Education innovation: Our window of opportunity is here | Kaya Henderson | Big Think

Education innovation: Our window of opportunity is here

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The old adage that it "takes a village" has proven true for education in the time of coronavirus. What constitutes a "school" and who is considered an "educator" has changed out of necessity, but important opportunities for the future have come from these unexpected circumstances as communities have and continue to adapt.

"The greatest human superpower is empathy," says Kaya Henderson, "the ability to deeply connect with other people and to see yourself in them and to see them in you." She argues that "a part of the reason why we are so divided in this world today is because we see people as 'other' and we don't see them as extensions of ourselves."

While technology has become a big part of the education landscape, community is still the keystone. "I want technology to amplify and to scale excellence," Henderson says. "To amplify knowledge and to scale excellence all at the same time while paying deep attention to the human connections that are integral to education."

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KAYA HENDERSON:

Kaya Henderson is the CEO of Reconstruction US. She has brought her love of people and her commitment to solving problems to every job she has ever held. She served as the Chancellor of DC Public Schools from 2010 through 2016 — the only time in the district's history when student results, student enrollment, and student satisfaction saw unprecedented gains. More recently, she led Teach For All's Community Impact Lab and she has served as a board member and advisor to an impressive range of influential organizations from The Aspen Institute to the Robin Hood Foundation. She graduated from Georgetown University with a B.S. in Foreign Service, a M.A. in Leadership, and was awarded an honorary doctorate.

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TRANSCRIPT:

KAYA HENDERSON: What we've learned over time is if you really want to see transformational education change it doesn't just take teachers or educators or politicians. It actually takes an ecosystem of people, including communities. Folks closest to the problem often have the best solutions and when you bring educational expertise together with community expertise it unleashes amazing things. We've seen the most transformational change, the most impactful change and the most long-lasting change when a bunch of people in a community come together around a shared vision. They know what they want for their kids and they decide on how they're going to get there. And then what happens is each different role in the community from grassroots people—students, parents, families—to grass tops people—politicians and policymakers—and everybody in between—teachers and principals, business people, nonprofit organizations, government agencies—everybody knows what their role to play is in working towards that vision. And when we see that ecosystem come together and work together, when they know where they started and where they're trying to go, when they are measuring their progress along the way, when they are bringing new resources together… it's a little like the story ""Stone Soup"" where at first there's just some water and a stone and then each villager brings what they can to the mix and then there's a soup, and that's the way we see educational change happening. A lot of different people across the ecosystem working together toward a shared goal.

When I think about superpowers maybe the greatest human superpower is empathy. The ability to see, the ability to deeply connect with other people and to see yourself in them and to see them in you. I think if part of the reason why we are so divided in this world today is because we see people as 'other' and we don't see them as extensions of ourselves or we don't see the interconnectedness of the world. When I think about teaching—at a former role, I was the chancellor of DC Public Schools. I was responsible for all of the public schools in Washington DC and I would always say we're going to treat these kids the way we would treat our own kids. The things that you would do for your own kids, you would go out of your way to give them the very best. You would literally climb a mountain to give them everything that they need. And I think if we saw the children that we taught as our own kids, if we empathized with them and connected with them in that way then we would provide an amazing education for all the kids that we serve. And so, I think...

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