When the peasants learn to read....

For the first time in 15 years our large district had a convocation for all staff. Our superintendent had been to a conference last year on The Future of Schools and heard Dr. Jennifer James speak. She is a cultural anthropologist and spoke on "Thinking in the Future Tense".

From her website: One of the most difficult aspects of adapting to rapid change, particularly when it is accompanied by complex technology and multiplying data sources, is the ability to give up an old construct about the way things ought to be and develop a new one based on the current realities. Accepting a new version of reality, essentially telling a new story, requires cultural intelligence. Cultural intelligence is the ability to observe, learn and understand our own culture as well as the culture of others. It is an essential skill in a diverse community and a global market.

She was a delightful speaker and one of her remarks struck home after a summer of blog and article reading and participating in Classroom 2.0 discussions.

She said "when the peasants learn to read, the king looks stupid." Hopefully none of us kings will look stupid in the classrooms of today and tomorrow---the peasants are certainly gaining on us. Are you ready to start making sense of a new reality?

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Permalink Reply by Connie Weber on August 15, 2007 at 7:10am

Hi Nancy,
the truth seems to be that the peasants are light years ahead of us, at least in technological learning and application. My way of making sense of the new reality is asking the kids to teach me, teach me, teach me, and while they do, I try to model good learning skills, including the affect/esteem issues that go with new learning. (I try to "make my thinking visible," to use a Project Zero term.) Within the process I become the guide in terms of thinking with the kids about how to turn the new tools to collaborative "good," and it's a win-win situation.
There's something very thrilling about teaching in this age.
(And soon, the drill-and-kill, sit-n-git method of teaching will simply evaporate; its irrelevance will have it "blowin in the wind..."--sure hope I'm right about this.)

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Permalink Reply by Nancy Bosch on August 15, 2007 at 7:22pm

I agree--in the winter we wrote a grant for CSI:Cemetery Scene Investigation We got digial cameras, video, Palms, and GPSs. We called Garmin and the sales rep was going to come in and "teach" us. After he cancelled twice I said to Russell and Andy..."You guys, figure this out". They went outside, came back in 30 minutes and said "Done--we've figured it out." God love those peasants. I'm pooped--kids start back tomorrow. N

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Permalink Reply by Connie Weber on August 16, 2007 at 3:35pm

Hi Nancy,

What a great project!! I've always wanted to do a cemetery investigation with students. You have provided a great example, a great inspiration.

Yeah, the kids learn whatever they need to with the new tools, and so rapidly. We just need to empower (learn from, listen to, have confidence in) the students. We can be their guides in the big picture; they'll find the tools to get to shared visions.

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Permalink Reply by Nancy Bosch on August 16, 2007 at 5:32pm

The CSI project was not an original, I read about last summer in the George Lucas Foundation magazine. --it was ALOT of work but the kids (and adults) learned so much.