Several things have become clear to me when thinking about school change in rural America. I’ve been listening to conversations about declining enrollment for over 20 years. During that time I’ve facilitated goal setting for many boards of education in rural communities. Most of them have a discussion during that goal setting about stealing students from their neighbors. Few, if any, succeed consistently at this goal.

I’ve been thinking about this issue differently over the last year. What we really need to do is to attract new residents to our rural communities. Not an easy task, but it can be done. We do have new families move into our rural communities, just not often enough.

So recently I began to think about this issue from the perspective of a family considering a move to rural America. I think, generally speaking, a family would consider two things in deciding where to relocate.

First, they would want to know about the schools. If it were me, I would want to know what the school could do to help my child become remarkable. No, most parents wouldn’t use the word remarkable, but I think that’s what all of us want for our kids. Unfortunately, we usually settle for our kids surviving the system.

Secondly, they would want to know what the community had to offer. Would my family fit in? Would we be welcomed? Are there things to do, that we enjoy doing? Are the amenities present that we need to live the lifestyle that we desire? Will our finances go further than they did in the city?

A couple of thoughts about answering these questions. First of all our rural communities need to be thinking from this perspective, and as a community take action to develop our community. The same things that would attract a new family will be attractive to the current residents.

This is also a great opportunity to engage our students in real-world experiences that are meaningful and engaging, and at the same time prepare them for the real world. There is no reason that our students couldn’t be involved in all aspects of community development. Their activities would not only be of benefit to the community, but would also facilitate the learning and application of academic skills in a real-world setting.

The new key component  that I’ve learned over the last year is how people find what they want in the 21st century. The first thing we do today when we want to find something is Google it. So we need to teach our rural communities and our schools how to present themselves so that they’re found on Google.

The second part of that key component is social networking. Over 200 million Americans are on Facebook. Our schools and communities need to have a presence on Facebook and work diligently to spread the word about our schools and communities through Facebook and other social media.

As we consider school change it is imperative that we also consider community development, and how to market our schools and communities in the 21st century. Kansas, and almost all of the other 49 states, have substantial rural populations and there is no reason that we can’t educate our kids better and at the same time develop and market our rural communities. Now that would be real school change. – Steve Wyckoff

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

If you want a goal for school change how about this? How about we focus on the antonyms that describe our kids in school on a regular basis? I think that every child in their own way can be passionate, inspired, and remarkable …  just not in school. Over the last 10 years I’ve asked thousands the people , “it you ask high school kids to describe school in one word, what word would they choose?” The answer is always the same, bored! I’d also add from my observation that they are apathetic and encouraged to be ordinary.

So just for kicks I looked at the antonyms for passion, inspired, and remarkable. Here are the results …

Passionate – Apathetic
Inspired –  Bored
Remarkable – Ordinary

What really got me thinking about this was thinking about my six grandkids. Each of them is unique in their own way. There is nothing ordinary about any of them. But they are all very different. Yes, each of them is apathetic, board, and ordinary in some way. But then again we all are. Bill Gates and Warren Buffett or ordinary in some ways. Alex Rodriguez and Kobe Bryant are apathetic about some things. And when it comes to some subjects Barack Obama and John McCain are bored.

It seems to me that the job of schools should be to help inspire every student discover what they are passionate about in order to become remarkable. Now that would be real school change. –  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