Earlier this week my friend Scott McLeod challenged educator/bloggers to post their five choices of things we have to stop pretending in education and hashtag it with #MakeSchoolDifferent. I was asked to meet the challenge by Robert Schuetz , which prompted my post here.
I encourage you to read Scott’s post along with the collection of statements others have made. These are my contributions:
We have to stop pretending…
- That teachers have a choice in using technology as a tool for teaching and learning.
- That the college education made unaffordable to a majority of U.S. citizens is the common standard of success in education.
- That content which is being taught is more important than teaching students how to curate, critically think, communicate, collaborate, and create as life long skills.
- That seat time in a classroom is a measurement of accomplishment (placing more significance on the ass over that of the brain).
- That once teachers are licensed and working, their relevance and mastery in the classroom is locked in without a need for further investment of money, time and support.
What do you think? What are the 5 things we need to stop pretending? When you write your post tag it with #MakeSchoolDifferent so everyone can reflect.
My Island View 
Awesome list, Tom. Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts and participating in the challenge!
Competency-based education has the potential to completely disrupt your 4th bullet. Crossing my fingers that it happens…
YES!!! Thanks Tom. The challenge works because I like your list better than mine. Nicely played! You and Scott are on my Edu-Heroes list – I appreciate and admire your contributions to teaching and learning. Bob
[…] We Have To Stop Pretending… #MakeSchoolDifferent […]
Tom, I totally agree. Schools need to be passionate and connected. Not a place full of assessments, compliance and measurement. Here is my recent post with similar sentiments: http://sweattoinspire.com/2015/04/15/what-have-schools-done-to-learning/
Thanks for playing, Tom. Your writing always makes me think.
I was particularly happy to see this one on your list: “That once teachers are licensed and working, their relevance and mastery in the classroom is locked in without a need for further investment of money, time and support.”
As for #5 -> As long as our method of “certifying” teachers models old practice and old thinking, change at the classroom level will not reflect what we now know about learning and teaching.
Effecting change is complex. There are no magic bullets. But a system of certification that still relies on marks for entry, that includes learning from people who have not set foot inside a classroom for decades, that does not model the learning we want to see in the classroom, just perpetuates old thinking. How do we change a system if the entry point doesn’t change?
Modelling the conditions for learning that we want to see in the classroom must occur at every single level of the system. We have to stop pretending that it’s okay not to do that.
Thanks for sharing. Keep writing!
Stop pretending that warehousing isn’t real. Once learners disengage, that’s the only function beyond the social space that exists. Regular re-engagement so the learning challenge is personally accepted by each student is the only thing which overcomes warehousing.
[…] some recent Twitter travels I stumbled onto a blog post by Tom Whitby, called We Have To Stop Pretending… #MakeSchoolDifferent. I found another from the Open Teaching Blog put together by University of Oklahoma called, We Have […]
I think U.S education is far better than the ones I India….
we do have technology based teaching methods were teachers themselves don’t know the proper way to use technology….
coming up to the communications…some schools impose fine system were student is forced to speak in English if he don’t then he will have to pay the fine…I felt it was stupid…! and the worst part is English is not taught in English itself….
i know am criticising my own country but these are some of the things that irritates me in here…..!
[…] We have to stop pretending… is a challenge from Scott McLeod. I read about this challenge from Tom Whitby’s blog, My Island View. […]
[…] Earlier this week my friend Scott McLeod challenged educator/bloggers to post their five choices of things we have to stop pretending in education and hashtag it with #MakeSchoolDifferent. I was as… […]