When Posterous got cancelled, and this blog moved over to Posthaven, there was a stretch of time during which both blogs were operational. During that time, "Yossarian" (whose identity I won't reveal since she or he posted under a pseudonym) wrote an inspiring and challenging response to my blog post about "Returning to my roots". Unfortunately, that response disappeared along with Posterous and if you look for it now, all you'll get is an error message. But never fear, I'm reproducing it here. It deserves to stand alone as a post of its own anyway. And just to be clear, I'm not posting it because he said nice things about me, I'm posting it because "beware the undertow" is always, ALWAYS a pertinent warning.
Nice one Patton! I really like the humane culture you are re-inspired to create in the room ("Culture eats strategy for breakfast." Drucker?) and love the "10 ideas" quote, a great reminder to us all. Even my missus, that shadowy sceptic who is never impressed by anything, loved your post. A thought I have is how very far ahead you are from where I started in my first year: indeed, light years ahead. Beware the undertow, then, Alec: as you know full well, it is stronger in education than within any other institution on earth and do not let it slow your journey! "My class...my students...my whiteboard" from the man who helped give UK education the notion of "Learning Commons"? And you know that even if it takes a whole morning co-constructing ground-rules about mobile phone usage, the benefits will outstrip this investment within days. And you know that adult to adult discourse makes notions of ceding authority look ridiculous. I get it that learners are institutionalised too and there is a symbolic dance to be had between staff and learners, but please, please don't make it your classroom because then it can't be shared.
You're the great Learning Futures hope Alec, not quite the word made flesh, but certainly the theory in action. And them "getting what we want them to get" has always been a ridiculous goal anyway: most won't, but if we design well, with them, and provoke and coach and feed stuff in, then they'll get all kinds of amazing learning that THEY want to get. And you're the man to do it.
No pressure then Alec, but stay radical ("of the root"as Alfie Kohn reminds us). We need you to. So how great that "This post is about returning to my roots."
Get in there Patton. And keep up the fight.