Contested Knowledge in an Information Age

What were all those people talking to Moses about in this week’s Torah reading? The Torah portion, Yitro (Exodus 18:1 – 20:23) opens with a scene between Moshe and his father-in-law Yitro. Yitro notices that there is an endless line of people seeking advice from Moses. He takes his son-in-law aside and says “the thing you are doing is not right; you will surely wear yourself out, and these people as well.” (Exodus 18: 17) Yitro counsels Moses to appoint trustworthy people to “share the burden...” (Exodus 18: 21) I always have thought of this passage as one that supports collaborative leadership; however, I now see something else in this passage that speaks authoritative knowledge in our current information age.

It wasn’t all that long ago when a doctor could assume that his/her counsel to patients would be respected, honored and followed precisely. In the late seventies, I remember when I was among those women who bucked tradition and told our obstetricians that we didn’t want anesthesia and we didn’t want IV’s – we wanted our children to be born “naturally”. I recall my physician’s comment when I challenged the traditional practice – “if you were my wife, I would order an IV and anesthesia.” My answer was probably seen as “chutzpadik” (arrogant) – “I’m not your wife, and I’ve read the literature – 95% of childbirth does not require an IV, why should I be made uncomfortable with this needle in my arm for that slight chance that I would need it?” At the time, this was considered radical. I now see this as the beginning of the eroding of the authoritative knowledge of physicians.

Fast forward to schools of today. Teachers are surprised, and even shocked, when a parent casually mentions during a parent conference that their child is taking a mathematics class after school – a class that has different methods and goals from the mathematics program used in the school. They are surprised by the parent that requests more homework, or by the request that their second grader write a five paragraph essay (when that is not introduced typically until individual paragraphing is well understood – but there are schools of thought that it can be introduced earlier). Like the my doctor years ago, the teacher is stunned by what appears to be arrogance?

Is it arrogance? From the professional’s side, it seems to undermine the years spent learning and perfecting technique. They know that they have information that goes well beyond a googled document explaining “best practices” for treating a particular disease or for teaching a given subject. From the patient or parent’s perspective, there is uncertainty about future outcomes in illness and in education. There is good data to support divergent methods, but there are ample exceptions. And let’s think about that data - human data is far less robust than other forms of scientific data, for the beauty of the human world is the quirkiness of individuals.

When there is uncertainty and discontent surrounding the area of concern, then knowledge is more likely to be contested. In the areas concerning humans – be it health outcomes or educational outcomes – there is uncertainty, anxiety (will my child ultimately be all that s/he can be?) and there is discontent.

This past week in the Teacher’s Monday Learning Circle, we started a dialogue about these questions. We looked at several statements about the changing relationship of parents and teachers in this information age. We considered how this affected our perceptions of our roles as teachers. We thought about how to embrace the changes and create a different, but a strong parent-teacher alliance.

As I looked at the Torah portion for the week, I realized that the scene between Yitro and his son-in-law are the paradigm for this transforming relationship. In the beginning, Moses was the sole authority. All came to him to seek his wisdom. His father pointed out to him the folly of this position. The message is that knowledge is to be shared with others – arrogance lies in either party claiming exclusive authoritative knowledge. That exclusivity and sense of omnipotence is what is to be avoided. There should be recognition that we all can claim pieces of knowledge in a very uncertain world, and that we should respect the different understandings and trainings that we have. But the very closed belief that any one of us holds all the “truth” is destructive to society.

Shabbat Shalom,

Dr.G.

Wornick Teachers Inspire

Teachers make the difference between schools that are just ordinary and those that are extraordinary. Wornick is extraordinary and the teachers make it so. In our popular culture, people often think teaching is a "cushy" job where the work day ends at dismissal and the job appears to be a ten month job. Everyday, as I walk through our school, I marvel at the skill and the enthusiasm of our staff. They absolutely smash the popular culture image of a teacher.

After school hours, weekends and vacations are not "off" times for our teachers. They choose to dream up new lessons, perfect their techniques in workshops and spend endless hours correcting student work in these non-classroom hours. When I first came to Wornick in the summer of 2009, I was most surprised to see so many teachers working in their classrooms. Similarly, on any given Sunday, one can find several of our staff busy working to set up new projects for their students. There are active conversations among teachers on-line during the evening as they toss teaching questions as well as philosophical questions to each other.

Another feature of our teaching culture (for which I can take no credit as it preceded me) is the idea of teacher service. Our teachers have designated time in their weekly schedule when they are charged with working in another classroom to support the lead teacher. It is not uncommon to see a second grade teacher helping out in an upper elementary classroom or a middle school math teacher working with a younger class. Beyond the direct benefit to the students, there is the professional benefit of transparency and reflection. Historically, teachers are autonomous islands in their own classrooms. Our teacher service practice reverses this trend.

Outstanding teachers have to be outstanding people. Ours are. They are multi-dimensional people who engage in a variety of activities that benefit the community at large. We have a teacher who rides miles on her bike each spring to raise funds for a Jewish environmental group. There is a teacher who very actively participates in her synagogue Purim play. Another teacher is an accomplished playwright, and another one spends time teaching underprivileged children during vacation time. Yet another takes care of several "shut-in" elderly people. The list of "world repair" by our teachers goes on.

Wornick teachers know that teaching is not merely about conveying content knowledge. The world is full of well-educated people who use their knowledge for destructive purposes rather than for positive possibilities. They know that their task is a sacred mission. Our teachers are listeners and learners, poets and storytellers, people who can draw out, lift up, lead and follow. Our teachers create an environment that inspires and celebrates, that frees what waits within every child.

Shabbat Shalom,

Dr. G.

Deschooling Our Schools

Two adorable second grade girls approached me today to ask if they could bring their kindles to school tomorrow.  The answer was of course "yes."  The question, and more significantly, the questioners represent a groundswell transformation that is just beginning in the world of education.  The arrival of digital natives - children for whom I-Pads, I-Pods, I-Phones and Kindles have been part of their lives since birth - together with the technological capacity to do things that were unimaginable a few years ago is creating transformations in the way we think about school that is equivalent to the advent of the Gutenberg printing press in the 1400’s. 

Many years ago, I read a book with a utopian vision of schooling called Deschooling Society (1973) by Ivan Illich.  He envisioned a world where there would be community centers of learning rather than the traditional neighborhood public schools.  His work was a scathing critique of institutionalized education in the developed world.  He wrote:

The student is schooled to confuse teaching with learning and grade advancement with education, a diploma with competency and frequency with the ability to say something new (p.9)

He believed that the institutions created for educating children were squashing real learning and creativity.  The world of schooling that he imagined had three purposes:  a) to provide resources for all who want to learn, b) to connect those who want to share learning to those who want to learn, and c) to become a forum for the dissemination of new ideas.  He envisioned community centers of learning where children and adults would learn what they needed to know when they needed to know it. His work predated the technology explosion that we know today. Much of what Illich imagined has become possible and will be transforming the delivery of education over the next few years.

As I sat through two workshops with Sal Kahn from the Kahn Academy and another workshop about on-line schools at a recent CAIS (California Association of Independent Schools) conference, I felt as though Illich’s visionary ideas (for which he was reviled by both the "right" and the "left") were coming to fruition.  Not only that, but the technology that wasn’t well developed in Illich’s time, has made his ideas even more compelling.  His idea of centers that propel new ideas exists in the world of TED talks (and the newly emerging Jewish version - ELI talks). 

The concept of connecting teachers to learners wherever they are is in the incipient stages with a growing number of on-line learning applications like Kahn Academy and various on-line schools.  The day is here (as soon as we improve our technological capacity at the school - which is being addressed currently) when we could offer all sorts of classes (Chinese, Spanish, Calculus, Economics, etc.) by joining our students with others sitting anywhere in the world through an on-line school connection.  We can move beyond the very costly model for particular niche classes that we now operate (i.e. geometry or Spanish) with one teacher for 5 students in each of several schools to an on-line class of 20 students with one on-line teacher from one of our schools.

Many educational professionals fear the growth of on-line learning.  They worry that students will miss that important teacher connection.  We are learning that it is not an either/or proposition.  High quality on-line classes involve very important relationships between and among the students and teacher.  I learned of a small group of girls who came from several different schools throughout the United States and were in an on-line upper level calculus class.  Three of the five ended up being freshman at MIT this fall - their friendship cemented the year before on-line.

Furthermore, typically introverted students are finding their voices in on-line exchanges in such classes. They are required to respond regularly to classroom chats and they receive quick feedback that propels them to continue contributing to classwork.  

The role of the traditional classroom teacher changes somewhat with increased on-line learning in that s/he becomes the facilitator - or as the Wornick staff describes this - the guide on the side rather than the sage on the stage.  In great schools we already have this model, but with on-line learning the teacher may be guiding the child to delve further into a subject area that may not be that familiar to the classroom teacher.  The teacher may become a learner with the students.  The high-touch that our school and similar independent schools offer is still needed for teaching social skills, community building and so many other pieces of education. More significantly, the teacher, as resource and connector, is giving the students the wings they need to soar beyond a particular teacher’s knowledge base.  That was always our goal and should be understood as a gift rather than a threat. 

Finally, all independent schools spend a lot of time discussing how we differentiate for our students.  This means that we provide learning opportunities that meet the differential abilities and interests of our students.  Our teachers know how to offer a classroom of students different math problems, spelling lists, research questions depending upon ability.  On-line learning means that our differentiation can become even more granular because we can connect our students to a larger universe of students  and teachers.

Ivan Illich’s vision is emerging in schools across the country.  It is an exciting proposition and Wornick will be embracing the best practices in this area over the next few years.

Time to Unplug -
Shabbat Shalom,

Dr. G.

E-Jewish Day School Education

I just returned from the National Jewish Day School Conference. Over 700 people from around the US involved in day school education - administrators, teachers, philanthropists, foundations, university faculty. When I began my work as a Head of School many years ago, conferences tended to be small - about 50 people - and Balkinized - divided by denominations. Each group Orthodox (Torah U'Mesorah), Conservative (Schechter), Reform (PARDES), and community (RAVSAK) met on their own and tended to be intimate retreats with a facilitator. Now we meet as one, with blocks of time for the different streams to meet individually. We participate in an array of morning services, we eat together, and mingle in hundreds of workshops led by the best in the field of education, marketing, governance and philanthropy.

In the old days, educators and philanthropists, and board members didn't attend together. Now foundations sit with us as they consider what to fund next. Board members and administrators work together to understand best practices in governance. One of the interesting workshops I attended this week included Heads of School, major foundation representatives and education academics. The work that is growing from this collaboration is about supporting collaborative data collection and analysis about day schools. I was also invited to participate in an ELI (Educational Learning Innovations) Talk, modeled after TED talks.

I've been going to such conferences for many years and I am heartened by the sheer energy and high level of programming that took place at this conference. Most exciting for me this year was connecting to two heads of school who I have mentored...one of whom led an inspiring workshop on technology applications. Equally exciting was watching three of our DELET graduates and teachers - Ms. K, Mrs Keinan and Mr. Abramovitz - along with Mrs. Kuba be inspired by the experience in general and by various workshops in particular.

I attended the usual workshops on marketing and development and I return to Wornick with some new ideas and techniques. But what electrified me this year were the most amazing workshops on technological applications to learning. The field has grown so rapidly and there is so much to consider. Is it just "bells and whistles"? Or is learning advanced in new ways by technology? I would say yes to both - some technology applications are more cosmetic and there are others that make it possible to learn things that could never happen without it. Some advances make it possible to reach certain children who are not well-suited to more traditional teaching delivery systems. And there are the ethics of technology to be considered too.

I learned new vocabulary connected to this new era. We speak of the learning that goes on using technology as technology "environments". I learned that all of your children are digital natives, and those of us who are a bit older are called digital immigrants.

This weekend, I will be attending the local California Association of Independent Schools conference where we will be hearing from and meeting with Mr. Kahn of the on-line learning environment - Kahn Academy. Next week, I’m convening the first meeting of our teacher technology committee (there is a board level committee that has existed for a few years) where we will dream and plan and set a technology strategic plan. You will be hearing much more about this as we develop the program. I am looking forward to watching your children - the "natives" - dive into this new world as we grow it over the next few years at Wornick.

Time to unplug - Shabbat Shalom,

Dr. G.

Old Man?

We had a celebrity visitor this week. It wasn’t Justin Bieber - to the chagrin of the girls in first and second grade. It wasn’t any of the many heroes that our students study each year. It was the extraordinary man for whom the school is named - Ronald C. Wornick.

Kindergarten had been anticipating this visit since the beginning of the year. During the first weeks of school, the kindergarten had been thinking about names and they had asked me at that time - who is Ronald C. Wornick? By the time Mr. Wornick appeared in their room (KA), they had a more nuanced question - "what does the ‘c’ stand for." Mr. Wornick told them (Charles) and then he sat down in teacher Gina’s rocking chair and read them a story.

There are many ways to read a story, and how that is done tells us something about the reader. Mr. Wornick read with excitement - as if he couldn’t wait to reveal a hidden mystery on each page. He read slowly - savoring the plot. He read pausing to show the children each page and letting them interject their ideas about what had happened or what was about to happen. He leaned in to engage all the children. As he walked out of the room with me, Mr. Wornick said "I’ve never seen so many beautiful little children who sat so attentively to listen to an old man read a story."

As we walked to the next class, Mr. Wornick took some time looking at the art work that graces our halls. He commented on some of the very complex designs and color choices, and took his time observing. He visited a first grade class while they were having their music lesson. He simply stood for quite some time watching the children practice their scales and their singing. (As music and support of the San Francisco Symphony are among Anita and Ron Wornick’s passions, they have underwritten our K-5 trips to the symphony.)

Finally, we ended up in the sixth grade science lab where one of our students was presenting his science fair project. In that class, the presenting student spent about ten minutes explaining his project to his peers and then all of the students engaged in a critique. Students asked the presenter probing questions about his variables, measurements, procedures and outcomes. And Mr. Wornick, an MIT trained scientist, joined the critique session encouraging the student to think more deeply about his variables (the disadvantage of using two variables instead of one). His critique, along with those of the sixth grader students’, was accepted as just a normal Wornick Jewish Day School experience.

Mr. Wornick concluded the visit with lunch together with the administrative team. There he asked questions about admissions, development and curriculum. His questions were thoughtful. For the administrators, there were two highlights. The first was a discussion about his recent interest in glaucoma research and the second was his story about the scientific breakthrough he achieved as a young man leading to his remarkable success as a scientist. These stories were not told to boast. They were revealed in the context of his questions to us about our middle school students’ science projects. The recurrent themes in each of the stories were insatiable curiousity, humility, persistence, and creativity - values that are the emphasis in our school. When we commented on how inspiring his story was, his response was "Find any old man and they will have interesting stories to tell." That is true and that offers further insight into this endearing man. His story is like others to be sure, but the layers of interests - art, music and science along with his extraordinary people skills and his tireless work in philanthropy makes this "old man" a very, very special person. For the entire Ronald C. Wornick Jewish Day School community, thank you Mr. Wornick.

Shabbat Shalom,
Dr. G.