I read quite a bit, but I likely don't read the way most people read. I'm not into Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Tom Clancy, Stephen King, John Grisham or anything else in the fiction world. I read for information with the occasional non-fiction book about an obscure President mixed in. One thing that I've found to be true in reading, a good idea is a good idea that can have implications in so many different ways, not just the context it was originally contrived in. If you've been in education for any length of time you've probably heard some iteration of the idea that the business world and education world are two industries that just can't compare to one another. While it's true that you wouldn't run a for profit business the exact same way as you would a school (or vice versa), but it's time we stopped the ignorance of thinking we have nothing to learn from one another. One of my favorite reads is Inc. Magazine at www.inc.com (pictured above). It's a periodical that would typically be subscribed to by entrepreneurs and corporate workers. I am guessing there are not many educators that read this at all. It's a shame too because I find some great articles there. The best part about my reading in on inc.com is it makes me think. I don't always agree with everything I read and sometimes, it's written for a business audience so I really have think about practical applications for the school setting.
Above all, it's shown me that businesses are really looking to do a lot of the same things that we in education are currently trying to do. They're looking for ways to get actionable feedback. They're trying to find out how to appraise their employees job performance outside of the traditional "annual review" or "observation." They're looking to become more efficient and expand their impact. I could list so many more. My point is that as we continue to talk about business and education as if we're fighting two very different battles on two very different continents. Nothing could be further from the truth. As I said in the beginning, a good idea is a good idea. Yes, sometimes we might have to tweak the implementation but doesn't that require what we're trying to teach kids to do right now? If we're not willing to open up to new ideas and think critically about them it's going to be hard to convince students to do the same; not to mention the "hypocrite" t-shirts we'll all need to buy.
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AuthorJeff Lahey Archives
January 2020
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