Design thinking. Entrepreneurship. Project learning. Problem-based learning. Hands-on learning. STEM. Let’s take elements of each and create a new experience. I guarantee you it’ll include risk-taking and failure. If it doesn’t, we’re not doing it right.

I’m been an educator most of my life. I was a teacher and school administrator for nearly two decades. This year, I’m part of an education technology startup. We recognized a problem, and we wanted to solve it, and we wanted to solve it in a way that scales.

As a school leader, I talked a lot about students taking risks, learning to fail, solving real-world problems, engaging in hands-on learning.  In reality, I knew I was kidding myself. I believed in everything I was saying, but I didn’t feel like I’d done much to create this type of learning environment.

Sure. I’d done some of it. I’d started two adult learning institutes.  I saw a problem and I wanted to address it. Then I got curious.

I went to business school at MIT and earned an MBA.  Wham!  Reality really set in. My colleagues were people who had spent time learning and a lot more time doing. They approached things differently and it was energizing.

Now I’m part of a startup and every week is a roller coaster ride filled with failure and the requirement that we learn and adapt. If we don’t, we go out of business. It’s that simple.

It’s got me thinking about all the terms we use in education to describe the life I’m living now, all the terms I listed at the beginning of this piece. To accomplish what’s at the heart of each of these approaches, I’d argue that there needs to be lots of doing, lots of failing, lots of learning, and lots of collaborating, especially with people who think and work differently than you do.

It’s very humbling. It can be overwhelming. It can be scary. It can be exhilarating. It can be devastating. It’s often a battle with your own ego and limitations, and it’s ALWAYS a learning experience. It teaches you resilience like few other things can.

I’d argue that school learning right now doesn’t even come close to this experience – in person, online, blended, etc. – and I think that’s a shame.

We’ve always had a population of students who’ve been passionate about learning certain subjects or skills. When those subjects or skills are aligned with what’s offered in traditional schools, we often point to them as our model students.

Why?

Because when they’re passionate about what they’re learning, and when what they’re eager to learn is what we’re committed to teaching, and when we’re teaching in ways that work well for them, there’s a high probability that they’ll do well.

There is positive reinforcement from them and from us every step of the way. The system reinforces itself.

What about the population of students in our schools who are passionate about subjects and skills that we don’t teach? We can’t teach everything in traditional schools, but what gets taught is typically what’s valued, at least by the decision makers, yes?

Well, with the growing options for learning – online, in person, open course, etc. – I can’t help but wonder how our image of a successful learner is going to change (has changed?).

As traditional venues for learning fall by the wayside, it’s going to be the passionate, self-directed, resilient, eager, creative, social, collaborative learners who will begin to shine. In many cases, these learners are the very ones we would have classified in a whole host of ways other than high performing, mainly because they haven’t functioned as well in our traditional systems.

It’s exciting, and it’s also daunting. Why? Because traditionally successful learners and teachers won’t / don’t look so successful anymore. External motivation will still play a role, but internal motivation will most likely prevail. Our new learning systems will require it.

Obedience. Linearity. Pleasing. Characteristics that have served traditional learners well in traditional systems won’t be as important anymore. Learners will have to / have to determine what they want to learn, and they will have to / have to go after it. They’ll also need to combine reflection, thinking, and study with collaboration and doing.

I’m excited to enter an era where teaching and learning looks different. It’s challenging because it’s less formulaic, but it’s exciting to see how our passionate, non-traditional learners are getting their change to shine.

I wonder if we’ll be labeling our formerly successful traditional learners as “learning disabled.” I also wonder how long it’ll be before the whole notion of successful performance on standardized tests only serves to indicate disability rather than ability.

I hope we have enough foresight to lose the labels and, instead, find ways to reach all of our learners. With all the options available and all the innovators who care, I have to think we’ll get there.

I had the chance to hear from some incredible leaders in Silicon Valley this past week.  Leaders from Dust Networks, eBay, Facebook, Pandora, Siluria Technologies, IDEO, and Oracle Racing of America’s Cup fame.  It was an amazing and inspiring week.  Again and again, we heard about the importance of failing early and often, of taking risks, and of innovating.

Everyone’s advice got me thinking about teachers.  If the process of innovation involves taking risks and failing, then step into the classrooms of some of the best teachers.  We fail every day.  We innovate every day.  Why?  Because we work hard to reach every student and, no matter how hard we try, we can’t.  It’s just a part of the profession.  What’s amazing, though, is that we keep on trying.  We keep risking and failing.  Just when we think we’ve got the perfect lesson planned, we find out our students aren’t getting it.  Guess what?  We innovate?  We pivot – to draw from start-up jargon – and we use another approach.  Sometimes it works.  Sometimes it doesn’t.  Then we go home and reflect and plan some more, and we try it all again the next day.

I read so much about what teachers and school aren’t doing.  I want to make sure the amazing, incredible teachers I know hear this this loud and clear:  You are risk takers.  You are innovators.  You fail every day, and you take that feedback and pivot and try all over again.

How do I know?  Because that’s what I’ve done as a teacher.  It’s what I’ve loved about the profession.  It’s the challenge of trying to reach your students, of finding the best ways to learn with them, and to connect them to concepts, ideas, and, as part of that process, to their passions.

Teaching = Failure + Innovation + Learning

Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The Economist announced in their January 28, 2012 issue that they’ll be “launch[ing] a weekly section devoted to China.”  To prove how momentous an occasion this is for the publication, they add

It is the first time since we began our detailed coverage of the United States in 1942 that we have singled out a country in this way. The principal reason is that China is now an economic superpower and is fast becoming a military force capable of unsettling America. . . . China will both fascinate and agitate the rest of the world for a long time to come.

When I read this, I immediately thought about U.S. schools.  I wonder how many leaders, teachers, and students are talking about this.  As educators, we need to be.

Schools and school leaders need to be doing more than talking.  I would argue that they need to be doing at least the following (and kudos to those schools and school leaders I know – public and private – who are doing all this and more):

1. including Mandarin as part of the world language offerings
2. partnering with schools in China for exchanges and cultural immersion experiences
3. offering courses on Chinese culture and history
4. connecting students via Skype and other social media to Chinese students and adults, especially adults working in one or both countries in all types of fields
5. establishing satellite campuses in China

Here’s what I hope we’re not doing:

1. burying our heads in the sand and taking a U.S. vs. China stance (I love Rome and Roman history, but we all recognize that the Roman Empire is no more)
2. operating out of complete ignorance that this shift has happened (notice I’m using the past tense)
3. ignoring the fact that learning all we can about China – from language to culture to business – will only help our young people as they move into the work force

What are schools doing that I haven’t listed?

Every year for the past 5-6 years, I’ve had the privilege of teaching a graduate course at Teachers College (TC), Columbia University, where I earned my doctorate.  I’ve taught curricular design courses, action research courses, and courses on teaching and learning.

It goes without saying that I learn more from my students than they could ever learn from me.  These are incredible social activists, often teaching in challenging urban school environments, and working full-time while taking evening classes at TC.  And . . . many are New Yorkers . . . it means you better “bring it.”

One of my former students – he taught prisoners and is a music educator and one of the founding teachers of the Bronx Expeditionary Learning School – recently asked me how my experience at MIT would change my syllabus for teaching at TC (I’m signed up to teach a course there this summer).

It didn’t take me long to reply.  It’d include

1. topics from macroeconomics – what do teachers need to know to help their students gain a sense of how the world, and the U.S.’s place in it – is shifting (and has shifted)?
2. leadership topics – we are all leaders; our leadership may look different person to person, but it’s there and we need to embrace it and shape it our way
3. marketing strategies – we are our profession’s best marketers and spokespeople; we’ve got to get our ideas out there – using social media, government channels, etc.; what are the strategies successful marketers use to get their ideas out in the world and influence consumers?  we can learn from them and . . . if time permitted . . .
4. innovation – what does it look like in teaching, learning, schools, and education?  what paradigm shifts are we already experiencing with online and blended learning?
5. disruption – how can we “disrupt” the field of teaching and learning so that teachers and students feel empowered and find the process and the experience relevant and meaningful?

That’s a good start . . .