What NASA can teach us about education reform | Matt Candler | Big Think

What NASA can teach us about education reform

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Matt Candler, founder of 4.0 Schools, questions why school has stayed overwhelmingly the same the past 100 years. As a teacher, he sees the future of schools embracing mutual curiosity in both students and educators.

He points to the example of NASA scientists, who approach missions with the idea that failure is welcome and necessary. Failure during preparation ensures the mission will succeed when the time comes to perform.

Candler suggests that this idea should hold up in discussions of education reform and how teachers are trained in their approach to learning. This video is supported by yes. every kid., an initiative that aims to rethink education from the ground up by connecting innovators in a shared mission to conquer "one size fits all" education reform.

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MATT CANDLER

Matt Candler is founder and board chair of 4.0 Schools. To date, 4.0’s invested in more than 1,000 founders, equipping them to run trials of better ways to teach and learn across the US. Matt’s past gigs include: teacher/coach/principal in public and private schools; HQ Ops and Comms at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and later at Chicago Public Schools; helping people launch education ventures at LearningNext, KIPP, NYC Charter Center, New Schools for New Orleans. Matt learns best when he's making and breaking things, so he makes electric motorcycles after his kids go to bed. Learn more about that at nightshiftbikes.com.

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TRANSCRIPT:

Matt Candler: One way to think about the state of school today in the U.S. is to ask the question, what did school look like a hundred years ago? And lets say we found someone and brought them in a time machine forward from a 100-120 years ago and started to show them what our world looked like. We would probably have to slow down and explain the Internet, maybe modern jet travel, maybe our mobile phones, but if we walked them into your kids school, my kids school we wouldnt have to do that much explaining. That would instantly resonate with them as something theyre familiar with. And to me thats one example of how little we think about how school could change, how school should change and specifically what pieces of it could we reimagine, not just for the future but even for today.

if you look in Websters Dictionary you will see the word institution in the definition of school. We think of it as such, when in fact what we all care about, what I care about from my kids, what I care about for other folks' kids is not the building and the institution and the structures, it is their relationship with other human beings, with their own emotions, with the world as it is rapidly changing around them. And so, what gives me a lot of hope and what Im really proud of at 4.0 is that we have created a relational and communal way of thinking about school. And when you do that it doesnt take long for great ideas to start oxygenating the conversation. If you really create enough trust for people to say yes I actually want to see a prototype of your learning space and it doesnt have to be perfect, it doesnt have to look like school and it doesnt need to take more than about 30 minutes, if you can create enough dialogue for someone to say, "Okay, I think I can do that, I think I can create that for a handful of students." Suddenly youve created a space that is no longer institutional its just a few human beings in a space together talking about what they want to learn and what they can share.

And that to me is really liberating because most of my professional career has been spent believing that I must be the most certain one in the room, I must be the most confident and secure knowledge holder, that I must deliver knowledge to children. And for my inner teacher to be along for the ride embracing this new version of me in my participation and a vision of school that is not institutional and not predicated on my certainty as an educator but on my willingness to go into uncertain places to shine a light on what might be a horrible idea and a bad 30-minute experiment, but to say Im going to participate in that as a curious human being with other curious human beings, that is what school should be and thats what school could be. And so, for me what excites me most about the future of school is that, what if? What if it could be about humans relating to one another not humans trying to make these institutions less institutional.

Heres why I ...

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