learn the basics or the rules in  order to improvise, change it, and make it better.  You need a data base to draw conclusions.  You need to memorize in order to improvise.

The five R's are tired!  School curriculum haven't changed and they need to.  The world doesn't have silo problems.  It has multi-level integreated problems.  It is time to create a school curriculum that doesnt' spend so much time seperating subjects.  Math is in every class.  What class don't you need English in?
I like the TED idea.  Technology, Entertainment, and Design

The Talent of Teaching

The Talent of Teaching = Empathy! or Theory of Mind!
The opposite of theory of mind = autism.  No social cues. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autism

Dunbar's number -  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar%27s_number
The number of people that you can maintain a social relation ship with, guess what a good number for schools to use would be...  At high school maybe per class, but that would be max!
Middle School division = 150

Best empathy training = theater arts

What was a brain designed to do?

• Solve problems
• Survival
• In changing weather
• while in motion

Our traditional classroom are a  bad idea for brains and brain development.  That goes for cubicles too.

There is no none correlation to content and critical thinking skills.


We have been seduced by short term outcomes!  We live in a culture looking at the immediate.  Education is a long term ride, it should be a lifetime.  Not the hours spent in the walls of a poorly designed classroom.

Choice shouldn't be a choice.

First of all this school reform attention is painful to watch.  Same stuff different day.  I have been hearing about how we are falling behind since I started school.  Bunch of garbage.
The model is broken, deal with it.  I could say the same thing about the government and lobbyists, but that is a conversation for another day.  The school model is broken.  There is a reason Prussia isn't around anymore, time to say the same fore their model of education.  When someone wants to really take a look at change in education give me a call, I will do all of the work.

Here is a good article on Choice in schools.  duh!
http://connected.waldenu.edu/archive/item/606-making-room-for-the-self-in-school

What are you counting?

Looking at what is quantifiable.  We live in a culture that wants to manage what we can qualify with data.  So the choice is easy.  Change what you do? Or find ways to count the uncountable.  Get the data you need to do what you want to do?  Who are you accountable?

3 triangles: parents, students, teachers, maybe 4 board? or is that parents.  Get the real data!

Driving test scores and high stakes provides nothing.  Just more of the same the hamster wheel.  I f you are not watching the bottom, the minimum then you will be stuck with out it.  It is forgotten.  The wisdom of starting each meeting with safety concerns, I get it.

Next

Next post.  Gabriel book puts thoughts into my head, power of intention. Peace, rest, v. stress.  But back to the pyramid.  Basic levels stuff.  1st level must be set the SAFETY.  Got to have it to move.  Then the ego might be free to work, but better is up to know and understand,  Cortisol down..

This is crossing over all over the place.  How to make it mine...

Meeting needs...