What’s Goin’ On?
Marvin Gaye sang an anthem of a generation on May 20, 1971: What’s Goin’ On?
“… father, father, father, we don’t need to escalate….
war is not the answer…
we need to bring some lovin’ here today…
we got to find a way…”
With so much going on in this world, from multiple wars, famine, and worldwide drug and human trafficking…. to economic recessions and global warming…. to one of the greatest human-made ecological disasters in history rippling across the Gulf Coast…. we got to find a new way… to educate.
For most children, parents, and educators around the US the school year is coming to an end… and with each year we educators wonder what will happen next. What’s goin’ on?
Around the world, most say that it will be education that turns things around—across fields such as healthcare, sustainable agriculture, ecological awareness, entrepreneurial spirit, even financial literacy. But will education around the world as we know it —teachers in front of classes dispensing information to 50 or more children--be enough? Will computers downloading infinite, overwhelming, multimedia information to kids in a classroom—be enough?
Will “experts” going out into the field to help others use the highest quality teaching approaches as they “convey” information to adults and elders in devastated, underserved communities? Or will they just “tell” people their “information.” We certainly must build schools as a starting point… as Greg Mortensen has done in a profound way… but what happens inside the walls of these schools? (See the book “Stones into Schools”)
We at Thinking Foundation believe that we must ReCharter schools around the world with a practical, buildable foundation based on creative thinking, analytic thinking, systems-ecological thinking, collaborative thinking, and critical reflection as THE guideposts for teaching, learning, leading and assessment. For what? For the improvement of human capacities to think and the development of deep, contextualized content knowledge for problem-solving and decision-making at every level of a community.
We got to find a different way. How?
Today I leave for England to attend the National Conference on Thinking Skills—and the launch of the International Association of Thinking Schools (more on this in the next blog!) Yesterday I just picked up a book for my flight over: “How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas” by David Bornstein. My belief is that we need to become educational entrepreneurs by ReChartering the mission of schools.
Bornstein details in the first pages that the term “entrepreneur” means, in translation from the original in French, “one who undertakes.” As the author points out, social entrepreneurism is a global phenomenon led by people relatively unknown who are advancing creative solutions to problems big and small… and who are also often attempting to advance systemic change. Call it a paradigm mind-shift. Reframing the old view.
As we close up the school year, I see BIG openings from the relatively small actions taken by a few individuals with a little bit of support from Thinking Foundation-- all of which you can access on our website. From Carla Carvalho’s team-work in Bahia, Brazil, to Bob Price and Elizabeth Kesling through the Ethiopia Thinking Schools project, to Estee Lopez’s collaborative research with teachers in New Rochelle for ELL students and in New York City, to Suzanne Ishee and Marjann Ball’s amazing work in Pass Christian and across Mississippi. We see the difference in the minds of children. These are all educators with a focus on children, but they are, more to the heart, social entrepreneurs attempting to ignite systemic change.
Next week at the National Thinking Skills Conference in England, educators from across the UK will come together to exchange ideas about the big picture vision of ReChartering schools in the 21st century as Thinking Schools. We hope this will be a network for Social Edu-preneurs building Thinking Schools!
Every teacher, every educator, is in a sense a social entrepreneur… as we set out to engage and enlighten our students—and each other. But the lights are going out in classrooms because many of us have been pulled down by the past and not fully seeking what is needed right now and into the future.
Let’s ReThink what’s goin on! We gotta bring some good lovin to this….
But we also need to think it through to make sustainable, systemic changes.
What’s Goin On with You?
David
What is Going on with Thinking Foundation?
Thinking Foundation is based on the premise that the foundation for all learning is an array of fundamental cognitive processes, thinking dispositions, cooperative and creative learning structures, and the development of critical reflection within every learner and teacher. This premise is supported by over 70 years of cognitive science and neuroscience research and the comprehensive analyses of strategies and models for improving student learning. This view is also established as a foundation for developing a dynamic, equitable, and thoughtful democratic citizenry in the 21st century. The principle of equity in education means that those with the greatest needs, including children in poverty, those with different needs, children of color who receive inequitable access to high quality instruction, and those learning a second language require that we our work supports and demonstrates explicitly how the focus on facilitating thinking abilities ensures access to higher education and integration into the global community.
Here is an opening statement from a master’s thesis I just received from student Sanaa Abd El Azeem Elsayed Abd El Rahman…in Egypt:
As cultures come together and at times clash, we find common emotions that are simply FRAMED differently around the world. 
No doubt I was inspired to these reflections knowing I was going to introduce you to a new documentary film trailer from the City of New Rochelle Public Schools, just a few miles out of New York City. We are launching this trailer now as a step toward a full-length film because it challenges all of us deeply to consider some essential, time-critical questions:
What matters here? Hispanic children, from the largest “minority” population and the highest percentage of second language learners in this country, MUST NOT be given watered down content for years on end as they learn a second language. This will only place these kids on a remedial, cognitive side track … leading to high drop out rates just a few years down the line. The teachers and administrators interviewed in this film show us that, yes we can and must explicitly focus on high order thinking development as we teach a rigorous curriculum grounded in deep academic language growth... using Thinking Maps as a pathway integrated with a strong literacy approach. Thought and Language. It is not either-or. The stakes for these children and our nation are just too high, now and into the future.