Truth In Education

I am so thrilled and excited by the way the world works today. Anyone, regardless of age, gender, race or any other limiting factor that is real from time to time in the the lives of Individual people all over this planet, can learn and engage powerful tools in doing so.

I am so saddened by the lack of innovation that is entering Institutional systems based on the manner in which income and expenses and access to facilities where social learning can take place are being managed by people functioning as employees. I am so disappointed by the lack of collaborative problem solving that branded Institutional efforts utilize in solving problems defined for segregated targeting.

We live in an amazing time when Individuals of almost any age can digest the world's information, pick up physical learning experiences, socialize, build, grow and become the outcomes they seek. Technologies of rapidly iterating specificity are empowering physical computing interactions of virtually infinite diversity. Imagination is the only real constraint it seems.

But, we are not all accessing the same opportunities, are we? Segregated learning methods, Institutionally supported, at the expense of open models, perpetuate alienation, segregation and disenfranchise communities of good smart people on a false basis. Girls learning in isolation, black kids learning in isolation, opportunity distribution into isolated "at risk" pockets perpetuating segregated social structures... these do not suffice changing needs.

Employees working under credentials earned from Institutional methods of education are failing us. At once, they too often produce workers that lack basic technical literacy skills for a future that is already here, and they deny educational access to real world skills for young people by competing aggressively with community based solutions that offer more value at lower cost than current Institutional systems support, Institutionally.

People want change. We are getting it.

We can work together, or we can divide and conquer.

More must be expected, of our students, teachers, administrators, community leaders and parents. The world will not wait for anyone. Trees produce electricity, technology is not going away, in whatever form it takes. It is our Human responsibility to learn what that means.

I have written on what a "Maker Education for Social Change" can mean. My opinion is but one. Deeper, and of more importance, is the respect I hold for teachers. The dignity and work ethic of teachers is profoundly under-appreciated. Teaching is hard, really good teachers are a virtuoso.

Students can be inspired to wake up every day, not to consume the education that is fed to them by their teachers... but to make the education that their hard working teachers provide to them into something personal...something unique... something that requires Individual effort. Students want to be makers, not merely consumers. They want to produce software solutions to math problems their teachers give them, turning in work as code rather than graphite on wood pulp. Students want to create physical art that dances within virtual worlds they have crafted, and increasingly they can, from age 3+. But too often teachers are not ready to receive such creativity and can not even evaluate it accurately.

Schools are failing us more than they are holding true to the opportunity that is in front of them. Neither students or teachers are to blame. Our problem requiring the greatest iterative effort, failing forward until we figure out the solution... and quickly... is Institutional leadership. Entrenched positions held firm by pension plans and labor models from bygone eras stand in our way. Negotiation patterns and sales methods capable of making believers out of people with mortgage payments and other liabilities to pay stand in our way.

Data has entered our world forever, from every source we find. Our minds play with and produce data constantly. Education is the act of playing with, contemplating, analyzing and producing data. Most importantly, education is empowered by its sharing. Ideas shared do not lose value, they diversify value. Personal leverage may be reduced by sharing ideas, but ultimately as social beings, we all gain Individual benefit from ideas that are shared and valuable. It is economic theory that distinguishes whether sharing has value or not, and it takes place on a moment to moment basis in any number of diverse calculations.

The economics of education are today controlled by Institutional ideas. These ideas are in need of reform. We are in the midst of that reform process, but certain control functions within the system are capable of adversely affecting progress. These control functions represent the way that leverage is managed by our Institutional "Education System". Me saying this does nothing, and change is not something that will be produced by merely knowing this.

We are at a junction; whether perceived as impassable or temporary in time is an outcome of perspective. Everyday children get one day older, get one day closer to the real world where real responsibilities exist to feed, clothe and care for oneself and one's loved ones. Everyday that our Institutional system fails to utilize available knowledge and methods to improve the lives of those children is something of an administrative crime. Our Institutional systems are increasingly perpetuating administrative crimes against the people they are meant to serve.

Institutional change represents perhaps the most important pursuit of Human progress itself today. Today, we are failing to live up to the ideals we established to run our administrative methods in free and just Society's all over the world. Here in America, my home, we are seeing it perpetuated by good people functioning as employees across a wide-spectrum of our Society. From the way our Sovereign identities are established, to the way our security and freedom as data subjects is managed. From our access to and methods of provisioning health care to our education system attempting to resolve the same challenges. Institutional change is necessary.

The solution?

You. The structure of your participation is the solution.

Why? Structure drives results.

Institutional failure is rampant because of plausible deniability. No one bares accountability. Our liability protection trumps our accountability for decisions with poor outcomes. It exists across our macro and micro systemic perspectives. GDP, the measure of our Societal success Institutionally does not even account for the root costs of the material components that we use to advance our Human cause. We intentionally fail to account for the truth, and so the truth is irrelevant.

The truth in education today is that the goal of education needs a new approach in order to deliberately combat Institutional choices that have been made and which affect the success of our species in real and present terms. Leaders are required. Risk takers are required. Failing forward faster is required. Forgiveness, tolerance and diligence are required.

Individual self-possession, or "Independence", is the root asset that every generation of free and noble people leaves to their children. Networked independence is the literal definition of community in America, and the true structure of "We the People" as intended. Individuals must hold personal accountability for the value of the root asset of their own life, and its contribution as a privately owned outcome in this world. Administrative data enslavement that prioritizes Institutional outcomes over Human outcomes in the lives of Individual people and communities should be regarded as a crime against Humanity.

We live in precarious times, confusing times even. But more than that, we live in exciting and hopeful times when people hold the power to choose how they participate in this world. Our data as data subjects is of keen interest, and it will increase. Make sure that you consider what that means for your life, the lives of your children, your students and your communities.

Individual self-possession and private ownership networked together across local communities and regions and Nations will be the way in which the future is met by an educated approach to the development of valued outcomes... and anything else just won't work well enough.