Educators have often been confronted with uncomfortable, and sometimes life-changing questions: When is it acceptable to take a controversial stand? When is it imperative? When should we follow a community consensus and when must we lead in opposition to community norms? On which issues do leaders rise, even when the threat of doing so is [...]
Deep, profound cultural, political, and moral divisions. Family members split by anger and outrage. Failure of institutions. Precipitous lack of trust in government and leaders. Violence on our streets. Since the founding of the American Experiment, three times stand out as testing the social fabric that has allowed the country to grow, flourish, and test [...]
What is the value of a school? What will it be in the future, for your school? Are we anywhere in the ballpark on this discussion? We should always pay attention to ideas at the margins of our own experience; this helps keep confirmation bias in check and brings fresh DNA into the pool of [...]
I teared up watching 3-star Air Force General Jay Silveria speak to the entire Air Force Academy yesterday, praying that we find and elect THIS kind of leader to our political system. But more so, I found myself wondering how powerfully educators could heal the widening divisions in the American and global social fabric if we ALL [...]
I'm pretty good at distilling, summarizing, synthesizing, and then sharing; it is what I do best for my fellow educators. I certainly don't arrive at big ideas by myself. Most are the products of interactions with "others", which stew for some time in my mental crock pot before they are ready for consumption. I am stumped [...]
Simply: welcome to the end of the Twitter Chat Era for educators, and the start of the Sandbox Era! Twitter has been educators' most powerful tool for professional collaboration for at least the last five years. It is quick, efficient, free, we can access it whenever we want, and millions of us have joined to [...]
This week in New Orleans, I once again have the honor of co-presenting with John Gulla, Executive Director of the EE Ford Foundation. Between us we have visited and worked with something like 400+ schools over the last five years. This will be the fourth time that John and I have shared our thoughts about [...]
Looking northeast from Sun Valley, Idaho I visit and work with so many schools that are trying to build a clarity of possibility about the future. School leaders, faculty, students, and parents know that the traditional model of education is not preparing students for their future; they know they want a deeper, richer learning experience [...]
New learning modalities continue to explode across America. 20 years ago, 90% of US students went to one of three kinds of school: neighborhood, parochial, or private. Now, innovative hybrids are rising faster than we can keep track. Check out this win-win-win partnership amongst companies, schools, and students in Colorado, reported last week on the [...]
Look what showed up in the Fed Ex yesterday! If you pre-ordered, yours should arrive next week. If you did not pre-order...well, let's roll! Check out incentives on my web site, including: I am still donating royalties to education non-profits if you order in September. Thanks for helping to Move the Rock!
