You Don’t Have to Reimagine Schools Right Now
Newsflash: The way we did school in the last 15 months is and was a “reimagining”. It was innovative in some ways, chaotic and unsustainable in others. But it was new, different, and a complete change for many of us in education, and most of our students and families.
I firmly believe that the work to improve our students’ education experience is an ongoing one. It looks different in every school, and it looks different right now because of the last year during the pandemic. However, when I saw Project-Based Learning co-author Ross Cooper’s tweets on this topic of “reimagining schools right now” it really made me think about what this means at this moment. In fact, it pointed out a big mistake I was making while talking about education right now.
Ross Cooper tweets below:
These thoughts speak to the fact that what we have been doing has been different. We’ve learned a lot about what works, what doesn’t work, and what we can’t yet understand because of the unique circumstances. In times of crisis people pull together we have seen that over and over again from educators the last year.
I was making a mistake by sometimes using the word “Reimagine” when talking about change. We actually don’t have to “reimagine” much at the moment. What is important and should be focused on in the future is right in front of our faces.
Consider this:
Social-emotional learning has always been important, but the pandemic showed us it cannot be an afterthought. We can’t forget this in a post-covid learning environment, SEL will still be as high of importance.
Relationships have always been the heartbeat of learning. What we learned is that when we aren’t in front of each other in person, building those relationships is more difficult and more necessary for learning to take place.
The pandemic shed a light on the fact that the curriculum can’t be a static document that is revised every 5-7 years. It has to be adaptable and work in a variety of learning environments. It has to serve and work for all of our learners.
Textbooks, resources, and other learning and instructional plans have to be flexible. We’ve talked for years about Universal Design for Learning. It has to be at the core of our instructional work.
Funding has always impacted schools and students. The pandemic has spotlighted what many of us have been saying and shouting for years.
This list can go on (please add your ideas in the comments), but the message is the same: We don’t have to sit around and “reimagine” schools right now.
Taking what we learned, we can continue to make changes as we always have. We can shift instructional practices based on what works. We can write curriculum that serves as windows, mirrors, and sliding doors because that has always been needed, whether we were doing it or not. We can focus on the “whole-child” and the “whole-teacher” as a priority, not an afterthought.
Some may call this work a “reimagining” but I will not. We aren’t in a place to dream up ideas of what school could be, we are in the reality of a situation where all of our time and attention needs to be put into making schools work for the kids that are in them right now, using the tools, resources, and information we have right in front of us.
Thank you to everyone doing this work right now, and in the future!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
A.J. Juliani is the author of 8 books about learning, including best-sellers Empower, Launch, and Adaptable. He’s worked at every level of education as a teacher, coach, administrator, and UPenn GSE PLN. A.J. speaks around the world about learning, goals, and innovation.
