Schooling ≠ Education
Based on recent learning and insights I’ve changed the name of this blog to Schooling ≠ Education. This new name reflects the most important and critical shift in thinking that is necessary for the reinvention of public schooling.
As noted in one of the first posts on this blog, it was back in 1999 that the first ideas for writing a book emerged. This first inspiration came after visiting with a small group of teachers and having conversations about topics I had thought were common knowledge (topics I had been talking to colleagues about for nearly 20 years at that point).
I was working in a unique and powerful learning environment that reflected an integration of physical space, technology and process. During the conversation we talked about the rate of change, complexity, structures and their influence on behavior, as well as the brain and how humans learn. The original name for this blog, There is No One Right Answer, was an attempt to break through what I call “the right answer syndrome” and get people to think.
Those same topics discussed back in 1999 are still, to this day, not common knowledge – or not knowledge enough to make a difference in what we are doing in our schools. Over the last ten years I have continued to ponder why making necessary changes and improvements in schools and schooling is difficult/challenging. Today my core theory is that most people make the mistake of confusing schooling with education. This mistake is prevalent around the world, in every country, in every walk of life, in governmental circles, in business circles, in churches and religious institutions, and in homes and villages.
My theory is that real, substantive, and necessary changes will not be able to be made until the people involved in schools and schooling make the mental shift and see that schooling is not equal to education. Until that time as that mental shift is made the necessary actions and requisite behaviors will not be made.
Hence, the new name of this blog, Schooling ≠ Education.
I will be persistent in urging people to adopt this point of view and this understanding in the desire to help people see that we will never get the kind of educational experience we truly want for our children unless we make this change first.
2 comments
I agree with you that schooling does not equal education. So should anyone who thinks about the state of education for any length of time.
I like the name of the blog now, though I don’t know how to make the does-not-equal sign, so it would be hard to quote you.
But I am wondering what the topics were? Could you link to the post that discusses them or relist them? I’m definitely interested in seeing what you have found to be repeated throughout history.
The topics we discussed were the rate of change in society, how the brain works, how memory isn’t the kind of learning that we need for the long term, that thinking isn’t valued in schools, how schools are disconnected from the rest of life, and the usual topics of creativity, collaboration, etc.
FYI – on a mac you can make the ≠ sign by using the option and = keys.
Leave a Comment