{"id":880,"date":"2011-09-11T16:50:40","date_gmt":"2011-09-11T20:50:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/?p=880"},"modified":"2011-09-11T16:50:40","modified_gmt":"2011-09-11T20:50:40","slug":"where%e2%80%99s-the-picture-on-the-box-top","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/?p=880","title":{"rendered":"Where\u2019s the Picture on the Box top?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

While we are continually urged to get \u201cout-of-the-box\u201d so we can find new ways to \u201cconnect-the-dots\u201d within it, our continuing difficulties finding those more effective dot-connecting relationships might suggest it’s time to revisit the idea of “boxes” as containers for \u201ddots\u201d that need to be connected. <\/strong><\/em>Consistent<\/strong> with this site\u2019s use of metaphors<\/a> to tap into understanding how much we already know in other settings but seldom apply to schooling, it might be helpful to think about how we sometimes use the \u201cbox\u201d itself to help us reconnect the pieces it contains.<\/strong><\/em><\/h5>\n

^^^^^^^^^^^^^
\n<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve discovered that one occupational hazard of an\u00a0 \u201col\u2019 dog\u2019s<\/a>\u201d learning how to be a \u201cwarm, sensitive new-age male\u201d is that you often \u201cfeel the pain\u201d of others.<\/p>\n

Most painful for me these days is the deep frustration of those who believe we know more about fixing what\u2019s wrong with schools than we are using\u2026 and yet can\u2019t figure out what to do about it\u2026 except blame those who aren\u2019t doing what they \u201cknow\u201d needs to be done.<\/p>\n

A painful example occurred during a recent TV discussion by three national journalists*<\/strong> who<\/p>\n

(1) seemed to understand the interconnected nature of the social and economic conditions that the US currently struggles with, and that education<\/span> was the single common issue influencing all of them; and<\/p>\n

(2) seemed to have the depth of thought to understand also that a fundamental issue influencing education\u2019s problems was a \u201cfailure to communicate\u201d at its core level. Schools don\u2019t engage and then develop the already-embedded creative capacities of each <\/em>of the today\u2019s kids.<\/p>\n

One of them concluded that the \u201csaddest thing is that we know what to do\u2026 and yet don\u2019t do anything about it.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em>Theirs wasn\u2019t a new awareness. In 1996, the Consortium on Productivity in the Schools<\/em> in its report — Using What We Have to Get the Schools We Need:\u00a0 A Productivity Focus for American Education<\/span> — pointed out that \u201cAmerica already knows enough and has sufficient resources to fundamentally change the ways schools function…\u201d <\/em> <\/em><\/p>\n

Over that 15-year time span, however, few seemed to ask why that gap between knowledge and action still seems to be true?\u00a0 What is it that we think we \u201cknow\u201d about the \u201cbox\u201d called schooling\u2026 and how has applying that knowledge been working for us?<\/p>\n

What if there were something we didn\u2019t know<\/em> that could better explain it?\u00a0 And what if we already \u201cknew\u201d it but didn\u2019t know we did?\u00a0 The 1996 report offered a clue to that possibility when they suggested that the problem was that our society needed to look at its schools through a different lens<\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cWithout a sense of the whole<\/span>, we end up with what has become a familiar cycle of patchwork improvement and disappointment.\u201d<\/em> <\/em><\/p>\n

The Schooling<\/em> \u201cBox\u201d and its Puzzle pieces<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

How does the problem offered by a box of jigsaw puzzle pieces relate\u00a0to today\u2019s painful, frustrating searches for insights about how to solve the problem of doing more with what\u00a0we already have?<\/p>\n

Most of us begin to solve the puzzle by first studying the picture on the lid of the box — the end-product of our problem-solving effort. Periodically — at least in the early stages of assembly — we return to the picture for guidance. First, it gives us some confidence that there is<\/span> a way that all the pieces ultimately fit together, and second it offers clues for how they can<\/span> fit together.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, without this orienting image, the work of schooling today has become a random search for meaning<\/em> that seems to fit the 1996 prediction of \u201ccycles of patchwork improvement and disappointment.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

That is why this website\u2019s three inter-related purposes focus on providing an \u201corienting image\u201d that offers ways to \u201csee\u201d and understand the \u201cbox,” the \u201cdots\u201d in it, and how they actually \u201cconnect\u201d in the daily work of schooling.<\/p>\n

1. \u00a0 As noted at the top of the Sabusense<\/em> homepage, it offers a more meaningful way to \u201cconnect- the-dots\u201d and see how what we \u201cknow\u201d must<\/em> be done\u2026 can<\/em> be done.\u00a0 This \u201cdifferent lens\u201d we metaphorically call Alice\u2019s Looking Glass<\/a>.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

2. \u00a0 More importantly, that lens was used to capture key elements of the story of a major 140,000+ student school district as it successfully created a new box top picture<\/em> in the minds of its 19,000+ staff who on a daily basis have to fit together the pieces of a puzzle far more complex than those cut by any jigsaw. \u00a0This was\u00a0a school system “box” that could integrate \u00a0and sustain the\u00a0interdependent<\/em> dot-connecting processes of\u00a0learning<\/span>,\u00a0teaching<\/span> and\u00a0schooling<\/span>. \u00a0Validated now by national research it meets the \u201cbox-top picture\u201d criteria —\u00a0 offering confidence to others trying to solve the same \u00a0puzzle that there is<\/span> a way that all the pieces ultimately fit together, and then providing clues for how they can<\/span> fit together. \u00a0And finally,<\/p>\n

3. To share what I, as an embedded learner, learned along with them about how to do it.\u00a0 Many of these thoughts can be found with this site\u2019s articles and \u00a020,000 ft Memos<\/a>. <\/em>One in particular–Picture on the Jigsaw Puzzle Box (2004)<\/a> \u2013 captures some on-the-go thoughts and learnings as the ways-of-thinking about the \u201cbox\u201d at all levels of the district\u2019s work began to change.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s interesting to re-read some of those thoughts seven years later now that the district is reaping the results of having embedded a meaningful box-top picture in a sufficient number of minds.<\/p>\n

For example, there is much that can be learned from the ways they used the power of the Baldrige <\/em>processes to influence how people see their<\/em> work relating to personal and organizational results.\u00a0 And also about the nature of external support that is needed to override the deeply-embedded box top picture that most people bring to schooling\u2019s puzzle-solving tables.<\/p>\n

_________________<\/p>\n

\u2022<\/strong> The journalists: Nicholas Kristoff (New York Times), Eugene Robinson (Washington Post) and Margaret Carlson (Bloomberg)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While we are continually urged to get \u201cout-of-the-box\u201d so we can find new ways to \u201cconnect-the-dots\u201d within it, our continuing difficulties finding those more effective dot-connecting relationships might suggest it’s time to revisit the idea of “boxes” as containers for \u201ddots\u201d that need to be connected. Consistent with this site\u2019s use of metaphors to tap […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880"}],"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=880"}],"version-history":[{"count":30,"href":"https:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":913,"href":"https:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880\/revisions\/913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}