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Thursday, July 25, 2013

If the Ladder Is Leaning on the Wrong Structure — Whole Child Education

If the Ladder Is Leaning on the Wrong Structure — Whole Child Education:

Leader to Leader

If the Ladder Is Leaning on the Wrong Structure

At the the recent ASCD Leader to Leader (L2L) conference, attendees had a series of passionateunconference conversations. Several groups refined their thoughts into a series of presentations to share with other attendees in an "idea marketplace." During the idea marketplace, unconference groups presented for four rounds of ten-minute sessions, giving their peers the opportunity to learn from several groups in one session.
This post, written by Jason Ellingson, an ASCD Emerging Leader and past president of Iowa ASCD, shares his group's experience. Join the conversation on Twitter by using the hashtag #ASCDL2L.
If the ladder is leaning on the wrong structure, it doesn't really matter if you can climb it.
At ASCD's L2L conference, participants were presented with an educational forecast by the KnowledgeWorks organization that demonstrated a significant shift in the workforce and our educational system. Based on the presentation, a group of us decided to focus on what new system of education would be needed to fairly prepare our students for this new workforce and new society.
The group decided that a new system of education needed to focus on personalized learning, a system that supports anytime, anywhere, any pace, any pathway for student learning. We believe that there needs to be 

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