Will Richardson

Speaker, consultant, writer, learner, parent

Reality Check

By

It is the thesis of this book that change—constant, accelerating, ubiquitous—is the most striking characteristic of the world we live in and that our educational system has not yet recognized this fact. We maintain, further, that the abilities and attitudes required to deal adequately with change are those of the highest priority and that it is not beyond our ingenuity to design school environments which can help young people to master concepts necessary to survival in a rapidly changing world. The institution we call “school” is what it is because we made it that way. If it is irrelevant…if it shields children from reality…if it educates for obsolescence…if it does not develop intelligence…if it is based on fear…if it avoids the promotion of significant learnings…if it induces alienation…if it punishes creativity and independence…if, in short, it is not doing what needs to be done, it can be changed; it must be changed.

Neil Postman
Teaching as a Subversive Activity
1968

Forty two years ago. It really, really begs the question…can it?

Comments

  2. Mary ann Reilly says

    This was a bible when I first started teaching. The excerpt reads as if it was written for today. I wonder what that suggests given it was published 42 years ago. If we learned nothing from the Bush years and the Obama-Duncan Race to the Top, fear keeps the masses in their place. Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine locates the argument of what is gained when a populace reacts out of fear quite well for these times. Thanks for posting this Will.

  3. Steve Ransom says

    The words of Neil Postman and other giants of his time still ring so very true today – in almost a haunting sort of way. The problem is that these progressive ideas often fly in the face of the messy duo of capitalism and US politics that drive our system today. In reference to Scott’s comment, can it scale… Perhaps not. So, how many have the guts to create these places of learning on their own while keeping them affordable for the families that desperately need them the most? I have questions, lots of questions…

  4. Patrick Larkin says

    I was just talking to a friend today (a parent of three) who I forwarded your previous post about A Parent 2.0’s Back to School Dilemma. She was telling me how it gave her flashbacks to her own education and that she is scared for her own children. I share the sentiment with my three kids. I fear that the changes are occurring are doing so at a glacier-like pace.

    I think many of us are looking in the mirror when we read this and other posts on reformation/transformation or whatever we are calling our movement to provide a relevant education for our kids. We know despite some incremental wins that we are a long way from where we need to be.

    When you ask for examples of schools that are really doing things the way we need to be doing them, how many really concrete examples do you find?

    I get embarrassed sometimes for some of things that bring positive press to my school because I think we are literally years behind where we need to be.

    I guess I will just have to agree with Scott and pray that our school will commit to the work necessary to make it into “the isolated pocket.”

    • Will Richardson says

      Thanks for that comment, Patrick. It’s a very difficult moment, isn’t it? The transitions we are just now entering are huge, and it’s our good and bad fortune to be in their midst, I think.

      In answer to your question, not many. Not many that are REALLY doing the work to shift curriculum in a more progressive direction with the support of social learning tools.

      Don’t be embarrassed, but keep on keepin’ it real, as they say. Know where you want to go, and take your school there. It’s a daunting task, but it will be worth it for the kids in your charge.

  5. Will Richardson says

    Ironically, this descriptor for the “Race to Nowhere” documentary just came through my e-mail:

    Director Vicki Abeles turns the personal political, igniting a national conversation in her new documentary about the pressures faced by American schoolchildren and their teachers in a system and culture obsessed with the illusion of achievement, competition and the pressure to perform. Featuring the heartbreaking stories of young people across the country who have been pushed to the brink, educators who are burned out and worried that students aren’t developing the skills they need, and parents who are trying to do what’s best for their kids, Race to Nowhere points to the silent epidemic in our schools: cheating has become commonplace, students have become disengaged, stress-related illness, depression and burnout are rampant, and young people arrive at college and the workplace unprepared and uninspired.

  6. Gayle says

    Really energizing and interesting discussion and, certainly, no easy solutions. I’m wondering about the following:

    What if parents were to do what we’d like schools to do – to take on the challenge of pooling their learning resources, locally and globally, using social networking tools – and supplement and/or overtake the public schooling system, in order to shift the paradigm? I’m reading what everyone’s writing, and I’m in agreement, and I’m suggesting taking on the challenge by using these tools for activism on behalf of kids. Why not use them as educators and parents on behalf of children to do what you want them to do and to shift the educational model that currently exists?

    We’ve seen the power of these tools for fundraising, for political activism, for business acumen and marketing? What about their use on behalf of our young people and families?

    Just a thought . . .

    • Will Richardson says

      Gayle! Excellent to see you here. Thanks for the comments.

      That’s a pretty rebellious idea, but one worth considering, I think. No doubt, if and when the “revolution” happens, it will be with social tools. We definitely need a plan…

  7. Gayle says

    One more thought . . . bear with me . . .

    What if we used these tools to communicate to public school admin, dept. of ed, etc., to set up a day of or week of, “We’re Pulling our Kids out of School” to send the message that things have to change . . .

    It’s our tax dollars and our system . . . what if we take back the system and help reculture using the tools we believe are so powerful for our young people?

  9. monika hardy says

    Postman – 40 years ago..
    Asimov – 22 years ago – http://tinyurl.com/279hhgz as well….
    to me it just verifies we should. not – dang we’ll never get there.

    the difference… now we have a means to do what Postman and Asimov and Mitra and Papert…. and so many others could just talk about.
    Shirky’s cognitive surplus isn’t just generosity… it’s tech and generosity. Mitra didn’t his experiments without tech. Papert’s standard of individualization can’t scale without web access.

    i read an article today – about how stupid the web is making us.
    that’s silly. anything can make you stupid if you let it.
    and the web certainly will if we do ed like we have in the past.
    the overwhelming web + teaching a set curriculum + mandating a set time = ridiculous.
    i’d want to disengage if the web was available and people made me disconnect – to learn.

    instead – let’s look at the potential of the web. Mitra says, with self-supervised access to the web we could change.
    self- supervised… that’s the key.
    we need to learn the ways of the pro-amateurs, like James Bach. his Buccaneer-Scholar is a gold mine.

    so we spend a few years in detox… learning how to self-learn. and that’s it.
    learning what you want to learn doesn’t need to be marketed… there’s natural hunger there. exponentiation of networks will scale. if we let people self-impose.

    let’s focus on the sort of people who don’t want to power down.. who crave doing something that matters.. not the ones that keep telling us we can’t. http://tinyurl.com/297j7gz