This past week we were visited by three very experienced educators representing diverse backgrounds. Two of these educators, one Canadian, one American, both masterful and reflective teachers and administrators, represented the International Baccalaureate, and were here to assess our Primary Years Program. The third educator has spent the better part of the last two decades working with schools all over the world, many the very best in their region. In that time he also spent more than a decade as head of the National Association of Independent Schools, our most important association in independent school education world-wide. He joins us in support of our strategic planning.
What these three educators represent is a shift in education, from "just in case" learning to "just in time" learning. "Just in case" learning heaps content upon content, has us memorize the names of people and places and things, has us recite arcane ideas and terms, so that we are prepared for some imagined future when such knowledge, now instantly available on our smartphones, is made relevant. "Just in time" learning is what you do everyday as an adult out there in the real world. It's learning that takes place in real time to resolve real problems. It's about acquiring the skills and knowledge you need to address pressing challenges just as you need both. Coincidentally, skills and knowledge acquired in this way stick.
Pat Bassett spoke to us about the Big Shifts in education: from knowing to doing, from teacher-centered to student-centered classrooms, from an individual focus to a team focus, from a consumption of information emphasis to a construction of meaning emphasis, from isolated schools to networks of students and educators, from single-sourcing to crowd-sourcing, from high stakes testing to demonstrations of mastery. These shifts are taking place in education because the skills needed to be successful in the twenty first century are different, and they go largely untaught and unpracticed in traditional schools. Today, the skills needed to thrive in a rapidly changing, international environment are those that facilitate creativity, communication, collaboration, critical thinking, character and cross-cultural competency.
Our visitors both complemented and challenged us, to push further, to keep evolving, precisely because in this way we prepare our children best. They challenged us to further develop "makerspaces", where students use their heads, hearts and hands to pursue unique solutions to real technical problems. They provoked us to measure our every learning engagement by how significant, relevant, engaging, and challenging each is to our learners. Just imagine the excitement of our students when this is happening every day, in every classroom, in every subject. Just imagine our students embracing their learning engagements as opportunities to grow rather than chores to be completed.
This vision of learning is growing at Baldwin, but we still have much to do before it is our DNA. We know that this is new ground for our adults, for parents and teachers alike, for Puerto Rico. It's so very human to want to retreat from necessary change when it can seem so foreign, so different, or uncertain, especially when compared to our own formative educational experiences. If we focus on learning, the rest is easy--grades, test scores, college, all those daunting realities that make us worry. You have entrusted your children to us, and we intend to make certain we deliver on our promises. Remember, your kids represent not only your futures, they represent ours.
See you around campus.
I will be away starting tomorrow and all next week at the National Business Officers Association and the National Association of Independent Schools annual conferences.