Comments on: Papa’s Got a Brand New Gig

By: John

John — Mon, 18 May 2009 14:49:37 +0000

JC,
The reason we focus on the school ’system’ is precisely to your point – how can we inform the overall system to effect change? It is not enough to address just schoolhouses, or teachers, or even the home life situation. If you begin with the student at the center of the problem, and consider all the elements of life that challenge their success, you quickly ask the question: is there a holistic approach that changes the conversation from point solutions to systemic change? All this to say, I agree with you – from the little time I’ve spent in this area, you are touching in the challenges to cognitive development that pose great barriers. But there are also issues of content, affective skills, critical thinking, assessment, etc., that cry out for attention. Innovation will come in all areas, and from all corners – our challenge is to create the opportunity for lasting and system-wide change.

By: JC

JC — Mon, 18 May 2009 14:39:13 +0000

I think it’s great that smart people are tackling these problems at the level of the school system – what’s so demoralizing is that the real problems are “lower down the stack,” to use a tech metaphor. It’s the families of these poor kids. Many of them do care and do take an active role. But most don’t, either because they’re working too hard, or because they’re too uneducated or ignorant to properly nourish their kids (physiologically and mentally) instead of parking them in front of a TV with sugary drinks and junk food for the first three years of their lives. A hundred years ago, the bottom of the socioeconomic totem pole lifted their kids up by sending them to parochial schools that (with more determination than innovation) just whipped them into shape, and with a lot of personal sacrifice (and the attendant guilt, visited on said children). That’s not part of our culture any more. Kids arrive at kindergarten with stunted vocabularies, type 2 diabetes, and no concept of why it’s important to their families that they work hard and study. It may be too much to ask the schools to solve for that, and trying to do so may be a rat-hole for federal funds – witness the astronomical per-student costs of some of the worst public school systems. Are you doing anything to leverage the parents and families who are doing their best at home? If you can shift the neighborhood in small ways, the school part isn’t as hard…

By: Mireille Jansma

Mireille Jansma — Thu, 14 May 2009 16:17:56 +0000

Something went wrong. So here’s the link again: http://www.kipp.org/

By: Mireille Jansma

Mireille Jansma — Thu, 14 May 2009 16:16:50 +0000

Hi John,

Congratulations! What a wonderful field to be working in! I have been reading about the KIPP schools in the USA (found out about the approach through Outliers, the book by Malcolm Gladwell). Really impressive. Do you know about them? If not, you might want to take a look. Here is a link: http://www.kipp.org/

Best regards, Mireille

I found out about this approach by reading Outliers (Malcolm Gladwell)

By: tony

tony — Wed, 13 May 2009 15:04:40 +0000

Awesome John. No need for humility though. Boldness, yes!

I do agree that the problems are systemic in nature, and would add that, as Einstein observed, these problems cannot be solved by the same level of knowledge that created them. Shifting consciousness to a higher level and finding mechanisms to do that must be a big part of creating the systemic solution. What kinds of mechanisms can you create which reliably generates the type of group consciousness which leads to the emergence of breakthroughs that will be translated into practice. Open Space, Future Search, Appreciative Inquiry, Power of Now, Theory U…there is a lot of interest in creating this generative space. Change the head and the body will follow!

By: Clay

Clay — Mon, 11 May 2009 13:40:36 +0000

Sounds like a great opportunity to help make the world a better place, John. Congratulations. I will share with you some of my observations after my 3rd season of work with the FIRST robotics program for young people.

For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (http://www.usfirst.org/who/default.aspx?id=34&LinkIdentifier=id) uses volunteers to guide high school age students as they build a robot in 6 weeks to compete in regional and national contests. The program relies on volunteers. Young people are attracted to technology these days (cell phones, ipods, etc…) and our particular build team included members from the high school basketball squad, an amatuer boxer, and many young ladies – all races and nationalities (we were 2009 Chesapeake Regional champions).

Teachers volunteered their time after school to help with the build, as did parents and several technology professionals. What struck me was the low attention and involvement by the school administration. Schools provide equipment for football and baseball – why not equipment and space for experimenting with technology? Meetings with teachers from several schools also revealed that many teachers must use their own money to purchase technology books that are up-to-date for their classrooms.

Change is accelerating. The volunteer model for FIRST seems to work well. However, schools should study this model and support it by adding administrative and other resources. Eventually, each school should have a Science-Technology-Engineering gym where students can experiment and play with technology, just like basketball, baseball, and football.

By: Aleta

Aleta — Mon, 11 May 2009 12:35:28 +0000

Sounds like an opportunity to reach above and beyond your past experiences. Congrats.

By: Mark Drapeau

Mark Drapeau — Sun, 10 May 2009 01:12:54 +0000

Congratulations!

By: Stephen Bates

Stephen Bates — Sat, 09 May 2009 14:18:11 +0000

I congratulate you on a most worthy position, serving an organization you believe in.

Do you believe the success of your Foundation’s efforts will be key to US competitiveness in a global market?

How do we drive the same type of innovation and performance measurement in schools that we do in industry?

Step one: eliminate the unions or marginalize their influence on pay/performance.