I’m going to share two seemingly unconnected videos. The first one I found by searching for the origin of this story, which I have been thinking about recently, after hearing it years ago:
What Is “The Good Life” Parable – Mark Albion
The second one is Ramsey Musallam’s TEDTalk,
What brought these together for me was that in both cases the underlying message seemed to be that simplicity is often overlooked.
I’m perplexed by the complicated nature of delivering an education to students these days. We spend so much time feeding the bureaucratic machinery, following policy, meeting requirements, and complicating simple tasks, that we can forget what is really important.
As Einstein says, “Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.”
Rule #1 – Curiosity comes first.
Rule #2 – Embrace the mess. (It’s ok to try and fail, spend time in beta.)
Rule #3 – Practice reflection.
If I could be so bold as to add one more rule to Ramsey Musallam’s:
Rule #4 – Remember that learning should be a fun!
Keep it simple.
Dave, you are so right with this post. As I fill out state reports, look up district policy and try to help my teachers interpret data I always need to be reminded about keeping it simple. Your addition, Rule #4, is so essential, I think it’s rule #1. And I am beginning to believe the learning environment is as important as the teacher…would love to hear your thoughts on that.
Very important Don… Have a look at: The Third Teacher
~Dave