This video produced by The Ounce of Prevention Fund does an excellent job of portraying what is possible to accomplish at the preventative stage across a community like ours.
It’s a real invitation to acknowledge both problem and solution and step up to action.
This is from the Chatham-Savannah Youth Futures Authority – Georgia Family Collection Collaborative website.
Here’s a quick summary of the article. This won’t be surprising if you’ve been reading on the subject, but it is a worthwhile reminder.
Read the full article here.
Quick summary:
Integrated student-centered year-round education is the way to go.
Shift emphasis from student endurance to student competence.
Shift matriculation from units of time to units of learning.
Shift matriculation from birthdays to demonstrations of competence.
Read the full article here.
“It’ll never last…”
“Someone with her background will never make a go of this…”
“Are you kidding me?” “Pathetic! Delusional!”
“Social media is a fad, the iPad is a toy, you’re never going to amount to anything…”
Here’s the thing about proving skeptics wrong: They don’t care. They won’t learn. They will stay skeptics. The ones who said the airplane would never fly ignored the success of the Wright Bros. and went on to become skeptical of something else. And when they got onto an airplane, they didn’t apologize to the engineers on their way in.
I used to have a list, and I kept it in my head, the list of people who rejected, who were skeptical, who stood in the way. What I discovered was that this wasn’t the point of the work, and my goal wasn’t actually to prove these folks wrong, it was only to do the work that was worth doing. So long ago I stopped keeping track. It’s not about the skeptics. It’s about the people who care about, support and enable.
Instead of working so hard to prove the skeptics wrong, it makes a lot more sense to delight the true believers. They deserve it, after all, and they’re the ones that are going to spread the word for you.
Posted by Seth Godin on July 10, 2013
What’s the best predictor of success in a person’s life?
Dr. Angela Duckworth says it’s “Grit” in this June 2013 video/TED Talk,
You should watch it.
“The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter—it’s the difference between lightning and lightning bug.” – Mark Twain
In the spirit of Mark Twain, let’s begin with dictionary definitions –
ed·u·ca·tion – noun
learn·ing – noun
Education sounds like something done to or for you; educators have something that you don’t have, and you need to go through them to get it.
Learning , on the other hand, sounds like an inside job – no one can do it for you and you can’t do it for someone else; it’s up to each individual to learn.
Seems to fit here: “You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make her drink.” But if you happen to find a horse that is thirsty – that is quite a different matter!
What if kids – students – are naturally learning thirsty?
Isn’t that where those clouds of early child questions come from? Why is the sky blue? What is that? Why do I have to do that? How does that work? What happens if I touch my little brother in the back seat of the car? Does touching with my elbow count? Or my toe? Are we there yet? …
Observe your little learning machine in full action!
And there’s yet another saying that applies here: “To appear masterful or powerful, ride the horse in the direction it is going.”
In Jiu-itsu and Tae Kwan Do martial arts, one learns to use the opponent’s momentum to their advantage. Don’t stop or block your opponent’s movements – embrace their momentum and allow them to sweep past you harmlessly, effortlessly in a direction you intend.
So, what’s the point? What is a take-away for kids, parents, teachers?
Compare this with what we complain about now:
Maybe purposeful shifting orientation from “a little more school education” to “a little more kid learning” might be worth more than a few little trials. My guess is, the best teachers already know and are doing this. What do you think? How do we support making such a shift happen?
A Teacher Makes Her 3rd-Grade Kids Hate Each Other For The Best Reason Imaginable
The payoff at the end is brilliant and a perfect metaphor for what we deal with and face every day in our society.