Are you mapping your school’s journey in this 21st century? Do you know which maps to reference? Do you know which maps to chart yourself? When your school drives a flag into the frontier line of one of these proverbial maps, does your school have clear travel plans, itineraries, and methods of travel to reach the destination(s)?

In his November 9-16, 2011 blog post, president of NAIS (National Association of Independent Schools) Pat Bassett declares that his next few blog posts will detail the Five Cs + One. I am looking forward to this series! In the current post, Bassett encourages some particular steps to take as schools mapping our journeys into the future:

One practical step: Now that most of our schools have finished “backward designing” and “mapping” subjects (math, language arts, science, foreign language, social studies/history, the arts, etc.), it’s time to do so for the six Cs: What’s your K-12 creativity map? Your collaboration map? Your character map? Your cosmopolitanism/cross-cultural competency map? Etc.

One larger step: Since before the beginning of the university centuries ago, knowledge has been compartmentalized, by the subject area disciplines, those noted above and many others: It’s worth wondering if students wouldn’t be better-served if we paid more attention to organizing knowledge in the service of skills rather than the other way around. And experimenting with how project-based learning, inquiry learning, expeditionary learning, STEM robotics, and the like as the vessels for re-engaging students in real-world problem-solving, “where “just in time” learning replaces “just in case” learning.

Onward cartographers and journeyers! It’s about learning!