Prams these days are triumphs of modern design. Engineered with the lifestyles in mind of smart men and women who want to share a walk with dogs and community spirit, around the inner suburbs.
The western gold glows in leaf falling colourscapes, the autumnal twilight melts slowly.
These are the parents of our Kindergarten children around 2015.
Intelligent adults full of expectation: with a world of information available on any conceivable topic. Curriculum to class sizes, policy to pedagogy, student welfare to sunsafe; it’s there, just a mouse click away, for the reading.
Amongst these adults will be tweeps and mummy bloggers: intuitive users of social media available right now and not likely to go away anytime soon. People with huge opportunities for canvassing opinion and gaining input to a range of ideas about school and schooling: and their own child. From contentment with ‘getting what they got,’ to ‘expecting change, and wanting to see added value.’
The pram pushers will push us. Let’s not respond by pushing back.
Instead, let’s see if we can engage them in going about the business of planning school; as opposed to school planning. School planning uses all available sources of data and information to plan how to make WHAT IS better. Planning school is about being able to connect people and ideas; as well as using all available sources of data and information to collaborate across a range of forums and media, and then create something which is different, and allows us collectively to echo Michelangelo:
‘I saw an angel in the marble and I carved until I set him free.’
I don’t know about angels, but I think we all know that there is huge potential in a generation of young people. And, for those still being pushed up my street in the fading amber of an autumn day, I hope that, by 2015, we can be walking alongside, planning school as a shared journey where there is a sense that we have gone from pram pushing to sitting beside each other at a planning desk, as we build scaffolds around the fabulous humans we are seeking to build.
3 Responses to “Pushing prams between an autumn sunset and a bold dawn”
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May 3rd, 2010 at 10:20 pm
That is a wonderful vision put so beautifully. Thankyou for sharing it. May I please have it now? In 2015 two of my children will be finished school, one will be in yr4.
Here’s an idea; I’ve thought for a while that the P&C should have some kind of online discussion space. It would give everyone an opportunity to consider and explore the various points of view before the meeting. Now you’ve got me thinking it would be even better if the school owned that space and actively encouraged the entire school community to use it. Schools could share their vision and work together with families while parents that can’t get in to school can be involved.
feasible?
May 3rd, 2010 at 10:45 pm
Hi Kelly
Thanks for the comment. I think the idea of a collaborative online workspace for a P&C, or school community is a great idea. A couple of years ago I set up a space and showed a couple of parents how to author content. (http://eduleader.org/pacweb) The site didn’t really take off, but I think a more local approach would have more chance of engaging. Have also been playing with a blog as an idea for communication locally at the school level and like the idea of adding an eCommerce area. You can see an example at http://hccweb2.org/heliograph/ You’ll see that it uses a Twitter Ticker Widget and has a few ideas built in. If you’d be interested in trying something similar, feel free to get in touch.
June 15th, 2010 at 12:05 pm
[...] you’d also like to see how it looks as a much expanded version of the reasons why we need to engage with the ‘pram pushers.’ Education is freely available. That is not in short supply. What is in short supply – and [...]