Epic Design Challenge for Schools

<p>Dr. Robert Maxfield and Dr. Suzanne Klein welcome podcast guest, Will Richardson, the co-founder of the Big Questions Institute.   Author Homa Tavangar, who has frequently spoken about diversity, equity, justice and global competence  co-created this Institute, which is driven by questions.  Mr. Richardson explained, "We don't believe that there are a lot of answers right now, but we do believe that there are some really important questions that we need to be asking."</p><p>According to Will Richardson, "We are in the midst of an epic design challenge right now, to try to figure out what it is that schools need to become. This is not just because of the pandemic, but because of many other things that have happened and come to the surface in the last couple of years. What we have been doing has contributed to this moment in some pretty powerful ways, and the only way we're going to get out of this moment is through education redesigned. We have to be willing to take every part of our system, every piece of our practice and ask: Do we want to continue doing this? What is sacred? What do we want to leave behind in this moment? What do we want to take forward with us?  How does it comport to our understanding of how people and specifically children learn? How is it relevant for the moment that we find ourselves in? Do we want to continue to do it and if not, then what do we replace it with? The problem is that a lot of these practices are very deeply embedded in the narrative of school.” </p><p>Looking at models of redesign, Will Richardson pointed out, "most of the really transformative, progressive changes are in new innovative startup schools that have been built for that purpose.  Kids are doing real work for the world there. They have real agency and input on what the experience of school looks like. They are developing all sorts of skills and literacies and dispositions, more than this emphasis on content knowledge and on recall.  But taking a school or school system that's been around for a long time, and m