{"id":566,"date":"2010-09-20T11:16:16","date_gmt":"2010-09-20T15:16:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/?p=566"},"modified":"2010-09-20T14:07:50","modified_gmt":"2010-09-20T18:07:50","slug":"how-i-stopped-hating%e2%80%a6-and-learned-to-love-a-school-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/?p=566","title":{"rendered":"How I Stopped Hating\u2026 and Learned to Love a School System"},"content":{"rendered":"

Twelve years ago, at the beginning of my unique relationship with the Montgomery County, MD Public Schools (described in \u201cCatching Them Doing Something Right<\/a>\u201d) I started a diary. Later, as I began to note the nature of the insights being recorded I went back and renamed the computer file \u201cLearning Log.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Now, some 900 pages later, in order to better reflect the product of all those aggregated learnings, I\u2019ve again re-titled it — How I Stopped Hating\u2026 and Learned to Love a School System.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

Since, like many others, my needs for autonomy and freedom to make a difference usually seem to generate automatic pushback against the \u201csystems\u201d around me that appear to constrain it (home, schools, work), what could produce such a major transformation in the worldview that frames my way-of-thinking?<\/p>\n

Buckminster Fuller had suggested the answer:<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you want to teach people a new way of thinking, don\u2019t bother trying to teach them.\u2028Instead, give them a tool, the use of which will lead to new ways of thinking<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

My tool was the lens through which I was observing the \u201csystem\u201d (described in\u00a0\u201cMaking Sense Through a Systemic Leadership and Management Lens<\/a>\u201d).<\/p>\n

It enabled me to \u201cget into the heads\u201d of those who are<\/em> the system to \u201csee\u201d what they were seeing and feeling and ask \u201cwhy?\u201d And then to use the common answers to develop a capability that Copernicus never had to leverage the natural strengths and relationships that appear. (see The One Thing! \u2026a <\/a>simple<\/a><\/em> proposal<\/a><\/span>.]<\/p>\n

This site\u2019s content is largely the product of applying that way-of-thinking to the actual work of an \u201corganization of learners\u201d attempting to become a \u201clearning organization.\u201d And because they were \u201cdoing it\u201d \u2013 and as outside observers began to note \u201cvery effectively\u201d \u2013 it added urgency to the site\u2019s purpose that was captured in the concluding paragraphs of The One Thing! \u2026a simple<\/em> proposal. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSo our task is not only simple, its clear. At a time when schools have neither the capacity, nor the societal support, to \u201cfix\u201d themselves, we have to develop and initiate processes that support capacity development<\/span> as a practically simultaneous, inside-out, knowledge-development<\/em> process.<\/p>\n

We have to change everyone\u2019s mental model of schooling, but fortunately, we now can use the \u201csimple rules\u201d imposed by what we already know about how the human mind works as it processes information to solve problems that get in the way of making a difference<\/em>. <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 First individuals must have a compelling reason<\/span> to change the way they look at, and understand, learning, teaching and schooling.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Then driven by the motivating power of understanding why<\/em> new alternatives may be necessary, they need to have the means and support to work <\/span>within that new paradigm.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Finally, they need processes to derive from that work experience the necessary knowledge<\/span> and culture<\/span> to sustain that way of functioning for all students.\u201d<\/p>\n

So\u2026 now I\u2019ve outed<\/em> myself.<\/p>\n

As an embedded co-learner I\u2019ve developed an appreciation, respect, (and \u201clove\u201d) for those whose thinking is driven by a personal need to make a difference,<\/em> but find themselves in a \u201csystem\u201d based on assumptions that they can somehow do it alone. <\/em>And who have been able to learn – together – <\/em>how to continually challenge those assumptions.<\/p>\n

But, today as I look at most proposals for \u201csystemic\u201d reform, I realize how strongly most of them are based on unquestioned assumptions that the \u201csystem\u201d is the hated enemy<\/em>. Not until it can be \u201cflattened,\u201d \u201cswept away,\u201d \u201cdisempowered\u201d will each<\/em> child be able to learn, and all<\/em> teachers be able to teach.<\/p>\n

No wonder major foundations — unable to figure out the key to \u201csystemic<\/em> reform\u201d –eventually downshift to disconnected building- and classroom-based changes that lack the systemic connective tissue to sustain them over time.<\/p>\n

I wish I knew how to spread the \u201clove\u201d I’ve experienced. Might it help them understand school systems as the positive factors they can be, and not the negative ones they unquestionably assume they are?<\/p>\n

I don’t know if this website can help, but we’ll keep on trying…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Twelve years ago, at the beginning of my unique relationship with the Montgomery County, MD Public Schools (described in \u201cCatching Them Doing Something Right\u201d) I started a diary. Later, as I began to note the nature of the insights being recorded I went back and renamed the computer file \u201cLearning Log.\u201d Now, some 900 pages […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=566"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":569,"href":"https:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566\/revisions\/569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}