Most folks assume that the 9-month school calendar (with summer break) is a legacy of our agricultural past. Fact is, summer breaks in what we think of as the traditional school calendar were not a response to agricultural needs. 

How about that for a metaphor on the effects of the prevailing mode of education "reforms" (both well-intentioned and otherwise) on students?

When No Child Left Behind was initially enacted, I posted an "open letter to the president" on an online educator forum. In it, I took the position that the goal of leaving no child behind was good (except for the fact that it misused a long-standing mission statement of the Children's Defense Fund); but, that the approach was all wrong.

Critics of public education often blame teacher unions for low-performing schools -- accusing their leaders of resisting reform, defending bad teachers and the status quo.  Fact is, the union leaders with whom I work in the Teacher Union Reform Network have been challenging the status quo for a very long time.

A virtual colleague recommended that I read a chapter by Peter Senge, "Education for an Interdependent World: Developing Systems Citizens."  It is one of 10 chapters by notable systems thinkers in the book: Tracing Connections: Voices of Systems Thinkers. 

I read it this weekend, and experienced feelings of both optimism (about the urgent need for the fundamental changes proposed) and pessimism (about the inertia built into the education system).

Most so-called "reforms" in education ignore a fundamental issue - public expectations of schooling have changed while the system has not.  The system was designed to grade and sort students, not to assure that all students succeed. Because of this blind spot, the remedies do not work and are often counter-productive. Thus schools (along with teachers and their unions) are caught in self-reinforcing cycle of disappointment and "reform."

Comparisons of iPad to iPhone and laptops are inevitable (because that's what we know), but miss the point. The iPad anticipates a different way of relating to each other.

The Business Education Compact, based in Beaverton, Oregon is doing some interesting work with proficiency-based education under their Teacher Development Initiative.  They are literally helping schools and school systems break out of time- and seat-based schooling all across the Oregon. (more)

I'm intrigued with the idea of applying goal-setting model proposed by Richard Beckhard (1969) to virtual groups working in asynchronous discussion space. 

Beckhard's model takes groups through four questions: Who am I? Who are we? What do we want? and How will we get it?

I've been thinking... No Child Left Behind (NCLB) may be doing us a favor by accelerating awareness of the obvious -- that all students cannot learn in a system that was designed to grade and sort.