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Design Vs. Engineering in Schools

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Design has become a very popular term in education these days.  It seems the term is used in a million ways, just to spice things up.  For example, I was recently at a local private school and I noticed a prominent display that said “Design Challenge: Create a catapult that can launch a golf ball at least 5 feet.”  Now, this, to me at least, is not a design challenge, but rather an engineering or a physics challenge.  Despite the fact that students are asked to design an object, children are not asked to identify real life problems, observe human behavior, or empathize with the user- all the core values of Design Thinking.

In the JCDSRI design lab, we have been working hard to teaching the invaluable design thinking process BEFORE attempting to build a machine.  Let me give you some examples:  In first grade, they noticed that one student frequently forget his diabetes bag whenever changes his class, so they are working on creating systems to help him remember.  In fifth grade, students noticed that we create a tremendous amount of waste during lunch and so they will be trying to devise ways to get families to use less disposable material and use more glass, metal, or reusable plastic packaging.

Design thinking, often referred to as “user centered design” or “human centered design” starts with looking for problems in the world, and moves on to interviewing and observing how people act, so that we understand people’s values.  Many of our design lab classes are actually about how to ask questions, observe and gather data- and not at all about building or engineering!

This is time well spent.  One thing that is exceeding difficult for children (and perhaps all people) is to NOT come up with solutions right away.  One of the design thinking mantras is “You’ve got to move slow to move fast!”  In other words- it is critical to really observe, empathize, and define a problem before thinking of an answer.  Sometimes this process feels frustratingly slow (especially for children), it is better than designing a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.

Our fifth graders are eager to ‘invent’ products and systems to help families create less waste.  As Design Lab teachers, our job is to slow them down and get them to observe and empathize before they invent. The fifth grade is now sitting dispersed throughout the lunch room, observing and taking note of what kids bring to school in their lunch bags, what gets eaten, and what gets thrown away.  Their next step will be to interview parents about the process of making lunch, and why buying prepackaged, disposable bags is so attractive.  After they understand the practices, values, and marketplace around disposable materials, they will begin to design solutions to the problem.

The skills of engineering and design are complementary but very different. Where engineering is solving a pre-defined problem design is finding and understanding a problem.  Both are important, but where as engineering is geared towards “making stuff,” design is geared towards making the world a better place for human beings.

Open Letter to my Staff Before the Most Profoundly Awesome Year Ever

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Why do people hate their jobs?  Is it because their bosses are idiots and never listen to the employees?  Is it that their work is meaningless and gives them a feeling of emptiness and a wasted life? Is it that they have no power or autonomy to change whatever isn’t working in their place of work? Is it that the work is never-ending, causing pressure without any real reward or relief? One thing is clear – many people aren’t happy at work.

A 2014 Gallup poll showed that only 20% of workers feel engaged at work!  Only 18% of white collar employees said they had time for creative or strategic thinking at work.  

Unfortunately, schools are often no better than other white collar workplaces. Sure, we have the joy of working with children, but there are often relentless external pressures on teachers.  There may be fear of being creative, of taking initiative, of trusting one’s gut.  The educational system is not looking for whole human beings to teach students; it is looking for people to deliver content to students.  Blended learning and the flipped classroom, while brilliant and well intentioned, can diminish the role of the teacher and put more pressure on her to deliver the content as efficiently as the machine. It’s the story of John Henry versus the steam drill.

The common core, also the work of many intelligent and well intended people, is essentially meant to be a fail-safe so that every child, no matter how inept or ineffectual the teacher, will receive the bare minimum of everythinIMG_4433g they need to know.  Instead of honoring teachers, the Common Core often feels to teachers like it is robbing teaching of creativity, joy, and expertise, transforming teaching from an honored profession into a nearly robotic delivery system for curriculum developed in an ivory tower in Washington, DC.

While we are hyperfocusing on the standards, benchmarks and achievement of children we never really talk about the lives and careers of teachers! This is a shocking mismatch between what we know to be true and what we want to be true. Studies show that teachers have more impact on student learning than any other factor, including special services, facilities, curriculum or leadership. Our society is trying to circumvent the need for happy, talented, experienced teachers in the classroom.

How much do we know or care about teachers? Are they fulfilled? Are they listened to? Are they completely empowered and encouraged to make change? Do they have the time, resources, and trust to be creative and adventurous as they teach?  Are they valued as whole, complex people who are respected and admired for the difficulty and complexity of their work?  

I have a dream that JCDSRI will be a kind of utopian workplace. While competing financially with the big independent schools is impossible for a school our size, compensation does not have to be the most important factor in job satisfaction. What if all of our teachers knew they were respected and they were trusted and empowered to make changes to the school as they saw fit? What if teachers felt safe enough to admit their weaknesses and received high quality professional development to help them develop their craft? What if they were able to bring their own passions and interests to school? What if our school created a shared common vision of excellence that created the kind of unity and teamwork usually found on professional sports teams and in elite military units? What if staff meetings were so efficient we could end them early and with a feeling of accomplishment and success? What if teachers trusted and respected each other to the point that there were never feelings of competition and politicking?

How is such a thing possible?

I have a 3 part plan to begin creating this utopian workplace this year.

  1. Protocols for staff meetings

This year, we will be experimenting with various protocols at staff meetings to ensure they run smoothly, all voices are heard, and that all staff members feel responsible and have the authority to make changes to the school when they see the need.  We will begin by using the protocols and language of Holacracy. This will be a change in the way we operate, but I believe will help us hear each other better, make decisions faster, and get more done.

  1. Transparency of roles and projects

Every team in the school operates in its own ‘circle.’  For example, the Board, the PA, Marketing and Admissions, the general studies team, the Jewish studies team, the lower grades team, and the upper grades team each represent their own working group that is responsible for its own set of projects and goals.  We will be using an online platform to track what projects are open in which circle, and who is responsible for each aspect of a project.  Getting work done faster, with clarity, and clear goals and responsibilities is critical to having a resentment-free workplace.  

  1. Culture of Awesome

This is the most important element of our ability to change. We will be making many changes to the way we operate next year. One can approach this with dread and resentment – or with tenacity and optimism. Bringing this tenacity and optimism is not just a suggestion to make you feel better – it is a job requirement!  For our school to become a groundbreaking, teacher-centered, utopian workplace, we need everyone on board. This means being willing to have a growth mindset and embrace change.  It means having tolerance for some mess, confusion, and rapid experimentation.  And it means obliterating “Devil’s Advocate” from your vocabulary. We will become a school where each employee offers solutions rather than pointing out problems.

Each one of these points need further explanation, training, and experimentation, all of which will take place during teacher week.  Much like taking a trip, we have a destination in mind, but we will have to steer as we go. I hope that this vision of creating a teacher centered, positive, energetic, collaborative and holistic workplace feels as exciting to you as it does to me. Together we will make our school happier, healthier, profoundly innovative and awesome!

 

Why send your child to a Jewish Day School?

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First, let’s ask an even more basic question…

Why School?

In a recent article on the excellent education blog, MindShift, author, educational guru, and futurist David Price wrote about how education is changing, and needs to change in the coming years. The whole article is well worth the read but for now, I’d like to consider this bombshell of a statement he presents:

“The gaping hole in the middle of the public debate on schooling is that we can’t even agree on what schools are actually for…This failure to define a clear purpose has fatally held back progress in understanding how we learn best.”

To make matters even worse, many thinkers such as John Taylor Gatto, author of Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling and Seth Godin, author of Stop Stealing Dreams (What Is School For?) believe the true purpose of school is to create obedient workers and complacent citizens for an industrial society!

As parents, I doubt “obedience and complacency” are our highest aspirations for our own children, especially as our country changes from an industrial economy to an economy based on service, innovation, and creativity.

So today, not only is there confusion about what and how we should be teaching, but we as a society don’t understand WHY we should be teaching at all! This astounding lack of purpose has led our education system to lurch in one direction, only to recoil and lurch in another. With no one to take on the deeply challenging question of “Why,” our schools have become a rudderless ship relying on centuries old ideals (the 3Rs for example), and enforced by the least creative or innovative assessment, the standardized test.

These problems exist because politicians make the policies, and their decisions are often driven by fear and competition. Are we fearful of China’s economic growth and feel we need to compete with it? Are we trying to beat Luxembourg’s per capita GDP? Do we need to beat South Korea in math? Do we need to maintain an obedient, hard working underclass? Will we create great thinkers and innovators, or use our businesses to import the finest minds from overseas? The answers to each of these questions result in tinkering of educational policies in order to affect society and the future of our country.

The status-quo drastically increases the risk of making policy decisions that are not in the best interest of children, such as cutting gym, recess, and the arts to focus more on the skills that show success on standardized tests. This puts pressure on teachers and children, damaging students’ creativity, self-esteem, autonomy and self-efficacy.

So it’s our job then, not the government’s, to ask “Why school?”

In my experience, when I have asked parents why they send their kids to school, it’s pretty simple. They almost unanimously say, “We want our children to get the skills and content to live happy, meaningful lives.” (If I’m wrong about that you can let me know in the comments below)

Even when I have asked cynics, the answer ends up the same. Imagine the conversation:
Why do you send your kids to school?
To learn reading, writing, and arithmetic.
Why?
So they can go to Harvard.
Why?
So they can go to the best law school?
Why?
So they can get a great job?
Why?
So they can provide a great life for their families and have every opportunity.
Why?
So they can live happy and meaningful lives!

The answer usually ends up the same, because under all of the ‘What’ and ‘How,’ we parents share a common ‘Why’ for our children and it is beyond Harvard, beyond wealth and beyond keeping the United States the largest economy in the world. In fact beyond any specific outcome we want our children to live happy, meaningful lives.

(I will be talking about how our academic program supports these goals in a later post. Please subscribe below if you are interested in reading more about the profound impact of progressive, constructivist education.)

So why a Jewish School?

If we take the same “why-based” approach to Judaism that we just took to education, we will find something miraculous. Ask yourself, “Why should we teach our children to be Jewish?”

Beyond tradition, beyond guilt or pressure, beyond heaven and hell, and even beyond faith and tradition, we find out deepest desires for our children: To live happy and meaningful lives.

By being part of a community, celebrating life’s joys and tragedies together, and connecting to our past and our future we find joy, direction, and meaning. Our lives are enriched by our ancient tradition and values. We become kinder, more empathetic people by regularly reflecting on our lives through Jewish practice, holidays, and prayer. We don’t live in isolation–we place our lives as part of the greatest project the ever existed, Jewish peoplehood.

Living a Jewish life makes our lives so much richer in the here and now, we naturally want our children to experience that as well.

This is the profound relevance of a Jewish Day School education. Our day schools don’t just provide excellent educations– they provide purpose, community, and meaning. No matter how good the local public or private school, they simply can not match a Jewish Day School’s ability to give students content and skills to live happy, meaningful lives. This is not to say other schools can’t offer any of these skills — they can, through a progressive education focusing on real world problem solving, project based learning, and focusing on creativity, character, and collaboration. But even the best secular school is missing half of the equation.

Next week: What is ‘Progressive Education’ and how does it create a joyous childhood while ensuring academic excellence? Click “Follow” below!