It is our intention to end the myth that we do not know what inspired teaching is and how to achieve it. For the past twenty years, we have listened to those who suggest that the accumulation of facts and information are what is critical. It is our experience that in order to create inspired learners, we must encourage, grow and nurture inspired teachers. Do we want people who know facts or thinkers who know how to access information? Do we want creative people who are self-starters or followers? Could there be a connection between what we have been doing in the preparation of teachers, what we require of them and the difficulties that have arisen in our global economies?
If we are concerned about the accumulation of facts and information and teaching from a unified curriculum, why not hire Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks to create a brilliant, exciting, graduated, coordinated curriculum. The key to the transformation of public education is and has always been the creation of inspired environments – places where kids, teachers and parents are thrilled to be and communities feel compelled to support them.
We claim that children are our priority. We want “no child left behind.” If we really mean what we say, we will have to demonstrate our ability to truly create environments where individuals are treated with dignity, grace and loving-kindness and that are alive with the challenge of being the next solution to the challenges of a global society.
A group of ten teachers in Maine (School Administrative District 9) is in the process of defining inspired teaching. In forty minutes at their first meeting of our course entitled, “Inspired Teaching,” the definition was created (see Page 3). If we know how to define it, how is it that it seems so difficult to achieve on a broad scale? “Stand and Deliver” is a brilliant tribute to Jaime Escalante, who, in one of the most challenging school districts in the United States for seventeen years, had the highest per capita participation and success in the Advanced Placement program. This is not just the achievement of a highly dedicated teacher, but a replicable model.
Over the next two months, this definition will be refined and then these same teachers will create a template of activities and disciplines necessary to create access to “inspired teaching” on a day in and day out basis. Once complete, it is our intention to do away with the myth that we do not know how to create inspired environments. We have waited thirty years too long to address the heart of brilliant schools. If you look at those teachers who stood out in your experience in a powerful and positive way, you will discover that while they all had vastly different personalities and styles, they all possessed an internal spark/fire that let you know they loved what they were doing and wanted more than anything for their students, all of them, to achieve.
