Educators have the power to influence the trajectory of lives every day as students come to our schools and as they sit in our classrooms and engage in our learning communities. In my book, Learner-Centered Innovation, I challenge educators to ask the following:

• Am I improving students’ lives?
• Am I working to make the world a better place by creating more thoughtful, compassionate, creative, and skilled individuals
• Am I providing opportunities for individuals to contribute positively to the local and global communities in which they interact?

What is The Purpose of School?

I have been in many conversations about this very topic and I think it is one we need to keep having. I truly believe that what we do in school and what students learn only really means something if students continue to love learning, remain curious, strive for something better and ultimately have the skills and the desire to find their place in the world.

Great insights shared at the International School of Brussels at Learning By Design #ISBLbD

The Silent Majority

Standardization has allowed for efficiency and is efficient for rote processes but when it comes to teaching and learning and growing people, it won’t allow us to innovate in our schools to develop the unique talents and skills in diverse individuals. We can and should teach kids in ways that prepare them to be good thinkers communicators and critical problem finders and solvers. With these skills they will be more able to tackle standardized tests and other more important tasks in their lives, but make no mistake if we continue to focus on ranking students by grades and standardized curriculum and teach to the test, valuing compliance over learning and innovation, we will continue to struggle to meet this low bar and fail to develop learners to find employment and lead meaningful productive lives.
As the world is changing, the research and evidence become irrelevant if you don’t consider a new context.
We can do better than this and it’s not about adding more, it’s about looking at the time in the day differently, seeing our role differently and unlocking the genius that exists in each individual. Yet, too many continue to conform to the system thinking that maybe it’s just them who thinks this but Todd Rose, author of the end of Average and Dark Horse shares that many of us are the silent majority who believe in the fulfillment view of success. When louder and often more powerful people share a narrow view of success (and create policies based on this) they drown out the silent majority and “those people think they are a tiny minority but in our national survey, 60 percent of Americans hold this more fulfillment-based view.” I know that so many teachers see the opportunities each day to do something different with their students and know that there are better ways but too often feel like they are alone when really they are the silent majority.
This reminded me of a conversation that I had with a group of teachers– As we brainstormed some ways to improve learning, one by one they dismissed the new ideas that were brought up because of having to keep up with the pacing guides and the fear of not meeting expectations of their colleagues or their administrator, yet were frustrated because they knew that their students needed something different.  Bravely, another teacher countered, I don’t teach it that way. All eyes quickly moved to her and she shared that instead of assuming that she wasn’t allowed to do something in her classroom, she approached her principal to share her ideas and described why she wanted to do something else.

You Are Part of the Solution

As I have have been thinking a lot about the purpose of school, I also think a lot about how to change it. It seems daunting and there are so many systems that are barriers to the questions above but I also know that the education system was designed by people and the only way it will change is the people. Thoughtful leaders (in 1892) created the rules and the systems that made sense for the world then and the only way it will change is by people who believe in themselves and our collective future enough to make the changes that are necessary today. That means you are part of the solution. 
It only takes one person to take small steps that can lead to big change and I for one am encouraged and hopeful that together, we can create that movement. If we want something better for the future, we have to create it. This doesn’t mean we ignore the past, but it also means that we don’t simply recreate the experiences we had as students for our own children. They live in a different time, with exponential opportunities. Opportunities that did not exist when we were children and we would be remiss to allow our apprehensions to hold back their aspirations.
In Rachel Hollis’ new book, Girl, Stop Apologizing she shares, “I believe we can change the world. But first we’ve got to stop living in fear of being judged for who we are.” I completely agree and would add that I think this begins with being honest about what we want, opening doors, asking questions, and sharing concerns about our systems in education that many have in private but rarely share in public. I know we can change the education system but we have to stop being afraid and being the silent majority. This is exactly what Justin Minkel pushes in his powerful article in EdWeek, he says we are not nearly as brave in the classroom as we expect our students to be and it’s holding us all back. Instead, he shares, “I dare us all to stop worrying about looking good to our principal, to parents, to visitors from the school board. I dare us to try instead to actually become good for the children in our care.