Check out Saturday's article in the Portland Press Herald. Mr. Murphy did a superb job in capturing the potential of schools that "would be a blend of a traditional school and small-business incubator."
Group wants schools that mix business with lessons
We have a few quibbles about a few lines that could create some misunderstanding. Not the fault of Mr. Murphy, whose cheese-making example (crafted with some help from MES board member, Rosemont Market special project juggler, and very funny PPH wine writer Joe Appel) explains simply and elegantly the potential of learning linked to doing linked to the real work and markets of Mainers. The challenge Mr. Murphy, and MES faces, is describing a very different approach in the terms of the current system, which, quite frankly, makes some assumptions about learning and schools that we do not.
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Friday, November 12, 2010
Time to Address Child Poverty and High Dropout Rates in Maine
From Brunswick Times-Record:
Time to Address Child Poverty and High Dropout Rates in Maine
I have often wondered why, as a society, we find it so difficult to address crucial problems like child poverty, child neglect, high dropout rates and student underachievement. Instead, we grind and rattle our way down the road until the wheels fall off the cart. We are now at the breakdown point with regard to our at-risk kids, and the costs of doing business as usual are bankrupting us. Consider the following:
• On average 21 students in Maine drop out of school each day, with the class of 2009 estimated to have lost 3,800 kids.
• The societal cost for each high-school dropout is approximately $292,000, due to reduced wages and taxes, welfare and high health-care costs, and--as is all to often the case--the costs of incarceration.
• Dropouts are 3 1/2 times more likely to wind up in jail than non-dropouts.
• It costs approximately $47,000 per year to incarcerate someone—more than the cost of sending that person to Harvard ($43,000).
Time to Address Child Poverty and High Dropout Rates in Maine
I have often wondered why, as a society, we find it so difficult to address crucial problems like child poverty, child neglect, high dropout rates and student underachievement. Instead, we grind and rattle our way down the road until the wheels fall off the cart. We are now at the breakdown point with regard to our at-risk kids, and the costs of doing business as usual are bankrupting us. Consider the following:
• On average 21 students in Maine drop out of school each day, with the class of 2009 estimated to have lost 3,800 kids.
• The societal cost for each high-school dropout is approximately $292,000, due to reduced wages and taxes, welfare and high health-care costs, and--as is all to often the case--the costs of incarceration.
• Dropouts are 3 1/2 times more likely to wind up in jail than non-dropouts.
• It costs approximately $47,000 per year to incarcerate someone—more than the cost of sending that person to Harvard ($43,000).
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Rationale for Maine Enterprise Schools explained!
If you can find 11 minutes in the next day or two, I urge you to find time to listen to/watch Ken Robinson's animated dissection of the degree to which our current system of education is profoundly unsuited for our times and our children.
http://www.youtube.com/user/theRSAorg
Many of you have heard me or others say many of the same things - that batch processing kids deadens their motivation, that natural curiosity gets labeled ADHD, and that we make a false and damaging distinction between academic learning and hands-on learning. My favorite part, if were not so sad, would be when he shares the study that demonstrates the degree to which, over time, our schools greatly reduce the natural capacity for divergent thinking that almost every child is a "genius" at.
I'll be showing this video everywhere I can from here on out - Sir Kenneth elucidates the intellectual underpinnings of what we're trying to do with Maine Enterprise Schools better than I ever could - and it makes me that much more eager to be part of the creation of a new system, were the beauty of an education driven by deep, lived experience with the arts, ecosystems, and the real work of humans (and their machines) is available to every single child, regardless of place or parentage.
http://www.youtube.com/user/theRSAorg
Many of you have heard me or others say many of the same things - that batch processing kids deadens their motivation, that natural curiosity gets labeled ADHD, and that we make a false and damaging distinction between academic learning and hands-on learning. My favorite part, if were not so sad, would be when he shares the study that demonstrates the degree to which, over time, our schools greatly reduce the natural capacity for divergent thinking that almost every child is a "genius" at.
I'll be showing this video everywhere I can from here on out - Sir Kenneth elucidates the intellectual underpinnings of what we're trying to do with Maine Enterprise Schools better than I ever could - and it makes me that much more eager to be part of the creation of a new system, were the beauty of an education driven by deep, lived experience with the arts, ecosystems, and the real work of humans (and their machines) is available to every single child, regardless of place or parentage.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Impact Investing
NY Times article, fowarded by Russel Libby of MOFGA, points out that while "the notion that for-profit companies with a social mission at their core could constitute an “asset class” is fairly new," the sector is poised for "explosive growth."
Plenty of challenges, not the least of which is "the mindset of many investors." But the article illustrates that the kinds of social investing/venture philanthropy strategies that MES is creating are out there, are growing, and will have an impact.
Plenty of challenges, not the least of which is "the mindset of many investors." But the article illustrates that the kinds of social investing/venture philanthropy strategies that MES is creating are out there, are growing, and will have an impact.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Name Change, Partnership, Temporary Website
Maine Enterprise Schools has dropped the Farm from our name and we're entering into partnership with Learning Works to jointly develop the MES concept. We're working on a new website, but until we get there, this blog will serve (along with our facebook site) to update folks. The links above lead to various aspects of our work to date. To the right is our Innovation Maine education blog (to which we're posting regularly now) and the MaineFarmSchool.org site, along with an assortment of links that inform our work.
Let us know what you think...comment or email John at jdanieri@mainefarmschool.org
Let us know what you think...comment or email John at jdanieri@mainefarmschool.org
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Six Assertions
Longtime Portland Educator Gary Vines sent me the website of Education|Evolving; one of the things I love about it is that the home page starts with six assertions. "Click on one of these and you will be taken to second listing of more specific assertions in that area. Click on any one of these and you will be taken to a listing of reports, newspaper clippings, audio recordings, links, etc. that we have created or made available because they explain or support that assertion."
One such sub-assertion: "a radically different model of school organization, in which the authority for arranging both the learning program and the administration of a school is placed with a formally-organized group of teachers . . . and in which the teachers accept collegially the responsibility for the school's success."
The model also asserts that the organization and governance model of the school matters a great deal - if we create communications and decision-making structures that work on a human scale, we can be genuinely accountable to our students, colleagues parents, and community. Our approach, while similar in spirit, it not entirely teacher-led; while all decisions about teaching and learning rest with the teachers (our Professional Learning Community model of curriculum implemenation, teacher improvement and advancement) we envision two other key governance elements; facilitative leadership from principals and participative citizenship from students.
Our principals are "facilitative leaders" charged with maintaining that Professional Learning Community and with connecting the work of each site to the larger network of schools (in addition to being the public face of our sites, managing reports and data and compliance, etc.). One of the key characteristics of the best replication models is that effective sharing of practice - both within schools and among similar schools - enable the teachers working in them not only to get consistently better individually, but to get better at the unique aspects of the model. In a sense, our principals are "cheif accountability officers." Technocratic as that sounds, it combines the role of head coach, ombussman, and curriculum director to ensure fidelity to the "best practices" that we are building our model on. For more on this, see Debbie Maier's article in the Summer 2005 issue of Rethinking Schools, or the websites of the School Reform Initiative or the National School Reform Faculty.
The small school structure is crucial as well to ensuring that every student is a participating citizen in the governance of the school. In addition to monthly all school, parliamentary style meetings, students are expected to develop the skills to largely self-manage school culture. Structures like civil rights teams, peer mediation, fairness committees and restorative justice systems enable student input to beyond planning dances and complaining - and at a small school, both enable and require each student to play a regular role. For more, see Everyday Democracy.
One such sub-assertion: "a radically different model of school organization, in which the authority for arranging both the learning program and the administration of a school is placed with a formally-organized group of teachers . . . and in which the teachers accept collegially the responsibility for the school's success."
The model also asserts that the organization and governance model of the school matters a great deal - if we create communications and decision-making structures that work on a human scale, we can be genuinely accountable to our students, colleagues parents, and community. Our approach, while similar in spirit, it not entirely teacher-led; while all decisions about teaching and learning rest with the teachers (our Professional Learning Community model of curriculum implemenation, teacher improvement and advancement) we envision two other key governance elements; facilitative leadership from principals and participative citizenship from students.
Our principals are "facilitative leaders" charged with maintaining that Professional Learning Community and with connecting the work of each site to the larger network of schools (in addition to being the public face of our sites, managing reports and data and compliance, etc.). One of the key characteristics of the best replication models is that effective sharing of practice - both within schools and among similar schools - enable the teachers working in them not only to get consistently better individually, but to get better at the unique aspects of the model. In a sense, our principals are "cheif accountability officers." Technocratic as that sounds, it combines the role of head coach, ombussman, and curriculum director to ensure fidelity to the "best practices" that we are building our model on. For more on this, see Debbie Maier's article in the Summer 2005 issue of Rethinking Schools, or the websites of the School Reform Initiative or the National School Reform Faculty.
The small school structure is crucial as well to ensuring that every student is a participating citizen in the governance of the school. In addition to monthly all school, parliamentary style meetings, students are expected to develop the skills to largely self-manage school culture. Structures like civil rights teams, peer mediation, fairness committees and restorative justice systems enable student input to beyond planning dances and complaining - and at a small school, both enable and require each student to play a regular role. For more, see Everyday Democracy.
Small is beautiful and radical
In this article, "Small is beautiful and radical" Maine local agriculture advocate Eliot Coleman uses French comic heroes Asterix and Obelix to explain why the transition to small farms is radically beautiful! He makes the point that small organic farms are ultimately about nutirtion, and draws important distinctions between those farms and market-motivated agribusiness or large-farm interests go organic. Not long ago, I heard John Piotti of Maine Farmland Trust say that organic or conventional is not as crucial as "sustainable" and that finding the right balance will enable Maine to emerge as as major agricultural state in the new food economy. Eliot argues that both organic and small matter...thoughts?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)