A HALLOWEEN 2000 MUSING

Reck Niebuhr

Three years ago this fall I was invited to have a conversation with the
Scattergood Friends School Committee, a conversation that led the Committee
to adopt a Long Range Plan whose core concept was Lawrence Cremin's "ecology
of learning". With contemporary education thinking mired in "schooling", the
idea of an "ecology of learning" was a reminder that LEARNING OCCURS IN MANY
SETTINGS, that THEY ARE ALL IMPORTANT and that THEY MUST WORK TOGETHER. After
hundreds of talks on the subject I can report that ordinary folk instantly
"get" the idea since it is embedded in their life experience. They also
wonder how it is that the educators don't "get" it and continue with their
singular focus on the school as the exclusive learning setting.

STATUS OF THE NATIONAL DEBATE
A year or so ago the School Committee issued a "two pager" addressed to the
larger Iowa community advocating the shift from "schooling" to a more
intentional and guided "ecology of learning. That paper is included here on
Quakernet. As we come to the end of the 2000 Presidential Campaign has anyone
noticed such a shift in the rhetoric of the candidates Bush and Gore? Nope!
The debate is totally centered on school improvement. With 80% of the
electorate citing education as their top issue I find it tragic that we have
not been able to do better.

It is easy to blame educators for the "schooling" bias but the field has
painted itself into a corner, exhausting itself in trying to do 100% of the
learning job in only 19% of a learner's time. So there is little energy left
to take the long look and conclude that the "schooling" model is both wrong
and hopeless.

PERHAPS THE CHURCH?
Throughout my association with the Scattergood Family I have been ardent in
advocating that the Quaker community take on the assignment of bringing the
"ecology of learning" idea to life, both in an intentional renewal of the
Quaker Learning Process and in advocacy to the larger society. In historical
perspective it is a fact that the church invented the school and nurtured its
development for centuries before being elbowed out of that role by secular
forces. Since the late 19th Century the church has grown comfortable in its
banishment from the education stage. A mistake! But, as Jim Kenney reminds us
in his recent contribution to Quakernet, Quakers have a history of getting
out in front, as its Peace Witness and Penal Reform agendas confirm.

For those who would like to pursue this topic I strongly recommend a new
book, The Fourth Great Awakening by the Nobel Laureate, Robert Fogel. Fogel
makes an original contribution in linking the evolution of the nation's
religions to economic and political evolution. He suggests that we are now in
the midst of a Fourth Great Awakening triggered partly by all of the
technological change and the related globalization trends. Fogel would
clearly endorse Jim Kenney's call for some church-based leadership on the
education issue.

MEANWHILE, WE CARRY ON
Having tried to plant a few seeds in my time with the School Committee I am
pleased to read Ken's report on how they have sprouted within the School.
Last winter and spring, thanks largely to Burt and Jeff Kisling, we had an
opening conversation within the IYM family on the meaning of the "ecology of
learning" model for Quaker families and Monthly Meetings. Hopefully we will
continue to pursue this "external agenda".

In another recent book, The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell describes the
process through which an idea moves its implementation. Clearly the core idea
of the Scattergood Long Range Plan has not yet reached the "tipping point".
But you have begun. Now carry on!