NBC

I had the pleasure of spending time with The Innovative Educator blogger Lisa Nielsen at Education Nation conference in New York earlier this week. In addition to the insightful questions and comments she posted on her prolific Twitter stream, Nielsen wrote a great summary of the last panel of the two-day event. Here it is:

By Lisa Nielson

It’s rare for education reformers, policymakers, and funders to listen to those at the heart of education reform work: the students. In fact Ann Curry, who hosted Education Nation’s first *student panel, admitted that folks at NBC were a little nervous about putting kids on stage. In their “Voices of a Generation” discussion, young people provided insight into their own experiences with education and what they think needs to be done to ensure that every student receives a world-class education. After the discussion, Curry knew these students didn’t disappoint. She told viewers: “Students wanted to say something that made a difference to you (adults) and they did. Now adults need to listen.”

Below are the sentiments shared by these current and former students during the segment.

1. I have to critically think in college, but your tests don’t teach me that.
2. We learn in different ways at different rates.
3. I can’t learn from you if you are not willing to connect with me.
4. Teaching by the book is not teaching. It’s just talking.
5. Caring about each student is more important than teaching the class.
6. Every young person has a dream. Your job is to help bring us closer to our dreams.
7. We need more than teachers. We need life coaches.
8. The community should become more involved in schools.
9. Even if you don’t want to be a teacher, you can offer a student an apprenticeship.
10. Us youth love all the new technologies that come out. When you acknowledge this and use technology in your teaching it makes learning much more interesting.
11. You should be trained not just in teaching but also in counseling.
12. Tell me something good that I’m doing so that I can keep growing in that.
13. When you can feel like a family member it helps so much.
14. We appreciate when you connect with us in our worlds such as the teacher who provided us with extra help using Xbox and Skype.
15. Our teachers have too many students to enable them to connect with us in they way we need them to.
16. Bring the electives that we are actually interested in back to school. Things like drama, art, cooking, music.
17. Education leaders, teachers, funders, and policy makers need to start listening to student voice in all areas including teacher evaluations.
18. You need to use tools in the classroom that we use in the real world like Facebook, email, and other tools we use to connect and communicate.
19. You need to love a student before you can teach a student.
20. We do tests to make teachers look good and the school look good, but we know they don’t help us to learn what’s important to us.

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Island School

The Island School, a public school in New York City, embodies passion-based learning.

By Kimberly Vincent

We hear a lot about “passion-based” learning, and although in theory it sounds ideal, there are many factors to consider in building an education system around something as intangible as passion. A recent Future of Education talk addressed the topic, with experts in the field weighing in. The group included Angela Maiers, Amy Sandvold, Lisa Nielsen, and George Couros, and the talk was mediated by Steve Hargadon. These are some of the key points that address the issues around passion-based learning that came from the talk, along with some additional thoughts from John Seely Brown, co-author of A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change, and educator Jackie Gerstein.

1. REACH OUT TO THE DISENFRANCHISED. We say that we want creative, passion-driven students, yet we reward the opposite. Standards-based education stifles engagement and passion in students. While drop-outs are considered to be lazy and unmotivated, many are simply not interested because they don’t understand the relevance of what they’re being taught. We’re rewarding students who are best at obedience, memorization, regurgitation, and compliance. And those who do succeed in school often don’t know what to do when they get out. We need to prepare kids to be successful in the real world, not just while in school.
2. SHOW RELEVANCE TO LIFE OUTSIDE SCHOOL. Passion is the narrative of mattering. It’s that simple and that difficult.  Everyone has a deep rooted drive to know that they matter to others and that what they’re doing matters. When you’re doing work that matters, with people who matter, you’re willing to suffer and study more. Passion-based learning is not about matching students with topics that interest them, it’s about presenting subjects to students in a way that’s relevant. People gain empowerment when they’re doing work that matters and is respected.  Angela Maiers suggests that a class essay rubric may seem irrelevant for some, and that having students surf the web to identify writing standards that are “worthy of the world” may engage them to take ownership of their writing.
3. INDOCTRINATE PASSION INTO THE SYSTEM. We must switch from a control narrative in the classroom to a passion narrative. While our education system allows continuity between grade levels, provides a streamlined performance metric, and “teacher-proofs” schools, assessment-based education can quell the creative process in teachers.  Lisa Nielsen writes in her Innovative Educator blog: “Are we going to lose another excellent, passion-driven teacher to a compulsory system of education that as Seth Godin so aptly expresses, ‘only values compliance not initiative, because, of course, that’s what’s easiest to measure.’” School mandates paralyze educators from taking a close look at their passion for learning.  School administrators should support teachers and empower them to be creative. Teachers and leadership, as exemplified by those from Aurora High School in Ohio, can read books like Passion-Driven Classrooms (written by panelists Angela Maiers and Amy Sandvold) to discover ways to use more passion in their classrooms.The Island School is an example of a public-financed school in New York City that’s implemented a schoolwide enrichment model focusing on talent development and nurturing multiple intelligences.
4. TRY USING THE SCHOOLWIDE ENRICHMENT MODEL. Passion-based learning is about finding a “hero,” learning what makes him/her successful, and acquiring the practices and the norms of established practitioners in that field.  The Schoolwide Enrichment Model identifies student strengths, nurtures skills, and creates authentic opportunities for students to utilize these skills not just as students, but as practicing professionals providing experiences and opportunities to work and learn with others in the fields in which they are interested. If a student takes interest in the culinary arts, watching the 60 Minutes interview of Jose Andres, following up on studies of molecular gastronomy, volunteering at a local soup kitchen and exchanging recipes with a network of cooks is far more enriching than simply taking a cooking class. Jackie Gerstein said: “I realized that it becomes much more than learning about the culinary arts.  It becomes a way of being in the world, the dispositions that contributes to success as a culinary artist.”
5. DIGITAL MEDIA IS KEY. Students can read and view media about their heroes and possibly even connect directly with them. John Seely Brown, a notable passion-based proponent and keynote at the New Media Consortium this past summer, says that passion involves an extreme performance with a deep questioning disposition. Without digital media, this quest is not possible in formal education.
6. TAP INTO THE WISDOM OF YOUR TRUSTED PEERS. Social media and Personal Learning Networks (PLNs) are necessary. Teachers need to publish their innovative work and share it with their personal learning networks. It’s also important for teachers to help students get connected to PLNs via social media.
7. BECOME A DIGITAL CITIZENS. If for no other reason, then to be able to guide students. Students need to be shown what’s appropriate and instructive with social media in and out of the classroom. Schools’ banning of social media sites impedes this process. Having teachers and students learn side-by-side can provide great opportunities for building respect and openness.
8. PASSION IS INFECTIOUS. Being around passionate people is the best way to become passionate. A passion-driven teacher is a model for her students. Teachers must be able to lead in the areas that they’re passionate about (whether this be in the classroom or after school). They must demonstrate that they have lives outside of school and that they are well-balanced people. Being transparent with students and building relationships with them beyond the classroom can help drive learning – students work harder with people who matter to them. The Science Leadership Academy, for example, uses Facebook as a means of connecting students and teachers to each others’ interests. Students and teachers even do things together outside of the classroom.
9. CONNECT WITH PARENTS. Building relationships between parents and schools is crucial. George Couros says that having a pre-conference at the beginning of the school year with parents allows teachers and administrators to listen to parents talk about their kids and gives parents a chance to tell the school what their competencies are and where their expertise lies. Teachers can then create “resident expert” walls. By identifying strengths and talents of parents, parents gain a sense of recognition and human value – they feel engaged. This leads to opportunities for parents to teach topics that they love within the school.

Flickr: LIsaW123

Lisa Nielsen works to support public schools in New York City and while she understands school is a viable option for some students, she doesn’t believe it is for everyone.

The author of the Innovative Educator blog has written a free, online book called The Teenager’s Guide to Opting Out (Not Dropping Out) of Outdated and Traditional School.

Nielsen, who helps educators find innovative ways of engaging learners, works at a fairly progressive, forward-thinking public school system that’s experimenting with technology in inventive ways and a push towards personalized learning with the iSchool and Innovation Zone. Still, she believes the traditional school setting may not be “fixable.”

“While students are doing better in a more innovative climate, ultimately, we are just using updated tools to meet narrow and outdated measures on which our students, teachers, and school leaders are judged,” she writes on her blog. “It is not enough to personalize learning for everyone to go down the same path — to college, without consideration of what comes next.”

I asked Lisa to talk about the book, and why she wrote it.

Q. Why did you feel you needed to write this guide?

A. I went to the iNacol Online Learning conference this year and when a keynote speaker asked the audience to share one word to describe high school, as if rehearsed, they responded, “BORING.”  It’s no wonder that in places like those where I have spent my life (Los Angeles, Las Vegas, New York), the drop out rate is around 50% and if you ask teens, many of them who are in school don’t really like it. The problem is no one talks about and few know about alternatives. Students think that it’s their fault if they don’t enjoy sitting in chairs all day consuming, memorizing, and regurgitating. This is caused in part because of how they are viewed by a society trained to embrace the system. Many of their parents don’t know there are alternatives either and we have a growing epidemic that this environment creates which is so called ADD/ADHD and now kids are being drugged so they can basically sit down and shut up all day until called upon.  It’s ironic that socialization is considered a benefit of school.  It is more of a place to “be socialized” than to “enjoy socializing.”

There are voices out there like Laurette Lynn, founder of Unplugged Mom, who are working diligently to inform parents and families that there is better way, and that school is not synonymous with learning.  After being introduced to this concept myself, I realized it was necessary to further advance this important message.  Laurette says “Education does not need to be reformed, it needs to be transformed!” and from what I’ve experienced, I agree!

I wrote this guide to inform people that there are alternatives and it is time we start fixing (or eliminating) the school, rather than blaming the children.

Q. Do you wish somebody had written something like this for you or someone you know?

A. I did indeed write this guide with the teenage version of myself in mind.  I was a good student by school standards.  I took my tests, got good grades, and I was quick.  I skipped grades and did my studies at warp speed so I could hurry up and out into the real world.  I was so excited to get school done so I could see the treasures that awaited me.  In hindsight I now realize the robotics in all this and wonder whether I actually ‘learned’ anything truly useful that I couldn’t have learned outside of the box.   Unfortunately, at 19 I stood with a stellar GPA and diploma in hand and realized I had been duped.  Like many graduates today, I had no real world experience to show for my work.  I just got a really great training in taking in and spiting out what I was told. However,  much like a bulimic, the intake and regurgitation was ultimately unhealthy for me and I’m realizing is unhealthy for human beings all together.  I found myself with an appetite that was undernourished because it was being fed unsubstantial crap (for lack of a better word)  when it came to what really mattered but once school spit me out, their job was done.  There  I was on my own graduated into a world that looked nothing like those artificial walls I had left.  To paraphrase the founder of UnCollege said in a recent interview “Theoretical information is never as valuable as practical application.”

I eventually realized all those years of being told that I would “understand why this was important” were filled with a false-truth that made my stomach churn.  I was controlled and molded into a perfect little worker who would follow orders.  A human being entered at kindergarten and an obedient, conditioned citizen came out the other-end upon graduation. The bigger problem for me was my blind faith in the system.  I believed that after doing my time, I would earn freedom and be able to escape, (ironic in and of itself).  Like many former college students however,  I soon realized that instead I was destined for a career that had nothing whatsoever to do with my degree.

Q. Who do you think this book is most appropriate for?

A. This book is appropriate for any teen who doesn’t like or doesn’t fit in to school but does have a desire to pursue a life of happiness and satisfaction.  It is for the human being struggling to be heard inside the capsule of institutionalized schooling.  It is for the concerned parent of the teen who is showing signs of emotional disturbance or has been ‘diagnosed’ with a supposed disorder, or is showing signs of performance and testing stress.  It is for the out-of-the-box thinker who is ready to unplug from a manufactured system and reconnect with a more real-life experience.

Q. How is “opting out” different from home schooling?

A. Homeschooling is a broad term that is often misunderstood.  Laurette Lynn who wrote the intro for the guide, suggests terms like ‘independent learning’ or ‘home educating’ paint a more accurate picture of the concept.  A home educator herself, “It’s not about schooling” she says “It’s about learning.” And that is what opting out is about.  The interesting thing is that most teens don’t want or need someone to “school” them.  While they probably have the desire to learn, it looks very different from being “schooled.” Their interests guide them and they are well equipped with the know-how to learn what they need to learn in order to accomplish their goals.  What’s more, the rich technological resources available today make it that much easier for teens to experience whatever they want to learn.

When we look at the idea of opting out, from the perspective of this book, we’re looking into the idea of teens taking ownership for their learning.and living.  This means learning with choice rather than coercion.  In the guide we share many alternatives.  These include online learning, alternative learning centers/environments that follow a democracy education approach like Summerhill and Sudbury, pursuing an educational path with open education resources (OER), taking college classes that the student is actually interested in, and/or pursuing apprenticeship/ internship opportunities.  What is most important at the start of this journey is that the teen has a well designed plan for their future and we feature an example of one teen who did just that in the guide.

Q. How do you respond to parents who fear that, without the formal structure a school provides, their kids could miss out on the opportunity of going to college?

I explain in detail how You Don’t Have to Go to School or Take the SAT/ACT to Get Into A Good College and then I give them an example of a friend who did that
Getting into College Without Going to School and then I give them a whole bunch more examples.

Q. Do you have a sense of what percentage of students who opt out are admitted to the college of their choice?

A. First I want to caution you about falling into the assumption that college is the goal for everyone.  There are many of us who believe the college bubble will soon burst.  Some of us know of Dale Stephen’s work with the “Uncollege” movement where people can begin to move away from “college” credentials and toward “personal mastery” credentials.  The other caution I want to put out there is the idea of students and college.  I’d prefer to think of people who are pursuing the passion of their choice.  If college is necessary for that, then they can pursue the college that will help them get to where they want to go.  Frequently 18 is not the best age for this.  To answer your question though, I have not heard of any one who has taken ownership of their learning who has not been able to pursue a college career that has been one which helps them pursue their passions.  As I wrote in Getting into College Without Going to School, there are many colleges that prefer autodidacts.

Q. It seems like opting out, the way you describe it in the book, is actually not any less work than going to school.

I think most people would rather spend a dozen hours doing something they love than a single hour doing something they do not care for.  People enjoy working toward doing what they love and what will make their lives better.  If asked, my guess is most people would choose doing what they love over enduring a prescribed curriculum…however, I guess there are people who like to be told what to do and when.  For them school might be a good choice.  It’s not about avoiding work or effort.  On the contrary, it’s about channelling our effort into something that drives us and embracing the freedom to choose what that is ourselves rather than being forced.   People may have this concern because we view teens as lazy, but we fail to realize that this forced system of compulsory schooling has inadvertently created a mass-rejection – and that has manifested in rebellion and what we perceive as youth malaise.   It is human nature to reject being forced.  If we stop forcing kids to perform on demand, the natural human desire to learn will thrive and blossom.

Q. You describe how a student creating a learning program can get school credit, take college entrance exams, and the logistics of fitting an informal education into a formalized/standardized world.

A. First let’s dispel another misconception. Why on earth do we want to prepare people for a formalized, standardized world? Why do we continue to reward conformity rather than encourage individuality?  Why do we continue to perpetuate the notion that school prepares kids for the a systematized existence rather than the actual ‘real world’?  Those who take ownership of their learning are often anything but those who fit into such worlds. People who hate the formalization and standardization of school are often those who go on to pursue careers much more interesting than those featured in “The Office.”  They don’t follow the standard, they set the standard.  They are our Lady Gaga’s, Richard Branson’s,  Walt Disney’s, Lucile Ball’s, Albert Einstein’s, Florence Nightengale’s, Mark Twain’s, and William Shakespeare’s of the world.  Of course, there are many other successful lesser known people who achieved great happiness and success without school as well.  The point is, you can achieve great levels of success by following your passion rather than following the norm.

The views expressed here are Nielsen’s alone and do not represent the opinions or endorsement of the NYC DOE or any other entity.