So Albus Dumbledore and Jim Morrison walk into a bar…
Things have gone sideways recently. The current pandemic has dragged folks to the cusp of the future. New realities have emerged and the future will reflect what roads we walk in the coming days. We can choose to freak out or we can find the silver linings. We can return to business as usual or we can reshape how we do business. To paraphrase Dumbledore, we have a choice between what is right and what is easy. Strange days have indeed tracked us down.
Strange days have found us
Strange days have tracked us down
The Doors have provided some soundtrack to the current plague for me (I’ve also been listening to a lot of death metal but that’s for another post). Word is that I was conceived to a Doors record but I don’t like to talk about that. More to the point, I keep thinking back to this girl in my junior high school graphic arts program who used to silk screen Doors t-shirts every week. One day I asked why she did that. After giving me a look of disdain, she told me, “because Jim knows the future…” Turns out she might have been right.
They're going to destroy
Our casual joys
A lot of people seem stuck between living in an alternate reality, negotiating new realities, and holding tightly to an outdated reality. It is easy to become overwhelmed by the multitude of uncertainties, confusion, and stress. Lockdowns, shelter in place, essential versus nonessential, and distance learning oh my. This crisis has demonstrated (in case it wasn’t already obvious) that many of our systems (education, health care, etc.) teeter on collapse at any sign of heightened pressure upon those systems. Some see this as a catastrophe. Yet if we can keep the shadows from crowding our thinking, we can find silver linings - opportunities to change how we do things and the systems that guide everyday life.
We shall go on playing
Or find a new town
Sure teaching from home is less than ideal and it will have a negative impact on students’ intellectual and academic development. It could be worse. Public schools and independent schools have struggled to adapt to the Covid-19 realities. And, we have a chance to change schools for the future. Say what you will about schools and schooling, but our education systems are giant, lumbering beasts stumbling into the future. If you have ever shuddered at someone saying well that’s how we’ve always done it, don’t accept it for schools and schooling.
Strange eyes fill strange rooms
Voices will signal their tired end
The hostess is grinning
Her guests sleep from sinning
Hear me talk of sin
And you know this is it
Schools and schooling have an opportunity to change as a result of our current pandemic. Teachers and principles have been scrambling to switch gears. Parents are freaking out as they try to deal with their kids, do school at home, and their various other grown up anxieties. Listen, a lot of things suck right now. Finding silver linings gives us a glimmer of hope. Teachers can reflect on new ways to expand their bag of tricks or rethink how they teach. Schools that have been trapped by their history or traditions are momentarily freed of those constraints to redesign their programs. Parents… well maybe they will appreciate teachers a bit more ...
Strange days have found us
And through their strange hours
We linger alone
Do.Think.Learn has it better than most schools. I designed the school to flex and shift as situations change or as the needs of students change. Our shift to remote learning almost went seamlessly. As with any change you have to tighten things up and make adjustments as you go. Is it ideal? No. I have to use spring break to change how I deliver content, how I interact with students, and how I ensure students connect the dots and have opportunities to make meaning from content. Several years ago I created this school to better meet the needs of a growing number of students and to meet my professional needs. Schooling doesn’t have to be trapped by history and business as usual. The Do.Think.Learn web page features a lot of photos of bridges. I did that for two reasons. One reason is that adolescence bridges childhood and adulthood. Second, DTL stands as a bridge from how we used to do school to how we can do school in the future. In the future I want to create a team of micro-schools that can adapt and adjust to the world as it changes. Something akin to armies of guerrilla educators to reshape teaching and learning.
Bodies confused
Memories misused
As we run from the day
To a strange night of stone
The present situation has not so subtly hinted that we need to change our ways in a few different areas. The question is, we will listen and make those changes or do we make the easy choice and go back to business as usual? My dissertation advisor used to always say, You make the road by walking it. Some folks will want to go forward and some folks will want to go back. Do.Think.Learn chooses to go forward.