{"id":3977,"date":"2017-02-21T20:13:49","date_gmt":"2017-02-22T01:13:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stager.tv\/?p=3977"},"modified":"2020-07-25T18:58:00","modified_gmt":"2020-07-25T23:58:00","slug":"you-cant-handle-the-truth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stager.tv\/?p=3977","title":{"rendered":"You Can’t Handle the Truth!"},"content":{"rendered":"

An old friend and colleague got a new job at an education marketing\/communication company where he believed they wanted actual content. He asked me to share some views on educational leadership. So, I took the time to formulate responses for his august publication. Sadly, it appears that the new publication seeks to be a low-rent version of EdSurge<\/em>, focused on aggregating links and pro-vendor happy talk. Therefore, I humbly share the unpublished interview with my dozen[1] of loyal social media readers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Question: What do educators need to know today?<\/em><\/h2>\n
    \n
  1. Shameless self-promotion is the key to all good things in education.<\/strong>
    \nSixteen years of politics have successfully eroded the public\u2019s confidence in public education. Every school needs a Minister of Propaganda to inform the community of the wonderful things happening in classrooms. If the adults feel incapable of performing this role, find a fifteen year-old student to deputize.<\/li>\n
  2. We stand on the shoulders of giants.<\/strong>
    \nI once heard President Clinton say, \u201cEvery problem in education has been solved somewhere.\u201d Put down the Twitter machine, read some books, attend conferences, and learn from great educators.<\/li>\n
  3. I want to live in a world where kids wake up at three AM clamoring to get back to school to work on a project they care about and where teachers ask themselves, \u201cHow do I make this the best seven hours of a kid\u2019s life?\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n
  4. There is nothing to be gained from reading \u201cget rich quick\u201d books sold at airport gift shops.<\/strong>
    \nThomas Friedman, Frank Bruni, Steven Covey, Michael Horn, Clayton Christensen, and Dan Pink are no match for Herbert Kohl, John Dewey, Loris Malaguzzi, Seymour Papert, Alfie Kohn, Jonathan Kozol, or Frank Smith. A suggested reading list may be found at http:\/\/cmkfutures.com\/reading\/<\/a><\/li>\n
  5. The current fascination with \u201cBig Data Analytics\u201d and \u201cAI\u201d will result in classrooms none of you will send your kids to.<\/strong>
    \nRather than wait for a dystopian future, there are things we can do today to make schools better places for learning.<\/li>\n
  6. We need to fight amnesia.<\/strong>
    \nSince “No Child Left Behind<\/em>,\u201d mountains of wisdom and evidence have been erased from our professional practice. For example, the debate over approaches to literacy ranges all of the way from punitive phonics to painful phonics. Sound commonsense practices, such as whole language, are no longer even debated.<\/li>\n
  7. Removing agency from teachers makes them less effective, not more.<\/strong><\/li>\n
  8. It is time for urgency.<\/strong>
    \nAs Jonathan Kozol says, \u201cYou are only 7 once.\u201d Microcomputers have now been in schools for close to two generations. It is high time we stop debating the merits of modernity.<\/li>\n
  9. We are the wealthiest nation in the history of the world.<\/strong>
    \nWe can afford a multimedia laptop and cello for every child.<\/li>\n
  10. If every school had a strong instrumental music program, there might not be a President Trump.<\/strong><\/li>\n
  11. “Teacher working conditions are student learning conditions<\/em>.\u201d<\/strong> – Deborah Meier<\/li>\n
  12. Pearson is not your friend.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Question:\u00a0When did a deep knowledge of teaching practices and education philosophy become a hindrance?<\/em><\/h2>\n

    Around 1985, a couple of years after A Nation at Risk<\/i>, legislatures around the world declared, \u201cTeaching ain\u2019t nothin\u2019,\u201d and replaced rich and varied teacher education curricula with Animal Control and Curriculum Delivery. The art of teaching and self-contained interdisciplinary elementary classrooms were replaced with departmentalized, mechanical efficiency schemes.<\/p>\n

    Unqualified is the new qualified<\/strong>. Appointing unqualified folks, like Joel Klein or Betsy DeVos, to leadership positions signals a corrosive message throughout the school system – educators can not be trusted to lead schools.<\/p>\n

    It is impossible to overstate the impact of the anti-intellectual assault on public education led by Bill Gates, Eli Broad, the Walton Family, and Teach for America. It is preposterous to argue against continuing education for educators. Why isn\u2019t there Hedgefund Trader for America<\/em> or Surgeon for America?<\/em><\/p>\n

    Question:\u00a0What are the top three things Gary Stager University would teach prospective teachers and principals?<\/em><\/h2>\n
      \n
    1. Teaching and learning are not the same thing.<\/strong> Learning is a verb and not the direct result of having been taught. Learning is natural. Children do not need to be tricked or coerced into learning when engaged in meaningful pursuits. Whenever faced with a classroom decision, educators should rely on the mantra, \u201cLess Us, More Them.\u201d Students always profit when maximum agency is shifted to them.<\/li>\n
    2. The \u201cproject\u201d should be the smallest unit of concern to educators.<\/strong> Piaget teaches us that \u201cknowledge is a consequence of experience.\u201d Experiences are best supported through interesting learner-centerered projects.<\/li>\n
    3. Classroom management is only necessary when you go into a classroom thinking you need to manage it.<\/strong> We need to lower the level of antagonism between adults and children in order to create productive contexts for learning. If your temperament and worldview are better suited to being a prison guard, you have made a serious vocational error.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      <\/p>\n

      Gary Stager, Ph.D. is the co-author of Invent To Learn – Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom<\/i><\/a> and founder of the Constructing Modern Knowledge<\/a> institute. Learn more about him and his work at cmkfutures.com<\/a><\/p>\n

      <\/p>\n

      Notes:
      \n[1] I know how the plural form of “dozen.” It’s a joke.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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