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My one hope for schools is contributive learning––that students will all develop self-understanding, knowledge, competency, and lasting connections and, in so doing, add to the world. I’ve been on its trail throughout my career, and I’ve never met anyone opposed to its outcomes. We all want our kids to feel meaning and fulfillment. But I […]
Speaking with an early-ed teacher in Hawaii, he shared what his keiki (children) would carry on from his school, no matter what schools they moved on to from there. “We set them up to be leaders at their new school,” he said. “They make it a better place.” I wonder, what could be better than […]
This is the third post in a continuing series by Ellen Perconti, Superintendent of Goldendale School District in Washington State. What is success? Over the last few months I’ve realized that this question is much more complex than it first appears. In education, we have children’s lives in our hands. As a system, how we define […]
This post by The Learner First’s Joanne McEachen and Matthew Kane was originally published by Getting Smart. Educational equity bears tremendous importance in traditional systems of learning. Everywhere, we dedicate significant time and resources, and in some cases even professional roles, to creating an equitable academic experience. Ideology cries out, “School should be fair!” […]
I recently came across an article from STAT that discusses the moral injury experienced by physicians – injury commonly misclassified as “burnout.” It argues that burnout is a wrongful diagnosis that speaks to a lack of resilience or resourcefulness, while in reality there’s a far deeper source of their struggles: the health system’s failure to […]
Ellen Perconti is the Superintendent of Goldendale School District in Washington State. For an introduction to Goldendale, see the first post in this series here. “You can’t give what you don’t have.” I’ve heard this quote multiple times in many different contexts. And, over time, I’ve come to realize how true it is. As […]
Goldendale School District is a district of three schools (one primary, one middle, and one high school) and 920 students located in Washington State. To help kick off the 2019-20 school year, teachers and other school- and district-level staff engaged in The Learner First’s Wellbeing First Workshop, designed to promote professional wellbeing in ways that […]
While traveling across the globe for a recent event and meeting with diverse groups of education leaders, I was struck with the long-reoccurring awareness that we, as adults in education systems globally, have been incredibly arrogant in our approach to student learning. We define learning and academic success, we measure students on a narrow range […]
“While the previous industrial era demanded that nations provide one-size-fits-all mass education, the current digital revolution demands personalized, holistic education that will prepare humans to identify and develop their own talent, competencies and emotions . . .” – From “Education for Tomorrow’s World, Today” by Manjula Dissanayake and Dominic Regester Executive Team members Louka Parry […]
What do we mean when we talk about “equity”? In an academic context, discussions on equity generally center on providing each student with an equal opportunity to succeed across classes and content areas. The idea is that school should be fair for its students, that race, socioeconomic status, and similar factors should not play a […]
