Dangerously Irrelevant

Robert Fried says…

There is quite likely no substitute for the experience of feeling empowered . . . if we hope for children to pursue learning enthusiastically within the structure of a classroom or a school. Learning and power are inextricably linked. [The Game of School, p. 65]

Robert Fried says…

We have opted not to create schools as places where children’s curiosity, sensory awareness, power, and communication can flourish, but rather to erect temples of knowledge where we sit them down, tell them a lot of stuff we think is important, try to control their restless curiosity, and test them to see how well they’ve listened to us. [The Game of School, pp. 58–59]

I tweeted:

Here are the responses I got. Thanks, Twitter network!

Robert Fried says…

The place we call school or college, which should be our society’s most vital promoter of learning, too often instead creates the field on which we learn to play a game that demoralizes us even when we are winners (and can permanently scar us when we lose). In the daily course of attending school, as they do what their teachers ask and strive to earn good grades, our children unknowingly substitute lesser goals for an invaluable goal they were born with: the pursuit of learning for its own sake. [The Game of School, p. 33]

Robert Fried says…

There is a simple test we can perform to find out whether or not our children are truly learning. We can ask them, not the usual question, “How was school today, Honey?” or “What did she teach you in your math class?” but rather, “Did you learn anything in school today that you really want to know more about?” If the answer is … usually no, you have cause for worry – even if your child brings home a good report card. [The Game of School, p. 7]

Robert Fried says…

[F]ar too much of the time our children spend in school is wasted. . . .

[M]ost of what they experience during school hours passes over them like the shadow of a cloud, or through them like an undigested seed. They may be present in the classroom, but they are not really there. Their pencils may be chugging away on the worksheets or the writing prompts or math problems laid out for them, but their intelligence is running on two cylinders at best. They pay some attention to what their teacher happens to be telling them, but their imagination has moved elsewhere. . . .

And, worst of all, by the time our kids have reached fourth or fifth grade, they think what they are experiencing in school is normal. [The Game of School, p. 1]

My new faculty colleague, Dr. John Nash, is one of the hosts for PresentationCamp at Stanford University on February 28. I can't attend but it should be good fun. The event is co-sponsored by Duarte Design, including free copies of slide:ology (which is an awesome book). No more death by PowerPoint!

Are you (or your superintendent) going to be at the AASA conference next week? I’d love to get together Thursday night or Friday morning after my presentation. If so, drop me a note!

Given that the month’s half over, I’ve been a little remiss about posting where I’m going to be in February! Nonetheless… (* = public events)

• Feb 3 – 21st century skills presentation to Heartland AEA 11 superintendents in West Des Moines, IA
• Feb 4 – 21st century skills presentation to Grant Wood AEA 10 superintendents in Cedar Rapids, IA
• Feb 6* – presentation on getting noticed in an attention economy for the Iowa Public Relations and Marketing conference
• Feb 12* – Tribes discussion
• Feb 16 – 21st century skills workshop for Starmont CSD in Arlington, IA
• Feb 17 – 21st century skills presentation to the Des Moines (IA) Public Schools principals group
• Feb 20 – 21st century skills presentation for Learning.com at the AASA National Conference in San Francisco, CA
• Feb 23* – Conversations on the Iowa Core Curriculum at SAI in Clive, IA
• Feb 25 – 21st century skills presentation for Parkview Middle School in Ankey, IA
• Feb 26 – Inaugural podcast of 4 Guys Talking (more info later this month!)

Plus the usual other stuff like teaching, writing, meetings, hiring new faculty, etc.

Robert Fried says…

[A]mid all the accounts … of kids complaining to each other about how bored they are with many of their classes, why do we accept this so passively, without arguing for the right to be learning something of value? [The Game of School, p. xii]