Why School?

Why School, the new book by Will Richardson

Seems like a lot of educators I follow on Twitter have read the new book by Will Richardson. I bought it and have started reading it on my Kindle! I recently scooped an article about the book written by Chris Kennedy a the Superintendent of Schools / CEO with the West Vancouver School District (West Vancouver, BC). I think his post is well worth a read. I agree with both that there is a sense of urgency here.  We truly can’t wait 10 or 20 years to engage in the conversation of what learning and schooling can/should look like. You can agree or disagree here, but we need to have this conversation. We need to look at the changes that are happening outside schools and we have to discuss how to embrace technology and use it as a tool for learning. We have to start thinking about engaging the students and have them think about the world outside the classroom.

Richardson concludes, “Just imagine the learners they could become if we made these skills [using technology to solve real problems and think independently] the focus of our work; if, instead of passing the test, we made those ever-more important skills of networking, inquiry, creation, sharing, unlearning, and relearning the answer to the ‘why school’ question.  Imagine what our kids could become if we helped them take full advantage of all they have available to them for learning.”

Key themes that make the difference:

• Share everything (or at least something)
• Discover, don’t deliver, the curriculum
• Talk to strangers
• Be a master learner
• Do real work for real audiences
• Transfer the power