Subject: Deep Roots

Posted by Tim Joy on 12/27/2010

Message:

A few days back, Jack Harick asked us all about "deep causes" for our current state of affairs in education. And I've been wondering, since, about metaphors and how we see things in certain ways because of them.

I do think that we SD teachers are primarily about changing people's frame of reference. It's a big thing we are undertaking, this shift from linear to non-linear change, from parts to relationships, from departmental to synthesizing courses, from lists to circularity, from sequence to feedback. The work is part vocabulary lesson, part science lab, part story-telling, part simulation sweeping aside memorization, part self-reflection.

Yet, we are sometimes our own worst enemy in this work. Hence, another crass invitation to my blog: "Metaphors we have lived by" (http://itsallonething.com/). It's hard to get out of the way.

As we have discussed all these things about change - climate and schools and course work and the varied lives of our students - I am thinking about the words of Donella Meadows: "There are no cheap tickets to mastery." Keep analyzing, keep thinking, keep testing models.

All this cyber-frothing aside, ultimately, the work is about teachers alongside students doing the work of trying to understand the world so that our progeny might live well. There are enough anomalies piling up which cannot be explained with old systems . . . at some point, our society and schools will change. Is already changing as we come to terms with a raw view of things.

Great thanks to all who are participating - the topics are wonderful (story-telling, metaphors, root causes of educational stasis, the forgotten one).

Tim Joy

Follow Ups:

Deep Roots - Della Robinson 12/27/2010 
Deep Roots - Scott Guthrie 12/27/2010 
Deep Roots - Chad Green 12/27/2010
Deep Roots - Pedro D. Almaguer Prado 12/27/2010
Deep Roots - Bill Rathborne 12/27/2010
Deep Roots - Ed Johnson 12/27/2010
Deep Roots - Chad Green 12/28/2010
Deep Roots - Jack Harich 12/28/2010
Deep Roots - Pedro D. Almaguer Prado 12/27/2010
Deep Roots - Kathy Minardi 12/28/2010
Deep Roots - Kathy Arizmendi 12/28/2010
Deep Roots - Bill Rathborne 12/28/2010
Deep Roots - Pedro D. Almaguer Prado 12/27/2010