What's Become Clear

Maybe it’s because I felt vindicated, but I think the people that organized and ran the  I Connect I Learn conference in Colby Kansas this week were remarkable! Diana Wieland, Ginger Luman, Theresa Morgan, Kevin Honeycutt, with assistance from many, many others, did a magnificent job. These are the people who will lead real school change if it’s going to happen.

In a time when finances are very thin this remarkable team was able to attract about 150 educators to a conference pretty much in the middle of nowhere. No offense Colby, but you guys are a long way from anything! And many of the people who attended were paying their own way.

The best part of the conference? I didn’t hear one conversation about raising test scores! What a relief! What a breath of fresh air! The discussions I heard were about engaging kids, and helping kids become successful, about making learning fun, about empowering kids.

So why do I feel vindicated? I’ve written several times that we need to turn schools and teachers lose to do what they do best. And we need to give parents the power to choose their kids’ schools based on the kind of education they want for their kids. I’ve also written that we need to inspire our educators so that they are passionate and remarkable. Educators whose mission is to inspire kids to identify what it is that they are so passionate about, that they will begin the journey to becoming remarkable at it.

Well the educators at the icil 2010 were remarkable! In my heart I know that if these educators had the autonomy, and the charge to inspire every student to identify their passions, and start the journey to becoming remarkable; and were accountable to parents, not bureaucrats, they would do unbelievable things!

I’m absolutely convinced that that we can avoid the looming educational meltdown we are heading towards if we would do two simple things; empower our educators, and make them accountable to parents, not bureaucrats. The educators I was with this week proved to me. –  Steve Wyckoff

Almost nobody, and especially our kids, have ever identified their dreams. I guess we just don’t think about it in those terms. If you haven’t you need to read the book Dream Manager by Matthew Kelly. In fact, I would say that if you have read the book dream manager and you haven’t started doing something with your students to help them achieve their dreams, you are guilty of professional malpractice. Okay maybe that’s a little strong, but this is good stuff.

Kelly talks about the purpose of every business is to become the best version of that business that it can be. And he also talks about the purpose for every person in that business is to become the best version of themselves that they can be.

So doesn’t it make sense that we should help every student be the very best version of themselves? And not the version that we think they should be, but the best version of what they want to be?

I’ve started talking about three words that I think we need to focus on in education. No, not like we normally focus on things, where we talk about them until were convince ourselves that we are already doing them. Actually focusing on them to make school change.

The three words; Inspiration, Passion, and Remarkable.

I think if we inspire kids to identify what it is that they are so passionate about, that they are willing to start the journey to becoming remarkable at that thing, that we will in fact be helping them identify, and begin to achieve their dreams. – Steve Wyckoff

The school mission is a ubiquitous assumption that impedes real school change. Everybody in education will tell you that their mission contains something about preparing every student to be a productive member of society. They may not use those exact words but the meaning is still there. And that’s about the end of schools having a sense of mission.

I think that perhaps a discussion about what our mission should be might actually foster some real school change. Okay, maybe I’m hoping. Educators go about their business assuming that what they are doing actually is preparing students to be productive members of society. I think they are badly mistaken.

I would offer this as a new mission for schools. That every school, “Empower every student to discover what it is they can become remarkable at.” Okay so the grammar sucks, you get the point. We spend most of our time in schools today preparing kids to be test taking clones. Yet I read all the time about remarkable people. Some famous, some not so famous. We admire remarkable people. Remarkable people are happier and lead a more fulfilling life.

Becoming remarkable doesn’t necessarily imply becoming remarkable in a career, although being remarkable in a career is a worthy goal. I think we can help our kids become remarkable in the things they pursue for happiness outside of the workplace or inside the workplace. It may be a lifelong passion that’s a hobby, a “calling”, or an avocation.

I believe that we would be far better off helping kids discover who they are and what they are passionate about then we are in the current system of memorization and test. I further believe that our kids would truly master many more of the “identified standards” than they do now. Focusing on students passions would give context and meaning to their learning. It would make learning relevant for our students.

I think that the discussion around adopting a new school mission would lead to real school change. Now we just assume that what we are doing is meeting our mission. – Steve Wyckoff