Gary Stager on Progressive Education

This was written by Gary Stager who writes and speaks about progressive education. He is the co-author of Invent to Learn. Gary blogs here and tweets here. This post was originally found here.

by Gary Stager

Principles…

• Things need not be as they seem!

• Strong progressive public schools are the bedrock of our democracy.

• Knowledge is a consequence of experience.

• Learning is not the direct causal result of having been taught.

• Young people have a remarkable capacity for intensity and it is incumbent upon teachers and parents to build upon that capacity, otherwise it manifests itself as boredom, misbehavior or just wasted potential.

• The Common Core is on the wrong side of history.

• There is no sudden epidemic of bad teachers!

• Parents and teachers should do everything possible to help kids get through high school without hating it.

• Modern knowledge construction is inseparable from computer programming and every child needs a laptop computer.

• Schools will no longer enjoy the monopoly on children’s time they currently enjoy.

• Students are competent, but we may not behave as if children are competent if we behave as if their teachers are incompetent.

• We know what to do. Those of us who know better need to do better.

• Kids need constant access to diverse expertise.

• The desire for personalization or individualization may not supplant exposure to concepts, skills and ideas that kids may not know they love.

• School policy should provide clear and convincing evidence that our society loves children.

• In education, bad ideas are timeless and good ones are incredibly fragile.

• The best thing school can do is prepare kids to solve problems that school as not even anticipated.

• What if our education policies were based on the assumption that each educator wakes up each morning and asks themselves, “How do I make this the best seven hours of a kid’s life?”