Please make 23 minutes and 41 seconds to watch Bryan Stevenson’s TED talk: “We need to talk about an injustice.”
The opposite of poverty is not wealth. … In too many places, the opposite of poverty is justice.
Stevenson’s talk has me thinking almost constantly about why we are not more purposefully, more systemically, more deliberately re-examining our identity as schools. What is school for? Why are we not re-organizing more curriculum and experiences around such grand challenges of justice, fairness, inclusion,…. Through these lenses, we could practice literacies of many types, numeracy in context, social science, communication for authentic purpose. Young people have a wonderful sense of fairness. We should harness and educate this sense and make a stronger impact on our world…now.
As schools, we need to keep our eyes on the prize. The real prize.
CHANGEd: What if…60-60-60 Project Explained
[Sorry about the word count today. I failed BIG with 2x the word goal.]
it's about learning 
“The event was the 3rd annual Staples Spectacular Student Challenge. For 12 solid hours — from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. — 10 teams of 5 students each sacrificed sleep, engaged their brains, pooled their wits, and created a blueprint for education in the 21st century.”
A GREAT, related story, sent to me by friend and parent Laurie J.: http://06880danwoog.com/2012/03/22/a-spectacular-student-challenge-add-link-to-tuesdays-blog-edit/
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I love the question you raise here: What is school for? I’m trying to imagine what it would look like if parents, educators, school administrators, and employers were to sit down and have a real discussion on this issue. Would any consensus come out of the discussion? The next step in this thought experiment is thinking about how well our current schools would match up with this vision of what school should be. If we were to design schools from scratch starting with the vision first (like how Apple might design a product), my guess is we would come up with schools that look nothing like we have today.
Jeff, I certainly remain deeply curious about the “What is school for?” question! As you can discern from the hyperlink, though, I was specifically referencing Seth Godin’s question in his recent manifesto for schools and education. I could not agree with you more strongly about the potential for school reform (or transformation) if parents, educators, administrators, employers, and others would sit together, talk together, explore together, and design together. I could not agree more strongly that school would look different if we would take that bold and brave move.
In my next chapter at Unboundary, I hope and plan to gather just such discussions for transformation and change. I imagine and trust that you and I might work together on such endeavors!
Thanks for reading and commenting; I really appreciate your voice here.