It's Easier to Teach Compliance than Initiative

Shout-out to Seth Godin for a brilliant rant:

"Compliance is simple to measure, simple to test for and simple to teach. Punish non-compliance, reward obedience and repeat.

Initiative is very difficult to teach to 28 students in a quiet classroom. It's difficult to brag about in a school board meeting. And it's a huge pain in the neck to do reliably.


Schools like teaching compliance. They're pretty good at it.

To top it off, until recently the customers of a school or training program (the companies that hire workers) were buying compliance by the bushel. Initiative was a red flag, not an asset.

Of course, now that's all changed. The economy has rewritten the rules, and smart organizations seek out intelligent problem solvers. Everything is different now. Except the part about how much easier it is to teach compliance."

Passion, not just Data, Should Drive Learning

Academic standards are like the old saying about fire: "Great servant, terrible master".

Yes, we need standards to ensure that our children are learning to read, write, do basic math and think.

But in what seems to be an ever-increasing enslavement to academic standardization, have we sold out our childrens' natural passion for learning?

Lisa Nielsen has an excellent piece in the Huffington Post discussing standardized tests and how they're stifling our children -- and, perhaps even more importantly, our teachers.

Slam Poetry -- Taylor Phillips

So, geniuses of the 21st century, THIS is for you!

Valedictorian Speaks out Against Schooling

If only more of us had the true thinking skills -- and chutzpah -- of Erica Goldson, the young lady who gave this amazing speech in 2010, we could turn around the education industry in no time!

I'd love to hear peoples' thoughts on the anti-establishment tone of the video.  Notice the discomfort of the folks sitting to Erica's left (our right) throughout the video (**snicker snicker**).

The Teacher's Voice

True education reform will never occur until a multi-dimensional voice of the teachers emerges -- not from the likes of Bill Gates and Eli Broad, but from the grass roots.

Jose Vilson discusses the State of the Teacher's Voice, 2011 in a recent Huffington Post piece.

Is the teacher's voice being heard in your part of the world?