I believe most of you probably are
already aware that the fundamental
design of the American high school is
well over a hundred years old and to
this day has changed remarkably little
which is a scary thought given how much
everything else has changed it was
designed at a time when we knew very
little not much about teaching and
learning late 1800s 1890s into the 1900s
century ago it was designed at a time
when very few teenagers actually even
went to high school it was we developed
and we ramped up
they basically in an industrial
revolution factory model of a secondary
school system with the very noble aim
the very noble aim of getting more of
our teenagers into and through high
school the design was based on
efficiency cost and scale it was not
based on sound educational practice it’s
just true it was never a good system but
in a different time it was tolerable it
was tolerable in very different time
when Bill Gates several years ago
offered that the American high school
was obsolete my only objection was that
imply that there was a time when it
wasn’t in the world we live in today the
ever-changing nature of work the
ever-changing nature of civic
participation the new global economy
which by the way is not new anymore so
educators need to keep stop calling it
that global communications global
everything and not so much the nature of
technology itself but the pace of the
advancement of technology a system that
was once tolerable is now horribly
insufficient and we’ve known it for some
time in 1983 the report a nation at risk
commissioned by the president the United
States offered this idea that if our
educational system had been imposed upon
us by a foreign power we would have
considered it an act of war we have done
a lot in the last twenty thirty years to
make our secondary schools better
unfortunately so much of what we’ve done
has been aimed at improving the system
not overhauling and read
designing the system and the distinction
is an absolutely critical one the
metaphor is harsh but the time for
rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic
has long passed and never made any sense
and for granted I’m one of those
educators that was out there we’re doing
a lot more than moving deck chairs
around we’re moving all sorts of things
around on the Titanic we need to get at
the overall design we need to
restructure and rethink some really big
things that we haven’t tackled yet
15 million teenagers enrolled in our
high schools most of them in school
right now the overwhelming majority of
them 90% plus are in public schools
charter vocational magnet about seven or
eight percent are in private schools
most of those are actually Catholic
schools the good news that we now have
all of our kids going to high school
which is awesome the bad news I would
venture a guess and it’s a guess and
it’s probably an optimistic one that
probably no more than a few hundred of
those high schools are actually breaking
away from the hundred-year-old design
that most of us are stuck in and they
are serving a fraction of a percentage
point of those 15 million students
fortunately fortunately good
hard-working dedicated kids supported by
phenomenal teachers creative teachers
doing things they’re not supposed to do
oftentimes and loving parents are
getting some good things out of this
system there are good things happening
absolutely but what we need to remember
is they’re happening despite the way our
schools are designed not because of the
way our schools are designed imagine
what would be possible if we could get
the design right imagine what we would
possible to get the design right so
let’s be really clear about what we’re
talking about here I believe there are
five critical root core problems or
solutions if you want to look at it that
way with the design of the American high
school these are the things that have to
change these are the things that must
change these are the things that will
drive all kinds of powerful goods
and these are the things that are hard
to change the first four of these I
think a lot of you are probably going to
be familiar with and I’m going to run
through them quickly the fifth I think
is going to be new to you the problem
may not be new but I think the solution
will be it’s new to me and it’s the
thing I’m most excited about talking
with you about this morning so let’s
begin number one we need to move from an
instructional model that is dominated by
delivery to one that is much more
constructivist that doesn’t mean
anything does it what does that mean it
means we need to get less teachers at
the center explaining things what I’m
doing now less teachers at the center
explaining things more students at the
center figuring things out right
creative thinking problem-solving more
of those less memorization a lot of good
stuff is happening on this one but
unfortunately we’re running into all
kinds of constraints and problems
because everything’s tied together
there’s a lot of things that are keeping
us from getting as far as we should
number two this one’s easy
we need to move from a system that was
designed for isolation to one that is
designed for real world immersion
apprenticeships internships field
studies service work community projects
at the heart of the curriculum built
into the school day schedule the essence
of what we do not at the edges which is
often what we’re doing now our schools
were designed at a time when adolescents
were experienced rich and information
poor today our kids are drowning in
information and they are starving for
real responsibility and for real
experience number three we need to move
from grading and assessment systems that
are designed to rank and sort our
students through a ridiculously
complicated scoring system that we call
the game of school and just frankly gets
in the way of real learning so grading
and assessment systems that are simpler
directly connected to learning goals and
they’re actually helpful in diagnostic
ways to students and to teachers we only
need three or four points on a grading
scale that’s it
three or four points the traditional a2f
scale with pluses and minuses that’s
thirteen points it’s not bad but it’s
too many twelve of them are passing one
of them’s failing the traditional
percentage system zero to 100 you often
see two decimal points with that one
right when you go online to check your
kids grades that’s a ten thousand point
grading system five thousand nine
hundred and ninety nine ways to fail
makes no sense
number four we need a system grounded in
learning and achievement not time I
think this one is the ultimate insult of
the Industrial Revolution factory model
grade nine grade ten grade eleven grade
twelve four years done here’s your
diploma if we actually believe that
students should demonstrate that they’ve
learned something to get credit in a
course and there’s things they should
know and be able to do and have learned
in order to earn a diploma is it not
insane
to think that a high school full of
teenagers who are all phenomenally
different from one another are all gonna
graduate at exactly the same time the
the odd thing is there’s a tremendous
amount of good work happening on this
one in Maine and New Hampshire in
particular around competencies and
proficiencies of what it means to earn a
credit and get away from seat time but
nobody’s talking about the four-year
assumption we’re stuck we’re absolutely
stuck number five you can see probably
that my convictions are pretty clear and
pretty strong about the first four and
there’s a lot of educators that share
them what I’m about to get out is a
little bit different it’s it’s thinking
it’s a work in progress it’s rough and
it’s really an invitation for you to
kind of hopefully grapple with it maybe
be inspired by it maybe we can figure
this one out together okay so think
about it before I get at it I want to
say real quickly how I sort of stumbled
into this idea for the better part of
the past 25 years my work life has been
high school high school high school what
works in high school what doesn’t work
in high schools high school teachers
high school students parents of high
school students high school this high
school that high school I recently put
myself on a sort of a self-imposed
sabbatical of sorts and I’m reading and
I’m writing and I’m thinking I’m
learning about anthropology
studying quantum physics um exploring
the neuroscience of consciousness I am
getting at root causes and looking at
origins at essence and not surprisingly
my focus has changed my perspective is
bigger what a refreshing gift the world
what matters in the world what’s wrong
with the world the mystery the fragility
of it all the beauty of it all the world
the nature of it the mess of it
what matters most so number five we need
to move from a high school curriculum
organized around academic disciplines to
a high school curriculum organized
around whatever makes it relevant
engaging inspiring and purposeful in
line with a vision for what high school
really needs to be and in line for a
better world in the future we need to
organize the curriculum around what
matters most we need to organize the
curriculum around what matters most let
me explain this is what we currently do
this is how we organize the high school
curriculum this happens to be from our
local high school Portsmouth High School
course catalog for the 2017-18 school
year it’s called graduation requirements
this is the way the curriculum is
organized and this is the universal norm
with some tweaking adjustments across
this entire country this is the way we
do it and it has been since the
committee of 10 met in 92 1892 committee
of 10 this is the norm but you’re
probably thinking well duh and how else
could we possibly do this well let’s
think about this for a minute let’s
think about this for a minute I believe
because I spend a lot of time think
about high school that if we could get
people to come together kids parents
students business leaders everybody and
somehow erase from our heads kind of
everything we know about high school
because it’s drilled into our heads
pretty well and sort of start with a
conversation about what kids should know
and be able to do and experience when
they’re teenagers
and kind of be thinking about the world
and a better world and better people and
then talk about what it should be I
think would be something entirely
different than what we have let me share
with you in a very fast-paced manner
don’t worry there won’t be a test on
this I want to give you the gist so
these are some of the things I’ve heard
over the last 25 years working in high
schools from parents from kids from
community members forgive the pace hard
work
yes but work filled with relevance with
purpose grades should be secondary not
the primary focus real world experience
real responsibility learning by doing
learning how to solve problems thinking
creatively puzzling things out inventing
things less is more deeper learning not
just passing tests and then forgetting
at all high school graduates of
character integrity and compassion
honest responsible caring great should
be helpful in diagnostic not just label
slapped on our students before moving on
that’s from a teacher persistence grit
resilience over and over again
understanding and celebrating diversity
it is the world we live in environmental
stewardship and understanding that this
planet is our home
high school diploma should really mean
something not just four years of showing
up students who know themselves their
strengths their weaknesses their
aspirations and know how to take care of
themselves financial responsibility and
understanding what it takes to make a
living
preparation to be thoughtful and engaged
citizens and our nation’s participatory
democracy that’s mine actually and one
of my favorites one of my favorites all
the wonderful things in the district
mission statement right you with me
about global citizenship critical
thinking lifelong learners caring and
compassionate people that doesn’t really
seem to show up anywhere else those are
the things I want for my kids and to be
fair I’ve also heard along the way
things like this life is hard unfair and
filled with disappointment and a lot of
crap high school should be the same
but I’m leaving those things out except
for that one I am certain that we can do
better than this I’m embarrassed it took
me 25 years to get at it but not many
people are talking about it this is a
really good way to organize knowledge
it’s a pretty good way to actually
organize faculty as well it is a
horrible way to organize a high school
curriculum if your goal is engagement
relevance and purpose if you care about
the future so what can we do how about
this
this doesn’t overlay augment or
complement what you just saw this
replaces it what you just saw disappears
three core strands one of them is care
of yourself one of them is care of our
planet the third is care of each other
or getting along with one another and
then a fourth foundational strand called
finding your path right students
graduate when they’ve met all the
learning goals in each of the four
strands and they’ve successfully
completed a culminating project or
thesis in each of the strands got it so
let me give you another fast-paced quick
look at what something like this might
look like I have begun thanks to TEDx
drafting a program of studies of sorts
it’s about 13 pages long at this point
so let me give you four quick things
again there will be no test and forgive
the pace so we have a couple pages of
learning goals for each of the four
strands numbering about 15 20 25 each
first care of oneself mind/body/spirit
the human body its evolution all its
systems how to care for it the
understanding of higher level needs such
as love and connection so okay to talk
about those things in high school well
sometimes it’s not a good idea and very
practical matters such as posture sleep
sun protection safe driving an example
of just one of the learning goals here’s
one learning goal from that strand
students will demonstrate an
understanding of the human digestive
system the latest science on proper
nutrition nutrition and the history and
evolution of the human diet from
prehistory hunting and gas
to the Agricultural Revolution and today
students also conduct an analysis of
their own diet and set goals for
improvement measurable and clear another
learning goal focuses on the anatomy and
physiology of exercise others focus on
the brain mental health stress disease
causes prospective cures for cancers
first aid CPR training a given looking
over the goals in this strand it is rich
in Sciences like biology and chemistry
social sciences such as psychology lots
of history and of course there’s a wide
array of her literature that fits in
this strand as is the case with all for
a couple examples of culminating
projects or theses in this strand a
student with diabetes produces a
research paper on finding a cure for the
disease a student athlete conducts
research on preventing and treating
concussions and designs a new piece of
equipment you get the idea I’ll say a
couple things from just a few the other
strands care of the planet understanding
the world around us or home how we
interact with a flora fauna ecosystems
or local communities
physics and chemistry all around us to
the great expanse of cosmology and
astronomy the history of our impact on
the planets many species and hey here’s
a real good example of a culminating
project or thesis for this one how about
a well researched position on climate
change third strand care of one another
getting along with one another there’s
really kind of three types of learning
goals in here I’m really excited about
this one in particular a few of the
goals are in the so-called soft skills
area collaborating working with diverse
context listening skills and such these
things need to be taught and cultivated
they just don’t happen number to several
goals focused on better knowing one
another exploring and understanding
different cultures art religions in
history we didn’t know about each other
in order to get along with one another
and the stories that make us who we are
and then third an array of learning
goals organized organized around the
various systems we use to get along with
one another economic governmental
political legal judicial agriculture
energy production health care so on
pretty powerful stuff and the fourth
strand knowing yourself you store your
faith your strands to weaknesses your
learning styles your values your
priorities your budding passions
beginning to sort out how you intend to
live your life and your post-secondary
plans this is the kind of stuff that
usually goes into advise
programs and counseling at the edges of
what we do we’re talking about heart and
soul of the curriculum this is part of
what we do and a big focus of it built
in graded assessed real work graduation
requirements culminating projects in
autobiography that hopefully you’ll work
on for the rest of your life a work in
progress that you continues to revise
the courses are for the most part
organized around problems in questions
and each course is designed to meet six
seven eight or so learning goals often
spanning two or three of these strands
classes are generally Co taught by two
teachers each bringing with them two
three or four areas of expertise not
just one just a few examples of courses
the origins of and solutions to the
opioid crisis what is the ideal way to
produce electricity is representative
democracy the best form of government
what is morality what our epics and
where do they come from those are some
examples of courses all the courses are
designed to meet the various learning
goals among the four strands and nothing
else if it’s not a learning goal within
the four strands it’s not part of the
curriculum if it’s a critical scientific
concept a critical aspect of local
national human history or a fundamental
math skill etc it’s built into the
strands into the learning goals and into
the courses but to be really clear we’re
talking probably about half half not 80%
we’re going about half the content and
the typical high school is that a
trade-off or a sacrifice no it is not
because fast pace coverage exactly like
I’m doing right now is not good teaching
and it’s not how we learn it’s not how
we learn we do things with depth and we
do things with focus writing literacy
broadly defined communication skills all
integrated across the curriculum same
goes for fundamental math skills
numeracy the language of science all the
way up until algebra and geometry higher
level math is a tricky one so ask me
about that during one of the breaks I’d
be glad to talk with you about it same
goes for proper use of technology
integrated across the curriculum
athletics done correctly focused on
teamwork collaboration discipline and
healthy exercise that’s perfectly and
just to be clear students that are
pursuing work not post-secondary
education right after high school they
still do this and
do vocal or career training education
stuff parallel to it not in place of
this all of our kids need this and
ideally if we commit ourselves to a
foreign language and it’s ridiculous
that we don’t in this country we’re
missing the boat on it if we do it K to
8 and if we commit ourselves all to
learning the same second language then
it would actually be pretty Spanish
might be a good choice then it would fit
pretty well in a high school like this
if we’re committed to not doing it early
on and if we’re committed to choice
because we’re Americans and we love
choice and we want to be able to study
Greek and German and French and Latin a
whole lot of other things then it’s a
little bit more troublesome so that was
fast
I hope it gave you a flavor for it it’s
rough it’s preliminary and I hope it has
you thinking I know if you’re paying
attention you have questions and I hope
you’ll ask them ask them of me ask them
of someone I hope this gets you thinking
about it and I’d be happy to be involved
in those conversations ask me about
money yes we can do this with current
spending I figured that out and I’d be
glad to share that with you ask me about
teacher training that’s critical it’s
absolutely critical that we rethink
teacher training ask me why we haven’t
gotten further in the last 20 or 30
years I don’t know I have a lot of
thoughts and ideas about it but I have
no easy answers I will tell you that
leadership is absolutely critical
leadership is absolutely critical we
need smart courageous and visionary high
school principals and superintendents so
if you are one be those things if you’re
not a principal or superintendent demand
those things it’s a good place to start
the world is a bit of a mess the world
is a bit of a mess and I believe quite
biased that high school is probably the
answer I think we’ve forgotten that how
we educate our kids when they go from
being adolescence to young adults all of
them it’s absolutely essential I believe
to our future but we are stuck we are
really really stuck we’re hundred years
stuck and we need to get unstuck Robert
Pearson
this is how I’ll end Robert Pearson
writes about it he calls it value
rigidity the most striking example of
value rigidity is the old South Indian
monkey trap the trap consists of a
hollowed-out coconut chained to a stake
the coconut has some rice inside which
can be grabbed to a small hole the hole
is big enough so the monkey’s hand can
go in but too small for his fist with
the rice in it to come out
the monkey reaches in and is suddenly
trapped by nothing more than his own
value rigidity
he can’t revalue the rice he can’t see
the freedom without rice is more
valuable what general advice should we
give the poor monkey well the monkey
should somehow try to slow down
deliberately and go over a ground that
he has been over before and see if
things he thought were important really
were important and well stop yanking and
just stare at the coconut for a while
please thank you
[Applause]
already aware that the fundamental
design of the American high school is
well over a hundred years old and to
this day has changed remarkably little
which is a scary thought given how much
everything else has changed it was
designed at a time when we knew very
little not much about teaching and
learning late 1800s 1890s into the 1900s
century ago it was designed at a time
when very few teenagers actually even
went to high school it was we developed
and we ramped up
they basically in an industrial
revolution factory model of a secondary
school system with the very noble aim
the very noble aim of getting more of
our teenagers into and through high
school the design was based on
efficiency cost and scale it was not
based on sound educational practice it’s
just true it was never a good system but
in a different time it was tolerable it
was tolerable in very different time
when Bill Gates several years ago
offered that the American high school
was obsolete my only objection was that
imply that there was a time when it
wasn’t in the world we live in today the
ever-changing nature of work the
ever-changing nature of civic
participation the new global economy
which by the way is not new anymore so
educators need to keep stop calling it
that global communications global
everything and not so much the nature of
technology itself but the pace of the
advancement of technology a system that
was once tolerable is now horribly
insufficient and we’ve known it for some
time in 1983 the report a nation at risk
commissioned by the president the United
States offered this idea that if our
educational system had been imposed upon
us by a foreign power we would have
considered it an act of war we have done
a lot in the last twenty thirty years to
make our secondary schools better
unfortunately so much of what we’ve done
has been aimed at improving the system
not overhauling and read
designing the system and the distinction
is an absolutely critical one the
metaphor is harsh but the time for
rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic
has long passed and never made any sense
and for granted I’m one of those
educators that was out there we’re doing
a lot more than moving deck chairs
around we’re moving all sorts of things
around on the Titanic we need to get at
the overall design we need to
restructure and rethink some really big
things that we haven’t tackled yet
15 million teenagers enrolled in our
high schools most of them in school
right now the overwhelming majority of
them 90% plus are in public schools
charter vocational magnet about seven or
eight percent are in private schools
most of those are actually Catholic
schools the good news that we now have
all of our kids going to high school
which is awesome the bad news I would
venture a guess and it’s a guess and
it’s probably an optimistic one that
probably no more than a few hundred of
those high schools are actually breaking
away from the hundred-year-old design
that most of us are stuck in and they
are serving a fraction of a percentage
point of those 15 million students
fortunately fortunately good
hard-working dedicated kids supported by
phenomenal teachers creative teachers
doing things they’re not supposed to do
oftentimes and loving parents are
getting some good things out of this
system there are good things happening
absolutely but what we need to remember
is they’re happening despite the way our
schools are designed not because of the
way our schools are designed imagine
what would be possible if we could get
the design right imagine what we would
possible to get the design right so
let’s be really clear about what we’re
talking about here I believe there are
five critical root core problems or
solutions if you want to look at it that
way with the design of the American high
school these are the things that have to
change these are the things that must
change these are the things that will
drive all kinds of powerful goods
and these are the things that are hard
to change the first four of these I
think a lot of you are probably going to
be familiar with and I’m going to run
through them quickly the fifth I think
is going to be new to you the problem
may not be new but I think the solution
will be it’s new to me and it’s the
thing I’m most excited about talking
with you about this morning so let’s
begin number one we need to move from an
instructional model that is dominated by
delivery to one that is much more
constructivist that doesn’t mean
anything does it what does that mean it
means we need to get less teachers at
the center explaining things what I’m
doing now less teachers at the center
explaining things more students at the
center figuring things out right
creative thinking problem-solving more
of those less memorization a lot of good
stuff is happening on this one but
unfortunately we’re running into all
kinds of constraints and problems
because everything’s tied together
there’s a lot of things that are keeping
us from getting as far as we should
number two this one’s easy
we need to move from a system that was
designed for isolation to one that is
designed for real world immersion
apprenticeships internships field
studies service work community projects
at the heart of the curriculum built
into the school day schedule the essence
of what we do not at the edges which is
often what we’re doing now our schools
were designed at a time when adolescents
were experienced rich and information
poor today our kids are drowning in
information and they are starving for
real responsibility and for real
experience number three we need to move
from grading and assessment systems that
are designed to rank and sort our
students through a ridiculously
complicated scoring system that we call
the game of school and just frankly gets
in the way of real learning so grading
and assessment systems that are simpler
directly connected to learning goals and
they’re actually helpful in diagnostic
ways to students and to teachers we only
need three or four points on a grading
scale that’s it
three or four points the traditional a2f
scale with pluses and minuses that’s
thirteen points it’s not bad but it’s
too many twelve of them are passing one
of them’s failing the traditional
percentage system zero to 100 you often
see two decimal points with that one
right when you go online to check your
kids grades that’s a ten thousand point
grading system five thousand nine
hundred and ninety nine ways to fail
makes no sense
number four we need a system grounded in
learning and achievement not time I
think this one is the ultimate insult of
the Industrial Revolution factory model
grade nine grade ten grade eleven grade
twelve four years done here’s your
diploma if we actually believe that
students should demonstrate that they’ve
learned something to get credit in a
course and there’s things they should
know and be able to do and have learned
in order to earn a diploma is it not
insane
to think that a high school full of
teenagers who are all phenomenally
different from one another are all gonna
graduate at exactly the same time the
the odd thing is there’s a tremendous
amount of good work happening on this
one in Maine and New Hampshire in
particular around competencies and
proficiencies of what it means to earn a
credit and get away from seat time but
nobody’s talking about the four-year
assumption we’re stuck we’re absolutely
stuck number five you can see probably
that my convictions are pretty clear and
pretty strong about the first four and
there’s a lot of educators that share
them what I’m about to get out is a
little bit different it’s it’s thinking
it’s a work in progress it’s rough and
it’s really an invitation for you to
kind of hopefully grapple with it maybe
be inspired by it maybe we can figure
this one out together okay so think
about it before I get at it I want to
say real quickly how I sort of stumbled
into this idea for the better part of
the past 25 years my work life has been
high school high school high school what
works in high school what doesn’t work
in high schools high school teachers
high school students parents of high
school students high school this high
school that high school I recently put
myself on a sort of a self-imposed
sabbatical of sorts and I’m reading and
I’m writing and I’m thinking I’m
learning about anthropology
studying quantum physics um exploring
the neuroscience of consciousness I am
getting at root causes and looking at
origins at essence and not surprisingly
my focus has changed my perspective is
bigger what a refreshing gift the world
what matters in the world what’s wrong
with the world the mystery the fragility
of it all the beauty of it all the world
the nature of it the mess of it
what matters most so number five we need
to move from a high school curriculum
organized around academic disciplines to
a high school curriculum organized
around whatever makes it relevant
engaging inspiring and purposeful in
line with a vision for what high school
really needs to be and in line for a
better world in the future we need to
organize the curriculum around what
matters most we need to organize the
curriculum around what matters most let
me explain this is what we currently do
this is how we organize the high school
curriculum this happens to be from our
local high school Portsmouth High School
course catalog for the 2017-18 school
year it’s called graduation requirements
this is the way the curriculum is
organized and this is the universal norm
with some tweaking adjustments across
this entire country this is the way we
do it and it has been since the
committee of 10 met in 92 1892 committee
of 10 this is the norm but you’re
probably thinking well duh and how else
could we possibly do this well let’s
think about this for a minute let’s
think about this for a minute I believe
because I spend a lot of time think
about high school that if we could get
people to come together kids parents
students business leaders everybody and
somehow erase from our heads kind of
everything we know about high school
because it’s drilled into our heads
pretty well and sort of start with a
conversation about what kids should know
and be able to do and experience when
they’re teenagers
and kind of be thinking about the world
and a better world and better people and
then talk about what it should be I
think would be something entirely
different than what we have let me share
with you in a very fast-paced manner
don’t worry there won’t be a test on
this I want to give you the gist so
these are some of the things I’ve heard
over the last 25 years working in high
schools from parents from kids from
community members forgive the pace hard
work
yes but work filled with relevance with
purpose grades should be secondary not
the primary focus real world experience
real responsibility learning by doing
learning how to solve problems thinking
creatively puzzling things out inventing
things less is more deeper learning not
just passing tests and then forgetting
at all high school graduates of
character integrity and compassion
honest responsible caring great should
be helpful in diagnostic not just label
slapped on our students before moving on
that’s from a teacher persistence grit
resilience over and over again
understanding and celebrating diversity
it is the world we live in environmental
stewardship and understanding that this
planet is our home
high school diploma should really mean
something not just four years of showing
up students who know themselves their
strengths their weaknesses their
aspirations and know how to take care of
themselves financial responsibility and
understanding what it takes to make a
living
preparation to be thoughtful and engaged
citizens and our nation’s participatory
democracy that’s mine actually and one
of my favorites one of my favorites all
the wonderful things in the district
mission statement right you with me
about global citizenship critical
thinking lifelong learners caring and
compassionate people that doesn’t really
seem to show up anywhere else those are
the things I want for my kids and to be
fair I’ve also heard along the way
things like this life is hard unfair and
filled with disappointment and a lot of
crap high school should be the same
but I’m leaving those things out except
for that one I am certain that we can do
better than this I’m embarrassed it took
me 25 years to get at it but not many
people are talking about it this is a
really good way to organize knowledge
it’s a pretty good way to actually
organize faculty as well it is a
horrible way to organize a high school
curriculum if your goal is engagement
relevance and purpose if you care about
the future so what can we do how about
this
this doesn’t overlay augment or
complement what you just saw this
replaces it what you just saw disappears
three core strands one of them is care
of yourself one of them is care of our
planet the third is care of each other
or getting along with one another and
then a fourth foundational strand called
finding your path right students
graduate when they’ve met all the
learning goals in each of the four
strands and they’ve successfully
completed a culminating project or
thesis in each of the strands got it so
let me give you another fast-paced quick
look at what something like this might
look like I have begun thanks to TEDx
drafting a program of studies of sorts
it’s about 13 pages long at this point
so let me give you four quick things
again there will be no test and forgive
the pace so we have a couple pages of
learning goals for each of the four
strands numbering about 15 20 25 each
first care of oneself mind/body/spirit
the human body its evolution all its
systems how to care for it the
understanding of higher level needs such
as love and connection so okay to talk
about those things in high school well
sometimes it’s not a good idea and very
practical matters such as posture sleep
sun protection safe driving an example
of just one of the learning goals here’s
one learning goal from that strand
students will demonstrate an
understanding of the human digestive
system the latest science on proper
nutrition nutrition and the history and
evolution of the human diet from
prehistory hunting and gas
to the Agricultural Revolution and today
students also conduct an analysis of
their own diet and set goals for
improvement measurable and clear another
learning goal focuses on the anatomy and
physiology of exercise others focus on
the brain mental health stress disease
causes prospective cures for cancers
first aid CPR training a given looking
over the goals in this strand it is rich
in Sciences like biology and chemistry
social sciences such as psychology lots
of history and of course there’s a wide
array of her literature that fits in
this strand as is the case with all for
a couple examples of culminating
projects or theses in this strand a
student with diabetes produces a
research paper on finding a cure for the
disease a student athlete conducts
research on preventing and treating
concussions and designs a new piece of
equipment you get the idea I’ll say a
couple things from just a few the other
strands care of the planet understanding
the world around us or home how we
interact with a flora fauna ecosystems
or local communities
physics and chemistry all around us to
the great expanse of cosmology and
astronomy the history of our impact on
the planets many species and hey here’s
a real good example of a culminating
project or thesis for this one how about
a well researched position on climate
change third strand care of one another
getting along with one another there’s
really kind of three types of learning
goals in here I’m really excited about
this one in particular a few of the
goals are in the so-called soft skills
area collaborating working with diverse
context listening skills and such these
things need to be taught and cultivated
they just don’t happen number to several
goals focused on better knowing one
another exploring and understanding
different cultures art religions in
history we didn’t know about each other
in order to get along with one another
and the stories that make us who we are
and then third an array of learning
goals organized organized around the
various systems we use to get along with
one another economic governmental
political legal judicial agriculture
energy production health care so on
pretty powerful stuff and the fourth
strand knowing yourself you store your
faith your strands to weaknesses your
learning styles your values your
priorities your budding passions
beginning to sort out how you intend to
live your life and your post-secondary
plans this is the kind of stuff that
usually goes into advise
programs and counseling at the edges of
what we do we’re talking about heart and
soul of the curriculum this is part of
what we do and a big focus of it built
in graded assessed real work graduation
requirements culminating projects in
autobiography that hopefully you’ll work
on for the rest of your life a work in
progress that you continues to revise
the courses are for the most part
organized around problems in questions
and each course is designed to meet six
seven eight or so learning goals often
spanning two or three of these strands
classes are generally Co taught by two
teachers each bringing with them two
three or four areas of expertise not
just one just a few examples of courses
the origins of and solutions to the
opioid crisis what is the ideal way to
produce electricity is representative
democracy the best form of government
what is morality what our epics and
where do they come from those are some
examples of courses all the courses are
designed to meet the various learning
goals among the four strands and nothing
else if it’s not a learning goal within
the four strands it’s not part of the
curriculum if it’s a critical scientific
concept a critical aspect of local
national human history or a fundamental
math skill etc it’s built into the
strands into the learning goals and into
the courses but to be really clear we’re
talking probably about half half not 80%
we’re going about half the content and
the typical high school is that a
trade-off or a sacrifice no it is not
because fast pace coverage exactly like
I’m doing right now is not good teaching
and it’s not how we learn it’s not how
we learn we do things with depth and we
do things with focus writing literacy
broadly defined communication skills all
integrated across the curriculum same
goes for fundamental math skills
numeracy the language of science all the
way up until algebra and geometry higher
level math is a tricky one so ask me
about that during one of the breaks I’d
be glad to talk with you about it same
goes for proper use of technology
integrated across the curriculum
athletics done correctly focused on
teamwork collaboration discipline and
healthy exercise that’s perfectly and
just to be clear students that are
pursuing work not post-secondary
education right after high school they
still do this and
do vocal or career training education
stuff parallel to it not in place of
this all of our kids need this and
ideally if we commit ourselves to a
foreign language and it’s ridiculous
that we don’t in this country we’re
missing the boat on it if we do it K to
8 and if we commit ourselves all to
learning the same second language then
it would actually be pretty Spanish
might be a good choice then it would fit
pretty well in a high school like this
if we’re committed to not doing it early
on and if we’re committed to choice
because we’re Americans and we love
choice and we want to be able to study
Greek and German and French and Latin a
whole lot of other things then it’s a
little bit more troublesome so that was
fast
I hope it gave you a flavor for it it’s
rough it’s preliminary and I hope it has
you thinking I know if you’re paying
attention you have questions and I hope
you’ll ask them ask them of me ask them
of someone I hope this gets you thinking
about it and I’d be happy to be involved
in those conversations ask me about
money yes we can do this with current
spending I figured that out and I’d be
glad to share that with you ask me about
teacher training that’s critical it’s
absolutely critical that we rethink
teacher training ask me why we haven’t
gotten further in the last 20 or 30
years I don’t know I have a lot of
thoughts and ideas about it but I have
no easy answers I will tell you that
leadership is absolutely critical
leadership is absolutely critical we
need smart courageous and visionary high
school principals and superintendents so
if you are one be those things if you’re
not a principal or superintendent demand
those things it’s a good place to start
the world is a bit of a mess the world
is a bit of a mess and I believe quite
biased that high school is probably the
answer I think we’ve forgotten that how
we educate our kids when they go from
being adolescence to young adults all of
them it’s absolutely essential I believe
to our future but we are stuck we are
really really stuck we’re hundred years
stuck and we need to get unstuck Robert
Pearson
this is how I’ll end Robert Pearson
writes about it he calls it value
rigidity the most striking example of
value rigidity is the old South Indian
monkey trap the trap consists of a
hollowed-out coconut chained to a stake
the coconut has some rice inside which
can be grabbed to a small hole the hole
is big enough so the monkey’s hand can
go in but too small for his fist with
the rice in it to come out
the monkey reaches in and is suddenly
trapped by nothing more than his own
value rigidity
he can’t revalue the rice he can’t see
the freedom without rice is more
valuable what general advice should we
give the poor monkey well the monkey
should somehow try to slow down
deliberately and go over a ground that
he has been over before and see if
things he thought were important really
were important and well stop yanking and
just stare at the coconut for a while
please thank you
[Applause]
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