"The achievement gap asks, "Are students achieving X?" whereas the relevance gap asks, "Is X going to matter to the lives learners are likely to live?" - David Perkins During a recent leadership meeting, a respected, but frequently vocal colleague began venting his frustration about a few of the problems he perceived in our school; apathetic students, lack of consistency, lack of respect, and poor achievement. I looked around at the faces in the conference room wondering if others agreed with this assessment, or were they holding their tongues to avoid confrontation. While most would agree that it's our professional obligation to strive for improvement, I found myself asking, " What is the real problem? " My question comes in the context of reading David Perkins timely and interesting book, Future Wise: Educating Our Children for a Changing World . Perkins general question is " what is worth learning in school? " Lifeworthy learnin...
Ruminations about lifelong learning.