What I have been reading about in my last 2 weeks as a newbie blogger is how I see us tapping into the “essence” of technology. The descriptors for “essence” are wisdom, creativity, vibrantly alive, expand, acceptance, abundance, inspiration,energizing, trust…to just name a few. Essence is from the heart, passion the “goose bumps” part of life.

When you think about the teachers that have been innovative and the ones that students learned the most about life from….were they the teachers who went through the mechanics of doing…or the passionate educators who embraced the passion for teaching and making a change. Those are the teachers that will be the leapfrogs in this movement to the Web 2.0 technologies.

Finally, thank you Will for the great workshop that opened my eyes in Grayslake Illinois.

Ed

2) Corporations have long lived by the bottom line and it is understandable that they do so considering if they do not make a profit they will go out of business. However, corporations do have the option of removing employees who do not meet their responsibilities. Wouldn’t it be a different classroom if any student who did not turn in their homework 10 days in a row could be “fired”? (I know a lot of students who would love this new concept.) The reality is that the benchmarks of for-profit and non-profit businesses are different because their purposes for existing are different; therefore, saying the way that Apple (for example) does business would be successful in the Fort Lauderdale schools is an incompatiable notion.

3) We all need to remember that while corporate america says they want to help change the face of education, they have the current face wrong. The face is a composite of what they remember of their own education with hints of what they wish had been available topped by inadequacies or incompetencies. This results in blanket statements that our teachers are not competent, the buildings are falling down, and our children are being short changed AND it’s all the educational administrations fault so we must step in and “save” the educational system. The reality is much more complex but it would not fit well in a CNN tag-line or a 4-inch Washington Post column.

4) Bring on the technology but do not expect it to make life easier educationally. Parameters of NCLB would have to change. You teach keyboarding to elementary school students but it is not because they need the skills to communicate more quickly within digital media, it is really so the students will be able to type their answers for the online state assessment. You may want to have students begin using handhelds but everything including the purchase of the handhelds has to be linked to a state standard and “measurable objective”.

I highly recommend that everyone read Why Is Corporate America Bashing Our Public Schools? by Kathy Emery and Susan Ohanian. It’s the essential program for understanding the kabuki theatre of educational policy.

However, Finland, which has the highest literacy rate in the world, and is in the top five when it comes to math, does not allow children to start school until the age of 7, schedules a 15 minute active play break for every 45 minutes of school time, and stresses nature/environment based education.

Now, I don’t know about you, but most teachers I have ever spoken to would agree that Finland is doing it right, and Japan is doing it wrong, especially elementary school teachers. And yet very few teachers protest the mandates that the federal and state governments impose on us. I’ve heard inner city teachers comment that the standardized tests are unfair because they are culturally biased, and yet, when asked why they don’t simply refuse to give the test, they comment that they are afraid of retribution of some kind. I’ve worked with teachers long enough to realize that most teachers are afraid to stand up for what is right for the children. However, in my eyes, that is the very reason we have tenure – to protect us when we have to stand up for what is right for the children. As a result, we have ended up as we are today – with people, mostly politicians who have no experience in education, making decisions about what goes on in our classrooms.

We don’t need people like the Gates to determine what changes are needed in education. We need to turn back to the teachers – the experts in education. Rather than allowing the politicians to make change happen, let the teachers do it. Imagine what might come of it if we went to the teachers and asked them for ideas on how to fix education in America. Have county-wide conferences of elementary teachers, middle school teachers and high school teachers throughout the country, and ask them to come up with what they would like to see happen in their classrooms, and how they would go about making sure every student achieve adequate yearly progress and how to measure it, making sure every student is ready for middle school, and then high school, and then whatever path the student will take after that. Let’s turn back to the teachers to make educational policy, not the politicians. The politicians are not the experts, the Gates are not the experts, the money-holders and money-givers are not the experts. The teachers are, and we need to turn education back over to them. And, as educators, we really need to stand up together and say “enough!” rather than simply going along quietly and passively with whatever we are told to do. Change will never happen if we do not do so.

I’m afraid we’re stuck with a stale education agenda for ’08. But in the next presidential cycle, with 2014 drawing near without 100% proficiency in sight, this whole cluster of NCLB-associated reforms will be burned out.

How can we lay the groundwork now to be ready then? I’m trying to figure out how a successful policy paradigm germinates.

Here’s one comment that I have on the three suggestions you offer. I think the third suggestion has the most merit. Without these skills students will not be ready for the Twenty First Century. I certainly don’t think that explicitly mentioning technology merits two out of three talking points. In 1950, would it have been logical to suggest that every student needs access to a ball point pen. (If 1950 is not the right year, substitute the correct year.) The pen/computer devices are not the meat. The meat is what these things can allow students to do.

Just some thoughts!!

It seems that once again the blogosphere is jumping to quick conclusions and missing opportunities. No wonder ed tech isn’t in any of the national discussions. Far safer to write blog posts then engage with commissions studying America’s competitiveness or NCLB reform. We stay in our own safe areas and find it easier to throw out a criticism then actually offer ideas.