Lies my Teacher Told Me, by James W. Loewen

The more appropriate title would be, “Lies my Textbook Told me.” Otherwise, holy shit!

“Critical thinking requires assembling data to back up one’s opinion. Otherwise students may falsely conclude that all opinions are somehow equal. Textbooks pose scores of questions like this. They don’t pose them seriously” (pg viii).

“When students are not asked to assess, but only to remember, they do not learn how to assess or how to think for themselves” (p. xiv).

“White Americans engaged in a new burst of racial violence during and immediately after Wilson’s presidency. The tone set by the administration was one cause. Another was the release of America’s first epic motion picture” (p. 21).

“We teach Keller as an ideal, not a real person, to inspire our young people to emulate her. Keller becomes a mythic figure, the ‘woman who overcame’ - but for what? There is no content! Just look what she accomplished, we’re exhorted - yet we haven’t a clue as to what that really was” (p. 26).

“As a subject for research, the possibility of African discovery of America has never been a tempting one for American historians. In a sense, we choose our own history, or more accurately, we select those vistas of history for our examinations which promise us the greatest satisfaction, and we have had little appetite to explore the possibility that our founding father was a black man” (p. 31).

“Cultures do not evolve in a vacuum; diffusion of ideas is perhaps the most important cause of cultural development. Contact with other cultures often triggers a cultural flowering” (p. 39).

“If textbooks allowed for controversy, they could show students which claims rest on strong evidence, which on softer ground. As they challenged students to make their own decisions as to what probably happened, they would also be introducing students to the various methods and forms of evidence - oral history, written records, cultural similarities, linguistic changes, human genetics, pottery, archaeological dating, plant migrations - that researchers use to derive knowledge about the distant past” (p. 41).

“The trust history of Thanksgiving reveals embarrassing facts. The Pilgrims did not introduce the tradition; Eastern Indians had observed autumnal harvest celebrations for centuries. Although George Washington did set aside days for national thanksgiving, our modern celebrations date back only to 1863. During the Civil War, when the Union needed all the patriotism that such an observance might muster, Abraham Lincoln proclaimed Thanksgiving a national holiday. The Pilgrims had nothing to do with it; not until the 1890s did they even get included in the tradition. For that matter, they were not commonly known as Pilgrims until the 1870s” (p. 90).

“The invaders also anticipated, correctly, that other Europeans would question the morality of their enterprise. They therefore [prepared] . . . quantities of propaganda to overpower their own countrymen’s scruples. The propaganda gradually took standard form as an ideology with conventional assumptions and semantics. We live with it still” (p. 93).

“We colonists took action to oppose unjust authority, as in the Boston Tea Party or the antirent against Dutch plantations in the Hudson River valley during the 1840s, they chose to dress as American Indians, not to blame Indians for the demonstration but to appropriate a symbol identified with liberty” (p. 111).

“Even terminology changed: until 1815 the word Americans head generally been used to refer to Native Americans; after 1815 it meant European Americans” (p. 123).

“No matter how thoroughly Native Americans acculturated, they could not succeed in white society. Whites would not let them” (p. 129).

“We must not forget {our history} - not to wallow in our wrongdoing, but to understand and to learn, that we might not wreak harm again . . . history through red eyes offers out children a deeper understanding than comes from encountering the past as a story of inevitable triumph by the good guys” (p. 134).

“Ideas are more important than battles” (p. 192).

Although a bit dense and longwinded at times, for the topic at hand, it probably needs to be.

Grade: A

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The Innovator's Mindset, by George Couros

“Leaders are people who have influence over and can make an impact on the world” (pg 19).

“Innovation is a way of thinking that creates something new and better” (pg 19).

There is not substitute for a teacher who designs authentic, participatory, and relevant learning experiences for her unique population of students. The role of the teacher is to inspire learning and develop skills and mindsets of learners. A teacher, as designer and facilitator, should continually evolve with resources, experiences, and the support of a community. It is becoming increasingly clear that we don’t necessarily need to transform the role of teachers, rather crate a culture that inspires and empowers teacher to innovate in their pursuit of providing optimal learning experiences for their students” (pg 20).

“Accepting failure as a final outcome, especially when it comes to our kids, is not something we should ever embrace” (pg 37).

It is important to continually ask, “How does this student learn best?” and “What are some ways students can demonstrate their knowledge?” Instead of continually writing down their knowledge, could they create a video, share a podcast, create a visual, or do something else? (pg 39).

“Risk is necessary to ensure that we are meeting the needs of each unique student” (pg 51).

“Yes, it is important, if not crucial, to listen and respond to our students’ input, but it is equally important to help them become resilient and face adversity . . . how you recover from failure and move forward is important to how you learn and how you live” (pg 57).

“What we model is what we get” - Jimmy Cases

“Educators are not scared of change, but they don’t always feel supported to take the risks in the first place . . . if an administrator takes a risk that no one can see, does anyone learn from it?” (pg 59).

“Innovation is not about changing everything; sometime you only need to change one thing” (pg 59).

“It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do” (pg. 73).

“If I were a teacher in this school, what would I expect from my principal?” (pg 88).

“Innovation often comes from conflict and disagreement, not in an adversarial way but in a way that promotes divergent thinking” (pg 90).

“What are some ways that you get in the “middle” of learning to understand the needs of those you serve?” (pg 91).

“Engagement is a good thing, but I’ve since learned that we must also empower students and equip them with the skills to learn. It is imperative that we teach learners how to be self-directed and guide their own learning, rather than rely on others to simply engage them” (pg 96).

“If you had to choose between compliant, engaged, or empowered, which word would you want to define your students?” (pg 97).

“In an age when innovation is increasingly a group endeavor, it [Google] also cares about a lot of soft skills - leadership, humility, collaboration, adaptability, and loving to learn and re-learn. This will be true no matter where you go to work” (pg 104).

“If we want innovative students, we need to be innovative leaders and educators. If we want to create a culture of innovation, we must first focus on furthering our own learning and growth” (pg 110).

“We do not learn from experience; we learn from reflecting on experience” - John Dewey

“Having so many ideas and facts at their fingertips is helpful for students - as long as they understand how to discern truth from fiction and know why it’s important to consider the source of information” (pg 113).

“People who do have the opportunity to focus on their strengths every day are six times as likely to be engaged in their jobs and more than three times as likely to report having an excellent quality of life in general” - Tom Rath, “Strengths Finder 2.0”

“Great leaders practice balancing trust and autonomy while providing strong mentorship” (pg 127).

“Giving people the chance to try something new or pursue something they love is not something we should only value for our students but also for our staff . . . when we show a genuine interest in those whom we serve and go out of our way to help them become successful in areas about which they are passionate, they are more likely to go above and beyond what is expected” (pg 133).

“The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak” - Hans Hofmann

“Every single person’s plate size is different” (pg 161).

“To truly integrate new learning, it is critical to carve out time for exploration, collaboration, and reflection to allow educators to apply what they are learning” (pg 182).

“There are many reasons why we don’t model the learning process as adults, but one of the biggest ones is ego” (pg 183).

“Before we can decide if our schools our successful, we have to first define what success means, realizing our impact is measured long after a child leaves school” (pg 214)

TED Talks:

• Daniel Pink

• Barry Schwarts

• Susan Cain

• Seth Godin, “Stop Stealing Dreams”

• Barry Schwartz, “Paradox of Choice”

• Derek Sivers, “Obvious to You. Amazing to Others”

Book:

• Invent to Learn, by Gary Stager

A great read and one I wish I could have spent more time on, both for myself and with the staff. Sadly, I read it during the COVID-19 Pandemic and a good chunk of his ideas were too much for us to bear at the moment.

Grade: A

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Leading from the Library: Help your School Community Thrive in the Digital Age, by Shannon McClintock Miller

“Librarians must be leaders in the fields of education, technology, and information and be both willing and able to share their expertise” (pg 1).

“If we want students to meet technology standards, adults must do the same” (pg 8).

“We are very good at associating librarians with our past, but the question is, do you see them as part of the future” (pg 15).

“Change the focus from what we want students to do to what we want them to be” (pg 17).

“{Libraries} are the spaces where we get help, find information, and explore topics that we find interesting” (pg 20).

“Being born in the digital age and having access to technology does not mean they have a deep understanding of how technology works or impacts them, and they are often limited in their usage by adults. They are explorers of the digital world but don’t see it as magic” (pg 20).

“ . . . we need to engage our students in discussions about usage, responsibility and decision making” (pg 21).

“One of the most important adult relationships that librarians can foster is with teachers and staff in their school or district” (pg 21).

“Culture does not change because we desire to change it. Culture changes when the organization is transformed; the culture reflects the realities of people working together every day” (pg 35).

“Keep in mind that your school, and what goes on in it, is a reflection of the community it serves” (pg 38).

“Your librarian is one of the few people in the school district that connects with every student and supports every teacher. They know the school differently than you do” (pg 39).

“{The librarian’s role} is to empower your teachers and sometimes that means pushing them to learn and try new things outside their comfort zone” (pg 44).

“If you don’t tell your story, someone else will” (pg 49).

“Leaders are a champion for their programs, initiatives, students, staff, and community” (pg 49).

“You can’t be a champion for everything all at once. What you can do is define your story and determine how to tell it” (pg 50).

“Just because you have a busy calendar doesn’t mean that you’re being effective. It means you’re doing lots of stuff” (pg 55).

“Can one be literate in the digital age without having an understanding of the messages of media or how to critically consume information?” (pg 74).

“As we look at trends in news coverage, bias, and how we share and personally vet information, being critical consumers of information is one of the most important skills that we can teach our students . . . images and videos have become even more prevalent through digital tools, so we must help our students understand the messages that they are both consuming and creating” (pg 75).

Grade: A

Simple and short, yet deeply profound. I gave this to my librarian, copied chapters for different teachers, and have been inspired to truly invest in our library, librarian, and digital literacy.

A must-read for educational leaders.

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