Inquiry Inventory - 06/22/22

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.

New Power: How Power Works in Our Hyperconnected World––and How to Make It Work for You by Jeremy Heimans and Henry Timms

“Old power works like a currency. It is held by few. Once gained, it is jealously guarded, and the powerful have a substantial store of it to spend. It is closed, inaccessible, and leader-driven. It downloads, and it captures. New power operates differently, like a current. It is made by many. It is open, participatory, and peer-driven. It uploads, and it distributes. Like water or electricity, it’s most forceful when it surges. The goal with new power is not to hoard it but to channel it.”

We have a lot of “old power” in our education system. And it would seem that we keep trying to solve the challenges of the current system with the same kind of leadership: old power.

Reading New Power is reminding me of our second mind shift in the Objector Compass Point: Lead from anywhere: Navigating from leadership is a title to leadership is a choice by anyone to take action. The movement to transform education will happen in a “new power” paradigm. Are you ready to embrace your new power in this journey?

—Randy

“New Small Community Based Schools Have Big Implications” by Tom Vander Ark

“Gem Prep is launching several microschools called Learning Societies across Idaho that will be using their online schools curriculum, with experienced parents running the sites at locations including churches, homes, and business office space…

Morning hours will include core instruction led by certified teachers online. Afternoon schedules will be flexible for supplemental learning opportunities to be determined locally by site leaders in conjunction with the families they serve.”

From the pandemic and the shift to online schooling, many of the online programs and micro programs saw an opportunity to create space for themselves and provide influence and insight into education in a way they struggled sometimes in years prior. In a recent article from Getting Smart, Tom Vander Ark reviewed a variety of these online programs and micro schools, one in particular that will have a hybrid of online schools and small, community-based in person decisions. It got me thinking about the importance of place and school. How much we associate learning with the space, with the classroom and the school and even the school year. With the summer months comes conversations of summer slide and learning loss, as if learning ends when students leave the classroom and the building in the spring. But we know learning happens everywhere… so how can we better support place-based learning and the belief that learning is not only possible in schools?

—Rachel