Use it

We're not fleas. We might let our anxieties and fears get the best of us; our survival instinct might play dirty tricks on us and make us resist change, but unlike fleas, humans have a brain that has evolved beautifully over the span of time. Unlike fleas, humans have the mental capacity to break down boundaries and explore.

The reason though that many of us choose not to use it is that it's an easier option. After all, when we choose to conform, we're not isolating ourselves from the rest of the fray, we're becoming part of it. And that's when the instinct kicks in again: we feel safe.

In my ten plus years of teaching, I've always found comfort in being part of a system and simply fulfilling my role within it. I just carried on with my work and did it mindlessly. It wasn't until I started reading educational literature that the deep questions started to flow, and the more I questioned, the more I realized that that we perceived the educational system just like fleas perceived their space. We fabricated mental boundaries that were holding us back.

So I chose to take a leap and be part of a startup company, the Innovation Academy, and set out to explore the unfamiliar. At this point, you might expect me to say that everything came up roses, but it didn't. Innovation is a darn hard process. Yet it was only through those hardships that I was able to learn these invaluable life lessons.

Feedback 

Some weeks ago, Matthias, a student of mine, wrote about how we have to use the feedback others give us to improve rather than letting ourselves feel diminished by it. I couldn't agree more, but here's the caveat: one has to always sift through the feedback and get rid of the pushback that comes from the naysayers. The naysaying is a result of people feeling threatened by what they don't know. Having said that, Bill, Corey and I have been very lucky to be challenged by people who genuinely care about what we're doing. Those are usually the people whose comments might be discomforting and messy, but at the end of the day, there would not be an IA if it wasn't for the feedback that forces us to think and question.

Photograph: Richard Rutledge/Merce Cunnigham Trust 

Self-doubt 

Like falling, self doubt can be an asset; it all a matter of perception. When we tread an unfamiliar path, we're bound to be faced with self-doubt, because novelty leaves little room for certainty. But when we harness it, we'll discover that the very emotion that once terrified us can indeed give us momentum. Often times this year, I've come to the realization that the doubts I used to loath so much, were in fact a blessing in disguise; as I learned to coexist with and seek to understand those doubts, I was able to question more and iterate forward. I'll even go as far as saying that if you're not doubting yourself, you should start to worry.

Time

One of the biggest misconceptions is that change can be instant. Disclaimer: it's not. It might take ages before you can start seeing the fruits of your labour if you'll ever be lucky enough to see them in the first place. So it's not just about dealing with uncertainty, but most importantly, you have to be able to power through it all over a long period of time. When I started teaching the IA, I assumed it would all fall into place straight away, and I couldn't have been more wrong. The process is strenuous and intense.  Thankfully, on those murky days,  I can latch to purpose, my inner bearing. The bottom-line is that, even though the process is messy and daunting, I've never felt this alive before.

I'll end this post in the same way that I started it: we're not fleas. We might have our flaws, our fears and our insecurities, but at the end of the day, we have no excuse. A bird's purpose is to fly, man's to tinker.

Don't be naive

Mark Zuckenberg and Steve Jobs dropped out of college and went on to change the world. Does it mean that you have to be a college dropout to leave your own dent? Of course not. 

You also don't have to attend Northern Michigan University just because Howard Schultz did and you want to become a great CEO someday. 

I majored in Italian and trust me that's not THE route to international teaching.

There's no such thing as a single path in life. If you believe it, you'd be ignoring the biggest variable, you. There are stories though, plenty of them, and you, my friend, will get to tell yours one day.

Keep calm and...yeah right

I remember the scene very vividly in my head. I was 21 years-old and had gone to pay my annual car insurance fee. As I sat and waited, I recall staring at the employees there. They were mostly in their mid-twenties and they seemed to go along their day with little concern for time or deadlines. But then, this gangly guy wearing a large suit caught my attention. He was somewhere in his early forties. He kept fidgeting uncontrollably and was sweating profusely as he wobbled from one cubicle to the next. He was the manager, but you wouldn't have been able to tell from his demeanor. The man in the shapeless suit who was having an awful day was at the mercy of his awkward gesticulations. He looked pathetic not only in my eyes, but, I guess, also in those of his colleagues who clearly didn't seem to care enough about his work-related woes. The 21 year-old me who thought he could be immune from all kind of mundane stress, smirked and thought to himself: "How pathetic, I'll never go down that road."

So, you can see where this is going, right? 14 years later I did end up going down that path and some weeks ago I came to that realization. I was having a bad day and caught myself going through the same comical motions as those of that unfortunate gangly guy years before.  I might not have been wearing a baggy suit, but I'm pretty sure I was having a mini-meltdown, and thank god, there were no 21 year-olds in the room looking at me. But looking back, I've had other ones and yes, students have seen me in such state.

The bottom line is that I was never immune from life's hurdles after all. And now that I'm coming to terms with my fragility in the face of stress, I know I need to have some coping mechanisms to deal with it. But no matter how many self-help books you might read, the hours of meditation you might invest and the countless counseling sessions, the fact is that you'll always find yourself in those kind of situations that too often will take the best out of you. So if there's one take-away, it's this one: do something in your life that's worthwhile. Choose a calling over a career, because when you will have to endure those humbling situations, it won't all be in vain.  Most importantly, don't be the laid-back colleague who could care less.

The power of grassroots movements

Last week, I attended the four-day Innovate conference hosted by the Graded School in Sao Paulo. This year, the title of the conference was reimagining school; well, on paper this sounds straightforward enough, but in reality, teachers and administrators are faced with daunting structural limitations that curb their outreach.

So on my way back to Lima, I was left with more questions than answers: how much autonomy do teachers and administrators really have when it comes to reimagining education? Why are elite international schools some of the most timid when it comes to innovation? Should a school’s main purpose be solely to prepare students for university?

What’s certain though is that there are many educators out there who are trying to leave a mark. At the conference, I sat in on some thought-provoking presentations about technology in education,
redesigning learning spaces and student data. All these are great tools at our disposal, but they’re ineffective if we end up shoving them into the traditional 7 period schedule.

That schedule represents the educational paradigm that once was, but which, sadly, continues to be.  And in this constraining model, it’s easier to teach the same content to everyone, to stifle relevance and to test rather than to reimagine.

Andressa Lutiano

But it doesn't have to be this way. There are passionate educators out there who in the face of all these obstacles are still willing to search for ways of making the most with less. At the conference, we met Andressa Lutiano who started the Wish Bilingual School in a suburban area outside of Sao Paolo in 2008. She took this massive undertaking because she wanted her daughter to have a more purposeful learning experience. Even though she has very limited resources, her team is still able to put into practice a solid pedagogy for some hundred lucky K-11 students who get to collaborate across year levels on hands-on projects and get to plan their own weekly work schedule.

In Sao Paolo we also visited a small democratic school called Escola Politeia. Like Wish Bilingual School, it gives students a plenty of autonomy. They are the ones who get to choose the topics they want to learn and have a say in the big decisions that the school makes. In their assemblies, kids get to discuss how to best allocate the resources the school has and take a vote. The school might not have state-of-the-art facilities, but as we walked through those rooms, we could sense that what gels that community is the strong sense of identity it has. In that context, money becomes secondary.

Students from Escola Politeia

And these are only two examples of grassroots movements that are leaving a dent because their love for learning defies the educational status quo many schools find themselves in; in these blooming ecosystems, educators have the autonomy to iterate outside the boundaries of traditional education and that's true innovation.

These homegrown movements are distinct from one another; they all have their own dynamic and vibrant culture which reflects the community they’re in. What they do share is an unrelenting commitment to providing a learning experience that’s relevant, highly collaborative and transdisciplinary.  They’re indeed a reminder for all of us that we can indeed reimagine education.

Life according to Werner and Santi

Werner Herzog’s a peculiar guy. He has eaten his own shoe after losing a bet, he has jumped in a cactus field for the sole entertainment of his crew and cast, and has even gone as far as threatening to shoot the life out of the acting prima donna, Klaus Kinski on the set of Aguirre the Wrath of God.

It’s clear that nothing Werner says or does should surprise you too much. But even so, his view on happiness comes right out of leftfield:

““I barked at a Hare Krishna disciple one time at the Miami airport because he insisted I take the book he was offering. “Aren’t you interested in happiness,” he asked. “No!”” (Werner Herzog- a guide for the perplexed)

Is this just a rant of a cranky old man? We couldn't be more mistaken to think so. The reason that Werner doesn’t seek happiness is that he knows too well.  He can see right through the empty charm of such promises.

Santiago Gavidia has only lived a fifth of Werner's life. Santi is still a high schooler. He might not know all the ins and outs of life, but he certainly has profound things to say about our quest for happiness:

"People seem to be scared of sadness (at least I sort of  am), like we are supposed to be happy all the time, and in this eternal pursuit of happiness we forget that contrast is key. Sad moments eventually lead to happy times as so on. I guess if you're doing what you love most with the people that you love, you'll find your place in this world." (Santi's blog)

Santi is up to something here. If happiness is not a constant and it intertwines with sadness, then what is it that we should really aspire for in life? Finding purpose is key.

We live in a world often defined by vanity metrics. We look up to those metrics because of our unrelenting need of instant gratification that we equate to happiness. We chase the elusive ideal of happiness instead of asking ourselves if we’re serving our purpose. While fulfillment is a state of mind, happiness is a fleeting moment, just like serenity, self-doubt and fear.

Football is indeed one of the greatest metaphor of life, so here it goes: if we spend our lives pursuing happiness, we’d be just as foolish as the football supporter who’s expecting to see nothing else but goals scored by his favourite team  in a single game. The fans go to the stadium knowing that those ninety minutes will encompass an assortment of emotions, and that’s exactly what makes them love the game. The goal is merely a climax resulting from the combination of all those emotions. And often times-especially if you're an Inter supporter- that goal might not even come. But if you remove all those emotions you’d be killing the very game.

And this is why Werner dismissed that Hare Krishna monk. Werner found fulfillment in doing what he loves most: filmaking. But this was no bed of roses and he knew it too well. When he was filming Aguirre the Wrath of God in Peru, he often had to resort to humbling measures to make ends meet such as trading personal belongings for sacks of rice. He also had to fend off the naysayers, those who questioned his rather unorthodox vision and stand his ground.  When he came up with the idea of dragging a ship over a mountain in the thick Peruvian jungle on the set of Fitzcarraldo, people thought he had lost his mind. He was faced with many setbacks while creating that masterpiece, yet he persevered. Werner's life has been cast with struggle, but he has endured it all, because he knew that the road to fulfillment is an uphill battle.

If we spend our life chasing unrealistic goals we'll become frustrated and dissatisfied. With purpose comes perspective and that’s when those mundane emotions such as happiness, sadness and uncertainty take a whole new meaning. 

To quench a thirst

I ended my last blog post with a quote from Werner Herzog's A Guide for the Perplexed. And now looking back at it, I feel that my conclusion sounds cliched; after all, it's not the first time that we have read that education along with a solid health system can be the silver bullet to end all the suffering in the world. But we need to delve deeper

In A Guide to the Perplexed, Herzog uses filmmaking as a pretext, to share candid anecdotes about his life and talk about how important it is to remain through to oneself. Herzog refers to civilization "as a thin layer of ice resting upon a deep ocean of darkness and chaos" and that's where I had made the connection with education. Indeed, education can thicken that ice, but let's make no mistake: education ain't schooling.  Herzog, a proud self-taught filmmaker, had this to say about education, making a clear distinction between the 2:

"Everything we're forced to learn at school we quickly forget, but the things we set out to learn ourselves- to quench a thirst- are never forgotten, and inevitably become an important part of our existence." 

Last week, I trekked the W circuit on the Chilean side of Patagonia. There isn't a corner in that vast piece of wilderness that isn't breathtaking. Yet, looking back at the experience, it wasn't easy at all; trekking uphill carrying a 13-kilo backpack was actually quite humbling for a city boy like me so used to living in comfort. But I didn't flinch, I carried on. No matter how beat my body was, something deep down kept me going.

I wasn't always this keen on trekking.  I remember how back when I lived in Germany, my ex girlfriend had invited me to spend Christmas vacation hiking with her family in Rügen, an island north of Berlin. Unfortunately for her, all I did was whinge. At the time, I simply couldn't understand how people got a kick from walking so much and resented the whole experience.

Photo by Sean Marie Sweeney

So last week, while I trekked with my buddy Sweeners,  I recalled that experience and regretted having been so closed minded. I asked myself, what had changed over the course of the years? When did that click happen?

The fact is that back then, I didn't understand the purpose behind hiking, and quite frankly I felt it had been imposed on me. In such conditions, you could have taken me to paradise, but I would have resisted it with all my might. It took time for me to appreciate the beauty of being out in the wilderness, but that transition happened slowly and organically.

As a student I wasn't any different; I was a Maltese George Costanza, committed to my "work avoidance programme" and it seems I'm not the only one. Students might not be as eloquent as Werner Herzog in explaining to their teachers and parents why the system doesn't work for them. In fact, many of them will make it just fine. Some will even thrive through schooling. Yet we must ask ourselves, is this the best we can do?

In the last years, we've used some buzz words like differentiation, inquiry and student empowerment, and it has allowed us to enhance learning, but not to redefine it. These are all taught in a contrived setup and students see it from miles away.  I would give students KWL charts for them to fill out, yet in the end those ideas and questions would not really matter because I would have already designed that unit.

Real inquiry can only happen if we let students design their own learning experience. Inquiry is all about being able to figure out what it is that you don't know that you'll need to know in order to achieve an objective that you've set. This is darn hard, so we teachers do it for the kids;  we assume that students are too young to do it, but in doing so, we are stifling the very essence of higher-level learning and providing "the one size fits all" experience instead, assuming that everybody is at the same stage in the curriculum.

If, as from a tender age, we can get students in the mindset to have a thirst for knowledge, and show them how pursue it by planning their own learning experiences, we 'd be allowing them to become metacognitive learning machines.  In this new context, differentiation and student empowerment would take a whole new meaning because they'd be falling into place.

If you think this is too far-fetched you might want to check out Free to Learn by Peter Gray. There are schools out there such as Sudbury Valley which have been using this model for ages. Students there are in the driver's seat. Driving is certainly harder than simply tagging along in the passenger's seat, but you are more likely to remember and most importantly understand the route.

As for my Innovation Academy cohort, this semester the students will be getting in groups to plan their class projects. This is totally new and daunting for me, but I know it's going to benefit their growth. They will be the ones identifying what relevant skills and concepts need to be learned explicitly. I'll be there to support them and so will their parents; the students will be pitching the projects to them and getting their expert feedback. We refer to schools as learning communities; it's time we start putting it into practice by having parents play a more central role in their children's learning.

I chose this profession because of my deep belief that the world doesn't necessarily have to be resting on thin ice. A better world is one where individuals grow up understanding who they are and how they can bring value to the world. But for this to happen they must first learn how to identify what they thirst for and know how to quench it.

Donetsk Airport

In the last weeks, we've all seen on TV the sheer destruction taking place in war-torn Eastern Ukraine. Probably the image that stuck with me the most was that of CNN correspondent Nick Paton Walsh reporting from Donetsk airport, the once state of the art complex reduced to rubble in a matter of weeks. 

Donetsk Airport Before and After

This image is an admonishment for all of us: peace is not a given, peace is a privilege, and shame on us if we underestimate such basic fact. We always think of stability, especially in the west as a status quo, but this tragedy speaks volumes about our own fragility. Who would have ever imagined that events would escalate so dramatically in Ukraine, the very country which only 2 and a half years ago hosted the the Euro 2012? Did the architects who had so meticulously revamped that airport so that it could welcome the thousands of supporters flocking to Donetsk ever fathom that in a matter of months that building would come to symbolize this human tragedy?

And now, after a shaky truce has been signed by the parts and with a death toll that many believe may be higher than 5000, I cannot but think of Werner Herzog's ominous words: 

"Civilization is like a thin layer of ice upon a deep ocean of chaos and darkness" 

The ice is thin indeed, but that's exactly why education matters. Make it purposeful so that it can help thicken that ice a little.