'What School Could Be' by Ted Dintersmith offers an insightful exploration of innovative educational practices happening across America. His firsthand accounts provide practical examples for educators seeking to improve student learning experiences. Worth reading for anyone interested in transforming traditional schooling.

I began reading this book during mandatory state testing. That was the perfect foil for the book's content. Here were my students spending hours a day in rows, neatly bubbling multiple choice answers, without any critical or creative thinking. What School Could Be shines a light on many of the problems with the contemporary education system, but beyond that also shares possibilities for solutions. Not all ideas presented were ones that I would want implemented in my school, but they offer an alternative that has possibilities for change and growth and real success.

Fascinating and frightening at the same time. This book really describes some of the best and some of the worst aspects of education today, and although researched in America, much of it is also true of the UK. I got some great ideas that I can use in my work today, and have enjoyed discussing some really innovative ideas with colleagues. However, some of the more concerning aspects of children taking anti-depressants to cope with stress and pressure of school/college are a sad reflection of the education system today, and not just in America! Definitely a worthwhile read, this book made me reflect on the practice within my school and the impact it is having on the children I work with.

WHAT SCHOOL COULD BE is a brand new non-fiction book by Ted Dintersmith which he opens with a quote from John Dewey: "If we teach today's students as we taught yesterday's, we rob them of tomorrow."

Although I did not really care for Most Likely to Succeed which Dintersmith co-wrote with Tony Wagner, his newer title (subtitled "Insights and Inspiration from Teachers across America") seems a little more grounded in how to prepare students for this innovation era. That's because Dintersmith spent the entire 2015-2016 school year traveling to and observing schools in all 50 states. [As an aside, he provides a map in his prologue and it appears that he visited mainly major metropolitan areas. Not many small towns or rural areas are identified, even though he notes the national proportion of public high school students is roughly 4.5 million urban, 8 million suburban and 3.5 million rural.] He argues that students thrive in environments where they develop the PEAK principles: Purpose – attacking important challenges; Essentials – acquiring innovative skills; Agency – self-directing learning; Knowledge – retaining so as to make, create and teach others. His final section says Americans long for a speech that notes, "We need to understand how our world is being shaped by innovation, automation, and machine intelligence. Low-skilled jobs aren't going to Mexico, China or immigrants – they're just plain going away." Dintersmith asks readers to "consider the possibility that our innovative teachers, not data-driven policies, can best lead the way." He also notes that superintendents stress the importance of "the right school board."

One section of WHAT SCHOOL COULD BE deals with the Ivory Tower where he opines that the college model is broken and another discusses Social Equity where he bemoans the dire consequences of unequal education. Once again he makes many claims in this text, but offers limited research and evidence to support them (the notes consist of 15 URLs). In addition, I was a little surprised that his final reflections section – meant to include "pragmatic advice about steps a school community can take to transform learning" – highlights "remarkable innovation" in Kentucky and Oklahoma, two states where teacher strikes are currently much in the news.

You can judge for yourself about Dintersmith, his observations, and his conclusion because he will be speaking at New Trier's Cornog Auditorium on the Northfield Campus (7 Happ Road) on Thursday evening, April 12 at 7:00pm. More information is available through the FAN (Family Action Network) web site.

Links in live post:
http://treviansbookit.blogspot.com/2015/08/most-likely-to-succeed-and-school.html
https://www.familyactionnetwork.net/

Ted Dintersmith's book is an engaging introduction to the conversation about what schools could be doing differently to prepare young people for the future. Although What School Could Be is very American, there are still points he raised that are relevant to teaching worldwide.
The anecdotes were inspiring and show that it is possible to change the system one classroom at a time instead of waiting for policy changes.
He mentions a few times that there will be a myriad of opportunities in the future for those who know how to leverage machine intelligence, but I would have liked for him to explore what this would look like.