In a very subtle way THPL showed up at the 21st annual Model Schools Conference in Washington DC - it came to life when the principles of THPL served as the foundation for the presentation that Ray McNulty and I, gave when we spoke about our view of how High Schools can support the needs of the 21st century learner. We had quite a crowd (maybe 700+) show up to hear about how culture drives strategy and how the learner of the 21st century is challenging convention and by so doing creating a potentially uncomfortable situation for the “system”. What was fun to see was the thoughts and ideas that we have spoken about for THPL apply directly to the mission that the teachers are taking on – examples include, making sure you do not quit before you are done, to attest that everyone’s opinion does matter and that we can do more than we think we can.
Further to the point it is interesting that we have seen the role of community become a big enabler for THPL - we all have learned to rely on the community to support us, to be a resource to us and to serve as an extension of what we do. It was clear, upon reflection, that the presentation given today was the early stages of a thread being sewn in and among the attendees. The community being spawned, in effect. The attendees now have the ideas and by serendipity this community (all who attended) to leverage and benefit from as they chart the path towards building relevancy into the student relationship model of the 21st century. THPL is out and ready to go!
Loving life for certain
Ciao
Joe