Wear Rain Gear

"There will be weather." One of my favorite quotes from Bill Beaster, my one-time middle school industrial arts teacher, basketball teammate, now friend, was his retort to a comment questioning whether he really wanted to bike since it was supposed to rain for his weekend bike ride. Everyone knows that we can't change the weather, but Bill has an understanding about the weather. By being proactive, he also can overcome non-ideal conditions to still have fun.

The key in our everyday lives is to understand the things we can change and the things we cannot change based on effort. Bill Burnett and David Evans call those things effort can't change gravity problems (Burnett and Evans). Bill Beaster didn't succumb to the idea that it was going to rain and change his plans, he overcame the weather by putting on rain gear--pretty simple.

Seth Godin gives us a graphic way of looking at the problem in his Quadrants of Discernment (Godin 2010, 181) . The x axis is passion and the y axis is attachment. We want to live in the upper right corner of discernment and passion, where we are choosing the types of problems or projects that our passion and effort can change, ones that make us a linchpin. The bottom left quadrant is where the passive person who feels they cannot create change lives. They are the whiners.

Burnett, William, and David J. Evans. Designing Your Life: Build a Life That Works for You. Vintage Books, 2018.

Godin, Seth. Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? Portfolio, 2010.

Isn’t That Interesting

Thinking scientifically, or maybe like an entrepreneur is a powerful way of approaching things, whether they turn out well or not. The thoughtful reflection about the answer to the question, "Isn't that interesting?" takes any situation to a new level through the careful examination of it (Godin, 2010, 178). Being able to take the outcome not as an indication of your power, but being truly curious may yield unexpected results. A few years ago a co-worker had long standing issues with her department chairperson. She asked for a meeting and when the department chair blasted her for all of her perceived indiscretions, she asked, "Isn't that interesting. Why do you think that?" It cut to the heart of the matter and then they could start the discussion. She caused the department to truly think about why he felt what he did, and they were able to come to a better understanding of why events and beliefs were constructed the way they were.

For years, I have wanted to create an environment like they have in art or tech ed when kids come in the room and immediately begin working. For the last week or so our students have done that. For our final exam we have allowed students to split themselves into groups of 3-5. For the spirit award, they created a team name, logo, handshake, costumes, and promotional posters. They are participating in an academic decathlon where they will merge content from different classes as they construct products for a pitch, trailer, throwdown, physical representation, jeopardy, impromptu speech, website, art gallery, story/skit, and reflection. Maybe the key is that we have gamefied it. Almost everything involves earning points, but in a lighthearted way.

gamification, Arete Academy, interesting, decathlon, Growth mindset

Gratitude

 In a culture of gratitude, it is no longer good enough to give lukewarm applause. Give wholehearted applause or appreciation and reach out to that person on a one to one level. Speak to them individually as close to the completion of the delightful event as possible. That may be in person, letter, by telling the person you will spread the word about them. If there was something delightful, it was a gift. The repayment is for you to go out of your way to personally connect and tell others about the experience, not as an “Instagram” way of bragging, but as a way to celebrate someone else and offer them a gift in return: respect (Godin 2010, 172).

In the classroom, there are ample opportunities to give thanks to others. Especially if students are given the opportunity to choose their own way of showing what they have learned. That will offer the possibility of people using their talents to create something that is delightful. It wouldn't happen if they got a 100% on their multiple choice vocabulary test. When giving people the scary freedom of making their own map, the opportunity to dazzle exists.

Godin, Seth. Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? Portfolio, 2010.

Reinvigorating Education

In thinking about a structure to hang a new focus to the rebranded Arete Academy, efficiency engineer Harrington Emerson stated, "As to methods there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble." When considering moving the thinking of both teachers and students to a new level, holding to the principles of students advocating for themselves and their learning provides many methods for them to show it, which would make the learning the important thing, along with students taking an active role in how it will be assessed and quantified.

In a sense, common assessments hold students hostage on the teacher focused side of the continuum of who is driving new learning and keep some students and teachers from being fully engaged. It may take awhile, but student engagement will go up if they are given leeway to use their strengths to show their learning. There will have to be a huge amount of support given to students at first, including lists or menus of product types. Eventually they will get to the point where they can choose an appropriate product for the targeted skill they need to master.

There are many people who feel like changing jobs or even careers every five years or so is how they stay fresh and always in a perpetual mode of growth, but it is stressful going to a new workplace, working with new people on a new idea using our current skill set. Teachers often have the ability to avoid the reinvigorating feeling of thinking about their area of expertise in a new way. They have the lesson plans, and the history of having students find success in terms of GPA. Embracing the principle that students should be in charge of showing their learning may be daunting in terms of letting go of control, but could re-energize teachers in the sense that they are still the content experts, still working with the same people, in the same place, but now seeing it, in the opposite way of it being about what the students take away from the class rather than what the teacher teaches.

Ferriss, Timothy. Tribe of Mentors: Short Life Advice from the Best in the World. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 2018.

Not Only a Hammer

Cognitive flexibility is what is generally referred  to as “out of the  box thinking.” It is the ability to find multiple solutions to problems, analyze them and find what truly is the best one. Cognitive flexibility allows people to apply what they already know to new situations (Tough 114). In his book Think Again, Adam Grant refers to this as “scientific thinking” (Grant 2021, 20). Whatever the term, it is a way of approaching the world in that the first idea is not the best idea. Steven Johnson says one’s best idea doesn’t come until the 26th idea. Taking the time to conceive of that many ideas  takes some cognitive self control, where one doesn’t jump to the first solution that they may always rely on, the time worn “if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail” sort of thinking. Sometimes the best solution is hidden by that hammer. In one activity created by the Stanford d.school, they  recommend including a dinosaur or an alien into one of the solutions, to expand the possibilities. 

Recently, I have begun to take it to a different place and think about, in the future, What will I hate, or at least be frustrated by with the solution in the future. Especially when I am building something. Unfortunately, I have created many things that frustrate me everytime I use them or think about them--sometimes to the point where I wish an actual dinosaur were available to make the changes I need.

Grant, Adam. Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know. Viking, 2021.

Tough, Paul. How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012.

This Might Not Work

 As reported by Paul Tough in his book How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character, Mental Contrasting with Implementation Intentions, developed by NYU psychologist Gabriele Oettingen, is the best way to move from a current state to a desired state. When using mental contrasting, one concentrates both on a positive outcome, while also predicting the pitfalls they will encounter along the way (Tough 93). Without knowing it had a name, this is a strategy that we have used for years when planning for long term projects like Genius Hour. The whole thing is predicated on a student being able to see into the future and anticipate what will happen and how they will respond. Possibly, some extra guidelines may make it a more useful activity.  Some categories that we could use to examine obstacles may be self (what problems may I cause myself), other people (not returning messages, scheduling,  not doing their share, etc) , non-human outside factors (technology, travel, etc). Otherwise, often it comes down to “I might procrastinate and not get it done on time.” This method seems like a gentle version of Red Teams where one envisions that things went horribly wrong and the project ended up with the worst possible outcome. Rather than imagining a catastrophe, MCII is more of a “these are some things that may go wrong,” 

Having students create their own schedule based on known future events made a difference in AP Seminar this year. Some kids knew they were going away for spring break and scheduled everything to be completed before then and they appreciated the guidance.

Tough, Paul. How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012. 

Whose Idea Is It?

 In discussing how to create an effective TED Talk, Chris Anderson notes how it is important to make the presentation simple, but not too simple. Feed them enough information and lay out enough bread crumbs to “snap it in place for themselves” (Anderson 82). Everyone wants to feel smart and following Anderson’s strategy will make them feel smart. 

Years ago, I wrote an email to all of the administrators explaining that the sign boards outside of each school should not say “Early Out” because it sends a message that teachers have the afternoon off rather than it being used to make them better at what they do, or to make their kids smarter or more ready for their futures. Obviously, it didn’t work since, eight years after leaving the district, the boards have not changed. After describing this situation to my dad, he said,  “Haven’t I taught you anything? You have to  make them think it’s their idea.”  Simple, but not too simple.

Magic of Discussion

For the last three days we listened to the Brene Brown podcast Unlocking Us on which she interviews Angus Fletcher. The podcast was so powerful that we decided to listen to it as a class. We stopped it occasionally and let kids discuss what they heard. The discussions were deep and rich, with almost every student participating throughout the three days. The students stated that they want to have more discussions about what literature makes them feel and where it will lead them, do less organizing  the book into little boxes through analysis. They want to have deep conversations about people and human nature and their thoughts. They want to understand what other people think about an event or situation. They especially relish the opportunity to hear from people with whom they disagree on almost everything. The result was magical. Kids listened to each other and responded appropriately. They asked clarifying questions and summarized what they heard. They added their own thinking based on their experiences while taking others’ experiences into account. It was magical. I can’t think of three better consecutive days of school. It was so good, it seems that assigning a grade to it might cheapen it.

Drip by Drip

 At one time, the idea of school as we know it must have been revolutionary. Over time, "drip by drip, year by year" the manual of being a teacher and being a student was written (Godin 2010, 120). Before long, everyone knows school is done in a certain way and those for whom that structure doesn't work are destined for digging ditches.

School became successful in draining creativity and joy out of learning, until the point where asking teenagers if they like to learn only elicits guffaws. We know the rules, which have been developed over the years to combat any of the negative, distracting behavior of being an artist, writer, musician, or independent thinker. In a sense, mediocrity became a desired quality because no one tries to tear down people who are equal in effort, thinking and output. The problem is when someone tries to undermine the rules by working harder or working by their own rules.

The way school is run today, with "common assessments" and the common core, everyone is expected to learn the same things, in the same way. The "resistance" as Steven Pressfield calls it creates conformity because it takes too much energy to overcome institutional expectations, which include those of the school administration, other teachers, parents, students and the community. It takes the rare person to step out of that brainwashing and create something new, or at least a new way of looking at the topic.

Part of the problem is that we have been told for a long time to "run schools like a business." That leads to homogonized students and methods to make things the same, like a can of Coke. that may be great for the people who are rule followers, but not so great for people who bristle at that sort of life.

Who Do We Serve?

 We created the Arete Academy for people who are dissatisfied with the current school structure and wanted a way to make their learning matter. To give them a way to use their learning in a real way that will connect with other people. We also created it because we feel that the current format of education is not giving students skills that will lead to success outside of school. Seth Godin states that a group should figure out who their customers are and then create a product that they will connect with (in order to help "others become who they seek to become" (Godin 2018, 6).

I think we think we created the Arete Academy for others, but did we really create for ourselves to resuscitate or reinvent our careers? I know we were dissatisfied with what we were doing and how we were doing it. What ended up happening was that we had a group of adults we could rely on, bounce ideas off, combine ideas with and pull together rather than all pulling individually, which makes everything seem easier, even though we chose the harder way to do things.

Godin, Seth. This Is Marketing: You Can't Be Seen Until You Learn to See. Portfolio Penguin, 2018.

Infinite Education: Learn How to Learn

 To make the Arete Academy and education itself resilient, it must be relevant now and in the future, and our message about the infinite nature of what kids will learn needs to be shared using consistent language that also coincides with our brand of exploration and creativity. Simon Sinek, author of The Infinite Game, discusses how railroads' finite vision of themselves caused them to ignore the emergence of cars and trucks as the major means of transportation rather than seeing themselves and their purpose as moving people and goods and creating their own non-rail vehicles. . The music industry fought streamed and digitally accessible music rather than figuring out how they could spread the artistry and message to as many people as possible (Sinek 2019, 45). Any of these established industries fought challenges to their supremacy and ignoring or denying they were losing their grip on their field. 

Like the railroads 80-100 years ago, in the face of virtual learning, education is missing out on defining what it is truly about and seizing that message to create a new way of thinking about it. The question used to be “what is the purpose of school?” After a year of students learning from home, especially with students having devices and a strong wi-fi signal, learning, the new question should be “what is the purpose of coming to school?” After students were at home for the months of October and November 2020 learning in a real-time at home setting, upon their return it became apparent that, as Suzette Weisgerber, social studies teacher in the Arete Academy at Neenah High School stated, it is to “feed their soul.”  The interpersonal connection that they had taken for granted throughout their school lives had been removed, which left only the learning. Throughout  their years of school, students have come to equate learning and school. When asked “do you like to learn,” most kids say no because they see “learning” only happening in school and do not recognize that they are learning machines, constantly taking in information and creating new knowledge. At this point schools and the education system are missing out on the fact that their infinite game is in guiding  students to learn how to learn.  It is no secret that almost anything one wants to learn is accessible to anyone with the internet through a variety of sources.

Sinek, Simon. The Infinite Game. Penguin Business, 2019.

Predictions

 The ability to create a "story," to project what will happen in the future rather than merely reacting to what is currently happening, or acting purely on instinct is what makes us human (Johnson 81). That is how stock brokers, professional sports general managers, and even people filling out NCAA basketball brackets and other prognosticators make their living. They take information at hand and make educated guesses about what will happen, often for financial gain. After studying 28,000 predictions by people in the media regarding economic and geopolitical events, political science professor Phillip Tetlock, concluded that often those people, when their predictions are examined after the event, are entirely wrong (Johnson 83). These events projected by “experts” are actually no better than a guess. It is almost like a lottery, most people don't win, but when they do, someone makes sure everyone knows it.

Tetlock did not leave it at that. He examined what separated (more) successful prognosticators from the others and he found that being able to identify unknowns (what Jimmy the Greek from the 1970’s NFL Today termed “intangibles”) and feel like they may be important led to more success. Having the flexibility to take in as much information as possible, while keeping crazy ideas in play was the most vital aspect of prediction.

Johnson, Steven. Farsighted; How We Make the Decisions That Matter the Most. Riverhead Books, 2018.