Where to start?

Where to start? Start with one All is too easily confused with none and best is worst Instead promise and follow and listen and watch to reveal the one whose stage is calling the designer the creator the healer the builder and the one who may never quite fit in an -er Pathways may be paved or blazed or bypassed or blocked as under construction Defiants are not better nor worse think beyond and seek to understand and integrate use AI to protect PII and reveal the holes that matter Connect the disconnected systems to open the doors And if you start with all Start universally And communally with peace in peace through peace as you quiet to count zero Because learning is... not a snapshot Learning is… time lapsed And empowered by a bloom

Socially Constructing Identity

In a gesture similar to patting a child on a back, I once patted a child's head in the classroom.

"The spirit lives in the head," said the young boy.  He let me know clearly, kindly and with reasonable explanation why he was not comfortable with me touching his head. Every year, I learned more from students.  Every year my cultural literacy expanded. Every year, my understanding of ability grew.  Every year, I realized the limitations more of the expectations I put on students.

Learning is a socially constructed activity.

Identity is socially constructed. 

We construct what we know and are able to do...

from books

from our teachers

from other students

from our families

from our friends

from our learning environments

When an identity is suppressed, suffering happens.

Suffering whimpers.

Suffering cries.

Suffering yells.

Suffering suppresses.

Suffering denies.

Suffering gets angry.

Suffering admits defeat.

Suffering kills.

When an identity is freed, life happens.

Standards are of industry. They are not of intellect.

THe binary bar
the sorting bar
the judge of all the learning
sorts for proficiency

1, 2.. no time for you

3, 4 education no more

5, 6

7, 8

These words are for you,
yes you,
the reader, the thinker, the solver, the doer...
the student
the teacher
the broken
the burned out
the drop out
the valedictorian


The words are for the
certain to disprove
the seeker to understand
the defeated to find hope
and the learner to find freedom

I wrap your gift in reason and seal it with logic

for you

my children

your education is wrapped up within that box of reason

But really failure defines
because it drives the profit

thanks to the binary bar

the sorting bar

the bottom line

the stick

carrots and sticks

We're figuring out this stick, your binary bar

And we are removing it from your innate worth and your inalienable rights

Wood bar
Metal bar
Doesn't exist

Just a bad idea
A mistake we can learn from and transform a system

Educators walk around looking for marketing's obstacles confusing learning

Enable little ones hear the sound of the symbols we need to write life's music

Legislators, smell poverty coming from Wall Street . Just stop long enough to investigate savage inequalities rampant in our system

Taste a few school lunches, too. I dare you .

Touch your way from introduction to mastery little one Solve literacy. Build dimension.

And take that mysterious bit of you, the combination of senses and lack of all at the same time. That part take it . And with that, resolve

Resolve peace within and without.
And fly

Expectations are too low

Red herring

Dig deeper, go wider, fly higher

"The problem is parents," cries the defeated teacher whose lifeline is being pinched.

Red herring

Dig deeper, go wider, fly higher

"The problem is high-stakes tests," shouts a collective voice of frustration.

Dig deeper, go wider, fly higher

"The problem is Common Core," shouts a collective voice of frustration.

Dig deeper, go wider, fly higher

"Your expectations aren't high enough," says the one who's never taught.
More ad hominum

Dig deeper

"Other countries children are outperforming America's students."

Dig deeper, go wider, fly higher

"It's poverty," says a heartened bunch.

Dig deeper

"Failure."

Sccess and failure define a system, a sorting system

Not mistakes

Failure drives our system 

Failure finds its category comfortably reasons to educate: economic, cultural, social or personal 

It's root cause is a factory model of management.

Partially

Dig deeper

A factory model was industrial managed by curriculum.

And today's public schools are an industry driven by standards.

And

Industry needs failure to define success

And 

Industry is regulated

Standards sort success from failure with a bar, yearly and absolutely

With no consideration for everything that makes us human

Standards sort student success

Standards sort teacher success

Standards sort school-wide success

Standards sort district success

How?

Successes are sorted from failure with an elusive mark of proficiency from a bubble or a judge who is most often temporary hired help

Our educational system in the U.S. is now sorting quality of learning in the brain with a measure used by other industries, the standard

The sorting standard

And once sorted, failure brings profit

The failure of a teacher

The failure of a student

The failure of a school

And each failure source brings its own profit stream

a new channel for sales

a new channel for product

a new channel for development

Walk the halls of any educational conference if you question my conclusion

Standards apply to car safety.

Standards apply to a profession.

Standards apply to

Visit the website of the most prestigious, private school

Have they let standards in?

Standards now measure the learning in a brain

In the same way we measure the safety of a car

or the quality of a blueberry

But here is my question for you.

Do standards apply to learning in the brain?

.A traditional school was run by a factory model with curriculum

An industrially designed school is driven by a standard, regulating learnign similar to the ways other industries are regulated

Think

Think like a teacher reflecting on a lesson learned from a lesson delivered

What is not working?

What can be let go of?

What can be repealed?

What can be built upon?

We made a mistake and applied a concept from industry to learning that just does not apply

Keep standards in school and apply a standard measure to ensure minimal expectations are met for

per pupil expenditures

teacher pay

building conditions

outdoor space

active time

But stop using standards to measure the quality of a developing mind and learning brain

I beg you.

We're figuring out this stick, this binary bar

And we are removing it from your innate worth and your inslienaw rights

Wood bar
Metal bar
Doesn't exist

Just a bad idea
A mistake we can learn from and transform a system

Educators walk around looking for marketing's obstacles confusing learning

Enable little ones hear the sound of the symbols we need to write life's music

Legislators, smell poverty coming from Wall Street . Just stop long enough to investigate savage inequalities rampant in our system

Taste a few school lunches, too. I dare you .

Touch your way from introduction to mastery little one Solve literacy. Build dimension.

And take that mysterious bit of you, the combination of senses and lack of all at the same time. That part take it . And with that, resolve

Resolve peace within and without.
And fly

Dear Children,

I am fighting for your education.  I fight in truth tables, essays and poems. I fight with words on a blog and tweets in a stream in the hope that someone will understand.