Nine Shift

NineShift Goes to Randolph: Part II

   To be sure, after my initial two hour presentation the Superintendent Greg Peyer thinks it is going great, but I don’t.   There’s objections of course, but that’s not unusual.  But there’s people talking while I am talking, people getting up and walking around, people not asking questions (this never happens).  And everyone dashes to the buffet line as soon as the presentation is halted.

   After lunch, I spend 90 minutes with the elementary teachers. No agenda, no speech. And then it happens.  They work really hard.  They are not just supportive.  They want to do something. They want to try something.  This did not happen - - anywhere - - two years ago.  Here in Randolph they are so close to actually doing positive educational change one can almost touch it.

   The elementary school folks come up with five different ideas.  Different teachers are interested in different ideas, which is fine.  They talk about:
1.Having computers in class.
2. Having email addresses for students.
3. Teachers able to watch student screens from a central computer.
4. Helping students learn at their own rate
5. Getting online classroom software and trying hybrid classes.

I know. You are not blown away by these ideas.  Teachers are doing them somewhere, elsewhere. But taking the next step is what it’s all about. No matter where you start from, it’s all about taking the next step.  And when teachers in Randolph are taking the next step, then you got change aground.  Superintendent Greg Peyer. His entire school district staff and teachers are in the background.

NineShift Goes to Randolph: Part I

NineShift has come to Randolph, and it’s the most exciting news ever, my brilliant co-author says.

   Randolph - - do you really need to know what state? - - is a town of just 1,600 in the middle of farm country in the middle of middle America. It’s not nowhere, but it’s between somewhere.

   We did an all day in-service presentation with the entire faculty and staff of the Randolph Public Schools. All 60 folks, including elementary, middle, high school, bus drivers, custodians, etc.

   So I’m settled into the bed and breakfast there (no motels) and thinking I’m not anywhere. But my brilliant co-author Julie Coates is excited.  She says this is terrific. 

   We’ve given speeches in London, Moscow, DC, Chicago. But she says change doesn’t really happen there, it happens in small town, ground level, middle middle America - - in towns like Randolph.  The fact that Randolph invited us to speak means that change is happening, it’s just around the corner.  If teachers in the smallest of small school districts are talking about and interested in and wanting change, then that means NineShift has made it.  NineShift has come true. NineShift is happening. Here. Now. Downtown Randolph, two blocks long along the railroad tracks.  Feed store is next to the bank.

Are Labor Unions Getting a Good Rap?

Is the extreme right wing Tea Party giving labor unions a good rap?  Tell us what you think.

On Labor Day Julie attended a Labor Day rally of 700 people in Eau Claire, population only about 50,000. Two-thirds of the people there said they had never been to a Labor Day or union rally.

Next year, election year, Labor Day events in Wisconsin will be even more highly attended.  Labor unions, like every other institution, are obsolete. They need to change.  But the Tea Party effort to eliminate them has produced a huge backlash in support of labor unions.  Do unions now stand as a symbol for the working person, and are they now getting a Good Rap?  Tell us what you think: : :
Julie and Miles, the labor union organizer who bunked in our house this summer during the recall elections.

All is Wrong

"All was wrong. And it was impossible to imagine any future period when all would not be wrong."

This from These Twain, by Arnold Bennett, written in 1916 about 100 years ago.  It perfectly describes the mood and feeling among people today, here in 2011. 

Progressives and educators cannot imagine that things will get better, and yet positive change is just around the corner.

Back then, the hero of the book ran a factory, and he understood his workers were underpaid, but he did not feel he could do anything about it.  The same situation as today, transitioning from one age into another, with the need to re-create the social infrastructure and laws to respond to the new environment.