Inquiry Inventory - 03/09/22
Here at The Human School, a big part of what brought us together is a deep love of reading and learning. We commit, as part of our learning journey, to sharing our week’s reading with you and what influences our thinking and learning.
Each week, you will see a post with what we’re reading, a quote, and an insight from that reading that leads us to deeper thinking.
To learn more about what we are reading, please take a look at our Connection Catalog.
Demoralized: Why Teachers Leave the Profession They Love and They Can Stay by Doris Santoro
.”…the process of demoralization occurs when pedagogical policies and school practices (such as high-stakes testing, mandated curriculum, and merit pay for teachers) threaten the ideals and values, the moral center, teachers bring to their work—things that cannot be remedied by resilience.”
This concept of demoralization––what the author defines as “the inability to access the moral rewards offered and expected in teaching”––resonates with our belief that the work of education has become radically dehumanized. While the author’s work is focused on teachers, leaders have been demoralized by those same practices.
The education system was originally designed this way nearly two centuries ago and policy (NCLB, standards movement, Race to the Top, etc) has since doubled down on the dehumanization through greater standardization. Maybe it worked at one time, but in the Age of Personalization (as Todd Rose terms it), the current systems are no longer in alignment with our values.
How might we become effective objectors, engaging our curiosity for change and exercising our leadership regardless of position within the system?
—Randy
Think Again by Adam Grant
“Thinking like a scientist involves more than just reacting with an open mind. It means being actively open-minded. It requires searching for reasons why we might be wrong - not for reasons why we must be right - and revising our views based on what we learn.”
So often we believe we are open-minded because we listen to others or support differences from ourselves, but Grant’s point about actively searching for reasons we may be wrong and then revising our views based on that brings open-mindedness to a new level. It supports our ability to rethink and revise our beliefs, identities, and values in order to pursue what is best for humanity and the humans around us, whether in the classroom or in our homes. When we object, we do it not to be contrary but instead to practice questioning and curiosity about the world around us but also about ourselves and our own assumptions. If we think like scientists, we will keep working to improve the system.
—Rachel
Collective Illusions by Todd Rose
“We are so social that we become vulnerable to disbelieving the evidence of our own eyes in order to avoid feeling like an outsider. At a biological level, we are actually programmed to compare ourselves to others and behave as they do, even if we don’t want to.”
As I read this quote I wondered how we can fight our biology, so to speak, in order to avoid conformity and compliance and embrace active curiosity. How can we embrace our vulnerability in ways that allow us to acknowledge truth, even if it is uncomfortable or painful or risky?
—Chad
