Let’s get started…
This post is the final post in a series. Earlier posts are linked at the bottom.
So the big idea behind change and The Human School...it begins with our mindsets and shifting them….
And that hidden dream…?
That dream for school to live up to our values...a place where all are seen..heard...and valued?
We first need a mindset open to learning….open to growing…
Open to believing that we can and must do the work to make our dream the reality for all young people…and for ourselves.
That work includes dismantling century old structures like standardization and compliance. And structures that reinforce the status quo, that confine learning to a building and require us to boil our learners down to a number.
Transforming a system that still looks very much the same as when it was designed over a century ago is challenging work…especially in these complex and chaotic times…
We’re at a fork in the road….
Are we going to settle back into a future filled with more of the same dehumanizing “reforms” that we know don’t work?
Or will we join together to build new systems and structures that align with those values that have been forcibly buried deep down inside of us?
It’s time….all of us collectively rising up to do what’s best for our children, our communities, and our world.
Inventing new systems and structures won’t happen from the top down…won’t happen with elaborate plans…won’t happen with “best practices” or with some franchise blueprint model…won’t happen with a leader who thinks they can save us.
It will happen with us…on the ground level.
…when we each object, invent, curate and story-tell, broadcast our inventions freely across networks of relationships….storytelling across communities.
As we connect with others in these networks of relationships, our small local efforts will blossom into larger-scale change.
Like Trace and Shawn at Iowa BIG…..like Jenny at Springhouse…. Like the people in Salisbury and like Anya at Trailblazers Magazine.
They’re all working with the same principles…the same humanizing values—being seen, heard and valued….and contributing to this movement to humanize schooling.
And yet their inventions look very different and beautifully adapted to their own environments.
Author, educator and activist Parker Palmer shares this…:
“...the movements that transform us, our relations, and our world emerge from the lives of people who decide to care for their authentic selfhood.”
Our dream of The Human School can’t become reality when we work in silos….as individuals…with only small changes in a sea of status quo….
The system of schooling we desire..our dream...is too great to come about by a small number of individuals working alone…..
We need a sense of solidarity...of community and connection between each other...lifting each other up and making the dream of The Human School our reality…where all are seen, heard and valued.
No one has all the answers...if that were the case, the things we want to change would have been changed long ago.
We need to connect….reconnect… collaborate, strengthen our human relationships and build community.
And how will we do that?
You might begin by deciding to no longer hide the dream.
Look around…find like-minded humans, pack your Human School Compass and, in community, go be...
...objectors.
...inventors.
…curators.
...and storytellers.
Ready to get started?
Tinker with a few of the tools you’ve learned about in these posts and you’ve taken the first important steps...
Living in the world of a transformed future of schooling takes courage.
...courage to challenge our own beliefs.
...courage to challenge the things we don’t like….things like standardization and compliance…
...courage to take that first step to build something together, larger than ourselves.
It’s so easy…too easy… to be aware and not care. To hide that dream...to sweep it under the rug…yet one more time.
But…I believe you’re not one to stay on the sidelines and continue to hide that dream….
You have the courage to take action, to shift your mindsets and to dismantle a system…a system that perpetuates standardization, confines learning to a place called school, mandates date-of-manufacture cohorts; and dehumanizes, labels and unfairly judges learners…teachers and leaders.
Our learners...and those we lead...they deserve a better school…a human school. The future of this planet is too important, and our young learners…they’re that future…
I’ll leave you with the famous words from the 1997 Apple commercial…
Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward.
Will you commit to being a crazy one…a misfit…a rebel….a troublemaker…the round peg human in a square hole system?
Let’s get started...
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