Yet, there are many who will not talk seriously about re-creating the learning environment. And it is one of those widely shared norms and experience that virtually all have had for many generations. In the same paragraph (last sentence) on page 154, the authors indicate that "Changes in behavior must be preceded by changes in the public discourse".
It seems to me that this is one of the best things schools and educators could promote—serious and civil public discourse about the future. Why not have quarterly discussions about skills needed for the 21st century? Why not post articles dealing with these issues on the school or district website? And if not the articles the links to the articles? What do we want our children to experience in school? What are the elephants we are not talking about? Check out this post (sorry the link function doesn't work for me: http://learningreimagined.com/2008/07/public-confidence-in-public-schools-on-the-skids/ to see some really frightening numbers.
For me, one of the huge elephants we don't talk about are ineffective (or worse) educators and how to show them the door. By educator I mean principals, teachers and central office people. While I've seen some teachers that are ineffective, hurtful, and discouraging, I've seen and experience more than a few principals and central office people that were the same. And while we're at it, the same could be said of board members. So the issue isn't just a teacher issue.
Another elephant in the room for me is the lack of seriousness that we approach reform with. Look, we lose 50% of new teachers and 33% of our kids drop out and generally people don't see the hemorrhage for what it is. We can't sustain a profession, learning environments, and a system like that. Yet, we blithely think that the way to the future is recasting curriculum, or changing methods or firing bad teachers while the main structure of the whole enterprise is unchanged. Surely, that's crazy—doing the same things and expecting different results.
I know people respond to ideas like this by saying that schools are not going away. Maybe physical schools—the place of school—won't change, but surely schooliness is injurious to a whole generation of students who will live in a world we can't imagine. We damn well ought to begin the conversation.
I apologize for the length of the post.
