It is not just K12-Higher Ed – it is our culture as a whole. We continue to see education policies that are top-down mandates. We continue to have to ask for Federal “waivers” to address funding needs. Federal and State mandates do not encourage any school or district leader to risk doing what the students need vs. doing what they are told. Leadership, at this point, is about all educators saying, “enough!” That would be the beginning of real leadership in education.
Funny…… learning is either “have to” or “want to”. “Have to” (compliance-based) is what we have in school today… “want to” (desire and meaning-based) is what we should aspire to. I do not see any meaningful change happening in our schools until our leaders understand that we need to change our worldview about how we consider how our students "want" to learn. When students are running to school because they can’t wait to learn, THEN we will know we have become successful – NOT because we have better test scores.
