The notion that I as a teacher can be responsible for someone’s learning is absurd. Can I be responsible for another’s health, spiritual development or ethics? I think not. Kids do have a wonderful opportunity to learn, but they must crack the books, research on the internet or in the library, help one another with projects—in other words, the hard work of learning and mastering information and concepts.

This is not to say that teachers have no responsibility to practice the craft with firmness, intention, intelligence and creativity. Humor and encouragement is important as well. Yet, as a consuming society, we’ve made a commodity of learning—opining that we could “give” an education away like it was an apple. By taking the responsibility of the students (and families) away and putting responsibility on public schools and teachers, we’ve taken a fundamental element out of the learning equation. We now guarantee an education, accepting responsibility and accountability for what is not ours. What we are and should be responsible for is a place to learn that is comfortable, able adults to facilitate learning at every possible moment, and an information infrastructure to support learning.

Just as the price of the barrel of oil and the true cost of gasoline and food and transportation and medical care are jolting some pertinent questions, literally slapping us into reality,  it’s time to muster the courage to choose more realistic and respectful ideas about learning.

Educators seem powerless to change things, except for a few shining examples, too few in a nation of about 14,000 school districts. For many staff and students, schools remain spirit killers of the highest order. In my view, there is so much creative energy being wasted in the system we cannot possibly realize widespread success preparing our kids for the 21st century. And we’re not outraged, we’re not angry (even a little)—we are resigned. And so the tragedy continues unabated.

There is a wonderful example posted over at Dangerously Irrelevant about kids having the energy, gumption, and courage to stand together as a group to make a statement. The story involves kids who handed in blank test papers as a protest. A telling quote in the story by Johnny Cruz captures just one aspect of the school tragedy: “They don’t think we have brains of our own, like we’re robots.” Just follow the instructions and don’t ask questions no matter how meaningless and inane the experience is.

While reading Clay Shirkey’s Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations, I began to wonder why educators—smart, well-read, articulate, techno-savvy—don’t act more like the kids who handed in blank test papers. Why aren’t we using the new smart tools like flash mobs and meet-ups to begin the hard part of turning all the books, articles, etc into a wave of change? Why don’t educators flash mob a school board or a PTO meeting? Why don’t the kids flash mob faculty meetings? Where are the meet-ups of citizens, educators, business people, and students reading, discussing, and developing the case and specifics for reforms? All of these can contribute to getting glimpses of what the future holds.

Too radical? What if a school planned a year-long dialogue with parents, community leaders, educators and others about how drastically “school” needs to change? Readings could be posted ahead of time on the school website (or linked from there) and real “fierce conversations” could ensue.

And what if other topics were discussed, openly. Suppose the school could be the center of a discussion about getting others in the community involved with quality and excellence in learning. Or how do we deal with doing more with fewer monetary resources?

I simply think it is time to go on the offensive, on the ground, and quit being so damned passive. If conversations are king, we clearly need to get going and engage the community!