Great summaries of the 3 books! Thanks so much for taking the time and
effort.
I'm in no position to call for a 'constitutional convention' and I'm not
sure something like that is needed, at least not at this point. I just want
to get creative educators together to brainstorm ideas.
I completely agree about the realities on the ground not being particularly
likely to provide fertile ground for whatever ideas are developed.
Buckminster Fuller once said, "You never change things by fighting the
existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the
existing model obsolete."
The infrastructure and components for a new model are already being
constructed at a blistering pace by innovative educators. This is not a
centrally directed top-down effort by 'administrators' but a collaborative
grassroots effort of teachers. Teachers who are passionate about their craft
and courageously exploring the new opportunities being opened up by
information technology.
An excellent example is the work Tom Daccord is doing with the teaching of
history. An overview of Tom's efforts are available in a presentation he
created for the 2009 K12 Online Conference.
http://k12onlineconference.org/?p=512
When we figure out how to put all these new educator-created virtual
structures together in coherent ways we will not so much make the existing
school model obsolete as transcend it. Personally I like the image of the
neocortex evolving to wrap over and around the old brain structures. (
http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/659) The old brain structures remain
vitally important, but their roles are mediated by the intelligence provided
by the neocortex.
Fred
Sure, Fred. "Brief"? How's two paragraphs per book, with an intro and a
> conclusion, since it's Saturday?
>
> You seemed to be proposing some sort of "constitutional convention" on
> educational policy (not just building a blueprint for some new charter
> school). I present the three books as views of how change does or does not
> take place in schools, school systems, and the society that provides the
> inputs and supports for these. I am presuming that there's no shortage of
> great ideas, but that there are realities on the ground these new ideas
> would need to survive.
>
>
>
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