It's Just a Can of Soda, Right?
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BIG Questions Institute Bi-Weekly UpdateApril 7, 02024, No. 170 (Read online) It's Just a Can of Soda, Right?Hey, In times of challenge and complexity, we must dig deep into our values to figure out what the most relevant, appropriate, fair, and effective response might be to any given development. This is the essence of leadership. That's why it's especially important for school communities to not look away from the big picture and even the seemingly insignificant realities we find ourselves in and to be honest about whether or not the experience of school they're offering children comports to the values they say guide them. This could look like a values-audit through the stories that are being lived out at your school. Proxies for your values might show up in everything from cutting down on paper use, to the way university admissions are celebrated, to diverse representation among your leadership team or in the curriculum, to how much students get outside, or engage in complex conversations respectfully. So here's one small test that we've been thinking about when it comes to the stated value that almost every school puts on health and well-being: How are you dealing with sugar, specifically, sugary drinks in school? For many of us, Coke or Pepsi, Sprite, Fanta, or Mountain Dew or whatever variation on that theme you pick, carry happy memories of carefree summer days of our youth. And since they’ve been deeply ingrained in the culture (everywhere in the world), thanks to huge advertising budgets, it might be hard to imagine social settings without them. But if we are being honest, it's hard to argue that soda (and processed sugars in general) has any reason to be in schools. They:
We use this example not to shame any school or district that serves sugary drinks in the cafeteria or vending machines, but instead as a small lens through which complex realities and truths need to be confronted when considering how we choose to live our values. A couple big questions that follow might be: What choices have we made that contradict the priority of student health and well-being? In what ways are we willing to make space for a more healthy, just, and joyful world? Right now, we need our core values to be lived in every decision we make for the kids we serve. We need them to be more than just a list on a poster on the wall. Onward! Will and Homa Announcing: "Building and Becoming" 2.5-Day Retreat!The BIG Questions Institute is thrilled to announce our first 2.5-day retreat for school leaders who want to engage the future in relevant and inspired ways! What We're ReadingA few links to fuel your inquiry: Here lies the internet, murdered by generative AI by Erik Hoel "Here’s an example of the next frontier: completely start-to-finish AI-generated music videos for toddlers. Below is a how-to video for these new techniques. The result? Nightmarish parrots with twisted double-beaks and four mutated eyes singing artificial howls from beyond. Click and behold (or don’t, if you want to sleep tonight).
All around the nation there are toddlers plunked down in front of iPads being subjected to synthetic runoff, deprived of human contact even in the media they consume. There’s no other word but dystopian. Might not actual human-generated cultural content normally contain cognitive micro-nutrients (like cohesive plots and sentences, detailed complexity, reasons for transitions, an overall gestalt, etc) that the human mind actually needs? We’re conducting this experiment live. For the first time in history developing brains are being fed choppy low-grade and cheaply-produced synthetic data created en masse by generative AI, instead of being fed with real human culture. No one knows the effects, and no one appears to care.”
Think Traditional Education "Works"? Prove it. by Susan Blum "Let me give you an example. Most educators, and the public, would probably read the above articles without the “alarm bells” that would go off in my head while reading it. After having worked in many Montessori schools, which have been on various stages of the “ungraded” spectrum, I still have some parents assuming that the best way to know if their child is “learning” is to see a grade or a score.
Why do we have this assumption? Part of the reason is that there are vested power interests at play. Indeed, there is a multi-million dollar industry which feeds college admissions and AP’s (the College Board), which is desperate to stop the shift away from using their services. A look back a few years ago during COVID-19 at the feverish reports of “learning loss,” which was reported by companies who benefitted greatly from selling “learning loss” curriculum and assessments. When education experts with a critical lens looked at the data from these companies, it was clear that the narrative of “learning loss” was a farce, but the checks had been written and contracts signed because the narrative aligned with existing forces of power."
How to Help Students Focus on Learning Instead of Their Grades by Michael Fisher "In my and many educators’ experience, pressure to get good grades and perform up to expectations is deeply embedded from sixth grade on. Because grades and competitive pressure are endemic parts of most students’ educations, young people are poised to think mainly in “extrinsic” terms. As they grow up, it becomes harder and harder for many to separate a task from its utility in terms of a reward or punishment. And this drastically limits the kind of growth and learning that they experience.
Indeed, a wealth of research now suggests that what psychologists call external regulation—feeling pressure from outside the self, often from an abstract or real authority figure, to act in order to get a reward or avoid a punishment—dampens our quality of performance, constricts our awareness, and decreases our well-being. Decades of research also suggest that making tasks dependent on rewards like grades undermines the high-quality engagement we seek in school."
Learn With BQINew Two-Day Workshop! "Disrupting Sexism and Designing for Equality"We're thrilled to welcome back Justine Finn for another powerful learning opportunity around "Disrupting Sexism and Designing for Equality: Frameworks and Strategies for Preventing, Responding and Resolving Harassment, Assault and Abuse in Schools" on May 1 and 4. How do we respond to the fact that in many communities worldwide, middle and high-school-aged youth experience the highest rates of rape, harassment, and assault? Get all the details and REGISTER HERE! Seats are limited! Free Events in our BQI Community!Join fellow educator-leaders from around the world as we tackle a wide variety of topics in our free webinar series. Here's what's upcoming: Will We Be in Your Neighborhood?Homa and Will would love to connect at any of the upcoming events they're speaking at: April 12 - BCSSA Spring Forum in Vancouver, BC (Will - Symposium on Student Agency) May 17 - Montana Office of Public Instruction, Great Falls, MT (Will) June 25-27 - Leadership Seminar for Overseas Principals, Office of Overseas Schools, U.S. Department of State, Washington, DC (Homa and Will) July 25-27 - "Building and Becoming" 2.5-Day Retreat, Atlanta International School (Homa and Will) Info and Registration August 21 - Chilliwack (BC) School District Leadership Retreat (Will) September 3 - Nanuet (NY) School District Open Day (Will) October 25-27 - Tri-Association Conference, Mexico City, MX (Homa and Will) WORK WITH US!Let BQI help you unlock the opportunities that are rapidly unfolding in education and the wider contexts. Everyone is talking about the challenges and the difficulties that are breaking systems and people. Leadership navigates change with fearless inquiry, futures thinking, imagination, and diverse relationships. That takes new skills, lenses, and dispositions and we are here for it. We help school communities:
Why not think about having us work with your staff, leadership team, or board on some BIG Questions worth pursuing? We're working to design healthier, more just, more relevant, and more sustainable futures for school communities. Get all the details here. Onward with hope, Homa and Will |
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