“Each of us have a different mosaic of intelligences. Uniform schooling ignores these differences.” – Howard Gardner
Every year Trinity’s Sixth Grade students decorate pumpkins with their fathers (or special friends). Walking by these works of art each day (at least up until Halloween), I think of the great creative potential our students have. I think of the ways “school” often puts limits on imagination. I think of the rich mosaic of intelligences that walk through our classroom doors each day. How innovative could our students be if we honored the creating mind?
The creating mind breaks new ground. It puts forth new ideas, poses unfamiliar questions, conjures up fresh ways of thinking, arrives at unexpected answers. –Howard Gardner
If you haven’t seen Steve Jobs’ 2005 Commencement Address at Stanford University, it’s worth watching. I find it interesting that Jobs, arguably one of the greatest innovators throughout history, spends very little time in his address talking about the products that made him famous. Instead, he reflects on process…specifically how personalized learning, failure, and perseverance were integral to his career and ultimately to the success of his company. In my mind, the legacy that Steve Jobs leaves for all of us is powerful: we must value and celebrate the process. We must try to relinquish our focus on product.
So what does this look like in education? In parenting? What might we all learn from Steve Jobs?
1. We can learn that personalizing learning matters.
“The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn’t interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting…I loved it. And what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on.”
Jobs dropped out of Reed College after only six months and did so to pursue a personalized path to learning. Although he “dropped-out” of college, he spent his time “dropping-in” to classes like calligraphy. These classes, more aligned to his passions and strengths, allowed him to build a foundation for his future and even shaped the distinct typography that personal computers have today. What if Jobs didn’t possess the self-knowledge and confidence to chart his own path?
2. We can learn that failure shouldn’t be feared.
“I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me…It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.”
Even though Jobs was fired from Apple, the company he started in his parents’ garage, he wasn’t deterred by failure. Instead, he saw failure as opportunity. He was able to reflect, connect-the-dots, and grow from what was a personally and professionally difficult time in his life. What if Jobs hadn’t possessed the ability to reflect and grow from seemingly insurmountable obstacles?
3. We can learn that perseverance is priceless.
“I’m pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn’t been fired from Apple. It was awful-tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love.”
Regardless of whether you are 5, 15, or 55, “sometimes life hits you on the head with a brick.” Jobs reminds us that it is our reaction to those setbacks which often determines our future. Jobs kept going, in part because he loved what he was doing, and also because he was used to overcoming setbacks. He learned perseverance by persevering and found many opportunities to practice. What if Jobs adopted a spirit of bitterness and resentment instead of a spirit of perseverance and optimism?
It’s tempting for all of us, as educators and as parents, to have a heightened focus on product. The B+ on the science test, the acceptances to secondary schools, the stickers on the behavior chart. However, at Trinity, our Mission Statement states that we aim “to create a community of learners in which each child can acquire the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to achieve his or her unique potential.” That knowledge, the skills, and those attitudes are sometimes hard to quantify.
It’s certainly easier to display a math test with a 100% score on the refrigerator or reward children for finishing a certain number of chapter books, but how can we, just as Jobs reminded us in his Commencement Address, honor and celebrate our children’s processes of learning, of growing, and of becoming young people who will – at some point in the future – do great things? If we are always focused on the product or the “end-thing” (whatever that thing may be), we may overlook those very valuable moments of growth and development happening right before our eyes. These moments, all part of the learning process, often matter more than the end product. They are they moments which Jobs alluded to that shape character and more substantially impact a child’s life and journey toward realizing their unique potential.
Last week, Heidi Hayes Jacobs spent two full days immersed in the learning community of Trinity School. She not only delivered presentations to faculty, staff, parents, and members of Trinity’s Board of Trustees, but she also facilitated book clubs and spent six hours examining the School’s social studies curriculum alongside a small group of faculty and administrators. Heidi’s book, Curriculum 21, focuses on upgrading curriculum to make schools places which prepare students for a changing world.
The last chapter of Curriculum 21, entitled “It Takes Some Getting Used To,” is appropriately named. Let the book’s final sentences sit with you for a while:
“If we accept that we need to prepare students for a vastly different future than we have known, then our understanding of the focus of education also needs to shift. This change will require a curriculum that provides individuals with the dispositions necessary to engage in lifelong learning. Simultaneously, our vision of the teacher’s role needs to shift from that of the information provider to one of a catalyst, model, coach, innovator, researcher, and collaborator with the learner throughout the learning process.”
So, how do we even define this new type of teaching and learning?
For me, I can walk through the halls of Trinity, popping into classrooms where rich, collaborative, thoughtful, and sometimes loud and messy learning is taking place and a definition begins to emerge. If all of us had the opportunity to take these “learning walks” through the ELD and ULD hallways, we’d certainly construct a variety of definitions.
After Heidi’s visit, I wondered what the children would say about this new type of learning and teaching. What would Trinity’s own faculty have to say? On Thursday and Friday of last week, I took my video camera each time I left my office in order to capture some student and teacher reflections on what makes a good 21st century teacher. What can we learn from the student and teacher responses? http://blip.tv/play/hI0ngtamMgA
Toward Wide-Awakeness 