Expanding Learning Frontiers

From time to time, I receive email or Facebook messages from former colleagues sharing a new adventure or frustrated with status quo education. This one was a frustration.

The FB message from former colleague:

I just had to share a memory, overlaid with a reality I am experiencing, which also connects with where I will be next year. The topic? Examinations. The subtext? Traditional, limiting education. I remember you posted a photo some years back of the HS gym in its stark exam set up. As I recall, you didn't feel this was a picture of human-empowering education. Agreed.

In case you haven't noticed, leadership has changed. A lot.

Gone are the days where the leader stands at the top of the pyramid; speaking authoritatively, doling out wisdom, and is the keeper of all decision-making.

Today, from the professional coaches team room to business executive suites to the principal’s office, there are several key words and phrases that resonate deeply with leaders in successful organizations. These words are consistent across both the public and private sectors.

Which words and phrases?

Educators commonly use the phrase, "research-based, best practice," when introducing new programs and initiatives. The phrase demonstrates the school has done due diligence, scholarly review, conferred with other practitioners and gives confidence to parents and community members that the school knows what it is doing. Due to the results of this research, schools are reasonably confident that the new program or initiative will do what we say it will do . . . improve learning.

Unfortunately, educators to often fall victim to ignoring or de-emphasizing the "research-based, best practice" phrase when it no longer fits current practice, especially in the face of opposition from inevitable naysayers.

While contributing to a #mnlead Twitter chat, participants quickly came up with 26 myths about learning. Limited to the usual 140 characters, this kept the explanations short, concise. Certainly, this is not meant to be an exhaustive list (we did this in 10 minutes) and there may not be universal agreement on "myth status."

“What did I do wrong?”

Handcuffed, trapped in a car disappearing into the night, this was the question posed to his abductor.

You did nothing wrong, Jacob. You did nothing wrong.

You didn’t know that vile, depraved evil exists and stalks the most vulnerable. Proof came again yesterday as a sexual predator and murderer confessed in graphic detail how he abducted and killed eleven-year-old Jacob Wetterling almost 27 years ago in rural Minnesota. Hearing this brought tears and took breath away in the same moment.

Over the years, Jacob’s story would surface now and then with new leads but no results. Through it all, Patty Wetterling, Jacob’s mother, and family provided relentless advocacy for Jacob and other missing and exploited children.

Now that our worst fears have been confirmed, what can be learned?