A collection of current articles published in a variety of places on issues of interest in the areas of education, training and career development. Commentaries are provided by Robert Kirwan.

• Some Good Advice for Students, Parents and Teachers When It Seems As If Everything Is Getting Out of Hand
   
• Full-Day Kindergarten Programs Are Going To Face A Lot of Growing Pains
   
• The Key To Success Begins With Changing The Image You Have in Your Mind
   
• Email Is Still Growing In Importance Despite The Popularity of Social Networking
   
• Should School Board Have The Right To Take Secret Web Cam Photos To Protect Their Property?
   
• Some School Boards Refusing To Take Money Out of Their Reserves To Provide Board-Wide Full-Day Kindergarten
   
• Interesting Enrolment Pattern Is Emerging At Post-Secondary Institutions In Sudbury
   
• Children With ADHD Feel Self-Conscious When Diagnosed
   
• Just How Important Is Class Size When It Comes To Improving Education System
   
• Community Schools Will Soon Be Open All Year Long and 24 Hours A Day
   
• Why charter schools matter
   
• Students should be learning more – not less  
   
• Discovering a Child's Preferred Learning Style Is Important If You Want To Maximize Potential
   
• Interesting Perspective On Jobs That Our Children Will Be Doing Twenty Years from Now
   
• Financial Literacy Will Become Increasingly Important To Our Graduates
   
• Blue Ocean Strategy May Have Implications For Improving Education Quality In Our Schools
   
• Could The Four-Day Week Be Coming To Your Child's School?

Have you ever?  
by Dennis Merritt Jones, From The Art of Being

Have you ever spent time allowing your mind to wander and wonder?

Have you ever thought about how incredible it is that you can read and decipher these words and draw meaning from them? Have you ever contemplated in amazement how your body works, maintaining itself to a large degree without any help from you?

Have you taken time to contemplate what causes your heart to beat and what turned the breakfast you had this morning into skin, fingernails, and hair?

Have you ever taken just a few moments to simply stare at a beautiful flower and notice the incredible patterns and colors that not even the greatest artist could re-create?

Have you ever looked up at the stars and planets at night and been in awe of the expansiveness of it all, perhaps even wondering if there might be some other being on some distant planet looking back at ours at the same time, wondering the same thing?

Have you ever thought about what holds the planets and stars in place?
 
Have you ever gazed into a newborn baby's eyes and seen the infinite presence of pure spirit looking back at you and been in awe of the fact that this being just came from the absolute essence, God?

How can you or I do any of these things and not feel like an intricate and significant part of something far greater and grander than the "little me"?

I have done all these things, and I can tell you that, in part, it is what keeps me sane, grounded, and spiritually connected to God, life, and purpose when the world seems to be getting more and more crazy each day.

This also includes those times when I tend to get too enmeshed in my own personal trauma dramas. Life is always manifesting purpose; all we need to do is think about the miracle of it all.

So, the next time you feel as if you are getting caught up in the frenzy of the world or your personal life begins to look like a bad soap opera, take some time and consider some of the above questions.

Give yourself the gift of a sacred moment in the now. With great and clear intention, contemplate and connect with the miracle of life, where God is always present.

Celebrate your unity with God...and truly be in awe. The word "awe" is the root from which the word "awesome" comes...and that is what you really are. Not because I say so but because God is awesome, and what God is, so too, are you.

It's just a matter of taking time to think about the wonder of it all.

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School boards are asking the province that non-profit child cares be allowed to run the before- and after-school part of the full-day kindergarten program.

But the move is causing some concern for early childhood education experts, who say the idea of the “seamless” day — a central part of the full-day plan — will be lost if children and parents are dealing with several different adults on a regular basis.

“There are a lot of bumps in this road, and I think it is not in the spirit of which most of us in the early childhood field thought was going to happen, and saw and understood the early learning plan as being more comprehensive, more seamless and something that was going to make families’ lives easier,” said Cheryl DeGras, manager of the early learning centre at the University of Toronto. “I don’t see that a third-party arrangement will do that.”

But some school boards are already “really struggling with the transition to the full-day model” and need to focus on that, said Catherine Fife, vice-president of the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association.

As well, she added, they haven’t charged parents fees before and have no structure in place for that.

Many boards already have groups like the Y, or Boys and Girls’ Clubs, running child cares in their schools, so there’s already an established relationship there, she noted.

Boards fully support the vision of early learning adviser Charles Pascal, she added, but in the interim, at least, need the help of the non-profit groups.

“Boards have new roles and responsibilities (with full-day),” she added. “These things don’t happen overnight.”

There’s also concern that if shut out of the after-hours care, these non-profits put them out of the child-care business.

Full-day kindergarten, which begins this fall, is to be taught by a teacher and early childhood educator. Pascal has outlined a model where an ECE looks after children from before school and through the morning, overlapping with another who handles the afternoon and after-school.

Parents would pay for care outside of school hours.

“We supported the full-day program because we thought it would diminish the amount of transitions children would have and families would have in their lives,” said DeGras.

With third-parties running care before and after, school would be piecemeal work for early childhood educators and it might be difficult to attract or keep staff, she added. Wages would also be lower than if they were school board employees.

She suggested boards turn to municipalities, who run child-care services and have experience, for guidance and support.

Annie Kidder, of advocacy group People for Education, said the province’s “fragmented approach to implementation is jeopardizing its own strategy” and said the recommendations for child-care during the summer as well as care for those under 3, and 6 to 12 years old is being ignored.

Michelle Despault, spokesperson for Education Minister Leona Dombrowsky, said the full-day kindergarten bill is now before committee, and that any amendments will be made in the coming weeks. 

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Little demand for after-school care for full-day kindergarten students, province finds

June 08, 2010

Kristin Rushowy

Education Reporter

Despite predictions that demand would be strong, just 15 per cent of Ontario schools offering full-day kindergarten are expected to also have before- and after-school care, the Star has learned.

Early projections were that half of all families enrolling their 4- and 5-year-olds in the all-day program would also want school-based care before and after class, but critics say that with few details of cost or availability, parents are simply avoiding it.

“That’s very low uptake — if there’s 600 schools, that’s 90 schools in the whole province,” said Annie Kidder of the advocacy group People for Education.

As a parent, “you need security, you need sureness, you need to know exactly what it is,” she added. “I really do think it’s a disappointment, to say the least, that this wasn’t organized much, much sooner.”

Catherine Fife, president of the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association, said “there’s no question that people want full-day — there’s a strong uptake on that component.”

But parents have a lot of questions about the child-care portion, and boards have been unable to give answers as they awaited provincial regulations on everything from what they can charge for the extended day to who can provide it.

Those regulations were only released Tuesday; Fife said they should have been out in April.

The first phase of the province’s ambitious full-day kindergarten program begins this fall for 35,000 kindergarten students. Where there’s enough demand schools must also provide before- and after-school care that parents pay for.

Boards must let families know by the end of June what’s available in the fall.

“We have worked very hard to get information out to school boards in a timely fashion so that boards and parents can plan for the upcoming school year,” said Michelle Despault, spokeswoman for Education Minister Leona Dombrowsky.

“We are confident that boards will now have all the information they need to finalize arrangements for Phase 1 schools.”

Brian Canavan, who enrolled his 4-year-old son, Gabriel, at a Catholic school in Markham , said he and other parents were told at kindergarten registration that the extended daycare would be available.

Two months later, they were informed there wasn’t a spot for Gabriel in the child care. They only learned Tuesday that things had worked out. The time in between has been confusing and stressful, Canavan said.

Fife said more before- and after-school programs could be in place for the fall if demand picks up.

“Boards really are trying to make the program as accessible as possible,” she said. “We realize that the extended day is the key to the success of the entire vision of the early learning program” of providing a “seamless day” of schooling and care for kids.

Karen Grose of the Toronto District School Board said that so far, interest in the extended day is lower than expected, but once trustees approve fees, she expects the board will have a better sense of parents who are willing to “commit — or recommit” to it.

Fife said the Waterloo Region District School Board, has set a tentative price of $29 a day for the extended daycare — $13 covering 7 to 9 a.m. , and $16 for 3:15 to 6 p.m. — just to give parents an idea of what to expect. It is aiming for an average enrolment of 18 kids.

She acknowledged the cost is high at $145 a week, or almost $600 a month. “We have to cover our costs. As you know, (boards) can’t run a deficit.”

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It is written by a consultant and book writer, Mike Brooks and really needs no introduction. If you are interested in self-motivation and becoming as successful in your career as you can, then it is worth the few minutes it takes to read and reflect upon the message.
  

Every so often I feel it’s my responsibility to remind you about the single most important determinate of success, happiness and well being.

Like gravity itself, this law of being is constant; it is unchanging and completely dependable.  Every person relies on and uses this principle, consciously or unconsciously, and it never fails to deliver the exact results according to your understanding of it.

The rich, the poor, the successful, the struggling – all manner of men and women the planet over are using this law or principle of being, and it has been this way since the beginning of time.  Right now, right here as you are reading this, you are using it, too.

The exciting thing about this principle is that as soon as you truly understand and begin using it constructively with belief and expectation, you can turn your life, circumstance, your income, health, or anything else completely around.  This law can be summed up very simply:

“Everything in your life is an exact duplication of your consciousness.”

In other words, whatever images you hold in your mind, in your consciousness, will always be manifested outward as your experience.  It is the simplest of truths that you cannot hold one belief and image in your mind and manifest another.

That’s why some sales reps (the top 20%) are, and always will be, more successful than others.  That is how they believe themselves to be; it is how they see themselves, and they will always produce the exact results according to their belief.

There’s a very easy way to prove that this is so.  Ask yourself, “Isn’t it true that the results in your life, in every area, down to every detail, are an exact mirror of what you think about it all day long?”

If you’re honest, your answer is yes.  Now the question may come into your mind, “Yeah, but the reason I’m thinking about it all day long is because that’s how it is for me.  The circumstances are there (I’m not making enough money; don’t have the house/car/relationship I want, etc.) so of course that’s what I think about all the time.”

Let me ask you: “What if it was EXACTLY the other way around?”  What if your thoughts actually caused you to take repetitive actions that actually CAUSED the unwanted situations in your life to recur?

If you’re willing to consider that your thinking and beliefs might actually be the cause – rather than the results – in your life, then you are ready to finally claim the spiritual power that is the one truth that rules all of existence – that everything in your life is an exact duplication of your current consciousness.

There are books written about this power of manifestation (some call it the Law of Attraction), and it is and always will be true.  I think Dr. Robert Anthony said it best in his book, “Advanced Formula for Total Success”:

“Take all the money away from a person who is a millionaire – one who has the consciousness of a millionaire today – and within a short time he or she will be a millionaire again.  Riches start from the mind, not your pocketbook, bank account or investment.  The pocketbook, bank account and investments are the effects, not the cause.  The cause is always an idea or belief.  A person is not rich because they have money.  They have money because they are rich in consciousness.  They believe that they are rich.

Again, this is the reason that the rich will always get richer and the poor will always stay poor until they change their consciousness.”

This is why an astounding 90% of all lottery winners or people who inherit or win large sums of money end up broke and in debt – in other words, back to their original level of consciousness – in 3 years or less.  This is a concrete and measurable example of this law in action.

So, what can do you do about it?

First, stop blaming other people, companies, competition or the economy for your current circumstances.  They are not the cause; your current beliefs and repetitive thinking are and always will be the cause.

Second, make a commitment to begin treating the source – your consciousness.  You can do this by picking up and reading daily, any of the books you currently own on the power of belief, law of attraction, consciousness conditioning, and begin reminding yourself of the truth, daily.

Third, begin changing these believes and your consciousness with whatever techniques you find work for you.  There are many different ones to chose from:  You can use affirmations, meditations, becoming aware of and changing your self-talk, hypnosis sessions, prayer, practicing gratitude, or any other practice that will develop and change your consciousness.

I hope some of what you’ve read here today resonates with the truth inside of you.  If you have used your power before, then you know what I’m talking about.  Make a decision that today is the day you begin believing in and creating the life you know is possible for you.  Just remember: “If someone else can have the things in life that you want, then YOU can have it, too.”

And you will, as soon as you change in the images in your consciousness.

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One such firm, the Radicati Group estimated that email accounts will grow from 2.9 billion in 2010 to 3.8 billion in 2014. With approximately 75% of all email accounts belonging to consumers and 25% belonging to corporate accounts, it is clear that the general population is finding this form of communication very appealing. In fact so many people have more than one email account that the average number of accounts per person is now 1.6 addresses.

One of the most annoying problems with most email users is that about 18% of all email is considered spam. However, that includes anything that is considered "unwanted" including newsletters, email alerts and solicitations. This "junk mail" as it is so often referred is simply something that one must get accustomed to because of the nature of the technology. You get the good with the bad.

It is estimated that the number of social network users has now surpassed the number of email users. The time spent with social networking is approximately 200 minutes per month, compared with 125 minutes per month for email. Even though many people feel that there is an extraordinary amount of time wasted on social networking, at 200 minutes per month, that only amounts to a little over 6 minutes per day. Email is consuming about 4 minutes per day. That hardly seems excessive.

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School district took secret webcam photos of students

PHILADELPHIA - A suburban Philadelphia school district has admitted it secretly captured at least 56,000 webcam photographs and screen shots from laptops issued to high school students.

“It’s clear there were students who were likely captured in their homes,” said lawyer Henry Hockeimer, who represents the Lower Merion School District .

He disputed the contention in a lawsuit filed by one student’s parents that the images showed 15-year-old Blake Robbins “partially undressed.”

None of the images, captured by a tracking program to find missing computers, appeared to be salacious or inappropriate, Hockeimer said Monday. The district said it remotely activated the tracking software to find 80 missing laptops in the past two years.

The Philadelphia Inquirer first reported Monday on the large number of images recovered from school servers by forensic computer experts, who were hired after Robbins and his parents filed suit over what they call “peeping tom” technology.

Two IT employees for the school district were put on paid leave in March during the investigation. One of them, information systems coordinator Carol Cafiero, is alleged to have sent emails about the captured screen shots saying “I love it!” according to the Robbins’ lawsuit.

Robbins still doesn’t know why the district used the software tracking program on his computer, as he had not reported it lost or stolen, his lawyer said.

The FBI has opened a criminal investigation into possible wiretap violations by the district, and U.S. Senator Arlen Specter, of Pennsylvania , has introduced a bill to include webcam surveillance under the federal wiretap statute.

The district photographed Robbins 400 times during a 15-day period last fall, sometimes as he slept in bed or was half-dressed, according to his lawyer, Mark Haltzman. Other times, the district captured screen shots of instant messages or video chats the Harriton High School Grade 10 student had with friends, he said.

“Not only was Blake Robbins being spied upon, but every one of the people he was IM chatting with were spied upon,” said Haltzman, whose lawsuit alleges wiretap and privacy violations. “They captured pictures of people that have nothing to do with Harriton. It could be his cousin from Connecticut .”

About 38,000 of the images were taken over several months from six computers the school said were stolen from a locker room.

The tracking program took images every 15 minutes, usually capturing the webcam photo of the user and a screen shot at the same time. The program was sometimes turned on for weeks or months at a time, Hockeimer said.

“There were no written policies or procedures governing the circumstances surrounding activating the program and the circumstances regarding turning off the activations,” Hockeimer said.

Robbins was one of about 20 students who had not paid the $55 insurance fee required to take the laptops home but was the only one tracked, Haltzman said.

The depositions taken to date have provided contradictory testimony about the reasons for tracking Robbins’ laptop. One of the two people authorized to activate the program, technology co-ordinator Cafiero, invoked her Fifth Amendment constitutional right to avoid self-incrimination and chose not to answer questions at the deposition, Haltzman said.

About 10 school officials had the right to request an activation, Hockeimer disclosed Monday.

The tracking program helped police identify a suspect not affiliated with the school in the locker room theft, Hockeimer said. The affluent Montgomery County district distributes the Macintosh notebook computers to all 2,300 students at its two high schools, Hockeimer said.

As part of the lawsuit, a federal judge this week is set to begin a confidential process of showing parents the images that were captured of their children.

The Pennsylvania school district expects to release a written report on an internal investigation in the next few weeks, Hockeimer said. School board President David Ebby has pledged the report will contain “all the facts — good and bad.”  

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At issue is the salary level that will have to be paid to childhood educators. School Boards feel that they may have to pay more for early childhood educators than existing day cares are paying. Also there may be additional special education costs as well as wages for lunchroom supervisors.

In Greater Sudbury, both the Rainbow District School Board and the Sudbury District Catholic School Board have indicated that they will pull the funding from other areas of the budget in order to provide full-day kindergarten and junior-kindergarten programs at all of their schools board-wide. It remains to be seen if the boards can maintain the practice after the first year once they find out the true cost of running the program as compared to the funding they are receiving from the ministry.

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She also pointed out that over 80% of the students attending college from the Greater Sudbury Area are attending Cambrian College. She feels that any student who leaves the area to attend college is doing so because of the fact that they may be seeking a program that Cambrian doesn't offer or because they were not able to obtain a place in one of their limited enrolment programs.

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ADHD boy wants anonymity: `He doesn’t want to be a joke’

You will see no photo of 10-year-old Michael even though he could be a poster boy for what this story is about.

Also, Michael isn’t his real name. It’s just one of the popular names for boys 10 years ago.

Except that 10 years is not exact.

We have promised that the boy and his family will remain anonymous.

At his school, in Halton Region, only teachers and staff know that Michael is being treated for ADHD (attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder).

His classmates and their parents don’t know.

“There is such a huge stigma,” says his mother, whom we’ll call Sarah. “And it’s his choice, his decision that it’s none of their business. He hears kids say, if someone is acting up or getting wild, ‘Oh, he must be ADHD.’ I even hear parents say that. And my son hears it on TV when people make jokes about ADHD

“He doesn’t want to be a joke.”

Almost all families with kids with ADD (attention-deficit disorder, without the hyperactivity) and ADHD feel that way.

Michael’s mother only agreed to talk to the Star after Heidi Bernhardt, executive director of the Centre for ADD/ADHD Advocacy Canada, guaranteed anonymity.

“It’s interesting that nobody wants to be identified, because there’s still so much stigma,” says Bernhardt.

Even with all the science and understanding that ADHD is a neurobiological disorder, she says, “in the general public view, a child with ADHD is seen as a problem child, and nobody wants that label for their child. Imagine putting your name in the Toronto Star! Everybody would know.”

But the truth is that a child with ADHD, who is undiagnosed and untreated, is often a “problem child.”

Michael was one before he was diagnosed in Grade 1 and treated with medication.

His mother suspected the disorder when he was only 4-years-old.

“He was very, very impulsive at home and at preschool,” she recalls. “He wasn’t able to follow instructions or stand in line, and he did silly things, grabbing someone else’s work and crumpling it up, pulling kids’ hair. He was not at the top of anyone’s birthday party list.”

At home, she says, “We’d ask him to do something — get into his pyjamas or get dressed in the morning — and it didn’t register.”

The effect of medication, she says, “was amazing — even though it’s a very hard thing to decide to give your child medication.”

The first day her son took short-acting Ritalin, recalls Sarah, “Our little puppy noticed the difference. The puppy was always cautious around him and gave him a lot of space, because he was so impulsive and moved so fast. The day he started medication, the dog came up and put its head on his lap.”

Michael has since switched to long-acting Vyvanase, explains Sarah.

“It’s been excellent,” she says, “[It’s made] a world of difference.”

Michael is now a straight A student, working two and three years beyond his own grade level in some subjects.

The medication “helps him focus and think before he acts, but it’s not a cure-all,” says his mother. “We still have to have behavioural strategies.” That includes having him repeat instructions and respond to questions, such as “What’s your task? What are you supposed to do?”

Michael is a success story, in part because has no associated disorders often linked with ADHD, including learning disabilities, anxiety and oppositional defiance disorder.

But much of his success can be attributed to being identified early as a child with ADHD and receiving appropriate medical treatment and strategic parenting.

Not all parents, however, are comfortable with having their young children diagnosed with a disorder.

“There’s still a lot of controversy” about labelling, says Dr. Alice Charach, head of neuropsychiatry in Sick Kids’ outpatient department of psychiatry.

Although teachers, especially in Toronto schools, are generally more sensitive to the possibility of this disorder when children have behavioural or academic issues, says Charach, “families don’t always appreciate hearing this. It brings up a lot of difficult feelings.”

They may be reluctant to intervene. “It’s easier to just think that it needs different parenting techniques or that the teacher needs to do a better job of keeping the child from being bored,” she says. “Plenty of people are uncomfortable with labelling childhood behaviour as a disorder.”

In fact, over-diagnosing boys (girls are generally under-diagnosed) and medicating are two of the most controversial issues surrounding ADHD in children.

“Is it being overdiagnosed?” muses Dr. Marshall Korenblum, chief psychiatrist at the Hincks-Dellcrest Centre for Children. “We are seeing more of it. But there are pretty strict criteria for diagnosis: a combination of inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity, onset before age of 7, persistence of symptoms causing functional impairment and [it’s] present in more than one place — not just school or not just home.”

As for concerns about medication, Korenblum says, “My retort is: If you know someone had a brain disorder and didn’t treat it, what are the consequences? And, we do have good information now that these kids’ brains are honest-to-goodness wired differently.”

But Korenblum favours a holistic approach to treatment that may include family therapy, classroom intervention, cognitive behaviour therapy and self-management. “Kids can learn to self-talk and self-soothe,” he says.

How early can ADHD be identified?

“In the moderate to severe range, as a toddler,” says Korenblum. “What was the temperament of the kid when he was 2 or 3? Was he all over, climbing on furniture, running away in the supermarket? For sure, in Grade 1 or 2 when they have to sit still, stand in line, be quiet and put up their hands, kids with ADHD can’t do it.”

Kids who are hyperactive “never sit still, they’re always on the go, driven like a motor,” he says.

Often, they’re fearless, they’ll run into the middle of the street.”

Sleep disturbances can be a symptom. “They can’t get to sleep,” he says. “They’re just up and frankly, they do need less sleep. Their brains are wired differently.”

Even babies — “so-called ‘difficult’ babies” — says Korenblum, may be showing early signs of ADHD.

“The more we’re learning about the disorder, the earlier we’re able to diagnose it.”

And early diagnosis is extremely important, advises Korenblum.

The disorder, he says, “has huge effects on the life of a child: academic, social, familial. If a child can’t pay attention, he can’t learn. If he’s getting into fights, he may not relate well to peers. And he may be challenging to parents, getting punished for bad behaviour that’s not totally in his control.

“The consequences are huge — at school, at home, everywhere.”  

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‘Class size is the biggest dead end in the world,’ writer tells provincial Liberal think-tank

May 16, 2010

Tanya Talaga

COLLINGWOOD, ONT.—Smaller class sizes are “ludicrous” and a waste of money, according to bestselling author Malcolm Gladwell in a keynote address to the provincial Liberal party faithful at a “big think” conference.

Gladwell, who was raised in southwestern Ontario , spoke at the “Imaging Ontario's Future” conference at the Blue Mountain resort here.

“I was very grateful this invitation came from you and not the Tories,” he joked. “Otherwise my mother would have disowned me.”

Gladwell, whose books include The Tipping Point, Blink and Outliers, is a graduate of the University of Toronto 's Trinity College .

He spoke of making the case for a “new kind of liberalism” and the importance of a proactive government with a clear message and agenda.

Everything the world has learned about education shows that the quality of the teacher is the most important factor in a student's success, Gladwell said.

“I know that from time to time there is a lot of interest in the power and importance of reducing class size but the data shows class size is the biggest dead end in the world,” Gladwell said.

Sitting in the front row listening to Gladwell was Premier Dalton McGuinty, whose key election promise in 2003 was reducing class sizes for elementary students.

“Even if you were to cut every class in Ontario in half, you'd improve the performance of Ontario 's schoolchildren by about 5 percentile points,” Gladwell said.

But changing teacher quality has a “massive impact” on student outcome, he said.

“If a child is unlucky enough to have a bad teacher three years in a row they will fall three years behind a child lucky enough to have a good teacher three years in a row.”

The question is how do you improve the quality of teachers, Gladwell said. Raising academic requirements isn't the simple answer. Teaching is complicated in this modern world, he said.

“We are asking them to play six, seven, eight different roles in the classroom. The best thing we can do for teachers is to simply let them teach. That requires a government that is activist ... that is not afraid to try something radically new,” he said.

On Saturday, McGuinty told reporters he wasn't bothered by Gladwell's opinion on class sizes. The party invited a slew of different academics, consultants and speakers to challenge Liberal minds as they hunt for new ideas ahead of next year's provincial election, he said.

Economist Jeff Rubin is an example of someone who has fundamentally different thoughts than most Ontario Liberals, McGuinty said.

“We are trying to provoke ourselves with new kinds of thinking,” he said. “Jeff Rubin this morning (Saturday) said we shouldn't have bailed out the auto sector, and Malcolm Gladwell last night said he didn't like our smaller class sizes. That is great; we are open to that.

“Provoke us. Help us better understand the consequences of the decisions we make so we can plan better for the future,” he said.  

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Full service schools offer more than just education

Imagine a school that is open every day all year round. In addition to curriculum-based classroom learning, it offers after-school and weekend programs for both children and adults. Soccer games, mentoring programs, dental services for kids: nutrition programs, employment counselling and art classes for adults are examples.

The school has child care, literacy centres and a parent academy to teach parents how to help kids learn. There are also educational and recreational programs geared to seniors.

This is what we call a full service school.

Under the same roof, there are resources related to the kind of social and emotional support needed from time to time by any member of the community: mental health counselling, crisis response, youth justice and legal advice, settlement and employment assistance and food banks.

Parents and communities play a prominent role. These programs and resources at a school directly reflect the needs of its community as decided by community members. One community might wish to add to its school site adult literacy classes or job training. Another might choose to introduce family counselling services.

The full service school is a simple concept: Create an environment where learning and academic achievement can occur. Investments in superior curriculum and the most technologically advanced classrooms will only be squandered unless more pressing needs of children and their parents have already been addressed. Nutrition, health care, attentive and engaged parents, and a sense of safety and belonging come first.

In announcing the 16 potential sites for these schools at the program and school services committee meeting this evening, we are moving toward fulfilling a key component of our Vision of Hope, a blueprint for the future that focuses on student achievement, parent and community involvement and financial stability. With the overwhelmingly enthusiastic support and valuable guidance of our community partners, we are now ready to lead the way to a new generation of schools grounded in the belief that each and every child has the potential to succeed.

As early as the turn of the century, educators were drawing the link between children's capacity for learning and overall life circumstances.

Eventually, the idea took hold that child welfare agencies and schools should work together to support children and their families. But it's only in the past decade or so that a growing community schools movement in a number of countries has given voice to the need for a more cohesive and integrated approach to meeting the non-academic needs of children as a way to overcome obstacles to learning. It's what some now call “one-stop shopping.”

The research is clear: When we immerse children in an environment attuned to their overall needs, attendance rates improve, grades go up and class engagement increases.

We also know that the benefits of full service schools spill over into the community with improved family health, better neighbourhood relations and less crime.

In community schools, children can engage in creative educational projects and cultural enrichment from early in the morning until evening, and all summer long. They may be a part of sponsoring a seniors' day, a beautification project, or a luncheon for new students. There would also be plenty of opportunities to nurture a spirit of public service.

By keeping school doors open beyond non-traditional school hours, they become a haven for children, a place for learning that is removed from the violence, drugs and lack of supervision that permeate some communities.

Community schools fall on a continuum: Some have one-program add-ons, such as after-school enrichment, while others are fully realized, comprehensive alternative models.

Almost all are built on partnerships between the school and such groups as community services, universities, businesses, churches, libraries, museums, the police and youth agencies.

A long-term goal for us would be full integration of policy and funding among the relevant government ministries. This is in keeping with the vision articulated in the Ontario Ministry of Education's own early learning program which calls for an integrated plan among ministries, boards and municipalities.

Such a fundamental shift in the operation and community identity of schools is not without challenges. We will need to decide the level of physical integration of services and what if any boundaries are necessary.

Would a school need a separate wing for health and counselling services or does the system become seamless to the point that the doctor's office is also the guidance office?

Cost-sharing issues will have to be settled. With a number of different organizations under the same roof, financial responsibility for services like caretaking and maintenance of the building will need to be allocated accordingly.

There will also be issues of shared governance, including a need to define the role of site coordinator, someone who supports the school principal and coordinates all the services being delivered at a particular location.

Under this model, there will be no place for professional turf wars. But those who are able to collaborate and work together in new ways while respecting professional boundaries will gain new insights and enhanced job satisfaction. There is incredible opportunity here.

It is up to us to create avenues for community input and an effective model for shared decision-making. Success will depend largely on the willingness of parents and communities to take an active role in envisioning and defining the services that will transform a building location into what can potentially become the heart of their community.  

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CALGARY , AB , Jan. 19, 2010 / — Here are two interesting facts: 1) Alberta is the only Canadian province to incorporate charter schools into the public education system; and 2) Alberta students consistently outperform all other Canadian students across every educational measure. I’m not saying that there is a cause-effect relationship between these two facts. I am merely pointing out that they co-exist.

These points are particularly interesting at the moment. The Alberta charter school community will learn their fate in the spring when Minister of Education Dave Hancock reopens the School Act. Minister Hancock has completed a year-long public consultation on the future of education in Alberta, examining what can be done to make Alberta education better and what the role of charter schools should be in the public education system. 

Education key to prosperity

Why do charter schools in Alberta matter? They matter because education is the key to success and prosperity in the future. International education indicators show that although Canada currently ranks quite high in student achievement, we are failing to improve while countries like India and China are progressing rapidly. In an increasingly globalized and competitive world, it is imperative that Canadian education adequately equips students to compete. Canadian’s economic advantage isn’t in manufacturing or natural resources, it is in our ideas. If we fail to equip Canadian students to think as critically and creatively as possible, we forfeit our chances of future success. We also let down our children who deserve the best education we can give them.

The Alberta experiment with charter schools began in 1994 when legislation for their establishment was first created. Since then, charter schools have grown and now enroll more than 7,000 students. The schools are extremely innovative and focus on, for example, science, arts immersion, rural leadership and traditional education. Additionally, many charter schools cater to specific populations including at-risk youth, ESL students, girls, Aboriginal youth and gifted students.

Charter schools are held to a higher level of accountability than regular public schools and any charter school not achieving the objectives of their charter, or managing their school well, can be closed by the Minister of Education.  

Charter schools are autonomous public schools and all the same rules apply to them as any other public school. This means that they cannot discriminate in student enrollment, they must hire certified teachers, they cannot be religiously affiliated, they have to follow the provincial curriculum and they cannot charge tuition. Charter schools were established in Alberta in an effort to provide competition to the public school boards, therefore encouraging innovation and the development of alternative programming. It was also hoped they would become centres for educational research and development.

So far, charter schools have succeeded in providing choice in the educational system. Families can choose to attend a charter school instead of a regular public school and charter school programming has stimulated some of the larger school boards to offer alternative programming. They have also succeeded in providing enhanced learning outcomes to their students. Charter school students perform at an equivalent, or higher level, on provincial achievement examinations and, according to a government report, provide significantly more educational value to their students than equivalent public board schools.

Changes to the School Act

The goal that charter schools would be centres of innovation that could share their success with the rest of the system, however, has been largely unrealized. Charter school proponents hope the changes to the School Act will begin to remedy this by clarifying the position of charter schools in the educational community, changing legislation to relieve some of the burdens of the charter renewal process and providing funding directly to educational research.

Given that charter school students are outperforming other students in Alberta , and Alberta students are outperforming all the other students in the country, perhaps it is worth paying attention. And maybe, just maybe, charter schools that demonstrably encourage innovation, provide enhanced learning outcomes and increase choice in education provide a partial explanation for the success of Albertan students.  

Shawna Ritchie is a Policy Analyst with the Canada West Foundation. Her report on charter schools, Innovation in Action: An Examination of Charter Schools in Alberta , is available at no charge from the Canada West Foundation website (www.cwf.ca).  

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  WINNIPEG , MB , Dec. 9, 2009 / — If the Ontario government has its way, students will learn a lot less content in school by the fall of 2011. According to a special advisory group consisting of principals, teachers, superintendents, and trustees, students are drowning in too many facts from current K-8 curriculum guides. The solution, they argue, is the removal of unnecessary facts that are “cluttering up” the curriculum.

Recent comments from Karen Grose, the superintendent of the Toronto District School Board, make it clear just how dim a view many educators take of factual knowledge. “Our kids live in a world where they are immersed in content through things like Twitter and Google, so we don’t want them memorizing facts they can access easily, but we want them to think about how to apply that knowledge, and how it affects how they live as citizens and workers.”

When a school superintendent claims that access to Twitter and Google makes the memorization of facts unnecessary, we know our education system has hit a new low.

Common sense tells us there’s a huge difference between students with substantial background knowledge and those who don’t know anything unless they look it up on the internet.

Anyone who doubts this statement should ask themselves who they would hire to fix their vehicle – a trained mechanic or an amateur with a collection of engine schematics and do-it-yourself repair manuals. Of course, virtually everyone would choose the trained mechanic. Mechanics know a lot more about how engines operate than amateurs and they can use this knowledge to quickly diagnose and correct mechanical problems.

The same principle holds true in other professions. No one would consult a lawyer who needed to check the internet when answering even the simplest of legal questions. Nor would anyone be particularly impressed with a doctor who constantly refers to his medical textbook throughout every routine checkup. We expect professionals to possess a certain amount of specialized knowledge about their field. Without that knowledge, they are no more useful than an amateur with an internet connection.

Those who wish to reduce the amount of content in the curriculum claim this helps students think more deeply about important issues. What advocates of this approach forget is that it is impossible to think deeply about something that you know nothing about. Someone who needs to consult Wikipedia in order to find out the date of Confederation or the name of our first prime minister is unlikely to provide much deep thought about the historical development of the Canadian constitution.

In short, deep and critical thinking is most likely to be done by those students who possess the most extensive knowledge base about the subject in question. This fact makes it all the more essential that we immerse students in content-rich instruction.

Prescribed subject matter content also plays an important role in helping students learn how to read more effectively. Although current language arts curriculum guides treat reading comprehension as an abstract skill, there are solid reasons to challenge this approach. In his 2006 book, The Knowledge Deficit, well-known education reformer E. D. Hirsch, Jr. cites an exhaustive number of research studies that back up the contention that background knowledge, often called cultural literacy, is the key to reading comprehension.

The Core Knowledge Foundation (www.coreknowledge.org), an organization founded by Hirsch, publishes detailed content-rich standards that are in stark contrast to the vacuous generalities offered by most provincial curriculum guides. Research studies comparing core knowledge schools with regular public schools consistently demonstrate that students in schools with more curricular content outperform those from schools with less content.

As for the argument that the current curriculum is overcrowded with a jumble of disconnected facts, let’s make sure we connect the facts in a coherent fashion. Rather than reducing the amount of content studied, structure the curriculum in such a way that it fits properly together. The last thing our students need is a curriculum even emptier of content than it is now.

It’s time educational administrators and bureaucrats stop using school children as guinea pigs for their pet ideologies. We need to provide our students with the best education possible. The evidence is clear that our students need to learn more content, rather than less.

Michael Zwaagstra, M.Ed., is a research associate with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy (www.fcpp.org) and a high school social studies teacher in Manitoba .  

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Discovering Your Child's Preferred Learning Style

What are Learning Styles?

Every child is born ready to learn. Yet children (and adults) generally have a preferred style in which they learn best. A child might learn through a combination of styles, but usually there is one learning style he or she favors over the others.

For example:

• You may be able to spell by visualizing a word, but your child may not be able to memorize his or her spelling words unless he or she writes them down first.
• Your child's incessant pencil tapping may actually help her or him stay on task.

There is no right or wrong learning style. Your primary learning style may be different from your child's. To work effectively with your child, you need to understand both your own learning style and your child's.

When you identify how your child learns best, you can help your child have more positive learning experiences.

The Most Common Learning Styles

The three most common learning styles are:

• Visual
• Auditory
• Physical (Kinesthetic)

Visual Learners learn by watching. They use images to remember, creating a picture in their heads. To learn spelling, for example, they may picture the way a word looks.

Visual learners may also:

• Enjoy art and drawing
• Read maps, charts and diagrams well
• Like mazes and puzzles

Teaching methods for visual learners include:

• Making flash cards for key information
• Drawing symbols or pictures
• Visually highlighting key words and pictures
• Making charts to organize information
• Translating words and ideas into symbols, pictures and diagrams
• Using to-do lists, assignment logs and written notes (also benefits physical learners)

Auditory learners benefit from traditional teaching techniques. They learn well when directions are read aloud or information is presented and requested verbally. They remember facts when presented in a poem, song or melody.

Auditory learners also like:

• To tell stories and jokes
• To play word games
• To use tape recorders

Teaching methods for auditory learners include:

• Reading out loud together
• Encouraging them to read out loud when they study, so they can "hear" the instruction
• Studying with a partner, so they can talk out the solutions to problems
• Writing out a sequence of steps to solve a problem, then reading the steps out loud

Physical learners learn best through movement and physical manipulation. They like to find out how things work and want to touch, feel and experience what they are being asked to learn. Most kindergartners are physical learners, but by second or third grade their learning styles may change to visual or auditory. However, half of all students in high school and beyond remain physical learners.

Physical learners may also:

• Need to manipulate, handle and try things out
• Have a short attention span
• Need to be moving to learn
• Show you things rather than telling you about them

Teaching methods for physical learners include:

• Letting them participate in science or math laboratories
• Creating and participating in dramatic productions
• Going on field trips
• Creating and performing skits and dances
• Encouraging them to take notes and draw diagrams
• Having them make models.

How to Discover Your Child's Learning Style

You can discover your child's learning style by watching how your child tackles new tasks and interacts with her or his world.

The visual learner:

• Notices details
• Is aware of similarities and differences
• Often has good eye-hand coordination
• May be quiet and deliberate
• May have a vivid imagination
• May have trouble remembering verbal directions and messages

The auditory learner:

• Talks to him or herself
• Hums and asks lots of questions
• May want to make a lot of noise if it is too quiet
• May be distracted by having too many sounds at one time
• Is very social and loves to talk about what he or she is doing

The physical learner:

• Seems to be in constant motion
• Needs to handle and try things out to understand them
• May actually need to be moving to learn

How Understanding Learning Styles Helps Your Child

If a subject in school is not taught using your child's preferred learning style, he or she may struggle to understand it. You can help your child grasp difficult material by practicing at home using your child's best learning style.

You may also be able to talk with your child's teacher about how your child learns best. This can help both your own and other children in the class. In the past, most instruction was delivered verbally (although only about 10 percent of secondary school students are auditory learners).

Many teachers are now aware of the need to deliver instruction in ways that accommodate all learning styles.

Understanding your child's learning style also helps you:

• Keep expectations realistic
• Help your child at home
• Become an advocate for your child at school
• Teach your child coping skills for situations that are not geared to his or her learning style
• Prevent your child from feeling frustrated when he or she is not doing work that is up to his or he potential
• Experiment with different learning styles and environments to improve your child's accomplishments and feelings of achievement

It is important to avoid negative labels for learners. All children are born ready to learn.

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LONDON , UK , Jan. 19, 2010 / Troy Media/ — Space pilots, vertical farmers and body part makers are just some of the jobs our kids could be doing in 20 years time.

Commissioned by Britain ’s Science: [So what? So everything] campaign, expert future researchers from Fast Future analysed future trends, such as population growth and climate change, alongside developments in science and technology, to create a list of 20 potential jobs of the future.

The study paints a picture of the jobs we could be doing by 2030:

• The digital revolution will continue to accelerate, ushering in the need for virtual lawyers, virtual clutter organisers, waste data handlers and personal branders
• Safeguarding the environment will be more prominent than ever, with climate change reversal specialists, vertical farmers and weather modification police all attempting to deal with the impact of climate change and population growth
• Old age wellness managers, memory augmentation surgeons and body part makers will be needed to cope with an ageing society, enhancing the quality of life for a population where life expectancies could reach over 100
• Breakthroughs in space travel will lead to people swapping the office for the final frontier as space pilots, space architects and space tour guides

Of the top 20 future jobs highlighted, a global survey of future thinkers revealed:

• Brits are keen to ‘boldly go’, with space jobs the most aspirational, alongside nano-medics and memory augmentation surgeons
• Cars, crops and older people could be the focus for many in tomorrow’s workforce, with old age wellness managers, vertical farmers and alternative vehicle developers creating the most jobs
• For those looking to make the big bucks, nano-medicine, memory augmentation surgery and virtual law are the areas you should be telling your kids about, with the Fast Future panel predicting that these will be the best paid jobs in 2030
• Future jobs that benefit society will be most popular, with climate change reversal specialist, social ‘networking’ worker and old age wellness manager topping the poll in the popularity stakes
• Work won’t all be ‘fun’ in the future with the least exciting jobs being weather modification police, to protect us from ‘cloud theft’; quarantine enforcers preventing the spread of diseases and waste data handlers who will dispose of our electronic mess

“The list of future jobs” said Fast Future’ CEO and study author Rohit Talwar, “highlights the vast array of exciting things today’s school children could be doing in 20 years time, all made possible by fields of science and innovation. We’re crossing the boundaries between science fiction and reality, and what we’re seeing in the movies are becoming genuine career opportunities. Alongside futuristic sounding high tech  jobs at the cutting edge of scientific fields like nano-medicine, the jobs of the future also include very ‘high touch’ occupations such as old age wellness managers, narrowcasters and personal branders. Although these are made possible by science they won’t necessarily require a high level of scientific expertise in themselves.”

“This is a fascinating list of jobs,” said Stephen Fry, a supporter of the Science [So what? So everything] campaign. “I’d go for the nano-medic first up – that’s exciting, really exciting. To be a pioneer, in the van of a new technology, and one that might deliver spectacular help and improvements to the world – yes please! After that I’d like to be an avatar manager – this will happen and we shouldn’t be frightened by the idea, which could make huge strides in education.”

The Science: [So what? So everything] campaign commissioned Fast Future to conduct The shape of jobs to come study to show how science is shaping Britain ’s future jobs. The campaign aims to help people understand the impact that science has on their everyday lives, and the wealth of exciting job opportunities available in the fields of science and technology. To find out more about the jobs of the future, and to find out how you might be able work in one of these areas, visit www.direct.gov.uk/sciencesowhat.  

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Student debt: Can you teach financial literacy?

LONDON, ONT.—On this warm spring morning, these kids at London South Collegiate Institute are getting a lesson that goes mostly untaught in Ontario’s high schools.

“You are going to get junk mail beyond your wildest dreams,” business teacher Jeff Balch tells the room of 15- and 16-year-olds, who in two years will be off to college and university. “And it’s going to be credit cards.”

Of the three “C”s of frosh week — condoms, cafeteria food and easy credit — Ontario ’s youth are least prepared to deal with the pitfalls associated with the latter.

Balch’s class, however, is about to begin The City, an innovative, 11-module course developed by the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada and the British Columbia Securities Commission that will introduce them to the perils and benefits of credit and the importance of budgeting, debt management, saving money and balancing wants and needs.

It’s Financial Literacy 101, if you will, and something Canadians of all ages could benefit from, but perhaps is most important for young people who will soon leave home and either begin working or take on student debt, which can be staggering.

The federal student loan debt in Canada sits at $13.5 billion, and that does not include provincial and private loans. A recent study by the Canadian Federation of Students found this debt load to be uneven along racial lines.

Those who have less money are borrowing more and falling into a deeper debt hole in order to get a post secondary education. “Racialized” families, the report notes, are three times more likely to have incomes below the poverty line.

As tuitions have risen over the years, the borrowing disparity has grown and, the report states, graduates from “racialized” groups also face the prospect of lower-paying jobs. A double whammy.

Six out of 10 young Canadians, aged 18 to 29, are in debt of some kind, with credit card debt being the most common, followed by student loans, according to a 2008 Environics survey. One in five had debts totaling more than $20,000. Half of those with debt felt that their debt level was as much or more than they could handle. These numbers are conservative. As the study notes, three in 10 surveyed either did not know their debt level or would not divulge that information.

With the financial bust came a sense of urgency on all things financial, prompting federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty to launch a task force on financial literacy last summer. It is now off doing public consultations across the country.

In Ontario , too, there has been some reaction. While the Ministry of Education is not looking at adding any new courses, it instead intends to “seamlessly” integrate financial literacy into existing curriculum, from Grades 4 to12.

At the moment, there are few opportunities for Ontario students to learn financial management skills. Some elements are taught in Grade 10 business classes, and other lessons pop up in math and family studies classes.

“But the vast majority of kids are not getting any of this knowledge, which is a shame,” says Balch, who teaches other teachers how to use The City program. “And it just perpetuates. When they get to university, they are now 18 and they are now out from under their parents and nobody’s telling them anything.”

In Balch’s Grade 10 classroom, students dive in to The City, where they learn how to manage money through eight virtual characters at different stages of their lives but connected through a café where they either work or hangout. They include: Rio , a 20-year-old dishwasher who wants to be a pro athlete; Indigo, 18, a student who aspires to be an animator; Liam, 25, a burnt-out nurse with a spouse and kid who lives with the in-laws; and a divorced couple.

Mixed into the storyline (which students are encouraged to embellish) is a dose of flirting and romance. The result: a financial soap opera that one might call As the Dollar Turns.

Betty Johnson, 16, Aosan Farid, 15, Lucas Kucharski, 15, and Trenton MacDuff, 16, are in charge of bringing to life the Rio character. And as is apparent from the banter at the table, MacDuff is in charge of the group.

“He’s a white version of Michael Vick!” offers MacDuff, referring to the pro football player who enjoyed a luxurious existence and went to jail over dog fighting. “He likes the ladies. He really likes the ladies.”

“I can picture him having a huge ego,” Johnson says. Not vain, but he knows he’s good looking.

Big house, a big-screen TV, a Ferrari in the drive, they decide. What they must then reconcile is that kind of imagined lifestyle with the meagre existence Rio has at the moment as a dishwasher — “$20,000 a year, tops,” chimes in MacDuff.

Rio ’s life becomes much less glamorous when the students map out his typical day, determining what he can afford to own and to do. He works out, goes to work, parties a bit, returns to his “cruddy” apartment and sleeps late. He is living within his means.

Balch, who has two daughters — one in college, the other in university — says he became interested in teaching financial literacy skills after discovering his girls had none. One was buying rounds of Starbucks coffee for friends and wondering why she was short on money.

“I realized, we’d never really talked about money management,” says Balch. “We taught them how to save, but not really about the value of money.

“So, we sort of sat down and mapped out where the money was going. And I realized that we aren’t really doing this in school, either.”

Balch looked at programs that were already out there and liked the strong use of narratives in The City program. He helped in its 2008 rollout and has been out there “proselytizing” its virtues to teachers.

Students aged 18 to 21 are most likely to first get into trouble over cellphone contracts that they don’t understand, says Elena Jara, education coordinator at Credit Canada , a non-profit counselling agency with 10 locations in the Greater Toronto Area. After that, it’s credit cards and then student loans, which can feel like a mortgage, she notes.

Young people who have landed first jobs and are dealing with student loan payments, rent and other expenses for the very first time are turning to credit cards and high-cost payday loans to fill the gap.

A 2008 study by the Public Interest Advocacy Centre in Ottawa suggests student loan debt is causing some households to resort to expensive subprime loans, such as payday loans, which typically cost $21 for each $100 borrowed.

Jara says the college students she teaches how to manage money often comment, “No one told us that in school.” She would like to see students being schooled on financial literacy beginning in Grade 9.

The Toronto District School Board isn’t waiting for the province. In March, the board had Balch instruct 20 of its teachers on how to use The City, and they will in turn share the lessons with fellow teachers.

“We’re not out to make financial planners out of them,” says Balch. “The goal is to get this into the hearts and minds of the students.”

Financial Literacy Site

http://www.themoneybelt.ca/home-accueil-eng.asp

HOMEPAGE OF THE CITY

http://www.themoneybelt.gc.ca/theCity-laZone/eng/thecity-eng.aspx  

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Paddling Together Toward a Blue Ocean
written by ALEX TEREGO, an educational consultant from Sarasota Florida

Two business professors, W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne, recently wrote a seminal book, Blue Ocean Strategy.

It has transformed the way many businesses are looking at themselves and the markets — which the authors colorfully divide between red oceans and blue oceans — in which they compete.

Much of their analysis, the lessons pointed out and the proposed solutions have applicability to organizations other than businesses. It’s their clever use of a colored-ocean metaphor, not the specific subject matter of the book, that should resonate with those interested in schools, reform and children.

Taxes generated directly and indirectly by businesses pay for schools. In turn, schools prepare a future workforce. Intended as a virtuous circle, it now appears broken.

Because schools are part of the ocean of society, along with businesses, government and the military, Kim and Mauborgne’s ideas about permanent reinvention have considerable relevance.

Pinnacle Skill
Employers of all kinds demand candidates with four skills: critical thinking, problem solving, communication and, most of all, collaboration or teamwork. I would add innovative thinking to the list. Schools today continue to supply students with the skills of the past, stressing memorization, repetition and test taking. If, as Education Secretary Arne Duncan says, “We must educate our way to a better economy,” then America urgently needs to address this imbalance.

Ask any state’s governor or a chamber of commerce looking to attract a new plant or business to an area and they will tell you that 21st-century investment capital and the jobs it creates will flow only to locations with appropriate education. Business leaders seek the best-educated workers. Globalization gives them choices. Consequently, school districts are in fierce competition not only with other states but the world.

Fresh thinking is required, especially the promotion of cooperative learning and teaching. If all 21st-century skills were organized in a hierarchy, collaboration would be the pinnacle.

Leveraged Change
The businesses labeled as “red oceans” in Kim and Mauborgne’s book represent known and well-understood spaces where boundaries are accepted and rules understood and of long standing. These businesses’ products have long since turned into commodities, and their legacy has stifled innovative thinking.

The stakeholders in red oceans feel powerless. Red-ocean management makes incremental changes and modifications, instead of exploring transformative opportunities. Their worldview is one where knowledge is static, conditions are unquestioned, and leaders are powerless to effect change.

Blue oceans represent unrecognized opportunities. Increasingly they are knowledge-based and complex. Blue oceans rely on the nimble acquisition and effective deployment of knowledge. They are the result of leveraged change because they encourage teamwork, problem solving, critical thinking, innovation, and a willingness to look at the big picture and communicate clear visions. Leadership constantly challenges itself to adopt new ways of thinking and managing. Ambiguity is seen as an asset.

Blue Ocean Strategy tells us that incumbents create the vast majority of blue oceans out of red oceans when boundaries and rules are breached and management encourages altered thinking. As educators operating in the ultimate red ocean — an institution designed before the Industrial Revolution — this should give us hope.

Begin Migrating
It’s evident that sitting in rows and listening to lectures — didactic teaching dating back two centuries — does little to prepare students to collaborate on problems, let alone think critically and entrepreneurially or communicate clearly. If we are to reinvent and reform our schools, fostering a world-class team learning and teaching culture — at all levels — is a vital first step of any blue ocean strategy, and done right it will self-perpetuate as more see its value.

IBM says, in its corporate philosophy: “Teams are one of the most productive resources that companies have, provided that they operate with clear goals, effective process and shared accountability.” Why shouldn’t that also be the case in elementary and secondary schools?

According to school researchers Zhining Qin, David Johnson and Roger Johnson, of the University of Minnesota , quoted in the Review of Education Research of March 2009: “Cooperative small-group learning has been the subject of hundreds of studies. All the research arrives at the same conclusion: There are significant benefits to students who work together on learning activities. Teams outperformed individuals on all types of learning and across all ages.”

Fresh Thinking
The evidence shows that an ever-narrowing curriculum has homogenized student talent, and by teaching to the tests we have also stifled innovation. See Michigan State University Professor Yong Zhao’s argument in his book Catching Up or Leading the Way.

Our schools are facing monumental challenges. Schools are underfunded, but more money is only part of the answer. Current laws promote a form of teaching that does not align with the needs of employers, or the way children learn, let alone their developmental needs. These circumstances make fresh thinking about education a national priority.

This paradigm shift means aligning education with the needs of students, employers and taxpayers. This can only mean teaching students how to collaborate on problems and bringing innovative, critical and solution-oriented approaches to the forefront.

Recently I addressed a conference of superintendents, where one idea under discussion was mass customization, tailoring teaching and learning to the individual. Most were pessimistic. I am not. In a team culture, everyone learns and contributes at his or her own pace. It’s called leveraging diversity.

Alex Terego is an education consultant in Sarasota, Fla. E-mail: alex@alexterego.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJH0g-EPGDs&feature=related

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In a four-day week the days are slightly longer and there are more activities crammed into the class periods, but nonetheless improvements have been noticed.

This is something that is worth discussing as we try to find a way to improve student performance.

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