Educating For Human Greatness v.3 flyer

[philipkovacs]

Educating for Human Greatness

A HIGHER VISION
of Teaching, Thinking and Learning
© 2008 The Human Greatness Group

“There is nothing progressive about being pig-headed and refusing to admit a mistake.” --- C. S. Lewis

In 1983 a National Commission on Excellence in Education issued a “Nation At Risk Report” and set in motion a series of government-imposed reforms, all based on a false goal, student achievement in curriculum. The latest of these reforms, “No Child Left Behind,” put extra pressure on teachers to ignore the diverse needs of students and to standardize education through scripted reading, writing, and math. This top-down pressure is evidence that public school teaching is not regarded as a profession in our society.

Over many years our culture has become so obsessed with curriculum we have lost sight of our purpose – curriculum for what? Student achievement in curriculum has become a false goal, an end in and of itself. Grade-point-averages have become the main indicators of achievement in education. We have a cultural cramp – a mass mind-set that spawns counterfeit reform movements.

For genuine reform of public education we must start with a clear purpose. We suggest Education for Human Greatness.

In 1973, ten years before “Nation at Risk,” the teachers at Hill Field Elementary School in Clearfield, Utah decided to ask parents about their priorities for the education of their children. In interviews with thousands of parents, over several years, teachers were surprised to learn of three needs that parents felt were more important to them than the need to have a child achieve in reading, writing and arithmetic.

First, parents wanted teachers to respect children as individuals, to pay attention to each child’s special needs, and to help youngsters develop their unique talents and abilities.

Second, they wanted children to increase in curiosity and passion for knowledge – they wanted children to “fall in love with learning.”

And third, parents wanted teachers to help children learn how to express themselves, communicate and get along. The priorities were so consistent with nearly every parent, the teachers surmised that these may be the core needs of people in every culture – the need to know who we are and what we can become (identity), the need for knowledge (inquiry), and the need for respect and love (interaction).

This finding led to a new concept – curriculum should not be viewed as a goal, but as a tool to help students grow in identity, inquiry and interaction. Even though the concept was temporarily smothered by the standardization movement, it remained alive all these years and has now evolved to become a framework for authentic changes of public, private and other forms of education.

A Clear Purpose for Education

Develop great human beings to be contributors (not burdens) to society by focusing on 7 Dimensions of Human Greatness:

1. Identity – Help students learn who they are – as individuals with unlimited potential, develop their unique talents and gifts to realize self-worth and develop a strong desire to be contributors to family, school and community.

2. Inquiry – Stimulate curiosity; awaken a sense of wonder and appreciation for nature and humankind. Help students develop the power to ask important questions.

3. Interaction – Promote courtesy, caring, communication and cooperation.

4. Initiative – Foster self-directed learning, will power and self-evaluation.

5. Imagination – Nurture creativity in all of its many forms.

6. Intuition – Help students learn how to feel and recognize truth with their hearts as well as with their minds – develop spirituality and humility.

7. Integrity – Develop honesty, character, morality and responsibility for self.

SURPRISE: When reading, writing, math and other disciplines are taught as tools rather than goals, students' learning produces more depth and breadth, they retain more of what they learn and are able to apply it to solve other problems.

This “higher vision” allows teachers to perform as professionals who involve parents and inspire students to accomplish amazing things.

Contacts for more information:

Lynn Stoddard, a veteran educator, is the author of three books and numerous articles on the need and ways to reinvent schooling. [e-mail]

MaryBeth Merritt is an educator, scientist, parent, artist and community activist She is a founder of Four Winds, a non-profit educational organization. [e-mail]

Don Perl – Is a lifetime educator of thirty-five years. He is presently an adjunct professor of Spanish at the University of Northern Colorado. [e-mail]

Phoebe Plank, a teacher for 15 years, is taking one year off from teaching to bring Educating for Human Greatness to students, teachers and administrators. [e-mail]

Susan Ohanian – A longtime teacher and prolific writer on education issues. She maintains a website in opposition to the corporate-politico takeover of schools and the standardization of curriculum. [e-mail]

Emmanuel Bernstein is a veteran educator who has taught all ages. He wrote the book, The Secret Revolution: A Psychologist’s Adventures in Education. [e-mail]

Yvonne Siu-Runyan – Dr. Siu-Runyan is professor emerita, the University of Northern Colorado and a member of the presidential team for the National Council Teachers of English [e-mail]

Lu Pilgrim – Faculty, Pacific Oaks College, Pasadena, CA, 50 years of experience as a public and independent school teacher and administrator in MI, CA, UT, and WY. [e-mail]

Philip Kovacs -- A former high school English teacher now teaching teachers, Dr. Kovacs helped organize the Educator Roundtable which solicited over 30,000 thousand signatures on a petition calling on Congress to dismantle NCLB. [e-mail]

Mary Orlando has been a Montessori educator for the past 40 years, teaching at every developmental level from 3 year olds through 8th grade. [e-mail]

Betty Terrell is a third grade teacher at Sacajawea Elementary School, in Seattle WA, which adopted as its mission 12 years ago, Educating for Human Greatness. [e-mail].

Alfie Kohn, the author of eleven books, has been recognized by Time magazine as “perhaps the country’s most outspoken critic of education’s fixation on grades [and] test scores.” www.alfiekohn.org.

Nel Noddings – A Lee L. Jacks Professor of Childhood Education, Emerita at Stanford University. Her latest book is When School Reform Goes Wrong. [e-mail]

Stephen Krashen is best known for developing the first comprehensive theory of second language acquisition. He is the author of several books. [e-mail]

Darrell Stoddard -- Founder, Pain Research Institute www.healpain.net Author of PAIN FREE FOR LIFE, Email: [e-mail]

Lawrence Baines – Professor Baines is Judith Daso Herb Chair in Adolescent Literacy at The University of Toledo. [e-mail]

Boyd R. Cox – Dr. Cox is a retired educator with 25 years teaching experience as an elementary teacher and who taught 8 years as an adjunct instructor in basic mathematics and electronics at a community college. [e-mail]

William Spady, an internationally recognized authority, is the author of five books. He is the current Director of the New Possibilities Network. [e-mail]

More Contacts ….. [e-mail]

Educating for Human Greatness

A HIGHER VISION
of Teaching, Thinking and Learning





© 2008 The Human Greatness Group

[Leo J. Fahey]

Hey David,

Picking fights requires, ugh, orgnanizing, so too creating "momentum in an agreed-upon direction" and "following the energy". And organizing means some good folks need to get themselves physically together to plan strategy, the sequence of battles, implement what is planned and build their organization. From my perspective here on the beach in The Rockaways, NYC, I see no such gatherings happening spontaneously. A rebellious group here and there not stitched together in a combined and coordinated manner is just a bunch of folks letting off a little steam. Call it what you will, there is a crying need for a coordinating thing-I call it an intelllectual property production, penetration and advocacy organization.

Another thing, NCLB is not the enemy, as it is the federal codification of a very powerful idea: Equality. One of the base American ideas, and ideals, is equal opportunity and the common school is the expression of this. Standardization of learning and learning outcomes is an expression of the common school. NCLB is the expression of the standardization of the common school and is meant to assure equal opportunity of youngsters across race and class providing all the blessings of liberty in the pursuit of happiness. I think we need as equally powerful and as deeply felt belief to bring to the nation's table which if collectively organized around might duel with Equality enough to put NCLB in its place as a failed attempt to micro-manage the future of each and every child in the nation.

Oh, I doubt Organizing for American is any more than another means to push the new President's agenda, a way of "going to the people, and around the Congress". It will not lead at all to any bottom-up swells of new and different ideas and projects or grass roots activism which might run countrary to the agenda, unless folks suckered into believing they have real influence finally get wise and decide to rebel.

Leo

David Wolinsky said:

Okay, right now this thread has the thread. And Jeffrey's question IMHO is the question. Watcha got? Got jazz? Got (ugh) baseball? Cultural paradigm shift is NOT about education per se.

And the union/parent thing is a good marker of our fighting non-status. We already have won the declarative/documentation war -- in terms of the correlation of forces THERE. i.e. One Ohanian, one Krashen are more valuable than all the execs and Duncans in existence..

or would be, if reason were just a little more decisive than it actually is. So back to the fight:

UNIONS, ARE INSTITUTIONS, like the Presidency except unfortunately profoundly smaller. Real institutions are where the good guys sleep with the bad guys. Don't like it? Get thee to a nunnery. Otherwise you need people as smart and tough as Susan or Alfie IN UNIONS, strengthening the good guys, encouraging , educating and armtwisting the undecided -- and waylaying the mofos. Same elsewhere. Parents can be transients, warrior-angels, or troops. Is there a single, non elitist approach to parents? Of course not... unless you forgot that you are a teacher. Don't complin that parents --or anyone -- do not understand as much as you. And of course some are way ahead of us.

I haven't done the homework, but sounds like in Colorado our co-thinkers have picked a fight and are fighting -- and maybe incidentally modelling for the rest of us. There are those among us who are going to fight as well as we can -- we don't need the best practice -- we don't (probably) even need the Magna Carta of education. We just need momentum in an agreed-upon direction. No quibbles, please, about for example NCLB. In the realm where paradigm and praxis meet, NCLB is the friggin' enemy. It's just that "defeating" it, would only be a good step forward, on the road to something that right now we give the inspired and/or ridiculous name EHG.

I think more inspired, because of the terrific dialogues Lynn Phil et al have provoked. But now that we have named so many friends and enemies, I think we must pick real fights... maybe even w/Obama via Duncan -- remembering, of course, the untapped practical power of jazz, counterpoint, and what most people like to forget -- the potential in every child ...until we abandon or sell them.

ANybody wanna bring our happy thoughts and faces into, uh, Organizing for America? I suggest following the energy rather thn the money or even the ideas...

[Leo J. Fahey]

Yvonne,

"The parents need someone who will direct them to resources.": I'm unsure of this as more and more parents are becoming internet literate, even if it's just to keep up with their kids. And, I would add, knowing more about things without an organization to actualize that knowledge, to fight to make a difference, to struggle to change the conditions which impelled the research, is greatly frustrating and, ultimately, self-defeating as such parents give-up trying to change conditions resigning themselves to make the best of a bad circumstance. So, while I am all for spreading the word about the sites you mentioned, I have to say, again, and again, there is a need for an organizing institution to get these folks working, actualizing on their information. And such organization is the likes I wish folks here in the group would help establish. Call it what you will, but the term "think tank" appears to not fit well with some folks. So, I will try not to use the term and will instead call it, an intellectual property production, penetration and advocacy organization.

Leo

Yvonne Siu-Runyan (PANA) said:

The parents need someone who will direct them to resources. They like our teachers have "learned helplessness." There are resources out there: Fair Test, Susan Ohanian's Website, Stephen Krashen's Web site, the Coalition for Better Education. Mothers Against WASL and even peruse NCTE's Web site. Each of these places have tons of information they can share with others. They probably don't know what to do with their frustrations.

They can join our EFHG Ning as well.

Yvonne

Leo J. Fahey said:

Yvonne,

Getting mad without "getting even", I suggest, is a waiste of energy. Now, I've seen in my area of New York City some parents getting mad, but they are niether wishing to get organized or looking to do anything that differently. First off, I've been for about five years attending our public school district's Community Education Council. (Under a reorgainization of the NYC public schools, the local district school boards, which in many ways were equal in status to other school boards around the state, were morphed into these "advisory" committees which have zero power to affect anything-still, they are a place where parents can go to petition for redress.) The numbers of parents who come out to these meetings is scandalously low. Still, what I've been given to understand through listening to those who show up is that when parents are upset they will take their upsetment to the principal but will go no further than that. And they will live with whatever the principal says and acts upon. Now, there are some who come to these meetings complaining about the principal's unresponsiveness. Yet, it seems from all that I could gather from talking with these parents that they have no wish to get together to do anything about problems which might be common, rather they are far more interested in getting their individual complaints resolved.

The other thing is that from all I have heard and as a consequence of almost five years of conversation with parents who did show up at these meetings, not a one wants to do schooling differently. Rather they want the principals to better supervise teachers to see that their children are being taught properly. And, of course, they want an end to the current standardized testing regime. The numerous complaints about testing are over the amount of testing children are now required to do, not about the high stakes nature of these assesments or testing as assessment in general. These parents are okay with conventional testing, just not as many and not as much instructional time taken in test prep. In the end these folks are okay with conventional school, they just want it done better so their child will have an equal opportunity for a happy and successful life.

Again, what I am pointing to is an attitude, a mind set, about schooling, something which seems to be impenetrable but which must as a social construct change if schooling is to be "on the side of the child". And this social thought world of our nation is where we need to be about working to change. And, again I say we need something, call it a think tank or whatever, something which can give organzational expression to the anger and a direction to propagating a different schooling paradigm

Leo


Yvonne Siu-Runyan (PANA) said:

Okay, I'll take a risk and be frank.

For me, what is really scary is that professional organizations and teachers are playing in the sandbox with NCLBers. Some say they have to play with the NCLBers to make change. Others are motivated by greed, and still others because of the need to fit in and others from pure fear. Also, consider that those in power don't like it when they are questioned. They want GROUP THINK!

Please go to the Coalition for Better Education's Web site. Don Perl and colleagues are doing great things in Colorado. CBE has put up billboards, have an interactive question and answer link about re: the CSAP, Colorado's high stakes test, and other items of importance. Other Web sites to send people are: Susan Ohanian's, Mothers Against the WASL, Fair Test, Educators Roundtable. Sign up for Susan Ohanian's, Stephen Krashen's, and Don Perl's posts. Then when you get posts from Ohanian, Krashen, and Perl. pass them on to others.

People need to get good and mad or the white elephant standing in the room will not go away.. There is too much money being made by the purveyors of high stakes testing. In addition, government and corporations, and other institutions really don't want a thinking citizenry. Hey Colorado's intent is clear. Colorado's State Dept. of Education is rewriting standards to INSURE THAT COLORADO STUDENTS ARE 21ST CENTURY WORKFORCE READY. To me, Colorado lawmakers, standardistos, and business folks want a citizenry who...Won't question, will just do as they are told. The politicos, standardistos, and business folks will just retool the citizens for their own purposes.

As far as I am concerned, the only thing one needs to be 21st, 22nd century or whatever ready is to question the status quo and authority. But, those in charge don't really want this to happen.

Another point, extortion is going on in schools. School Boards, school administrators, teachers, and any one in an official capacity in education should have to sign a "Conflict of Interest" contract. Marketers abound everywhere I look. It is sickening. Sheez...tell me how do marketers add value? Our students should be learning about the propaganda techniques being used on them. Ever notice how there are advertisements about the TV news every few minutes? Newscasters don't just report the news anymore, they spin the news. BBC is just about the only news I watch on TV anymore.

In the meanwhile, sports heroes make hundreds of thousands of dollars per game. Some even make a million dollar a game. Citizens tax themselves to build a stadium, and won't fund schools. It is all so upside down. Be wary of corporations that produce "so-called" learning software and programs. Their CEOs would like us to think they have the solutions. All we have to do is sign up for their programs. They are merely wolves in sheep's clothing.

Terry is right about the money. There always seems to be enough money to bail out the corporations, Wall Street, and wars. They don't seem to be held accountable. And those same people who hand out money to failing corporations, Wall Street, and the war machinery, want educators to be held accountable for things over which we have no control, such as poverty and parenting, and other ills of society.

This is why people need to get good and mad. So, write letters to the editors, place information re: the travesties of NCLB and high stakes testing in places where people will pick them up and read them, wear anti-NCLB buttons, and inform your friends and relatives, and ask them to do the same.

Yvonne



thebandguy said:

Both Jeffrey, and Leo, I could not agree more with what you were stating. However, I cannot sit idly by and let the public school system crumble either. Thousands of schools are closing, leaving students either without a classroom, or in a more crowded classroom. (More the latter now, but in the future, where are the kids going to go when their families can't afford private school?) Teachers are losing jobs. Jobs they love, have a passion to do, and want to be part of something greater than this country has ever possibly been able to fathom because education today does not have the support that it needs from the government, the community and the parents. The government said that "they don't have the money". Well, I find that hard to believe when we went to a war on a specific budget. When that money ran out, they came up with 87 Billion dollars-Just like that. When that money ran out, they came up with another 92 Billion Dollars-Just like that. When that money ran out, the government came up with another 83 Billion Dollars-just like that, and I could keep going. The government decided to fight a war that we could not win. It isn't about freedom, it's about religion. It isn't about bombs like they used as an excuse, it is about religion. How come we can find the terrorists that we have no idea what they really look like, yet we cannot find nuclear weapons that show up on radar from space, and a 6 foot Muslum on Dialasis? None of this makes any sense to me. Where is all that money coming from? Blego is being impeached because he crossed Madigan (the speaker of the house.) Most government officials don't know the first thing about educating a child, yet they pass laws all the time, that are not in the best interest of the children they are suppose to protect. I cannot sit idly by and watch it happen without putting up a fight. I agree, we need a clear vision, and we need to decide what would be our goal. However, the movement has started. Teachers are angry because they have to follow a law that doesn't make sense. Teachers are frustrated because they have to teach to a test that doesn't have anything to do with the children they are teaching. Teachers are concerned because students every day, because their students lack the critical thinking skills it takes to survive in any type of society and solve problems as an adult. Teachers are empathic to student needs, but because their curriculums are designed to aid in their scores on the test, the do not teach the necessary skills students will need as an adult. Teachers are thwarted by the fact they don't have the necessary materials to teach their curriculums. Most of all teachers are exhausted because they are trying to meet the standards, but feel as if they are treading water in the long run, especially if they have large class sizes. I for one, cannot sit by and watch this continue to crumble. I have written countless letters to my Senetors, Congressmen, and Representatives at the Federal and State Level letting them know of my concerns.
I hate to bring this up, but has anyone thought about joining in the fight with either of the major teacher unions? They have the money, the research, and the power to help make the change that needs to happen. It's just something to think about, because this small group alone, will have a difficult time making a difference. Just my additional thoughts.
Terry.

[David Wolinsky]

Hey Leo,

My Rockaway memories are from the 1950s, when it was summer paradise for relatively poor Bronxites like my parents. Right now my beach is an ice-covered driveway, and many trees in a freeze-fog. If only "stuck" were this (frozen) beautiful....

But the roads are dangerous: my wife stayed at the nursing home she works nights at, and told me someone was killed on Rte. 15 when the snow began yesterday. And this (Frederick, MD and environs) is not rural, or even North.

"Semantics" are funny, because we do construct meaning. Anything you are motivated to organize is probably good -- but giving it sucky names will suck out some of the energy: "Think tank" puts you in there with the brainiacs who get real power when their friends get elected. "intellectual property production" puts you with the braniacs who communicate only with the like-minded.

But of course you actually communicate much, and you and I are at the very least allies (in the Rotten Apple we'd prob be friends).

There is top-down and bottom-up... and the need for both. Smart people always are almost always "de facto" for intellectual centralization, whatever their philosophical postion. We "know" so much. For related reasons Reagan and all following Republicans practiced Big, Big Government.

So where's democracy and community organizing? Well unless they work for total morons (and some of us have) teachers can pull it off in the classroom. Many on EHG have that kind of radical equality (not communes, but teams with coaches) as their explicit vision for education.

But then we get to the very nasty macrocosm, where, for example, the temptation to be cynical about Obama is enormous. I threw out Organizing for America as an orgaqnization that is now shapeless except for the top=down Obamacrats, but has a base which is not only some smarties, but many inspired people. Getting dirty in that organizations workings might be more fun than lobbying or Unions -- but all of them and more are "our" necessary sphere.
"Spontaneously" is irrelevant. We are neither elitists nor waiting for the masses. We do our work and try to have it catch on. There is more likelihood of that right now, but may that could change with, say, a more complete economic collapse.

Same for parents. Take them as you find them, and do what you can.

[Rogier Gregoire]

I'm not sure that this comment will lead to an easier or simpler rethinking or the original statement but within the seven dimensions of human greatness the second dimension should be amended to more precisely define Inquiry as the revealing and examination of our assumptions and the assumptions of others in a search for greater understanding. The mind naturally makes assumptions in an effort to establish a coherent and comprehensive reality. Inquiry addresses that natural fabrication of reality with flawed, incomplete or inaccurate assumptions. The critical observation is that inquiry must be applied equally within as it is applied without. a critical curiosity about ones own thoughts as well as the ideas of others.

Overall I agree with the seven dimensions of human greatness but came to the conclusion that there were two easy to remember and simple to convey as goals when schools aspire to promote human greatness, they are:

1. - For students to develop a capacity for clear and critical independent thought and
2. - A responsibility for the common good of the society as well as themselves.

The strategies and approaches that can accomplish these ends might be infinite but the goals are simple and unavoidable. These two simple objectives are at the core of human greatness and embody the seven dimensions of Human Greatness. If we aspire to these two simple objectives in education then human greatness will be the result.

Rogier Gregoire

[Sidnie O'Connell]

Hi Lynn and all,

I found you after all, thanks to Susan, in response to a comment about creating a vision of what we're for, in addition to what we're against! Finally, and slowly, looking up instead of down.

Just a quick comment, in some respects similar to Rogier's 2nd objective above, and Lynn's 3rd: interaction. I wonder if it might also include promoting community, for what else might we becoming great for? And in my community i include our environment.

Thanks for providing this opportunity. Sid

[Michael j. Trout]

Hi, I just was introduced to this site by my friend and colleague Reid Cromwell. I like your message and vision and it is inline with my own. I believe technology will bring about what I call the eSingularity -- the moment when all learning is made free and accessible to all. I believe that the clear purpose of education as outlined above will be the objectives of learning and ultimately a reality for everyone. I would like to encourage folks to join the eRevolution movement and become aware and familiar with the eSingularity Initiative that is getting under way for India and China to play a role in flattening global education. Something else that we will seek to get underway in 2010 are TEDxFutureEd conferences that will become public forums to share great TED talks that are education focused, and create a forum for us to talk about the need and the ability fo make all learning free and accessible to mankind. I hope you will join me in supporting these ideas and programs for the future of Education.

Thanks you,

Michael