Happy Friday, everyone.
“To escape the protection of Great Britain by declaring independence, unprepared as we are, would be to brave a storm in a skiff made of paper.”
The year was 1776. The occasion was the third Continental Congress gathered in Philadelphia. With these words, John Dickenson, esteemed member of the Virginia delegation, abstained from voting in favor of the Declaration of Independence.
Dickenson was an ardent champion of Colonial rights. But in that one moment of truth, faced with the reality of the British Empire imposing its might on the ragtag Colonial army, a moment that called for a pledge of “lives, fortunes, and sacred honor”, Dickenson opted out. He saw too clearly what it meant to brave the storm in a skiff made of paper.
Dickenson’s dilemma—which was also Adam’s dilemma, Jefferson’s dilemma, Washington’s dilemma—was simple: a choice between the reality of the odds against him on the one hand, and on the other “the sure and solid ground of philosophic principle”.
We know which side won. For me, knowing so is a source of strength.
The choice faced by the Continental Congress is not unlike that faced by those today trying to reform and transform education. We too seek to embody transcendent truths about the human condition. The truths concern the agency of the child, the sovereignty of the parent, and the obligations of institutions to educate the human potential.
As educators, our enemy is not a distant empire, but an entrenched bureaucracy. Our enemy is not a royal master insisting on adherence to the status quo, but an apathetic populace defaulting to the status quo. Our enemy is not the institution of monarchy rejecting as naive the principle of individual freedom. But it is the institution of public education, and its symbiotic private overlay, rejecting as naive the principle of educational freedom and the innovation that is its fruit.
The risks we face may not be life and limb, but they are real. We look around, and what we see most is that the Empire strikes back. Even today, post-covid, post-school-choice, post-AI, the work of transforming education remains contested and tempestuous, and we who do the work are braving the storm in a skiff made of paper.
What we need is an ideal. A vision for what can be and ought to be. Something that will light the way, “a light of admonition to the rulers of men, a light of salvation and redemption to the oppressed”. What we need is a vision of the future we are fighting for.
That vision, in my view, is the ideal of a new normal. A new type of adult, born out of a new type of education. An adult who is capable, who centers on work, who lives a life of agency, a life of glory, a life of wisdom, a life rich in intimacy, who not only sows greatly but reaps greatly. An adult who is a normal, happy human being. A normal-as-in-healthy adult who becomes normal-as-in-common, because children become well-raised and well-educated.
50 years ago, smoking carcinogenic substances was normal. Whacking your kids for misbehaving was normal. 100 years ago, separate bathrooms based on race was normal.
New normals emerge. Civilizations evolve. Standards rise, become internal to societies, and become ubiquitous in civil society.
But not yet in education. In education we do not yet have the ideal of the new normal. Entrepreneurs still seek to optimize for grades that do not correlate with cognitive capacity. Schools still concede to stale conventionalism. Parents still feel that the existing paradigm is “good enough”. Exceptions are thought of as exceptional, as inapplicable to most children. And everyone compromises on the promised land they sense but cannot grasp.
The ideal of a new normal has been glimpsed. It was given a foundation in childhood by Maria Montessori, who discovered and expounded upon the miracle of normalization. And here it is, presented clearly and unequivocally by my friend and colleague, the newest member of the Higher Ground board of directors, Dr. Matt Bateman:
If you care about education, if you aspire to see and to help create a better world, watch this talk. In it, Matt lays out the common sense of the subject, and presents in clear and compelling terms the ideal that can, should, and must power the education reform movement: the vision of a new normal for the human being.
We who brave the storm in a skiff made of paper, who have the courage to understand that better is possible and to demand it, need this ideal. We need to understand that while the odds are against us, while we do not yet have the numbers or the momentum, we do have the sure and solid ground of philosophic principle. And so, like the founders of this country, if we raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair, we will win.
As we approach the sunset of 2023 and prepare to ring in the new year, I invite you to join me in embracing, elevating, and fighting for an ideal in education: the new normal.
Please share this talk, and share your thoughts about it. And let’s brave the storm on a skiff made of paper.
Have a great weekend and a prosperous year ahead.
Ray Girn
Founder and CEO, Higher Ground Education
We are most certainly like those who have escaped Plato’s cave. And shouting to those remaining in inside I grew hoarse and exhausted my heart breaking as they willingly labored in the dark to chain their children. Once you see the full light and taste the sweet free air there’s no going back.
Thank you for exercising your clearly exceptional abilities to make real what should be the new normal. Yes this empire of lies does strike back, I know by painful experience. I exhort others to heed the call and support your work.
Let’s strengthen and guard the “skiff.”