Warning:  This is a very short piece with a homework assignment.

When I first began this whole blog thing what seems like an awfully long time ago, I tried out a couple of titles. I wrestled with names like “Re-Imagining Education”, “Re-Imagining Learning” and a couple of others I can’t remember now.  I settled on the present title because I wanted make a clear distinction between learning and schooling.

My thinking behind this decision was based on my strong belief that we have become trapped in a cycle of trying to do the wrong thing better – i.e., we’ve become focused almost totally on the process of schooling and to a more subtle distinction… the process of teaching.  Beyond the folly of attempting to measure it with a series of high-stakes, large-scale assessments, we have paid only lip service to the concept of learning.  (For a more detailed analysis of the misuse of large-scale assessments, see The Testing Charade: Pretending to Make Schools Better by Dan Koretz).

Repeating my previous and frequent paraphrasing of Russell Ackoff, while we have been struggling to improve the effectiveness of schools, we have done so, almost exclusively, by focusing on their efficiency.  What we have not done is look deeply at their purpose.  What we have not done is look deeply atwhat learning meansat this time in our development. I wanted to explore these ideas further, primarily for those like-minded readers who, while seeing a need to refocus our efforts, have been unable to find just the right words or approach to generate support for such discussions.

This morning as I was revisiting a number of articles related to this that I had archived previously as possible blog topics, I was about to open one entitled “29 Ways American Schools Fail Students” when I noted on the same cover page of the Medium email another article, “School and the Tomato – Education Is No Longer a Monopoly”.

I ask you, how could you not open that?

The author, Bernie Bleske, offers a interesting description of what is happening/should happen now that our school no longer have the same monopoly on education that they had prior to the current technology revolution.   Most of my “work” now is centered around the problems attendant to continuing school and schooling as we have experienced it and as we now know it.  I’m interested in how you read his descriptions and conclusions.  So I’m calling in a favor (as if I have any to call in).

Medium has shared that Bleske’s article is a 10 minutes read.   I’d like to read it and add another 10 minutes to that by asking that you respond to the following questions in the comment section (or using my email address if that’s more convenient for you).

• Do you agree/disagree with Bleske’s description of schooling? 
• What in his writing struck you as important in reaching your conclusion?
• What pieces of Bleske’s description do you feel that parents would accept/challenge?
• Any other thoughts?