{"id":550,"date":"2010-03-24T16:38:39","date_gmt":"2010-03-24T20:38:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/?p=550"},"modified":"2010-03-24T16:39:35","modified_gmt":"2010-03-24T20:39:35","slug":"beam-me-up-seymour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/?p=550","title":{"rendered":"Beam Me Up, Seymour"},"content":{"rendered":"
This Sabusense website is a product of the mind of Seymour Sarason who died on January 28th this year. \u00a0His way-of-thinking and his \u201cMartian\u201d metaphor frames and generated the knowledge it now embeds.<\/div>\n
In \u201cThe Culture of the School and the Problem of Change\u2019\u2019 (1971) Sarason spoke through a Martian hovering 20,000 feet above a school who couldn\u2019t understand what the creatures below him were saying, and therefore tried to understand what was going on just by observing their regular actions. \u00a0It\u2019s purpose: to raise questions for the reader about why people would do things like that\u2026 and then regularly continue to do them?<\/div>\n
If you\u2019ve explored the What, Why, and How on this site\u2019s home page you know that it documents the story of the continuing transformation of a major US school district observed through a similar 20,000 foot lens that also served to raise important \u201cWhy\u201d questions, and then focuses in on how they were being effectively answered in ways that outside observers sometimes called \u201cmiracles,\u201d but couldn\u2019t quite understand.<\/div>\n
\u2022 <\/span>Now, as I reflect on the almost 4 decades since reading his book, and my subsequent interactions with him (back on the ground), it confirms the major role that Sarason played as mental-model or paradigm-shifter for me. \u00a0 He offered a way to see and think about the world in which I wanted to make a difference. \u00a0This different way-of-making sense made it possible for me to ask different questions and see the possibilities their answers revealed.<\/div>\n
And I wasn\u2019t alone. In October 2000, at a Washington DC conference, Rod Paige, then Houston superintendent and soon to become Secretary of Education, told me that Sarason\u2019s \u201cThe Culture of the School…\u201d and its Martian also had been one of his seminal learning experiences.<\/div>\n
Then, as I read an EdWeek Commentary (February 24, 2010), Celebrating Seymour Sarason, by Michael Fullan, Andy Hargreaves, & Ann Lieberman describing his influence on their lives, I realized why their ideas and writings have appealed to me over the years. \u00a0Thanks to Sarason, we had an embedded \u201cmap\u201d and were looking at the \u201csame world.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u2022 <\/span>Reflecting on his influence this week, I dug through our correspondence and notes from our meetings over the past 11 years, (which I\u2019ll soon store on this site as \u201cSeymour Sarason and our Martian Chronicles\u201d on the chance that a grad student someday might find something research-worthy.)<\/div>\n
Among the memories they\u2019ve helped me re-live:<\/div>\n
– Finding a foundation that would have the understanding to support his presentation to the 1999 AASA convention about his prescient perception that Charter schools were, and still are, \u201canother failed (systemic) reform.\u201d<\/div>\n
– His reaction when I told him about the role I had taken on as Martian in the major school system whose experiences this site explores.<\/div>\n
****<\/div>\n
\u201c8\/17\/2000<\/div>\n
Dear \u201cMartian\u201d<\/div>\n
<\/span>If your experience meant much to you, so does your letter to me. \u00a0It\u2019s good to know that I am not alone in outer space!<\/div>\n
<\/span>A book of mine is coming out next spring fro TC Press – Title: American Psychology and Schools – A Critique. \u00a0In it are two long chapters on Columbine High School as viewed by a Martian. \u00a0Obviously, you and I this past year were fellow Martians.<\/div>\n
<\/span>I truly got a kick and an uplift from your letter. \u00a0I am doing O.K. \u00a0The educational scene still depresses me, which is why I so appreciated your letter. \u00a0If you ever write up your experience, please send me a copy.<\/div>\n
Warmest regards,\u2019<\/div>\n
Sy\u201d<\/div>\n
****<\/div>\n
— \u00a0 \u00a0And frequently we shared frustrations generated by the reality of a \u201cdepressing\u201d educational scene that from \u201c20,000 Feet\u201d didn\u2019t make sense.<\/div>\n
Later, I would characterize this frustration as a perceptual \u201ccurse\u201d– (See Copernicus\u2019 Curse and Galileo\u2019s Pain (http:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/?p=423) \u00a0This is what it feels like when you see the \u201creality\u201d that generates a \u201ctheory\u201d\u2026 and regardless of what others say about that theory\u2026 you unfortunately no longer can \u201cunsee\u201d it.<\/div>\n
My own example, expressed in a 1999 note about the \u201cenemy\u201d created by The Common Sense of Common Practice, ended with:<\/div>\n
<\/span>****<\/div>\n
\u2026 \u201cI could go on, Seymour… but I won\u2019t. \u00a0This much has provided an outlet for some of my frustration and I appreciate your reading it. \u00a0I realize however that I\u2019m being driven not just by the frustration of Copernicus, who only provided a different worldview map, but of a NASA that realizes we have sufficient knowledge, people, and technologies to actually get where we want to go. \u00a0But without the \u201cmap\u201d of reality, people can\u2019t see how it \u201cmakes sense.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u2026.\u201cMy recent experiences with the Charter Schools Scaffolding process strategy I developed has only increased this frustration. \u00a0[I think I sent you an early draft – Scaffolding Sustained School System Change.]<\/div>\n
Maybe R.D. Laing better captured my \u201cproblem\u201d and in fewer words when he wrote:<\/div>\n
Noticing<\/div>\n
The range of what we think and do<\/div>\n
is limited by what we fail to notice.<\/div>\n
And because we fail to notice<\/div>\n
that we fail to notice<\/div>\n
there is little we can do<\/div>\n
to change<\/div>\n
until we notice<\/div>\n
how failing to notice<\/div>\n
shapes our thoughts and deeds.<\/div>\n
\u2026 Where\u2019s your damn Martian, now that I need him?\u201d<\/div>\n
<\/span>****<\/div>\n
— \u00a0 Now, 11 years later because of the time I\u2019ve spent on the ground using that Martian\u2019s lens to illuminate the practical truths made visible by his ways-of-thinking, my frustration has compounded.<\/div>\n
This is evident in this site\u2019s last posting which explored the question of why the Harvard Business School, and not it\u2019s Graduate School of Education, studied the school district this site focuses on, and then published a book that led the Washington Post in a front page article to claim that\u2028it \u201c\u2026 presents \u2026 Montgomery as a model for other school districts to follow.\u201d<\/div>\n
(In the Tangled Jungle of School Reform Harvard\u2026 and Sabu\u2028Find a \u201cClassroom\u201d Teaching Different Lessons -, < http:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/?p=497>)<\/div>\n
Again, Seymour had suggested why. \u00a0Ten years earlier he had noted that while psychological and educational theorists focused on individual behavior, business schools address \u201corganizational behavior that dealt with structure and dynamics (when, why changes do or do not occur and with what consequences.\u201d \u00a0They were \u201casking the right questions,\u201d he felt, \u201cimportant questions with significances, theoretical and practical,\u201d for education and psychology.\u201d<\/div>\n
But without a way of understanding the complementarity of organizational and individual behavior, (see The Quantum Paradox – http:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/?p=471) he noted there was an \u201dunverbalized assumption that schools had no organizational-behavioral similarities to corporations or any other complicated, non-educational institutions. (but he maintained accurately)\u2026Schools are not unique organizations.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u2022 \u00a0 \u00a0So Sy\u2026. thanks (as Fullan, Hargreaves and Lieberman also concluded) for \u201copening our minds, emboldened our actions, and challenged our souls…\u201d<\/div>\n
BUT, I repeat\u2026<\/div>\n
\u2026.Where\u2019s your damn Martian, now that WE ALL need him?\u201d<\/div>\n
Lew<\/div>\n

This Sabusense website is a product of the mind of Seymour Sarason who died on January 28th this year. His way-of-thinking and his \u201cMartian\u201d metaphor frames and generated the knowledge it now embeds.<\/p>\n

In \u201cThe Culture of the School and the Problem of Change\u2019\u2019 (1971) Sarason spoke through a Martian hovering 20,000 feet above a school who couldn\u2019t understand what the creatures below him were saying, and therefore tried to understand what was going on just by observing their regular actions. It\u2019s purpose: to raise questions for the reader about why people would do things like that\u2026 and then regularly continue to do them?<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve explored the What, Why,<\/em> and How<\/em> on this site\u2019s home page you know that it documents the story of the continuing transformation of a major US school district observed through a similar 20,000 foot<\/em> lens that also served to raise important \u201cWhy<\/em>\u201d questions, and then focuses in on how they were being effectively answered in ways that outside observers sometimes called \u201cmiracles,\u201d but couldn\u2019t quite understand.<\/p>\n

\u2022 <\/span>Now, as I reflect on the almost 4 decades since reading his book, and my subsequent interactions with him (back on the ground), it confirms the major role that Sarason played as mental-model or paradigm-shifter for me. He offered a way to see and think about the world in which I wanted to make a difference. This different way-of-making sense made it possible for me to ask different questions and see the possibilities their answers revealed.<\/p>\n

And I wasn\u2019t alone. In October 2000, at a Washington DC conference, Rod Paige, then Houston superintendent and soon to become Secretary of Education, told me that Sarason\u2019s \u201cThe Culture of the School…\u201d and its Martian<\/em> also had been one of his seminal learning experiences.<\/p>\n

Then, as I read an EdWeek<\/em> Commentary (February 24, 2010), Celebrating Seymour Sarason, by Michael Fullan, Andy Hargreaves, & Ann Lieberman describing his influence on their lives, I realized why their ideas and writings have appealed to me over the years. \u00a0Thanks to Sarason, we had an embedded \u201cmap\u201d and were looking at the \u201csame world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 <\/span>Reflecting on his influence this week, I dug through our correspondence and notes from our meetings over the past 11 years, (which I\u2019ll soon store on this site as \u201cSeymour Sarason and our Martian<\/em> Chronicles\u201d on the chance that a grad student someday might find something research-worthy.)<\/p>\n

Among the memories they\u2019ve helped me re-live:<\/p>\n

– Finding a foundation that would have the understanding to support his presentation to the 1999 AASA convention about his prescient perception that Charter schools were, and still are, \u201canother failed<\/em> (systemic) reform<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

– His reaction when I told him about the role I had taken on as Martian<\/em> in the major school system whose experiences this site explores.<\/p>\n

****<\/p>\n

\u201c8\/17\/2000<\/p>\n

Dear \u201cMartian\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/span>If your experience meant much to you, so does your letter to me. It\u2019s good to know that I am not alone in outer space!<\/p>\n

<\/span>A book of mine is coming out next spring fro TC Press – Title: American Psychology and Schools – A Critique. In it are two long chapters on Columbine High School as viewed by a Martian. Obviously, you and I this past year were fellow Martians.<\/p>\n

<\/span>I truly got a kick and an uplift from your letter. I am doing O.K. The educational scene still depresses me, which is why I so appreciated your letter. If you ever write up your experience, please send me a copy.<\/p>\n

Warmest regards,\u2019<\/p>\n

Sy\u201d<\/p>\n

****<\/p>\n

— \u00a0 \u00a0And frequently we shared frustrations generated by the reality of a \u201cdepressing\u201d educational scene that from \u201c20,000 Feet<\/em>\u201d didn\u2019t make sense.<\/p>\n

Later, I would characterize this frustration as a perceptual \u201ccurse\u201d– (See Copernicus\u2019 Curse and Galileo\u2019s Pain<\/a>.\u00a0This is what it feels like when you see the \u201creality\u201d that generates a \u201ctheory\u201d\u2026 and regardless of what others say about that theory\u2026 you unfortunately no longer can \u201cunsee\u201d it.<\/p>\n

My own example, expressed in a 1999 note about the \u201cenemy\u201d created by “The Common Sense<\/em> of Common Practice,” ended with:<\/p>\n

****<\/p>\n

\u2026 \u201cI could go on, Seymour… but I won\u2019t. This much has provided an outlet for some of my frustration and I appreciate your reading it. I realize however that I\u2019m being driven not just by the frustration of Copernicus<\/em>, who only provided a different worldview map, but of a NASA<\/em> that realizes we have sufficient knowledge, people, and technologies to actually get where we want to go. But without the \u201cmap\u201d of reality, people can\u2019t see<\/em> how it \u201cmakes sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2026.\u201cMy recent experiences with the Charter Schools Scaffolding<\/em> process strategy I developed has only increased this frustration. [I think I sent you an early draft – Scaffolding Sustained School System Change.]<\/p>\n

Maybe R.D. Laing better captured my \u201cproblem\u201d and in fewer words when he wrote:<\/p>\n

Noticing<\/span><\/p>\n

The range of what we think and do<\/p>\n

is limited by what we fail to notice.<\/p>\n

And because we fail to notice<\/p>\n

that we fail to notice<\/p>\n

there is little we can do<\/p>\n

to change<\/p>\n

until we notice<\/p>\n

how failing to notice<\/p>\n

shapes our thoughts and deeds.<\/p>\n

\u2026 Where\u2019s your damn Martian, now that I need him?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

****<\/p>\n

— \u00a0 Now, 11 years later because of the time I\u2019ve spent on the ground using that Martian\u2019s lens to illuminate the practical truths made visible by his ways-of-thinking, my frustration has compounded.<\/p>\n

This is evident in this site\u2019s last posting which explored the question of why the Harvard Business<\/strong> School, and not it\u2019s Graduate School of Education<\/strong>, studied the school district this site focuses on, and then published a book that led the Washington Post in a front page article to claim that\u2028it \u201c\u2026 presents \u2026 Montgomery as a model for other school districts to follow.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

(In the Tangled Jungle of School Reform Harvard\u2026 and Sabu\u2028Find a \u201cClassroom\u201d Teaching Different Lessons<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Again, Seymour had suggested why. Ten years earlier he had noted that while psychological and educational theorists focused on individual<\/strong><\/em> behavior, business schools address \u201corganizational<\/strong> behavior that dealt with structure and dynamics (when, why changes do or do not occur and with what consequences<\/em>.\u201d \u00a0They were \u201casking the right questions<\/em>,\u201d he felt, \u201cimportant questions with significances, theoretical and practical,\u201d for education and psychology<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

But without a way of understanding the complementarity of organizational and individual behavior, (see The Quantum Paradox<\/a>) he noted there was an \u201dunverbalized assumption that schools had no organizational-behavioral similarities to corporations or any other complicated, non-educational institutions<\/em>. (but he maintained accurately)\u2026Schools are not<\/strong> unique organizations<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u00a0 \u00a0So Sy\u2026. thanks (as Fullan, Hargreaves and Lieberman also concluded) for \u201copening our minds, emboldened our actions, and challenged our souls…<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

BUT, I repeat\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2026.Where\u2019s your damn Martian, now that WE ALL need him?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lew<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This Sabusense website is a product of the mind of Seymour Sarason who died on January 28th this year. \u00a0His way-of-thinking and his \u201cMartian\u201d metaphor frames and generated the knowledge it now embeds. In \u201cThe Culture of the School and the Problem of Change\u2019\u2019 (1971) Sarason spoke through a Martian hovering 20,000 feet above a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=550"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":552,"href":"http:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550\/revisions\/552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}