Teaching-to-the-tests is like bringing a knife to a gunfight. Children need better
preparation. The K12 establishment seems unwilling to accept reform. There is no will.
Too many powerful people need the status quo to stay in place.
That leaves us with one option. Teachers, as well as Parents, must become Servant
Leaders to our children. Especially now as they face so much uncertainty.
In an unrepeatable and irreversible power shift, Social Media giants have begun
hijacking the autonomy and agency of parents, childrens and civil society. If our
response to this scenario is to remain unchanging, we will be blamed for being
poor ancestors.
When the First Industrial Revolution moved people en masse from agriculture to
industry, we changed how we taught children. We are now in the Fourth Industrial
Revolution and people are moving en masse to cybersphere, but we are still
teaching as if we are preparing children for the first.
What should be of most concern is the fact that our children are already choosing
to follow Social Media’s ‘advice’ over their parent’s and teacher’s guidance. That
is the very definition of authoritarianism.
We are rightly worried about autocratic leaders in Russia, China, India, and many
other countries that are limiting freedoms, abrogating human rights, and
concentrating power in the hands of elites.
Should we also be worried about the authoritarian tendencies of the emerging
Metaverse and its elites? Theirs is a more subtle influence, it exerts it by
controlling our emotions, like the 14 year-old girl who already believes her
emotional health is tied to the machinations of the Artificial Intelligence/Machine
Language/Social Media trifecta and its needs and can’t go to sleep unless she is on
Tik Tok. An actual case reported in the NY Times.
The Teacher’s Oath says this, “I will teach to the best of my abilities to those who
seek to learn from me. I will not use my position as a teacher to influence a student
toward any purpose other than learning.” In other words – I will serve the
children.
Servant Leaders take charge in a different way. But they do take charge.
Teachers and parents have the innate skills and practice to be quite capable of
guiding children.
Perhaps Servant Leaders – teachers or parents – should try a little civil disobedience.
For the sake of the next generations, ask forgiveness not permission to begin showing
children how to use their Ideation skills. It’s natural for them anyway, they already
possess the Hybrid Skills. And it’s the only way to become Infoliterate.
Download my FREE Terego Ideation Method™ Workbook It will give you a tool
to help your children polish their dazzling hybrid skills.
Thanks for reading.
Alex
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Facebook/Blue Ocean Schools
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