gary stager

Loris Malaguzzi - things about and for children are only learned from children

young people have a remarkable capacity for intensity  - leon botstein
it's incumbent upon us to build upon that capacity for intensity

while the prescribe one school for their kids, they prescribe obedience schools for others' kids
gates - extreme budget cuts and larger class sizes

innovation is a synonym for cheaper
reform tm - their one model - it ignores all the good potential
if test scores don't improve, they offer yelling louder or lengthening the day
reform tm is insanity
it's doing the same thing over and over
we know what to do - we must do better, we can
1917 - angelo patri - a school master of the great city - wrote about and solved every single problem in ed

how can we expect people to take geniuses like Dennis Litky seriously

worked with Seymour Papert for 20 years, father of ed computing
3 yrs worked creating an alternative learning environment inside a state prison for teenagers in main
most at risk members in society, told over and over again that they weren't capable, they were damaged
yet they too have a remarkable capacity for intensity

if we are serious about innovation in education we have to be willing to change everything
what if school were the best 7 hours of a kids day
what if we were free of all the assessment and curriculum requirements
what if there were no discipline problems
in their 3 yrs there were none
we can have high standards without standardization

turned school on it's head to do this
normally do projects, etc in order to convince them to learn skills
skills per their desires

only rule - you have to be doing something
13000 word autobiography
i just like reading about puppies, i liked reading about nasa

we didn't have a curriculum, we had a list of prompts
1) a good prompt, challenge, problem or motivation
2) appropriate materials
3) sufficient time
4) supportive culture (including expertise)

he knew this was a place where he could do hard things
project ideas are everywhere

can you help me make a guitar - 500 hours
a funny thing happens when you make a guitar - you want to play it, then you can use that to tell about what you've done

we need to create environments that are cohersion free - where kids do what they do because it matters to them

we need to remove all of the stakes - everything i know about reading instruction i learned from oprah winfry

no grading, no ranking...

less us, more them

my other posts on gary

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