In Better, A Surgeon's Notes on Performance, Atul Gawande talks about the core requirements for success in medicine "or in any endeavor that involves risk and responsibility." These core requirements include diligence, doing right and ingenuity. I think these are very important qualities and I like how he supports his thesis. He defines them briefly, then divides his narrative into three sections where he illustrates each thru vignettes.
Diligence is the ability to pay attention to those details that matter, being vigilant and steadfast. To do right means to maintain integrity and be ethical which can be very difficult for us humans. Ingenuity is a cognitive skill that enables us to think in new ways.
The one quality that I think that we need to be truly successful that Gawande does not address in this book is the ability to dream, to imagine how we want to be if we could be our best selves. When we dream we open ourselves to our higher purpose, to what we are called to do as participants in this cosmic endeavor. "We are spiritual beings having a human experience," de Chardin pointed out. Our success is not simply dependent on our own qualities - only when we step into the Flow can we truly fulfill our purpose here.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Greener pastures
OK, so I have an explanation for the long delay in posting. Not an excuse, mind you: an explanation. Not one, but really, two reasons for not posting sooner.
First, and most to the point: I am a digital immigrant, not a native. Altho I wish it different, I am of another generation whose original brain wiring supported pencil and paper expression, not digital discourse. So my initial impulse drives me to meditate, not blog, even tho I learn so much when I do.
Second, since my last post the Universe engineered a change for me, a pending move to what looks from here to be greener pastures. After toiling for 33 years in the field surrounding K-12 education I will soon be joining the staff of a family medicine residency program. This program sought an educator who can align curriculum to accreditation standards and ensure that the instructional path leads physicians to where they need to be as rural family practitioners. I am very excited to be joining this group and have begun reading in the field to ground myself.
In my next post, with less lapse than before I will share some thoughts from "Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance," by Atul Gawande, that may apply to educators across all fields.
To pique your interest, visit the entry in Wikipedia or get the book and read along:
Thanks for listening.
First, and most to the point: I am a digital immigrant, not a native. Altho I wish it different, I am of another generation whose original brain wiring supported pencil and paper expression, not digital discourse. So my initial impulse drives me to meditate, not blog, even tho I learn so much when I do.
Second, since my last post the Universe engineered a change for me, a pending move to what looks from here to be greener pastures. After toiling for 33 years in the field surrounding K-12 education I will soon be joining the staff of a family medicine residency program. This program sought an educator who can align curriculum to accreditation standards and ensure that the instructional path leads physicians to where they need to be as rural family practitioners. I am very excited to be joining this group and have begun reading in the field to ground myself.
In my next post, with less lapse than before I will share some thoughts from "Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance," by Atul Gawande, that may apply to educators across all fields.
To pique your interest, visit the entry in Wikipedia or get the book and read along:
Thanks for listening.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Spontaneously Joyful
My mantra for the week is, "I invite myself to be spontaneously joyful." And just to think it makes me feel, well, spontaneously joyful! As Taj Mahal sings, "Remember that feeling as a child, when you woke up and morning smiled?" It's time, it's time I felt like that again.
This morning on National Public Radio I heard a great story on a new approach to early childhood education based on the work of our good friend Lev Vygotsky. You can listen to the NPR story here. Called "Tools of the Mind", the approach intends to teach children to regulate their own learning. The premise is that children do not learn as well as they could because they have not learned how to regulate their social, emotional and cognitive behaviors. Self-regulation forms the basis of executive functioning, which research shows correlates more highly with academic achievement than early reading or math skills.And, those of us in schools know that the lack of executive functioning greatly impedes our ability to teach.
What I really like about this approach is it is rooted in play, what we used to call "free play." When children create their own scenarios and play them out, or experiment with tools of their own choosing, they are learning about the world. Much of children's experience in our modern world involves them in highly structured activities (lessons, organized sports) or electronic environments (TV, video games)which demand little in the way of imagination. In a Tools of the Mind classroom, children use their imaginations in their play -- yet with one important pre-condition: intention. Children learn a process that requires them to declare their intention before they play, to an adult who records it on paper, and then with whom they debrief when they are done. In this it is very similar to the seminal High/Scope "Plan-Do-Review" cycle. High/Scope's nearly forty years of research shows the unequivocal importance of high quality early childhood education. Tools of the Mind offers a new way of thinking how to support young children in learning about their learning.
Which, to my mind, is one of the many sources of spontaneous joy!
This morning on National Public Radio I heard a great story on a new approach to early childhood education based on the work of our good friend Lev Vygotsky. You can listen to the NPR story here. Called "Tools of the Mind", the approach intends to teach children to regulate their own learning. The premise is that children do not learn as well as they could because they have not learned how to regulate their social, emotional and cognitive behaviors. Self-regulation forms the basis of executive functioning, which research shows correlates more highly with academic achievement than early reading or math skills.And, those of us in schools know that the lack of executive functioning greatly impedes our ability to teach.
What I really like about this approach is it is rooted in play, what we used to call "free play." When children create their own scenarios and play them out, or experiment with tools of their own choosing, they are learning about the world. Much of children's experience in our modern world involves them in highly structured activities (lessons, organized sports) or electronic environments (TV, video games)which demand little in the way of imagination. In a Tools of the Mind classroom, children use their imaginations in their play -- yet with one important pre-condition: intention. Children learn a process that requires them to declare their intention before they play, to an adult who records it on paper, and then with whom they debrief when they are done. In this it is very similar to the seminal High/Scope "Plan-Do-Review" cycle. High/Scope's nearly forty years of research shows the unequivocal importance of high quality early childhood education. Tools of the Mind offers a new way of thinking how to support young children in learning about their learning.
Which, to my mind, is one of the many sources of spontaneous joy!
Friday, February 8, 2008
I'm Not There
Altho this has little to do with Not Another Brick's ostensible focus on the ways in which American education might be transformed, a couple of us saw Todd Haynes' film contemplation on the many lives of Bob Dylan:
This near Fellini-esque montage of Dylan's life in which seven actors portray Dylan at different stages of his life mezmerized me with its blend of the iconic and the obscure. Maybe I'm making too much out of it yet Haynes' courage in taking on this subject and his willingness to experiment wowed me. And of course, there's the music. Dylan's older than me yet he's written much of my soundtrack. I wondered, tho, why not more "Blood on the Tracks?" I guess we all have our own favorites.
I wonder how kids might be challenged to represent their knowledge in such creative ways...
This near Fellini-esque montage of Dylan's life in which seven actors portray Dylan at different stages of his life mezmerized me with its blend of the iconic and the obscure. Maybe I'm making too much out of it yet Haynes' courage in taking on this subject and his willingness to experiment wowed me. And of course, there's the music. Dylan's older than me yet he's written much of my soundtrack. I wondered, tho, why not more "Blood on the Tracks?" I guess we all have our own favorites.
I wonder how kids might be challenged to represent their knowledge in such creative ways...
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Hiatus
Yes, it's been a month since I posted here, a whole month! to the day. The thing about this type of communication, like any other form of communication, is it takes commitment. Carried on with care and commitment and perseverance it then can create community, as we commune with each other about thoughts and feelings. I made a commitment then got distracted by kids home for the holly daze and other life events. So that's enough for now. More very soon.
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Look What's Happening Up the Street
Today is a snow day here in Maine for most of our schools. One of the few happy remnants of our tenacious hold on the anachronistic agrarian calendar!
At NSDC Parker Palmer encouraged us to take back our profession and do what we know is right for our youth. Another keynoter, Jennifer James, also fomented revolution - a call to the Volunteers of America (and the world).
Jennifer is an urban cultural anthropologist whose main message is, "Civilization is ultimately the long process of learning to be kind. Take good care of yourself so you can take care of the rest of us." Before she began talking about schools in particular she created a context for the upheaval in which we find ourselves and our world. Jennifer defined culture as a tapestry that we constantly weave and unravel and re-weave. She said that currently the pace of change has been so fast and our leaders so focused on the short-term that our tapestry is in tatters. For us to have hope we need visionary leaders who can help us to see the new tapestry as we weave it, and who guide us to develop new wisdom traditions. Visionaries like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Nelson Mandela unwound the old tapestries of their cultures and showed people what it would look like when we aligned our lives with our values. King had been to the "mountaintop" and had seen the "Promised Land." He knew he may not get there with us but was sure that we would. We wove a new tapestry and created a new culture. The roots of King's wisdom tradition grew from his faith, his values and his integrity.
Jennifer said that the "pace of change is robbing us of our wisdom traditions and we must bring them back -- we must be honest brokers of knowledge." She said that when we learn to concentrate our energy -- through technology, the economy, hierarchy -- we will begin to make real change. We can begin to change our belief systems, our mythologies, our culture. "When the peasants learn to read the kings lose power," she said, speaking broadly yet also referring to our current focus on corporate wealth. And, conversely, "the more you push poor people off the edge the more they will burn down the cities." This current wave of greed must be neutralized with compassion and the path of the heart.
Her message to us as educators was that we cannot in good conscience sit by and watch as the tapestry unravels. She sees teachers depressed, anxious and frightened by the learning curve ahead of them. As leaders in education we could learn from the leaders in the nursing profession, who, over the last generation, raised their own standards and pushed each other to meet them, and thereby elevated themselves to true professionals. Jennifer challenged us to give up tenure in exchange for professional respect, to demand higher salaries in turn for greater results -- and to take full responsibility to become more competent on our own. She challenged us to make reform through strategic partnerships with business and ocmmunity, and to not let what she called the "teaching lodge" (establishment) get in our way.
Lastly, in Jennifer's new book, Cultural Intelligence, she will teach us how to develop this skill critical to surviving and thriving in the 21st century. I am getting ready to read her book, Thinking in the Future Tense, while I await the new one...
...and while I join the rest of you in the street.
At NSDC Parker Palmer encouraged us to take back our profession and do what we know is right for our youth. Another keynoter, Jennifer James, also fomented revolution - a call to the Volunteers of America (and the world).
Jennifer is an urban cultural anthropologist whose main message is, "Civilization is ultimately the long process of learning to be kind. Take good care of yourself so you can take care of the rest of us." Before she began talking about schools in particular she created a context for the upheaval in which we find ourselves and our world. Jennifer defined culture as a tapestry that we constantly weave and unravel and re-weave. She said that currently the pace of change has been so fast and our leaders so focused on the short-term that our tapestry is in tatters. For us to have hope we need visionary leaders who can help us to see the new tapestry as we weave it, and who guide us to develop new wisdom traditions. Visionaries like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Nelson Mandela unwound the old tapestries of their cultures and showed people what it would look like when we aligned our lives with our values. King had been to the "mountaintop" and had seen the "Promised Land." He knew he may not get there with us but was sure that we would. We wove a new tapestry and created a new culture. The roots of King's wisdom tradition grew from his faith, his values and his integrity.
Jennifer said that the "pace of change is robbing us of our wisdom traditions and we must bring them back -- we must be honest brokers of knowledge." She said that when we learn to concentrate our energy -- through technology, the economy, hierarchy -- we will begin to make real change. We can begin to change our belief systems, our mythologies, our culture. "When the peasants learn to read the kings lose power," she said, speaking broadly yet also referring to our current focus on corporate wealth. And, conversely, "the more you push poor people off the edge the more they will burn down the cities." This current wave of greed must be neutralized with compassion and the path of the heart.
Her message to us as educators was that we cannot in good conscience sit by and watch as the tapestry unravels. She sees teachers depressed, anxious and frightened by the learning curve ahead of them. As leaders in education we could learn from the leaders in the nursing profession, who, over the last generation, raised their own standards and pushed each other to meet them, and thereby elevated themselves to true professionals. Jennifer challenged us to give up tenure in exchange for professional respect, to demand higher salaries in turn for greater results -- and to take full responsibility to become more competent on our own. She challenged us to make reform through strategic partnerships with business and ocmmunity, and to not let what she called the "teaching lodge" (establishment) get in our way.
Lastly, in Jennifer's new book, Cultural Intelligence, she will teach us how to develop this skill critical to surviving and thriving in the 21st century. I am getting ready to read her book, Thinking in the Future Tense, while I await the new one...
...and while I join the rest of you in the street.
Saturday, December 8, 2007
Put the Heart Before the Course
This is my first post for a while -- I spent the last week in Dallas at the National Staff Development Council Conference, immersed in professional learning with people of like mind on topics about which we are passionate. One of the reasons I went was to hear again one of the finest teachers I know, Parker Palmer. Parker's message resonates with those of us for whom teaching is a calling, a vocation, not simply a job. He speaks from roots in his tradition, that of the Religious Society of Friends, the Quakers, and its testimonies. The Quaker testimonies are based on the belief that there is that of God in everyone and that "worship and social action, the sacred and the secular, have no dividing walls between them." (retrieved from http://www.quaker.org.uk) This divinely inspired view of society grows from silent worship that waits on God and listens for Guidance, a mystical and practical approach to life.
Parker spoke to over four thousand people in Dallas, in a cavernous conference center surrounded by four huge screens that projected the speaker's image. He began his keynote by asking us all to join him in the Silence. I slipped into it, feeling enveloped by Love and full of admiration for this man who audaciously said to those to whom he was to speak, there is Someone else to whom you should first listen. The whole crowd quieted, and sat for many moments without speech.
Parker began quietly, naming our teachers as "culture heroes," those who are taking on all of the ills of society and doing it with heart and courage and little support. And, he spoke about how our government has increasingly foisted on schools mechanical solutions to complex problems, further taxing and demoralizing our teachers. Parker pointed out, as he says in one of his books, that: "Teacher-bashing has become a popular sport. . . . Teachers make an easy target, for they are such a common species and so powerless to strike back. We blame teachers for being unable to cure social ills that no one knows how to treat; we insist that they instantly adopt whatever "solution" has most recently been concocted by our national panacea machine; and in the process, we demoralize, even paralyze, the very teachers who could help us find our way." He spoke long and eloquently about how we need a revolution in America, a revolution that en-courages all of us in schools to share our hearts and souls with one another, to rise above the mandates and commit ourselves to the Light of learning and teaching. None of us can truly teach or learn unless we bring our whole selves to the process, and only then will we fulfill the promise of our society.
"I lift my lamp beside the golden door," says the Statue of Liberty. The golden door to the promised land is free quality public education for all. How can we, today and every day, honor and challenge ourselves and our colleagues to fulfill this promise by improving our art as well as our craft?
Parker spoke to over four thousand people in Dallas, in a cavernous conference center surrounded by four huge screens that projected the speaker's image. He began his keynote by asking us all to join him in the Silence. I slipped into it, feeling enveloped by Love and full of admiration for this man who audaciously said to those to whom he was to speak, there is Someone else to whom you should first listen. The whole crowd quieted, and sat for many moments without speech.
Parker began quietly, naming our teachers as "culture heroes," those who are taking on all of the ills of society and doing it with heart and courage and little support. And, he spoke about how our government has increasingly foisted on schools mechanical solutions to complex problems, further taxing and demoralizing our teachers. Parker pointed out, as he says in one of his books, that: "Teacher-bashing has become a popular sport. . . . Teachers make an easy target, for they are such a common species and so powerless to strike back. We blame teachers for being unable to cure social ills that no one knows how to treat; we insist that they instantly adopt whatever "solution" has most recently been concocted by our national panacea machine; and in the process, we demoralize, even paralyze, the very teachers who could help us find our way." He spoke long and eloquently about how we need a revolution in America, a revolution that en-courages all of us in schools to share our hearts and souls with one another, to rise above the mandates and commit ourselves to the Light of learning and teaching. None of us can truly teach or learn unless we bring our whole selves to the process, and only then will we fulfill the promise of our society.
"I lift my lamp beside the golden door," says the Statue of Liberty. The golden door to the promised land is free quality public education for all. How can we, today and every day, honor and challenge ourselves and our colleagues to fulfill this promise by improving our art as well as our craft?
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