A Revolution In Education - Kiran Bir Sethi & Sandeep Dutt

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Jim and Chris connected by way of an email from Jim who was intrigued by Chris' article in GettingSmart.com about "The Superhero Schools of Philadelphia."  After a few conversations, Chris asked Jim if he would like to join him in the second series of A...

In this 2nd series of our A Revolution in Education podcast, we capture, lift up, and share the journeys and stories of revolutionaries in education – those who are devoting their life's work to making a difference in the lives of others through education.

Also available here:  arevolutionineducation.buzzsprout.com

Apple Podcast:  podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a-revolution-in-education

As much as our world changes – socially, economically, politically and technologically – for the most part, our schools remain the same.  Yes, there are some minor improvements.  And good ones too.  However, most of these are still employed within an antiquated system and practices that do very little to truly impact the greater well-being and future of our youth.  To judge schools (as we have done) solely on students’ performance on standardized ELA and math assessments has unwittingly pressed most schools and their systems made accountable to these results to “double-down” on this focus at the expense of the greater well-being of our youth.

 

But what do we mean by the greater well-being of our youth?  Rather than answer that by myself, you can hear this from the voices of the dozen-plus outstanding educators who contributed to this podcast.  And not only do they speak to the need for a transformation/revolution of our schools and school system for the greater good of our youth, but in the end the greater good of our communities and our humanity.

 

Touched upon throughout is the need to give ALL of our youth the opportunity to pursue the lives they wish to live.  Touched upon is not only the need to imagine the possibilities of learning and learning communities that can contribute to the well-being of our youth, our communities, and the world, but also the NEED to pursue these possibilities, and learn as we go.  Finally, the contributors speak eloquently about the power of relationships within and across communities to transform education toward a greater purpose and to engage everyone in that transformation.  We need to co-create so that we can co-learn which can then lead us all to a shared transformation of outcomes rather than the transactional factory system we seem to be stuck in that resembles the "I Love Lucy" chocolate conveyor belt (if you are old enough to have seen this clip).

 

We need gardens that both value and support the natural growth of our youth.  And we need gardens plentiful with the resources that allow each individual and the garden to thrive and be abundant and generative.

 

These educators give us some insight as to what it takes to grow such gardens – the result of a revolution through transformation.