The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century

Implications for School Leadership

William Brennan

I often walk the halls and enter classrooms asking students about what they are learning, and more importantly, how they are learning it. I usually follow up with a question like, how do you like to learn and who do you learn from the most? I have been conducting these conversational studies for a few years now and the feedback is astonishing. In most cases, the students are working on laptops either in a library or classroom. They explain to me what they are researching, what they will do with this information and why its important. I am always interested in the research strategies our students use. In most cases their response is through Google. Besides the enjoyment of interacting with students, these walks provide me with insights into the learning that is taking place. It acts as both a teacher evaluation tool and a guide for how we might engineer effective professional development for our teachers. While I havent quite captured the raw data of the conversational studies, I do notice a theme developing as we create the school of the 21st century in Port Jefferson. This theme is focused on new learning, collaboration with partners, creative ideas and multiple solutions to problems. Surely this is exciting stuff! As we continue to lead the way and diverge from this notion that testing is more important than learning, I want to share the thoughts of Friedman on imagination. According to Freidman, There has never been a time in history when the character of human imagination wasnt important, but writing this book tells me that it has never been more important than now, because in a flat world so many of the inputs and tools of collaboration are becoming commodities available to everyone. They are all out here for anyone to grasp. There is one thing, though that has not and can not be commoditized-and that is imagination. (Frideman, 2007)

For the last decade our educational systems (schools and teachers) have been focused on technology integration in our classrooms. They have held out great promises, but have also failed to deliver the goods. Why is this? And what can be done about it? In 2004 I had picked up my fist copy of The World is Flat and read through this it in amazement as I learned of the profound changes taking place around the world. As I reflect on the many insights in his book, I think the most captivating is this idea of globalization and flattening. But what exactly does this mean for education? For Leadership? For Learning? Should we be scared? Is all this stuff true about the rest of the world? Has technological innovation and new business practices caused the American population to be out competed for work? Will students from around the world continue to out compete our children in the future? What is it that our students need in order to be the leaders in the 22nd century? As we go down this road of re-defining education we are faced with many adaptive challenges. As a result of these new innovations, we must open our eyes and engage our teachers, students and parents in a new conversation. Each time I think of this adaptive challenge I am reminded of the short fable, Our Iceberg is Melting. It is a simple fable about a penguin colony living in Antartica and how one curious penguin named Fred discovers a potentially devastating problem threatening their home. Its a story of how Fred faces his own adaptive challenges and achieves heroic status as he puts himself out on the line. Similar to Freds experience, I believe The World is Flat is one of those wake up calls. According to Heifetz & Linsky, People push back when you disturb the personal and institutional equilibrium they know. And people resist in all kinds of creative and unexpected ways that can get you taken out of the game: pushed

aside, undermined, or eliminated. (Heifetz & Linsky, 2002) But this is too important to back off. The World is Flat, has opened our eyes. Its a book that every educator

should read. Now that we recognize this urgent matter, it is now up to us and all of our constituents to decide the best course of play to ensure our students are prepared to lead this country into the 22nd century. As school travel down this road I submit that we must renew our commitment to helping students develop their creative potential. But this means breaking down the barriers that exist with traditional schools and challenging the beliefs of those teachers and administrators. Beyond just cultivating creativity and developing students who are master learners, we must rethink our entire curriculum. According to Ron Schachter, in his article in District Administration 2009, As the 21st Century world gets flatter, districts across the United States are building more internationally orientated curricula and programs. (Schachter, 2009) Fortunately or unfortunately, globalization is transforming the way our world works. The concern I continue to have is the snail pace that the American education system is taking to bring us back to the top. Lets ask the question What are the most important skills our students need as they leave high school and enter college. Lets continue down that road by asking a similar question what do our students need to know by the time they reach high school or middle school? I am not prepared to offer definitive solutions to these questions, but I submit we must invite others into this conversation. I think its time we take this conversation to a new level. If leadership is a conversation, what conversations are you having?

Friedman, T. L. (2007). The world is flat 3.0: A brief history of the twenty-first century. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Heifetz, Ronald A. and Marty Linsky. (2002). Leadership on the Line: Staying Alive Through the Dangers of Leading. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Publishing. Kotter, J (1996). Leading Change. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press. Kotter, J (2005). Our Iceberg Is Melting: Changing and Succeeding Under Any Conditions . Boston, MA: 1st St. Martin's Press. Schachter, R (2009). Going Global. Magazine, Retrieved from http://www.districtadministration.com/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=2120