Blake's Guiding Lights
Our Students
Blake's Core Values: Respect, Responsibility, Resourcefulness, Reflection
Our Essential Question: How can we cultivate and curate the progression of student learning and growth?
Our Mission: Blake Middle School believes in a living mission statement, based on the concept that our community seeks and respects knowledge, integrity, character, wisdom, and the willingness to adapt to a continually evolving world.
I hope the three-day Veterans Day weekend was a nice one for all. I was fortunate to attend the Learning & the Brain conference (thanks to MCPE's generosity and support) and also enjoy some down time with the family, attend the kids' sports games, and relax a bit (hard for me to do, but important). With the 'no homework weekend' for students in place, my hope is that our staff and community was able to set some things aside and take it in as well. Trying to 'practice what I preach' I am simply sharing the quote below and a link to one article that sparked my interest from the title and provokes conversation and dialogue - favorites for me during 'down time'...
by Scott Santens in Education Week
Human-automaton creation must end. To succeed in a world of automation will require being as unmachinelike as possible. The entire education system will need to be retooled around no longer teaching kids what to think but how to think. Memorization of facts is pointless in a world where everyone carries around the entire knowledge base of the human species on their person.
The challenge is not information storage but information processing. It's not about information itself but how to use information. The teaching of creativity, curiosity, critical thinking, analytical thinking, problem-solving, and a love of learning itself will be critical to transitioning from the industrial age to the automated age. Learning how to collaborate and empathize with others will be key. To be human is not to be a lone robot performing a singular task in a vacuum but to be a member of the whole of humanity contributing in countless interdependent ways, including even entirely unpaid ways. This will require nothing less than a redefinition of work itself.
To succeed in the future will require rediscovering what it means to be truly human. Mark Twain once said the two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why. In the decades ahead, our jobs as humans will be finding our ways to our "whys." And education must be reoriented accordingly.
I look forward to the work that lies ahead for all of us.
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Take care.
Nat