Famous Failures

From the excellent Learning in Maine blog, a look at Famous Failures. Not bad company to keep!

I Made Something, Look!

Josh Selig, president and founder of New York’s Little Airplane Productions, shares on the need for professionals to take some creative time for themselves. Sorry, teachers, but writing lesson plans, mapping curriculum, and grading papers do not count as creative time, no matter how good you are at those tasks and how much you enjoy them (and I know we all enjoy them). Check out Josh's insightful blog at Planet Preschool.

How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything

Sir Ken Robinson, best known for his TED talk of last year (see second video below), is on the web again, this time talking about his new book The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything. For those of us who have heard or used the expression "in his element," we understand phrase to mean that he is "doing what he is best at," or "doing what he was born to do."

That's The Element in a nutshell: a bold proclamation that people can do best what they actually enjoy and are good at (no news there), but that too often they are turned from the pursuit of what will ultimately fulfill them by the dictates of others, the "realities" of making a living, and (you guessed it) schools that limit their choices and dreams. Not saying he's wrong, mind you, but we all knew that was coming. And that's probably bad.

A favorite part:

Finding a purpose in the work we do or they way that we spend our time which resonates deeply with who we think we are, is an essential part of knowing who we are. In a way, if you don’t know what you can do, then you don’t really know what you might be.

Our own lives are not linear. Think not of linear metaphors for human growth and development, but organic metaphors… that our lives evolve around the responses we have to the opportunities that meet us. We, in turn, reciprocate with them. We still run our education systems as if life is linear. We run them as if it’s mechanistic. This is one of the reasons so many things get phased out of education, because people say, "Well, you’ll never get a job if you do this." Things are dropped off the end because they don’t meet the linear assumption.

If you've got the time, this is well worth a look.

Are You Teaching with This Much Passion?

Rock and Roll Kindergarten sounds like a follow-up to Jack Black's School of Rockbut it's actually a web site created by kindergarten teacher Kurt Schwengel. This site begs the question, "Are you teaching with this much passion?" And for old veterans like me, "Did you ever?"

Whether you're a kindergarten teacher or a 12th grade AP Physics teacher, check out the man in action and be inspired.

Our Deepest Fear

I'll admit it: I'm a sucker for those emotionally saturated inspirational speeches which seem obligatory in any film about teaching or coaching. Or waging war, for that matter (draw your own conclusions here).

Too often, of course, these speeches are heavy on rhetoric and light on reality. "Forty Inspirational Speeches in Two Minutes," for example, was an instant hit video, in that it lets us play detective as we try to name all the movie clips featured. At the same time, however, it's truly hilarious, since the collective "words of wisdom," when seen in transcript form, express absolute gibberish.



That's also why you have to love a truly inspirational movie clip, which even divorced from its context will still ring true. "Our Deepest Fear," a widely circulated poem which is actually not a poem at all, is one of these inspirations. The excellent feature film Coach Carterroughly paraphrases the words from A Return To Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles by Marianne Williamson.



Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate,
but that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us.
We ask ourselves,
Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, handsome, talented and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.

Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking
so that other people won't feel insecure around you.

We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us.
It is not just in some; it is in everyone.

And, as we let our own light shine,
we consciously give other people permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our fear,
our presence automatically liberates others.

For teachers, these words could not hold a more profound truth. Too often we are quick to bash our fellow teachers who make an effort to really make a difference. We think to ourselves, "What is he trying to prove? What is he trying to do, make us look bad?" And we worry about how we'll pale by comparison when scrutinized by parents or administrators.

Well, those of us who have felt that way about our colleagues have it all wrong. And conversely, those of us who have willingly chosen to be mediocre for fear of standing out or making our peers "look bad by comparison" have it all wrong as well.




Teachers, your playing it small does not serve the world, nor your students, nor your own dignity and integrity. Instead, let your own light shine, and give permission for your peers to do the same.