Being right is based upon knowledge and experience and is often provable. Knowledge comes from the past, so it’s safe. It is also out of date. It’s the opposite of originality. Experience is built from solutions to old situations and problems. The old situations are probably different from the present ones, so that old solutions will have to be bent to fit new problems (and possibly fit badly). Also the likelihood is that, if you’ve got the experience, you’ll probably use it. This is lazy. Experience is the opposite of being creative. If you can prove you’re right you’re set in concrete. You cannot move with the times or with other people. Being right is also being boring. Your mind is closed. You are not open to new ideas. You are rooted in your own rightness, which is arrogant. Arrogance is a valuable tool, but only if used very sparingly. Worst of all, being right has a tone of morality about it. To be anything else sounds weak or fallible, and people who are right would hate to be thought fallible. So: it’s wrong to be right, because people who are right are rooted in the past, rigid-minded, dull and smug. There’s no talking to them. -Paul Arden
So maybe it is wrong to be right? I think that is a good place to start this conversation. I am assuming everyone will assume I am wrong. I believe I am right. I am taking an old idea and giving it new eyes. I believe in public schools. They are currently right, but wrong.. Charter schools will not fix education in this country. They too are considered right, but wrong. There will be too many inconsistencies and too many kids left behind. So I am going to be wrong here and say we reinvent public schools and create B Corporations to reimagine them. If you are unfamiliar with B Corps, this may help:
B Corp is to business what Fair Trade certification is to coffee or USDA Organic certification is to milk. B Corps are for-profit companies certified by the nonprofit B Lab to meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency.
So we first agree that public school is all right, but wrong, except for the fact that the lofty goal of educating all students regardless of race, gender, or social status is nothing short of amazing. So it takes more than a board of education to accomplish this. It takes genius.
Where do we find genius? We find genius in the minds of those who think different.
Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… -Steve Jobs
We find genius in the minds of entrepreneurs. Public schools create a base mission. I believe the base mission would turn schools into villages. I know you think I am wrong, but that means probably right. Read here:
The Village
To learn is to grow. Our mind allows for infinite possibilities. We can go places we have never been, envision what is not created, and…medium.com
After a base mission is accomplished the educational innovators could share their genius with public schools. Of course public schools would have to simplify and break down the wall of bureaucracy to let innovation through the door. Instead of money being drained from our public schools to charter schools the money could be used to partner with educational B Corps who will solve an array of learning problems and whose mission is serving students. This would bring the community into the public mission of educating our children.
For instance the B Corp AltSchool just created a partnership with public schools in Menlo, California. Read here:
https://www.altschool.com/post/altschool-unveils-first-partnerships-with-public-school-districts
When partnerships are created with businesses and public schools we are not tearing down our country’s foundation, we are preserving it. The innovation that educational B Corps can bring to public schools is endless, from curriculum, resources for gifted and learning disabled students, the arts, athletics, sciences, technology and more. The energy pours into our schools instead of being drained out. Teachers would become architects of our chidren’s futures.
I am currently building a platform for students whose mission is to bridge the K-12>School>Work triangle. I desire to acquire B Corp status to cement my mission to education and the students we serve. See here:
B Corps prove business can do well and do good…what a better mission than partnering with public schools. In order for our society to be a great society we must be an educated society. As we move into the future it will take all of us to insure our students are ready for the future.
I know I am wrong, but we must rethink how we see school and rethink how public school works. Public schools must be supported by companies whose missions are serving students and education. Maybe I am right. Before another day goes by let us serve our democracy. Our principles are equality and freedom. This is also the best vision of education. We must take something old and make it new.
Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world. — Paulo Freire
Originally published at medium.com