PEJE posted an article on Facebook today called, "The Marketing Gap of 21st Century Education" which describes a discordance between parent markers of educational success and school markers. Parents want the three R's and schools are proudly promoting their adherence to 21st century principals (creativity, collaboration, communication,etc.) The article quoted Seth Godin’s treatise on education called Stop Stealing Dreams in which he provides some analysis of the situation. For example, Godin says:“Parents don’t ask their kids, “What did you figure out today?” Two of Godin's suggestions are to acknowledge parent reality and to avoid the use of jargon so that parents better understand a school's approach to learning. I don't believe that we have the discordance that is referred to in the article. Schools also are concerned with teaching the three R's. These skills have been, are, and will always be at the foundation of intellectual progress. Perhaps the discordance is only in the approach to learning. Whereas parents might prefer to see evidence of memorized facts, 21st century teachers might prefer to hear how a child arrived at the solution. But even then, I can't imagine a parent who would be dissatisfied with a young child who can explain in words the connection between division and multiplication. So let's not worry too much about the divide, but yes, let's make sure we do explain and demonstrate to parents, the value and the outcomes of focusing on critical thinking. #edJewcon,PEJE,#edchat,#Jedchat