LearningReImagined

Janet and I spent the Fourth in Seattle. It was all too nice. While there, I was struck by an article in the Seattle Times by staff columnist Danny Westneat: “Just like the Founding Fathers, we’re out of sorts“. He writes that the institutional part of the Constitutional bargain with the people has gone sour. Calls it a “grand national funk”

As proof, he offers up statistics from Gallup’s latest poll asking how much trust we have in our institutions. It seems Gallup has been polling around this question for 35 years. Westneat called it stunning, how much faith we’ve lost in our public institutions. I’ll include the chart here that was published in the paper because it is not with the article at the Times site.

I’m saddened that since 1979 schools have lost 20 points of confidence. And at 33% we must be somewhere around where Bush’s popularity is. Put this next to all the other challenges–global warming, energy consumption, obesity, deteriorating infrastructure, pollution–and we Americans have our work cut out for us. I still can’t figure out why we’re not rolling up our sleeves, putting on our boots, and getting about the business of creating a place we’re proud to live in. 

With respect to schools, learning, teaching, etc., we simply are not using our wonderful imaginations to engage each other in conversations about learning and the future of schools. Where is our energy, playfulness, creativity, and spirit? We’re simply drifting along thinking that tomorrow will be a logical extension of today. We continue to pay a growing price for our laziness and reluctance–wasted opportunity and human capacity. I don’t think history will be kind to us.

And I wonder what effect all this cynicism will have on our institutions, our people, our children, our way of life. It is time to hope again–and get on with building the learning environments, courts, banks, and political systems that are responsive.