I’m constantly provoked by Umair Haque’s essays in the Harvard Business Review, and his bit on “Declare Your Radicalness” is no exception. The whole essay is definitely worth the read, as are many of the comments, but as is often the case, there was one line that really jumped out:
“…We…
The notion from Haque’s essay quoted by Richardson about restoring to the state of the past caused me to reflect on our current situation in education. One thing that seems unstated about the need for education reform is that we cannot go back specifically BECAUSE a recaptured dynamic from the past would not work in the present we find ourselves in and the future we seek to prepare our students for. It is very important for us to recognise that we are not about restoration of some formerly-held ideal, but about
ressing forward into unexplored territory we are, most emphatically, NOT re-forming education to what it was (or even should be). We are casting something brand new; perhaps we should not even call it education. In that we are talking about that thing we do that prepares people for full and satisfying participation in society, we are obviously educating, but the break we need to make with authority, standard core, and assessment is so radical, we should consider whether even to keep the former label. Perhaps our given task is so disruptive, so subversive, that we need a name change.