Discovery: 1988 vs. 2017 - A Tale of Two 4 Grade Experiences


Chances are you have no idea who the person in the picture above is. I didn't. My 12 and 9 year old are fully aware of who this person is and where they DISCOVERED him. Noelle and Carson taught me a very important lesson about DISCOVERY and how students today learn. 

The picture is of Jake Paul. According to my 9-year old son he is a famous "youtuber" who makes music and prank videos. He apparently according to my son was also on a Disney Channel TV show. When I looked at his YouTube Channel I found that he had over 11 million subscribers. Instagram, nearly 10 million followers. Twitter, 2.4 million followers. As I began to DISCOVER Jake Paul on my own I learned that he became famous on the Vine App, with 5.3 million followers with over 2 billion plays on the App. This is someone with an enormous following that I had absolutely no idea about. 

I had no clue who Jake Paul was. Carson just told me his motto is "it's everyday bro". When you think about how students are DISCOVERING today --- it is in fact every day bro. It's every where bro. It's at any time bro. Students today are mass consumers of content. They can learn anywhere, anytime, and virtually from anyone 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. 

This led me to reflect on how I DISCOVERED when I was his age. If I wanted to learn about music artists I would have to watch Yo! MTV Raps. I would hop on my bike and ride over to Ronnie's Camera and Sound and pick up a cassette tape or two based off what I heard that interested me watching Fab 5 Freddy. This is how I discovered EPMD, Big Daddy Kane, and Eric B. and Rakim among other artists I grew up enjoying. My DISCOVERY was also influenced by older friends who would play music during Saturday basketball runs in their boombox at the Cow Palace in North Ironwood. As a kid, I was reliant on others to provide me access to DISCOVERY. 

School was typically the same for me at Carson's age. The teacher provided me content that they felt was necessary at that time for me to learn. There was no student agency that I can remember (voice, choice, and advocacy). Every student was given the same assignment at the same time and were expected to work on their own to get it done. I honestly could not name one assignment or one experience from my 4th grade year. There was not one experience that I can recall that impacted me one way or another.








Technology in the Classroom? Well, Oregon Trail and a Tandy computer are what I remember from my elementary school experience. How could I forget the slide machine. We did have some ancient slides.

I feel it's safe to say that there are classrooms in 2017 that still operate this way as they did in 1988 when I was a 4th grader like my son. And, thankfully there are classrooms that are on the complete opposite end of the experience spectrum.

Knowing how today's kids are DISCOVERING outside of school and CREATING outside of school (Ex. Minecraft, Roblox) ---- we must change the learning experience for them. As Tom Murray @thomascmurray on Twitter says "if a teachers main job is delivering content, they've just been outsourced by Netflix". If you are not following Tom or Eric Sheninger +Eric Sheninger on Twitter, you need to be. Their book "Learning Transformed" speaks to the necessity to change the learning experience for today's students and provides keys on how. https://www.amazon.com/Learning-Transformed-Designing-Tomorrows-Schools/dp/1416623892   As Jeffco Public Schools where my children attend school embarks on it's Jeffco Generations visions --- I feel every school leader should have this book on their hands to help bring vision to action to reality. 

Advance Jeffco post by Dr. Jason Glass on Jeffco Generations: https://advancejeffco.blog/2017/10/10/jeffco-generations-a-learning-centered-vision-for-our-communitys-schools/

Comfort is often the enemy of change. We as adults can no longer stay in our comfort zone and provide this generation of children the same funneled education I was receiving 29 years ago as a 4th grader in Mrs. Rubatt's class at Sleight Elementary School. It's time we prepare students for their future and not our past. 

This was a great lesson for me to learn from my kids and one that informs me as a leader about what we must do to transform learning and why we need to make this shift. The time is now. Make it happen. As Adam Welcome @awelcome says, "Kids Deserve It!"







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