Leadership Calgary Overview

Race to Nowhere Screening At U of C

Another screening of the documentary, A Race to Nowhere,  http://www.educ.ucalgary.ca/node/345

 

Young people pushed to the brink, educators who are burned out and worried that students aren’t developing the skills they need, and parents who are trying to do what’s best for their kids, Race to Nowhere points to the silent epidemic in our schools: cheating has become commonplace, students have become disengaged, stress-related illness, depression and burnout are rampant, and young people arrive at college and the workplace unprepared and uninspired.

Race to Nowhere is a call to mobilize families, educators, and policy makers to challenge current assumptions on how to best prepare the youth of America to become healthy, bright, contributing and leading citizens.

( http://www.racetonowhere.com/about-film)

What/who makes a great leader?

A friend recently asked this question for her Masters. These were my thoughts; what are yours?

I'll start with what qualities I think make an effective and great leader. 

Back to Leadership Calgary; 

• Must have wisdom, not just knowledge which I think is really misunderstood, so they must be adept at anticipating what needs to be done and then finding solutions to get it done. 
• They must know their strengths and weaknesses and have others with different view point on their ‘team’ to assist and fill the gaps where they cannot. 
• A willingness to always consult and listen to others but able to stand by their beliefs and make a decision, even if it goes against popular opinion. 
• The ability to admit mistakes made by both themselves and others without blaming, rather a focus on correcting errors. 
• The ability to articulate a vision and to inspire others to do better. 
• They have abundant people skills although this does not always mean that a leader has to be socially likable...they understand that you must engage people and understand people. 

Some who I consider to be great leaders:

Barbara Coloroso. I admire her ability to understand truth and discipline perhaps either in-spite of or because of her religious influence....???She evokes a sense of passion in so many to better understand humanity and to care deeply about one another because we MUST do so. 

Ken Low (Action studies, Leadership Calgary). I have met so many of the great Leaders who I could list here through Leadership Calgary and because of a vision that Ken Low has brought to life. He has what seems to be almost a compelling duty to share his wisdom with others and through that we are learning how to be better human beings by understanding and learning from ‘our’ past; both our successes and our failures and by anticipating, discussing and setting into action what needs to be done in the future.

Leadership Calgary and connecting...

Although we all found ourselves drawn to Leadership Calgary for different reasons I think that we all had some significant similarities; a deep yearning to understand HOW we can make this world a better place, a true sense of caring and an understanding that to know what needs to be done we must continue to learn and seek truth. Naturally, we tend to be driven to particular sectors or areas of interest. Some of us try to better understand community development, others venture out to develop better leadership models within the business world; my passion always takes me back to education. 

“Education, everything that a society does to prepare its members to face the challenges of its time and place in history (Ken Low).” When I first began Leadership Calgary I probably would have said that I was passionate about educational reform because my husband and I (also LC alumnus) have 4 fabulous little humans of our own. As parents it is a daunting and very deep-rooted responsibility that we have to try our best to prepare these little people to anticipate and to know what needs doing in this world. 

Like many, I am sure, we go through the first year of LC and think that we will come out with some profound answers to the BIG questions we have about our world and our own unique place within it. I have learned that these answers (or rather awakenings or understandings), come in very subtle ways for me. I was again humbled by this as I attended the screening of an important documentary in Calgary. 

I recently attended a TED X Calgary event and afterwards while chatting with other LC Alumnus heard that they were trying to bring a screening of the documentary, A Race to Nowhere, to Calgary. My husband and I immediately jumped on board and wanted to be involved with bringing this important movie to Calgary. The plan was that a ‘public conversation’ would occur after the movie. I hoped that this would be another way on expanding on the discussion here in Calgary around Inspiring Education and Inspiring Action and talking about things that we could do in our schools and homes to better understand the role of formal schooling in today’s society.

A description of the film on its web-site was “The film tackles the tragic side of our often achievement-obsessed culture, with interviews that explore the hidden world of over-burdened schedules, student suicide, academic cheating, young people who have checked out.  Race to Nowhere is a call to mobilize families, educators, and policy makers to challenge current assumptions on how to best prepare the youth of America to become healthy, bright, contributing and leading citizens.

It was the latter piece that really piqued my interest: “a call to mobilize families, educators, and policy makers to challenge current assumptions on how to best prepare (youth) to become healthy, bright, contributing and leading citizens.” It was also this bit that I think was the most misunderstood and mostly missed part of the conversations after the movie. 

The film exposed us to the dysfunctional side of our modern education system, but its focus was on formal and conventional learning. It did not delve into (and perhaps could not within the parameters of the movie) the other side of learning, experiential and non-conventional learning. The conversations on twitter and facebook after the screening of the documentary were around anti-homework and anti-assessment (both of which are important) but no conversations were following-up on the moderated discussion (led by Ken Low and Elizabeth Dozois) after the movie about HOW to best prepare our youth to become healthy, bright, contributing and leading citizens? 

I have learned that I tend to look externally for answers, looking to movies like, A Race to Nowhere, to ‘mobilize’ us. Mobilizing people will only make a difference if we clearly understand the bigger framework and the deeper reasons for wanting change. I need to look at not only what is wrong with formal education but what is right and where it belongs in our society. I left ‘conventional school’ when I was 15 and never did finish it the way that most did. My education was certainly ‘real’; I was living on my own and learned very quickly what needed to be done to survive and to strive. However, I wanted better. I recognized what I needed to accomplish that. So, I did go back to school and achieved a University degree and continue pursuing my formal education to this day. I recognize that the skills and the wisdom that I do have are a ‘blending’ of living my life and my formal education; my current level of learning/wisdom (or obversely, my current level of ignorance) is as a direct result of people encouraging me ‘to do’ rather than sit on the sidelines (or to the same extent, sit in classroom rows).

What I try to understand now is the connection...between formal education and then the envelopment of that learning as we move towards deeper meaning and an understanding of how best to apply that learning to the human venture. Conventional learning is necessary to learn how to do many of the things we need to function in this world. Real learning, however, is not something that we can hope to ‘teach’ in school. We can only hope to prepare our children by allowing them the failures, trials and experiences they need to prepare them to face the challenges ahead. 

Eryn Kelly 

Paisley the Puggle and educating our children...

Well, how does one resist; she fit in the palm of my hand and had the cutest squishiest little face that I'd ever seen. Yes, both my husband and I were working, with four children, with many other extracurricular activities and not a whole lot of spare time, but a dog is an addition to any family! SO the adventure began. We got Paisley the Puggle and fell in love with the little bundle of fur immediately. The first several months were an absolute adventure every time that we'd take her out. Swarms of people would come over to see her and pet her. She loved to be outside playing, sniffing and well, being a dog. Over time, our lives continued to get busier with kids schedules and our own commitments. We'd 'aim' to take her for her walk and off leash run everyday but much to her chagrin it just didn't  happen everyday. My husband and I would both remind each other that this is unfair and we MUST walk her tomorrow, so one of us would and then a week later we'd be back to missing some walks.

Paisley began barking excessively, jumping on the kids and not listening to commands that she used to listen to. She started to 'misbehave' and as a result I would just find her to be a nuisance some days. One day I was sitting at my computer working as she nuzzled under my feet, looking up at me with those pleading eyes. "Okay" I said as I went to the door and grabbed the leash, "lets go."

We walked a few blocks to the off leash area and I set her free. She ran, and ran and ran. Every few minutes coming back to me to make sure it was okay. As I watched her run and return to the energetic playful little dog (okay not so little, several of the kids meals ended up on the floor for her enjoyment) I was reminded of my kids, especially my 8 year old daughter. My eight year old has a boundless energy, often reserved for describing little boys. We have watched her disconnect from school this year and we have struggled with ways to keep her interested.

When I volunteer in her class, the majority of the time, I watch these eight year old kids slump their shoulders and lean on the desks that they are forced to sit in most of the day, told not get up unless given permission and not permitted to eat until designated snack time. I think of this as I watch Paisley run and be, well, be a dog. She is doing what a dog NEEDS to do to be a happy and well adjusted dog. When I take this from her what happens, well she acts out and the cycle of unhappiness and disappointment between the two of us begins.

Our 'factory farm' style classrooms do not serve the best interests of our children. Our kids are not being allowed to be kids. This breaks my heart. I hear from teachers who are coming up with some unbelievable ways to engage their students and to give them the respect that they deserve. My oldest daughter has recently moved to an arts based school and I am encouraged to see how her teacher respects these kids. If they are hungry throughout the day and want to eat a healthy snack, then they eat. There is music in the classroom as they work on a science project and they are not forced to be in a desk all day.

The ancient Prussian model of our factory farm schools is not what our children, or teachers, need. Let them be kids.

As I write this the kids and my husband are out the door with Paisley going on an adventure run in the snow. The kids being kids and the dog being a dog!

John Taylor Gatto - What is the Purpose of Education?

Diana Laufenberg: How to learn? From mistakes | Video on TED.com

Thanks for sharing this Sue Huff! Excellent Ted Talk, Diana Laufenberg understands authentic learning and really gives her students the opportunity for experiential learning.

Diana Laufenberg: How to learn? From mistakes | Video on TED.com