Future schooling

Yesterday I got a call from the principle of the Future School in Ft. Smith, Arkansas. https://fsfuture.org It is a Big Picture School https://www.bigpicture.org based on the Met School model in which students are led through internships into their communities to learn in real life. After the caution necessitated by the covid-19 pandemic is eased, we plan to get together, learn from each other and collaborate.

A new theme for meaningful educational reform should be "get real." We could call it "reality based learning." We all need means through which to learn to distinguish between that which is real and that which is proposed as real for the purpose of manipulating us by persons and parties seeking greater power.

To "get real" may be accomplished by taking schooling into the real world as is done in the Big Picture Schools model. That's the perfect solution for high school and college aged students. For the younger folks "getting real" requires bringing the real world into schooling by offering real things to do that benefit the child's learning and relationships with the world beyond the school house doors. That can best be accomplished though experimental science, the arts and the use of real tools to create useful beauty. 

The important thing here is the relationship between the concrete and the abstract. In the abstract without confirmation of concrete reality, you get to make things up and believe whatever you want. That's no way to build a nation in which we have a common foundation for getting along with each other. 

As you see in the photo, the hand is the cutting edge of mind. Starting in pre-school and Kindergarten, engagement in the real world builds, step-by-step, a shared framework for understanding the world and each other.

Make, fix and create. Assist others in learning likewise.