A Productive Meeting (Is There Such A Thing?)

I had the most wonderful meeting with two of my teachers yesterday. We talked about how to reach more students — being more student centered in what we provide — and there was complete consensus. I left the meeting with an extra "ummph" in my step because I felt as though we had turned a major corner.

Last week, I wrote that I believe schools that continue to be slow to change are going to die. I also believe that teacher unions that focus on their benefits instead of the benefits of a different instruction model are going to lose as well. They are going to lose to parents, students, communities and leaders who say, "Enough is enough!"  There are other ways to teach than the factory model we have used for an entire century.

This is a different century, with different skills needed for a different workforce. The paradigm shift that is taking place in some places (Florida Virtual School, Oakland Christian School) is one that is student centered and learner focused. This means that decisions made will be in the best interest of the student — not teacher or teacher union. This is an amazing concept since school and education is intended for the student (the sarcasm is intentional ☺).

Allow my disclaimer: I'm not against the teachers. In fact, I am very much for them. I am for teachers improving, not only in the classroom, but in how they think. They should be putting students first. That's why my meeting was so wonderful yesterday: It was about the kids.

How could we extend the traditional classroom to meet the needs of students who are not traditional? At the end of the meeting, we realized that the only reason that we have not been more flexible in an approach to meeting the needs of our students is because of our own neglect, not the students' seemingly-hard-to-tackle requirements. The students need us, and we need them. We have an amazing opportunity to change the educational paradigm. Leaders, let's do it!