The parent and the Neuroscientist..

I run certain ideas and problems in my brains' RAM while working on other things, listening to books and working with teachers and kids. One of those problems is; "What would schools look like if they were completing the mission of preparing kids to be life-long learners who will succeed at the things they want to succeed at in the future." That mouthful of prescription for academic success is necessarily convoluted due to my recent discussions with Dr. Steve Wyckoff, an educational futurist at ESSDACK and one of the brightest thinkers that I know. When he asked me recently "What is the definition of an educated person?"
I stammered and thought and realized that to answer the question I had to first re-evaluate what I thought the goals of education should be. Steve talks about the classical education and the modern education and I am forced to choose my own heart-felt, ever-changing positions.

Since I spent 13 years of my life, co-laboring with my kids in the vinyards of academia, I have a very vested interest in contributing to the betterment of a system I saw; meet kids' needs one day and fail them miserably the next. In short, I care about this mess we call the American educational system. After leaving the classroom broken-hearted four years ago, I painted houses and licked my wounds. I knew I was doing great things with kids but I'd gotten a bit out of step with my colleagues. I felt secluded, lonely and burned out. I quit teaching with no other job or security because I told myself that, "If I ever stopped loving it I would quit" and I did. You could say that this past of mine has blessed or cursed me to struggle for the rest of my life to try and find a better, more effective and benevolent way to help kids grow and learn their way into adulthood. I am a confirmed zealot. Shortly after leaving the classroom I found the book; The Underground History of American Education by Jonathon Taylor Gatto and It started a re-awakening in my educators' soul. As I continued to scrape and paint houses, I began to have ideas about schools that would foster learning in kids, parents and teachers at the same time.

ESSDACK, or Educational Services and Staff Development Association of Central kansas was the "perfect storm" for my newly emerging mission and when they called me on the ladder while I was painting a second story window, a new and exciting chapter began. I have since been able to study and design nearly anything I thought would help the many schools we support in central Kansas. I've designed teacher training in areas from project-based teaching to brain-based instruction to using technology in myriad ways to motivate learners. In all of this work, the program running in RAM in my brain continues and once in a while it wants to download some small product it has produced. One of my favorite tools to aid my thinking is google alerts. I set up alerts on such topics as; effective schools, project-based learning, every student is engaged, schools that work etc. and like a research team working for me, the google alerts deliver to my email on the hour, the latest writing, blogging and research about the very topics that I want to know more about. When I add this new tool to the algorithm running in RAM, there are times when this 40 year old computer smokes a bit. When a new idea emerges it is always in the form of a concentrated, condensed morsel, a sort of cut-to-the-chase truth and the new thinking always goes back into the neuro-hopper for more simmering after I share it. After much thinking on these matters, the best I can share with anyone is a snapshot of my ideas, as they will definitely be a work in progress until I die. What web 2.0 and communities like classroom 2.0 have offered me is a chance to share and expand my thinking with others who have passions like and unlike mine. I love these new possibilities as they lessen my solitude and remind me that others care deeply about these matters, in far flung places inside and outside of the wheat state.

I currently believe that if we could build an amalgom of the best neuroscientist and the parent of the century, we'd have the best qualified person to re-design schooling in America.
The neuroscientist would know best how the brain learns, it's natural tendencies and it's varied learning styles and account for them in their instructional design. The parent would want what is best for the child both today and in the future and would do what was necessary to see the child succeed at whatever was or became their heart's desire. This marriage of understanding would, I believe lead to an ever-changing set of variables and a flexible approach to educating children that might even surpass NCLB. ; )

Insight or delirium at 3 AM? You make the call.