“Vigor and creative flow have their source in internal strains and tensions, it is the pull of opposite poles that stretches souls. And only stretched souls make music” -Eric Hoffer Eric Hoffer was considered the “workingman’s philosopher” and is best known for his 1952 book The True Believer. The above quote is a result of a line of thinking that Hoffer undertook…
Tag: mass customized learning
The Logical End to a False Premise
Currently, the news cycle is being dominated by a “college admissions” scandal. A good synopsis of the scandal can be found here. The gist of the scandal is that wealthy people were doing things to guarantee admission to elite schools for their children. The details are sordid, but basically significant sums of money were changing hands to cheat on the…
Finding Innovations in Rural School Districts; 3 “E’s” An ESA Can Do
I was asked to write a blog series for the Association of Education Service Agencies (AESA) as a follow up to an article a colleague and I wrote for them. AESA represents education service agencies like IU8 all across the country. Our goal for the article (and for the blog posts) was to highlight how rural schools and communities can…
Four O’Clock in the Morning Courage
Civil War historian Shelby Foote said that Ulysses S. Grant had something few generals had…he had “Four o’clock in the morning courage”. This is the courage it takes to stay calm when you are woken up at 4:00AM and told your left flank has just been turned. This is the same kind of courage you as a superintendent need to…
Finally…The One Question About Mass Customized Learning Answered!
Appalachia Intermediate Unit 8, working in a partnership with The Pennsylvania Leadership Development Center, created the Mid Atlantic Mass Customized Learning Consortium four years ago. The consortium is open to all organizations involved in learning throughout Pennsylvania and surrounding states. Membership consists of those education leaders who will work to transform learning in their organizations to assure students (learners) receive learning at…
How to Conceptualize Professional Learning…A Quick Guide
On my first day of teaching 27 years ago, I entered the high school auditorium with 150 other teachers. I was expecting magic! I was pumped up to start my career and learn something new in the first three days before learners walked through the door. As I walked in the auditorium, I noticed something peculiar. The front half of…
Snipping Arrogance out of the Old Operating System of Education
Everyone you ever meet knows something you don’t. –Bill Nye My uncle spent his career as a gym teacher. He was one of those teachers that could get kids to do more than they thought they could do themselves…he always had kids in the gym doing something. The kids that went to the gym to hang out before or after…
3 Questions Every Educational Leader Needs to Ask to Create Dignity in Their Schools
This is the third in the series of transforming to a new operating system in education. As discussed in previous posts, the old operating system creates despair for those working and living in it, and has as its foundation principle competition as a motivating factor. A result of despair and competition is apathy…the third foundational principle of the old operating…
3 Questions to Start your Mass Customized Learning Journey
“This is not a program…you have to change your philosophy” perfectly encapsulates the difficulty some educators may experience with Mass Customized Learning. There are two facts we must remember about Mass Customized learning: First, MCL is not a program but a journey. A journey toward restructuring the educational system. Second, MCL is uncompromisingly learner centered. The ramifications of of these…
3 Questions to Change the Cult of Quantification in Schools
“Love is the most durable power in the world” –Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Today’s blog is the second in a series of the foundational characteristics of the New Operating System in Education. The first installment was last week and discussed hope as the first defining characteristic of the new OS of education. Three years ago, a teacher walks out…