Inquiry Inventory - 5/18/22
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.
The Psychology Podcast hosted by Scott Barry Kaufman with guest Todd Rose
Part I - Rethinking Intelligence
“Instead of focusing on test scores, Todd asks us to look at jagged profiles so we can create environments where everyone can thrive.”
Part II - Collective Illusions
“Humans are a tribal species, prone to conformity. In a lot of instances, we will act according to what our in-group wants rather than what we want as individuals. Ironically, Todd’s research shows that we make poor inferences about the majority consensus.”
Todd Rose has been influential in our own thinking. So what better treat than a double podcast with humanistic psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman!
Both episodes will challenge your current mindsets around standardization, testing and how we behave as humans in the current climate of political polarization and social media saturation.
I would love to dig deeper into the idea of collective illusions further, especially in education. Are we in the midst of a collective illusion around the education system?
—Randy
The Why Series
from Education Reimagined
“Schools can’t be a place where we go through the motions, check off boxes or memorize facts because that’s not what career development looks like… All kids can be successful when you shift to deeper learning because every person has something that lights them up, that make them passionate and excited to learn.”
In Education Reimagined’s Why Series, they explore the reasons behind some of the common structures and assumptions in education, where they originated, and what the attitudes are surrounding them from the various stakeholders within education. Most importantly, they push through questioning, a favorite of our Objector Compass Point, and being curious. For me, one of the first steps in breaking down elements of the system is to understand its origins first, and through that work, we can better see the whole picture. So often, there’s much more to the system and the structures than we realize and can easily see; by asking questions and being genuinely curious first, we can get the whole picture and then begin to pull at the threads as we break down it to rebuild. What are some of the assumptions we have in education, and what questions might we ask about their origins?
—Rachel
Imagining Liberatory Education Futures by KnowledgeWorks
“Imagine a world in which each learner is unconstrained by systems and structures of oppression. Creating such a world might seem impossible, yet making education liberatory is the most pressing challenge that education stakeholders face as we look to its future. If we do not join together to face our current and developing realities head on, we will not create better futures for each learner. Moreover, our inaction will exacerbate historic and systemic inequities, bringing education systems to the brink of collapse.
Whatever the approach, it is crucial that our efforts to imagine liberatory education futures be participatory and inclusive. We must authentically collaborate with others to explore what could be possible for education – and then consider how to bring about the possibilities that we all would like to see and avert those that we would not.”
KnowledgeWorks always challenges our thinking and this forecast does more of the same. KnowledgeWorks is a clear example of having a future orientation with the emphasis on liberatory learning environment, where we can continue to explore classrooms and communities where all are able to escape the shackles of schooling being done to them and design a system in which the needs of learners are always at the forefront.
—Chad
