Focus: What Can We Learn from Beyond the Culture of Schools?

If we are to discover our full potential and the potential of our students, we must look beyond the culture of the school and the classroom. We are living in a world that is integrating previously disparate elements at mind-bending speed. If we choose instead to hunker down inside the confines of school thinking, we will soon become anachronistic and irrelevant.

We need to open our minds to ideas from beyond the norm, from beyond the enclave of school culture. We can begin by imagining new and different roles for teachers. We can also reframe our perceptions and accomplish more than we thought possible.

In addition, we can examine our potential to affect the quality of life in the classrooms of newer colleagues. We can deepen our understanding of the ultimate purpose of teaching as it relates to the greater universe within which we live. And, we can take time to imagine the ideal classroom in which we would like to teach.

Expanding our thinking beyond the classroom, beyond the schoolhouse, makes for a better understanding of our place and purpose, and enables us to connect more imaginatively and deeply with our students, and with each other.

 

For the next series of posts (#81-#87), we’ll be looking at what can teachers learn from beyond the classroom. As you read about the ideas, try them out. They could well change your teaching life.

 

For exciting ideas about improving schools and the classroom read Part V “What Can We Learn from Beyond the Culture of the Schools?” in Teaching from the Middle of the Room: Inviting Students to Learn. Order from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Teaching-Middle-Room-Frank-Thoms/dp/0615358918.