Sunday, September 28, 2014

Quote-A-Day: Day 272

 without  is almost like learning nothing at all.       

I read a great piece by Frank Bruni today in the New York Times about taking risks in education.  In Bruni's view, and I agree with him on this, our schools and places of learning have become risk-free, in a sense.  

True, we want our institutions to be free of violence and safe for all learners and leaders.  But safe doesn't have to equal risk-free.

In fact, our schools should be safe, but our learning shouldn't.  Learners of all ages should feel comfortable taking risks.  Only through risk-taking can we be truly innovative and truly discover new things.

This idea is the same regarding leadership.  Leaders who don't take risks are leaders who breed the status quo.  If a leader plays it safe all the time, than all in the community are likely to do the same.  This means that the community, school, district, what have you, will exist in a perpetual state of wheel-spinning.  Nothing will change, because no one is pushing for change.

As we know, change is necessary.  If we want our education system to be the best it possibly can, we have to keep making positive changes.  The way to do that?

By making sure our learning environments are safe, but the process of learning is not.

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