PROCESS POST: Big Shifts, Revolution, and Foxfire

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I only have a few minutes to write, and I wanted to record a bit of what I am researching and thinking about…

Big Shifts

Thanks to Twitter, I picked up on a post from @MikeGwaltney (Mike Gwaltney): “A Conversation about Big Shifts.” In the post, Gwaltney recounted NAIS president Pat Bassett’s main points from his March NAIS address and his later talk at TEDxSt. George’s School.

1. Knowing must become Doing.

2. Teacher-Centered must become Student-Centered.

3. Individual must become Team.

4. Consumption must become Construction.

5. Schools must become Networks.

6. Single Sourcing must become Crowd Sourcing.

7.High Stakes Testing must become High Value Demonstration.

8. Disciplinary must become Interdisciplinary.

Maybe because I, too, was present for Bassett’s NAIS keynote and because I had listened to the TEDx talk, Gwaltney’s post really resonated with me – I was primed to hold the post and its message in my mind.

Revolution

Thanks to The Lovett School’s fine American Studies Institute in June: “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised? American Culture: 1970-present,” I have had Jay Bonner (of The Asheville School) in my mind, as I have continuously contemplated his idea that “revolution” is a cyclical re-turning…perhaps a revolution is a return to things of the past.

Foxfire

Thanks to a research project I am working on, I was re-reading Thomas Armstrong’s The Best Schools: How Human Development Research Should Inform Educational Practice. Of course, this line really struck a cord with me:

Educators who employ Academic Achievement Discourse often highlight the existence of a so-called achievement gap that has beset our nation’s schools. However, there is a far more profound educational gap that needs bridging. It is the gap between the ‘schoolhouse world’ and the ‘real world.’ All children, but especially those at the elementary school level, have as a central developmental focus the need to find out how the world works. (pp. 89-90)

I went on to read about best practices in “real-world schooling,” and I discovered The Foxfire Project, which is a brand of community-based education.

Another way that children can learn about how the world works is through direct contact with their local community. Perhaps the most well-known example of this approach is the Foxfire Experiment [I did not know about it]. In 1966, Eliot Wigginton and his students at Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School in northeast Georgia embarked on a mission to interview local elders in the surrounding community….Their project gave birth to a magazine called Foxfire…, and later to a book, a movie, a museum, and a foundation that still operates to further this kind of approach to learning in schools around the country (Wigginton, 1973). (pp. 104-105)

The Braid – Weaving Together Big Shifts, Revolution, and Foxfire

I am fascinated by the juxtaposition of “Big Shifts” and “Revolutions.” As I read and discover more about the Foxfire Project, I realize that the “Big Shifts” are all there. All of them. In 1966, the Foxfire Project possessed all 8 of Bassett’s big shifts.

Could the big shifts in education be returns – revolutions – to methods of the past? Many speak of the cycles of educational methodology. But are we long-term meandering around a more powerful approach to school-based education? What will be the catalyst(s) and stimuli that actually cause the big shifts (returns?) to occur large-scale in schools? When will the revolution be achieved?

Are we trying to push an enormous stone of inertial resistance up a huge slope of fear-of-change? Is that why the revolution never seems to apex and move with momentum down the other side of the slope?

Works Cited

Armstrong, Thomas. The Best Schools: How Human Development Research Should Inform Educational Practice. ASCD, Alexandria, VA: 2006.

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Empathy. Listening Sessions. Imagining Learning.

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Empathy.

In studying design-thinking in education, I have been seriously educated in the incredible importance of empathy. In embracing PBL, I have been humbled by the essential nature of empathy. Through such endeavors as “student for a day,” I have been reminded to practice empathy as a teacher. As an aspiring change agent for educational leadership and school transformation, I have been taught many lessons about empathy.

Empathy.

I’m embarrassed how little empathy I have shown to current students about possible changes and enhancements in schooling and education. Why haven’t I asked them more about what they think, feel, want, and desire? Am I too busy? Do I think I already know? Do I think “father knows best?” Why haven’t I asked…and listened?

On too many occasions to recall, I have read from Dan and Chip Heath’s book, Switch. The passage I gravitate to most is the chapter about Dr. Jerry Sternin, who was charged years ago to improve the nutrition issue in Vietnam. Does he swoop in and save the day with expert solutions? No, he asks the people of the villages what they do to care for their children – especially if the children are above average in health criteria. He trains a small army of ethnographers and interviewers to go into the villages and seek the wisdom and knowhow of the communal inhabitants. And, then, Dr. Sternin “merely” amplifies what the healthy-child mothers do to enhance the nutrition and wellness of their children.

I’ve read these pages, maybe, over 100 times to audiences, classes, faculties.

I can count on one hand (doesn’t even take me all the fingers of one hand) the number of times that I have emulated Dr. Sternin and asked a collective of students, “How would you design education to fulfill the needs of learners who are growing up in today’s world?”

That’s embarrassing.

I strive to be better than that.

Thanks to a former student of mine (from whom I learn more than she has probably learned from me), I have found Imagining Learning by way of a Cooperative Catalyst post by Charles Kouns.

Imagining Learning is an invitation to participate in a heart-centered exploration of the question, “How do we educate young people to thrive in a world of possibility?”

Our purpose is to work with individuals and communities to co-create a new education system for all children – a new seed if you will – that sees the healthy, internal world of a child as vital to the future of humanity and the planet. Our anchoring question also recognizes that our children’s ability to thrive is directly related to accessing possibility.  Possibility here means every child having access to opportunities for learning that are as diverse and dynamic as the world around them, and having access to inner capacities that enable them to activate these opportunities.

As the primary step, we have invited young people’s voices into the co-creating process.   We have designed a creative process we name Listening Sessions that give young people the opportunity to share, in a safe and nurturing environment, their aspirations and insights on education.  Listening Sessions are designed to tap into the inner wisdom that young people (ages 13 – 19) implicitly hold through a series of appreciative questions, sharing stories and collaborative painting.  The Listening Sessions are short (3 hours) and  allow us to repeat the process easily. We are currently conducting Listening Sessions with groups across America. The Listening Sessions are welcomed whole-heartedly by young people, who consistently express their gratitude for the opportunity to be heard.

– from http://www.imagininglearning.us/#!about/c2308, accessed 8-23-12

I hope you’ll find 5-10 minutes to explore the site. It’s beautiful in design and content, purpose and character. I hope you’ll spread the word and even consider hosting a Listening Session. I hope you’ll ask more students for their thoughts and ideas about schooling and education.

I know I need to. I plan to. Imagine what I could learn! It’s about learning.

I owe a huge debt to TS. Thanks for being my teacher and for reflecting back to me how to be a Dr. Sternin…how to listen…how to practice empathy.

Listening, then watching, and creating awe

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On Saturday morning, while walking Lucy, I had an interesting experience. I listened to a TED-talk podcast for a TED talk that turned out to be very visually oriented – “Rob Legato: The art of creating awe.” I so enjoyed imagining what was happening that I could not yet see. Because I was familiar with the histories and the films being shared, I am certain that I could see in my mind’s eye what was happening on that TED-stage screen.

When I got home, I could not wait to watch the TED talk, so that I could compare my pre-visualization with the reality. In some cases, I was pretty close. In other cases, Legato shows slides that he does not explain in words, so I had completely missed some screen jokes and key lines that I had guessed completely wrong. The auditory experience and the visual experience were both important and fun, and I am glad that I was able to have both.

Of course, I thought of some other things as well…

  1. Why do some of us teachers say that we are not in the entertainment business? Why are some teachers so resistant to being thought of as entertainers? Think of what the world spends on movie entertainment. Think of how we could learn to create awe from being artistic in our teaching and learning environments.
  2. I love the idea of using simulations, matched with reality, to place the brain in a fully real-world perception. That seems to have educational legs!
  3. Isn’t it cool to think about what we remember as our most powerful, important learning moments? How might we re-imagine school to mimic what we remember about those moments? For creating awe seems to be more about what we remember than what actually is happening in many cases.

What I learned from skateboarding at age 41 and 11/12…

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I learned so much from this TED talk – “Rodney Mullen: Pop an ollie and innovate!” – and I have no intention to literally pop an ollie. But I can think of 1,000 ways that Mullen’s lessons apply to schools and school change. Here’s just one…

Context informs content.

Mullen also provided incredible wisdom about creating for the sake of creating and contributing to one’s peers and to one’s community…not for earning the championship (read – highest grade, as I was listening). In fact, after winning 35 of 36 competitions that he entered in his 11-year pro career, he shared that the loss at the end really allowed him to create most joyfully.

Out of the grind and out to grind.

It’s about the intrinsic. It’s about learning.