It’s written as a series of essays or blog posts, partly because that’s how I write
now, and partly because I’m hoping that one or more of them will spur you to
share or rewrite or criticize a point I’m making. One side effect is that there’s
some redundancy. I hope you can forgive me for that. I won’t mind if you skip
around. This isn’t a prescription. It’s not a manual. It’s a series of provocations, ones that
might resonate and that I hope will provoke conversation.
I have not read much yet, but it is certainly challenging me in many ways while validating my beliefs and much of our system’s experience. This excerpt from Section 6 is an example of validating our work. We have for many years been focused on what he calls the “output“ of schools that are embedded in our Outcomes and Indicators and in our focus on the Thinking Skills and Habits of Mind. Test scores and other measures of traditional success are the byproducts of our work. Our struggle is associated with the difficulty in measuring these outcomes and negating the federal and state focus on tests to measure success.
If school’s function is to create the workers we need to fuel our economy, we
need to change school, because the workers we need have changed as well.
The mission used to be to create homogenized, obedient, satisfied workers an
pliant, eager consumers.
No longer.
Changing school doesn’t involve sharpening the pencil we’ve already got. School
reform cannot succeed if it focuses on getting schools to do a better job of what
we previously asked them to do. We don’t need more of what schools produce when
they’re working as designed. The challenge, then, is to change the very output of
the school before we start spending even more time and money improving the
performance of the school.
You can read his 30,000 word manifesto here. I will be doing so as he suggests, at my leisure and will probably find some sections to blog about.
1 comment:
Mike-
I guess some people have a very different vision of what our government/schools 'function' should be. From the selection you shared, it seems Mr. Godin believes schools are to 'create the workers needed to fuel our economy'.
One would hope our decision makers are not so cynical.
The United States Constitution is our country's guiding light, and I believe government's job is to protect the rights outlined within it.
For educators, I take this to mean it's our charge to help our students to become free and responsible citizens, versed in our shared rights and poised to take advantage of the freedoms we're afforded.
Tahoma School District takes a leadership position in its vision for the children in our care. I see our Outcomes and Indicators as inspired, working towards this 'output'.
I doubt I'll be reading Mr. Godin's 'manifesto' anytime soon. I'll just stick to Seeking Shared Learning.
Jonathan
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