Summer reading: Creative Schools (or No Room for Standardized Tests)

I was facing a slow Monday morning, thinking I need to do something different and not too stressful to ease into my week, when I remembered that I have Sir Ken Robinson's new book, Creative Schools: the Grassroots Revolution that's Transforming Education, on my Kindle. 

I haven't even read ten pages and I want to quote just about everything the author says, but there are several ideas in particular that he speaks of that are important to me:

• we can't change education through political processes -- this revolution will take the efforts of parents, teachers, and kids (thus "grassroots")
  
• we have to use a systems approach to help us 
• understand where the problems lie in the existing school (and political) system
• redefine and transform schools and education
  
• systems can change but sometimes you have to look outside those systems and be innovative in order to create change (or replace them with better systems). I believe this could also be called thinking outside of the box. 

This is the problem as I see it. We like boxes. We think of them as security because they are systems put in place by people we believe are smarter than we are. We trust that someone else knows what is best for us. 

We think that in order to make positive change for our kids and their experiences in school, we have to get laws passed. We have to get someone's approval. Why? I guess because that's just the way we've always done it.

However, at the grassroots level, parents aren't thinking, Oh, gee, if my kid doesn't take the PARCC, the school district won't get funding. We're thinking, this over-testing is killing my kid. It's personal. It's personal for teachers, too, as their jobs are on the line.

We trust that our legislators know about the laws they pass, especially when it comes to our kids' learning. They don't. 

Parents, start trusting yourselves more. You do know your kid better than any policymaker does. You also know your kid's teachers better than any policymaker does. 

Teachers, what I said in the previous paragraph applies to you, too, in essence. You know so much more than any legislator. 

We don't have to look for funding from our government. We can pull our resources locally, community by community, hire our own teachers, involve parents and students in the learning process, and never have to pass a single law or a single standardized test to do it.  Let's just do it! 

Or at least we can start talking about it. :-) 

It's Monday. Ease into your week and learn a few things along the way.