Nocking the Arrow

Shared by Bruce Dixon as part of last week's change.school provocations, HundrED.org is a Finnish organization gathering information from school leaders and change agents about the future of education. " Innovations " provides an exhibition of creative, ambitious, and purposeful educational projects from around the world. Take a look, these luminous examples challenge long-held beliefs about what typically gets prioritized in schools. Are our more traditional priorities influenced by what Seymour Sarason calls the " regularities of school culture"? In everyday terms, Sarason says, " the ways of doing business in school " can be detrimental to a school's mission and vision, yet they go largely " unexamined and unchallenged " by educators. When we have conversations beginning with " why " we start to dig into some of these issues and expose some misguided priorities. We put an appropriate focus on our beliefs about scho...

Change, as I have learned, can be a struggle. I've written previously about my fifty years of learning and teaching in schools, thinking this bought me some measure of credibility and expertise. However, I've come to discover my deepest, most impactful learning has not taken place in formal settings, but recently through social networks and communities of practice. Formal education needs to change to meet the needs of modern learners in a modern world.  Struggle, my revelation that five decades of school-based experience means I have more to unlearn in my quest to help transform schools into centers of relevant, personal learning.Transformation is also a struggle, it's the unraveling and scrutinizing of years of doing what I believed was the right thing. Since my preference is to not struggle alone, I 've joined the third cohort of Change.School . Not really a course, Change.School is a community of practice, a group of educators and thought-change leaders who ...

"The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” -   Alvin Toffler Bruce Dixon , from Modern Learners , says, " ... no matter who you are, this time, right now, is a truly awesome time to be a learner.   "  While I agree with Bruce, his observation makes me wonder, "if this is such an awesome time to be a learner, why aren't we seeing numerous, wide-spread examples of awesome learning in schools?" Where is learning happening most readily and effectively? What does it mean to be educated? How and when are modern learners becoming educated? The key to advancing our education, and creating innovative, relevant schools may rely on our willingness and ability to unlearn. How do we unlearn? In his recent post, " The Urgency to Unlearn ",  Will Richardson  acknowledges, " educators have learned through personal experience what constitu...