An Incomplete manifesto for Growth

I was just moved to reread Bruce Mau's An Incomplete Manifesto for Growth.  There are so many impressionable statements, but right now, the following thought is grabbing my attention and in particular, the second sentence about growth.

Love your experiments (as you would an ugly child). Joy is the engine of growth. Exploit the liberty in casting your work as beautiful experiments, iterations, attempts, trials, and errors. Take the long view and allow yourself the fun of failure every day.

Expressing Some Frustration

In the past I have written about The Classics Academy.  The theme-based academy for 12th grade students is in its third year of existence.  Next year we are extending the academy down to 11th grade.  Part of the rationale for extending the program is to create a feeder system. It has always been a struggle to build our numbers for senior year due to scheduling conflicts or graduation requirements which still need to be fulfilled.  The academy has run but we have always operated under a cloud of whether, due to numbers,  the program will continue.

In particular we have lost interested students due to conflicts with advanced placement courses or because taking a fourth year of science and or math looks "good" on a college transcript.  Most recently, we lost two students who initially enrolled in the academy but this week decided to go in another direction their senior year.  As was the case for the most recent cases and in the past, I speak with students who are weighing whether to enter the academy or decide to leave after enrolling.  Never once was I truly convinced that students were making a decision purely for the love of learning.  Decisions it appeared were more along the lines of following a prepared script that had been handed down from one generation of learners to the next.

I wonder about the long-term costs when a system is created where a love of learning and personal passion for the content takes a back seat when it comes to constructing a schedule.  I started by referencing the Classics Academy but similar decisions impact other programs.  I'm not sure who decided what the perfect college resume looks like and to an extent I do not think an answer to this question matters.  It comes down to those who are involved in helping students make decisions about where they want to spend their time.  We have to coach / collaborate with students to put them in classes where a love of learning is fostered and personal interests flamed.  Think about what is lost or what is ever gained if these two core principles are muted?

I offer this story in closing.  The other day two recent graduates returned to say hello to a few teachers.  Both students happened to be alumni of The Classics Academy.  One student shared an experience from college.  This student happens to be a Classics major but is also minoring in education.  As part of a teaching fellowship this student taught a lesson on the Trojan War to 6th graders.  The Classics alum shared that 6th graders were spellbound learning about the "wrath of Achilles, Odysseus, the horrors of war and the difference a journey makes."  The Classics alum also said that it was one of the best experiences of her life and has caused her to consider pursuing a career in teaching. 

This story is a bit revealing and offers a juxtaposition against filling out a prescribed template.  The Classics alum was able to share her passion with 6th graders and invite them in on her personal quest to see the relevance in studying the Classics.   For this particular student genuine and sustaining inspiration was realized by simply having the chance to make a free and unrestrained choice.  I imagine that her love of the Classics was only furthered by this teaching experience.  The great fear is whether the story briefly explained above is a rare an unique experience. 

Are values such a choice, lifelong learning, curiosity, experimentation and play pushed aside in favor of an arbitrary set of rules, procedures and expectations?

What Schools Can Learn From Summer Camps

A friend of mine (@BenrydalShapir0) passed along a short but interesting read the other day. In What Schools Can Learn From Summer Camps, Annie Murphy Paul highlights an important element inherent in most summer programs.  Paul, relying on a research study conducted by a Standford University Psychology professor, states that conflicting ideologies exist when comparing summer camps and school.  In the article Paul presents the following:

The researchers were looking at the teenagers’ “goal orientations”—were they interested in learning for learning’s sake, or in showing off their smarts? The first type of attitude, called a “mastery orientation,” has been linked to high levels of motivation and engagement, while the second, known as a “performance orientation,” has been tied to greater anxiety and less resilience in the face of failure.

 Having worked at a summer camp for a long period of time and now, watching my three daughters head off each day to camp, I can attest to the sense of intrinsic motivation natural to any camp experience.  Whether it is learning how to successfully master a swim stroke, make a left handed lay-up or pitch a tent, goals are established by the individual and not some external force.  Summer goals are about taking healthy risks and growing over time.  Failure or better yet, personal struggle is not met with punishment, but instead, viewed as an important part of the learning process. 

Unfortunately schools often fail to reflect this attitude.  Schools favor "performance orientation" as opposed to empowering learners to determine goals.  As Paul shares we need to reward intellectual risk-taking, and avoid punishing students for failed experiments. 

Worth Reading

Passing along some articles worht a few minutes of your time

1. Preparing Students to Learn Without Us (Richardson)- furthers the argument to personalize learning and build around passions and interests.

But now more than ever, Tucker (along with the rest of us) lives in a moment when personalizing the learning experience is not just a possibility—it's almost an expectation. We personalize our playlists through Rhapsody and iTunes, our reading through Amazon and Twitter, and our search results on Google and Bing.

But in the midst of this culture of customization, what about education? Are we personalizing learning for our students in ways that make school more relevant and inspiring? Largely, the answer is no.

2.  How to Predict a Student's SAT Score:  Look at the Parents Tax Return (Pink)- suggested evidence that socioeconomic status is a driving force behind educational attainment and performance

My hypothesis about that something — a guess rather than an assertion — is that the households in the top tier often have two parents with graduate degrees. That is, they’re rich and they’re well-educated and that’s a hard combo to beat. If that turns out to be true, it suggests that one of the most influential, but least remarked upon, social forces in America is assortative mating by education level.

3.  Instructional Segregation (Reilly)- thoughts about sorting students into tracks based on "ability

When we position students as being 'low ability'--a practice that often is used to explain instructional segregation--we also tend to believe that these students' 'inner resources' are not robust enough to warrant independent learning and instead these learners are given some 'proven' program designed to make up what is perceived as missing.

4. Engaging With Criticism (Godin)- considerations about designing a system for feedback

If you need to find out how your audience is receiving your work, it's worth considering how you've structured the interactions around criticism. Sometimes a customer has a one-off problem, a situation that is unique and a concern that has to be extinguished on the spot. More often, though, that feedback you're getting represents the way a hundred or a thousand other customers are also judging you.

5. What Does Teaching Creativity Look Like? (Dwyer)- do you see yourself as a creative person?

Schools are places where students are supposed to acquire knowledge—but to create, a person must "forget the knowledge." If you're not able to leave what you think you know behind, you can't approach problems with a fresh perspective. Students must also be taught to "desire success but embrace failure," and to "listen to experts but know how to disregard them."