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.

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.