There are the words that come out of people’s mouth and then there are the actions that follow.

If the actions do not follow the words, we learn a great deal about those people truly stand for and what they actually believe.

Sometimes, their actions are so loud you cannot hear any of the words they are saying.

Scientists rely on repeated observations to formulate ideas about how the universe works. It’s the entire foundation of the scientific method.

If something can’t be replicated, it can’t be used.

Whatever you’re replicating is what people are learning about you.

My relationship with social media has been tenuous over the years.

I’ll work with it for a while, worry about its ability to fragment my attention (or pull away it completely) and leave it. During the leaving, there will be many self-assured moments where I’ll reference people who make do without any social media presence and are doing well.

However, I find myself boomeranging back in a small way.

Its ability to connect me with people all over the world, share ideas with those doing what I’m striving for and push me into new ideas is unmatched. Even with the mountain of reading I do, some of the insights I see in off-handed comments are uncanny.

It also helped with another realization–I’m not an island.

The things I want to do with my life and career have already been done, and are being done, by others. To think I have to embark on this alone is nothing more than pure ego.

The work still needs to get done and it’s still up to me to do it, but why wouldn’t I seek the extra support?

What’s going to make this time different (I hope) is the boundaries I put in place. My queries and my connections will be very specific and the time spent on the platforms will be minimal.

Of course, this is all precipitated on the assumption these platforms will even last.

If they fall apart, then I guess I go back to traditional forms of networking… ones that require actual effort.

My Internet went down on the weekend.

It started Friday night when my kids wanted to watch a show and we couldn’t. We only have one TV in the house and it’s hooked up to a Roku for streaming on the weekends.

For something we consider so imperative to today’s world, it wasn’t really an issue. Yes, I still have data on my phone, but it wasn’t even an item of interest.

When there’s no power in the house, things can get difficult: food can go bad in the fridge, lack of A/C in the summer (if you even have it), finding your way around at night is a trickier, etc.

When your car breaks down (or your mode of transportation isn’t functioning), life gets a bit more challenging.

Internet connection goes on hiatus for a few days?

What are you really missing?

Convenience. That’s about it.

Trusting yourself to the process and giving yourself permission to do what is necessary takes heart.

There’s a fear it will not be well received, well polished or reach everyone it needs to.

It can be stifling as our insecurities take over.

But the work is necessary.

It needs to get done.

And only you can do it.

The consequences increase exponentially.

For instance–no one likes failure, but experiencing it early and learning how to recover from it builds a resilience towards its effects. As a child, you may have to repeat a task, suffer a bad grade or deal with disappointment over a losing a competition, but you learn that life goes on and other opportunities will happen.

The longer one waits for this lesson, the harder the fall will be when it inevitably happens. In some cases, you even see a full withdraw from society.

Getting something you didn’t earn can lead to entitlement (this is happening with mark inflation in education), which leads to a system shock when things don’t magically go your way all the time… or ever.

Lack of responsibility can lead to never taking any, then spending a lifetime of blaming others rather than taking action.

Many of these lessons cycle back in our lives, but a strong foundation in place turns those moments into a stumble rather than a fall.

Let’s envision two scenarios:

One – For-profit tech companies mine every bit of data about students to create reactive education portals where students login and learn required curriculum.

Teachers are relegated to semi-autonomous robots who spend their days overseeing rooms full of students who need to submit work by hand, or monitoring students for cheating if writing exams.

Accountability is non-existent.

Creativity is no longer encouraged because algorithms cannot account for thinking outside of programmed norms.

What originally was sold as an adaptive model to each student morphs into a one-size-fits-all based on an ideal that few fit into.

There are constant interruptions because of information leaks and hacked accounts/servers.

Those who can, make the leap to homeschooling only to discover it’s flooded with marketing gimmicks and endless social media debates about what’s “best.”

There’s a surge in enrollment for private schools who are initially welcoming to the flood, only to find they are now in marketing wars with other private schools… and many new ones that opened to cash in on what’s happening. Again, endless debates about what’s “best” for students ensues.

Society drastically stratifies between those who are held accountable to their education and those who have given up on it.

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Two – Our education system is re-conceived from the ground up, transforming curriculum into an organic, evolving process that makes direct connections to the world outside the classroom.

Incentives move away from marks, or grades, and towards mastery of concepts and skills.

Teachers provide direct support to students, who are receiving an individualized experience. Both groups are excited to be there every day and both are learning alongside each other.

There is not just one teacher per classroom, but several teachers and guest presenters on a constant rotation to provide different approaches and viewpoints for the students.

Technology is leveraged where appropriate, creating a synergy with learning and teaching.

The stigma against certain paths are removed and specialized programs in the arts, tech and the trades are in place. Subjects themselves move away from fragmentation and move towards a blending of expectations. There’s an expectation of numeracy in English just as much as media analysis in Math.

Society upholds the investment of education and holds themselves accountable in ensuring all students have access to all learning opportunities, especially those in much less fortunate circumstances.

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If any of the above sounds familiar, it’s because this is already happening across North America. It’s not everything in one place, but there are many examples of each.

Where we end up depends on us.

You’re not teaching.

I had the honour of being invited to the podcast of my colleague, Rola Tibshirani (voted one of the top five most innovative teachers in all of Canada), where we spoke about my evolving approach to teaching.

While there is much political turmoil in Ontario right now regarding the state of education, it was nice to be able to sit down with someone and focus on what matters most in this profession: the students.

Plenty of gems, plenty of ramblings and still much work to do.

It also gives a sneak preview of my upcoming book, “Teaching Outside the Curriculum,” which will be everything I need to say and want to tell people about building relationships with students.

The future of education is, and must be, evolving. I’m doing my best to jump on those currents going forward.

However, personally connecting with someone?

It’s still the most critical action we can take regardless of where we’re going.

Have a listen

One thing I have to consider with these posts (and I hope my reader does as well) is they are my current observations.

What might be a revelation for me is old hat for someone else. In some instances, it’s somebody else’s revelation, or off-handed comment, that causes a chain reaction of thoughts for myself.

Side note: My wife loves when I come to a revelation long after she’s badgered me about it.

It doesn’t take away the significance for my life that someone else thought of it (the stoics already thought of everything thousands of years ago), but it puts into context what I need to learn right now.

We come across revelations all the time. Whether we listen to them is dependent on our circumstance at the moment.

And sometimes, we need some of those revelations to be repeated to us as a reminder of what we once learned.