Somehow I survived my first year, and so, I hope, did my students, but I kept recalling the verse from Proverbs: “When the blind lead the blind, they both fall in a ditch.”

The summer after my first year, I met Harry Meislahn, the legendary Headmaster of the Albany (NY), Academy, at a party in Lake George.  He was something like 6’4″ tall, looked like he was still a serving Navy Officer (probably Flag Rank), with a face like an eagle’s and absolutely terrifying, piercing eyes – or that’s how I saw him, anyway, as a very intimidated 24-year-old who had just survived his first year as a teacher.  The conversation went something like this:

“Well. young man,” he asked.  “What do you do?”

“I [stammmer, stammer, gulp, gulp, gulp] teach, Sir.”

“Good for you.  And where do you teach?”

[More stammers] “At the Pingry School, Sir.”

“Fine school.  You must say hello to [Headmaster] Larry Springer for me.  And what do you teach?”

“I teach 9th grade English, Sir,” I answered, beginning to think I might escape the interrogation unscathed.  I was wrong.

“You do NOT teach English, young man, or any other subject!” he retorted with passion.  (I’m not sure, but lightning may have flashed from his eyes.)  “You teach STUDENTS!  Pay attention to the Indirect Object in this sentence.  First the children, then the subject! Never forget that.”

I blurted out the required “Yes, Sir.  Thank you Sir (barely resisting the urge to salute), I will always remember that, Sir!”

And I always have.  Of course it’s a balance – teachers who know only their subject have no one to learn; teachers who focus exclusively on the students have nothing to teach.  But at the end of the day, as a parent, I wanted my daughters to be inspired and motivated by a teacher  (which happily, they were.)  If the inspiration is there, the subject matter learning will happen as a consequence.  First the kids, then the subject.

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• It’s a safe place for them to learn and interact with other students.
• The work they do there is challenging, meaningful, and fun.
• They experience real growth and mastery (not just artificially-supported “self-esteem”).
• They are surrounded and fully engaged in a technology-rich environment that links what they learn in class to both the outside world and the inner world of their own self-discovery.

Research by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills helps identify the characteristics of this kind of learning environment.
© The Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2007. Used with permission.

Physical Characteristics
21st Century schools feature flexible spaces where students … can participate in a variety of learning activities as individuals and in groups that “…promote interaction and a sense of community, enable formal and informal learning, and convey a sense of energy.” This flexibility of design extends to time as well. “21st Century schools may find it necessary to restructure the day into more malleable units of time than the typical rigid 50-minute class period in order to create extended learning blocks for project-based work or interdisciplinary themes.”
Technological Infrastructure

Of course, a critical component of a 21st Century learning environment is a robust and equitable technology infrastructure “[that] provides access to real world data, tools, and fosters the sort of real world learning that boosts student engagement and achievement.” Schools [should design “integrated learning environments” so as “to encourage student-teacher connections, student cooperation, active learning, effective feedback, and high expectations, while respecting the diversity of talents and ways of learning among students.”

School Climate and “Culture”

Leading educators such as Deborah Meier and Ronald Ferguson have demonstrated that a climate of respect and trust among children and adults is essential to an effective school. And Eleanor Drago-Severson has found that a positive school climate – characterized by shared leadership, collegial relationships, and support for constructive change and diversity – encourages the professional growth of educators, which in turn enhances student achievement.

One Real-world Example: The “Three R’s”
of the Wilson School Culture

From its beginnings in 1909, Reverend and Mrs. Wilson envisioned a school culture that would provide learning that was at once challenging, fun, and spiritually centered – in a family-like school community. One way to understand the “idea of a school” that, in 1909 was so innovative, and in today’s world, is so necessary, is to think of a different kind of “3 R’s.”

Respect

The school’s motto, Nosce Te Ipsum – “Know Thyself,” is the core Wilson cultural value of respect that informs how students and teachers interact each day.

Respect begins with recognizing, and continuously seeking to stretch one’s own potential for growth and excellence. That goal of excellence is based on both external standards of academic achievement and individual, personal gifts and strengths. Self-respect also includes awareness of one’s shortcomings and limitations – in order to improve them.

Respect for one’s self is inseparably linked to respect for others. Older Wilson students are expected to mentor and support younger children – just as they would do their own siblings. Respect extends not just all other students of any age, but for all people.

In 1911, Reverend Wilson, long a friend of Maud Ballington Booth, co-founder of Volunteers of America, established the tradition of giving at Christmas, a practice that continues today as The March of Gifts and the many other ways in which Wilson students give to others less fortunate than themselves.

Reflection

The Wilsons believed that “problems are in noise, answers are in the Silence.” The gift of silent reflection on the meaning and purpose of one’s actions are woven into the daily life of the school. While we are no longer affiliated with a specific denomination, the Wilson School is still very much a place in which spiritual values matter.

In keeping with Wilson’s traditions, we incorporate the Lord’s Prayer, a “Poem for Children around the World,” the Pledge of Allegiance and a Moment of Silence into each Friday Chapel. We respect and appreciate the diversity of beliefs within the school. At the same time, Chapel is a time for all of us to gather and celebrate as a community.

Responsibility
“There is no back row in a Wilson classroom.”

Wilson students are expected and encouraged to take personal responsibility for what they say and do. Reverend and Mrs. Wilson expected each child in the school to stand tall, look people in the eye, and speak clearly, even eloquently, from the heart. That tradition is nurtured today in daily class activities and formal chapel and program performances.

Wilson is very much a “safe place for students to learn and interact with each other,” but the discipline that creates that atmosphere is self-discipline.
The Wilson culture is the expression of “what we all do together” – the school’s traditions that help define the shared expectations that govern the choices people make each day about how to act with each other.
The Wilson culture is equally the expression of “why we do it” – the shared values that don’t need to be taught or preached, or even rigorously enforced, because they are lived.

Notes:

“The Impact of Change in Teaching and Learning on the Environment.”In Chism, N., Bickford, D. (2002). The Importance of Physical Space in Creating Supportive Learning
New Directions for Teaching and Learning. No. 92, Winter 2002. San Francisco: Jossey Bass. Skill, T. & Young, B. (2002). “Embracing the Hybrid Model: Working at the Intersections of Virtual and Physical Spaces.”

In the early 1200’s, Roger Bacon, considered by many to be the “father of the scientific method,” was studying in Paris. The story goes that one day, he asked his professor “How many teeth are there in a horse’s mouth?”

The professor pondered, consulted with his colleagues, and returned to Bacon with his answer. “We examined Aristotle and the Church Fathers, and none of them discuss this question, so we must assume the answer is unknowable.”  Bacon answered, “Why not just open a horse’s mouth and count the teeth?”

For the last 500 years, we have taught on the assumption that “knowledge” was fixed and knowable; a teacher’s job was, as an expert, to help students learn what was “known.”

We now live in a world in which “knowledge” increases almost exponentially, and what “knowledge” consists of is now global in breadth rather than limited to cultural biases.

In such a world, there are few utterly reliable “experts” to help students or teachers sift through the blizzard of information.

What are the characteristics of 21st Century Teachers?

The essential qualities that make a teacher great haven’t changed much since Socrates:

• An unquenchable thirst for knowledge – in order to teach better
• A passionate commitment to foster learning in each individual student – regardless of their initial perceived “ability”
• A skilled preference for asking provocative questions rather than preaching answers
• A cheerful ability to find and share humor in life
• A courageous willingness, when needed, to “buck the system” in defense of real learning
• A life-long habit of reflection, self-assessment and personal growth

Chaucer’s description of the Clerk of Oxford serves as the simplest way to capture the essence:
“And gladly would he learn, and gladly teach.”

Any of us fortunate to have had teachers like this know the difference they made in our lives.

Teaching in the digital age, however, brings with it additional challenges that previous generations of teachers didn’t face, and new critical success factors. Of the many valuable descriptions of the characteristics of 21st Century teachers, here’s one summary.

In addition to the timeless qualities listed above, 21st Century teachers need to:

Have a clear personal vision for their role and its value to students

Teachers work in a world in which they are deluged in information and buffeted by winds of change. Given the failures of NCLB in the public education world and the debates about how to fix it, that confusion of roles may only intensify. Without a clear, calm center: “This is why I teach and why it matters,” teachers are at the mercy of the storm.

Focus on learning rather than teaching

“Teaching” is what teachers do; learning is what students do. It’s time to shift the classroom focus from “What do I have to teach (and what content do I have to “cover”)? to “What do students need to learn?” Similarly, while “What do students have to know?” is still a critical question, so is “How do students need to learn to learn?” In the age of Google and Wikipedia, memorizing facts just to regurgitate them on tests is a pointless activity.

Maintain a creative balance on learning outcomes

The debate over whether it’s better to teach skills or promote understanding of concepts is the wrong question. Students need to do both. So the 21st Century teacher’s question becomes “How can I develop both skill mastery and thoughtful grasp of core concepts?” The same creative balance applies to testing: “How can I measure and reward both achievement against fixed, universal standards and also personal growth and unique individual expression?

Adapt flexibly to what’s happening in the classroom

In content-driven teaching, what matters most is often getting to the next page of the lesson plan – regardless of whether students actually learned anything that day. Plans are just that – plans. In a dynamic world, plans that don’t evolve and adjust to the realities of life limit achievement, or worse, provide the framework for failure. Teachers who have a clear vision of their role and a flexible focus on outcomes are able to adapt day-to-day learning experiences towards goals that actually matter for students. And a big part of what happens in the classroom is the reality that students learn at different rates in different ways.

Collaborate and share expertise and learning resources

In the digital age of the 21st Century, there’s too much for any one teacher to master and too little time to do everything that could be done. Yet another old idea to get rid of is the notion that teachers have to work alone, locked in their classroom by themselves. (Getting rid of that limitation may also require some teachers to let go of the ego-driven comfort of saying “This is my classroom and my students.”) So long as team teaching is freed from the shackles of bureaucratic over-control and mindless paperwork, and so long as teachers stay grounded fostering learning that really matters, collaboration can unleash the power of synergy. And of course, the most fruitful areas for collaborative learning in the digital age lie in what students do together.

Model leadership traits

When teachers were the sole source of knowledge, that knowledge gave them their power and authority. In a time in which knowledge expands and changes, teachers need a different basis of authority. Stripped of its hype, the old leadership maxim, “Walk your talk,” is good advice. 21st Century teachers can increase their effectiveness by role modeling the behaviors they expect to see in their students – as human beings similarly engaged in learning, not as authority figures to be unquestionably obeyed.

Whether large, bureaucratic public schools can create 21st Century Learning environments is still an open question, but one that for the sake of our country’s future, we need to solve. One critical step would be to foster the hiring, development and retention of 21st Century teachers, and to create school communities that strongly encourage 21st Century learning instead of imposing mindless bureaucratic institutional and political control.

Education in American is as badly broken as the economy, our foreign policy, and health care, to name a few other huge issues we need to collectively solve as a people and nation. In terms of urgency, we won’t see the results of the failure of education for some years, but it’s no less a threat to the sustainable strength of our country.

Half-measures and “tinkering” won’t solve the problem because the causes are so deeply embedded in “how we’ve always done things.” It’s the story of “The Blind Men and the Elephant.” Each constituency and interest group sees the problems through the lens of its own biases. Like the partisan battles that have crippled government you referred to in your inauguration address (Bravo!) simply fighting over which partial, and ultimately doomed extreme solution won’t work.

My thoughts:

Use your communication power to elevate the issue to a recognized state of emergency and crisis. It takes that to get people’s sustained attention (in contrast to the short-lived impact of $5 gas). Fortunately, you should be able to do this credibly because education really is a crisis. Enough people will believe you to create the energy for action.

Define the ground for solutions as you are doing with other critical issues:

• No more fads and expensive window dressing that produce profits for the providers but no lasting results for kids.
• No more acrimonious and pointless debates from lobbies and interest groups over issues such as “tough standards” vs. “learning how to learn,” “teacher-centered vs. student-initiated learning,” “skills vs. understanding,” or “nation-wide regulation (NCLB) vs. local control.”
• Instead of the false debate between irreconcilable opposites, we need creative, synergistic “both/and” pragmatic solutions that work.
• Our children should not be used as pawns in the attempt to further social, political and religious agendas. If as a government and a people we get out of the way and make kids the priority, the answers are available.

Rigorously measure what matters, and following your stance on political change, “throw out what doesn’t work,” no matter how sacred a cow it has become. There are some very clear, sensible voices on measuring student success. The problem is that currently, those voices aren’t being heard.

Tap the spirit of giving you are creating to revitalize the teaching profession. Teachers hold the future of America’s most valuable asset in their hands. The times call for a new sense of focus and dedication among teachers to take on a new challenge – and a lot more good teachers to give kids the attention they need. It’s not fundamentally about hours, or compensation – it’s about being committed. If this means challenging unions to live up to their obligation and promise – then they get the same mandate being given to Congress: be part of the solution or get out of the way. The same standard applies to the education lobbies and entrenched, self-serving bureaucracies.

Accelerate efforts to build networks of people and organizations committed to finding solutions to the crisis in the same open, pragmatic spirit with which you want Congress to operate. There are potential allies and wise thinkers all over the internet. More than any of your predecessors, you have the resources to find and tap them.

As you are doing in other initiatives, use the support you have earned to re-enlist parents and communities in what really is their battle, too. We need to be responsible and accountable as individual citizens.

Set a deadline to foster urgency and commitment. “We are withdrawing from the failed war on America’s Children by x date.”

Thanks for your attention and Godspeed!