The Power to Transform: Leadership
That Brings Learning and Schooling
to Life by Stephanie Pace Marshall
An Approach To Education Transformation That Makes Sense
In this important new book, Stephanie Pace Marshall argues that by
focusing on reforming the contents of schooling and not transforming the
context and conditions of learning, we have created false proxies for
learning and eroded the potentially vibrant intellectual life of our schools.
Finishing a course and a textbook has come to mean achievement.
Listening to a lecture has come to mean understanding. Getting a high
score on a standardized test has come to mean proficiency. Credentialing
has come to mean competence. To educate our children wisely requires
that we create generative learning communities, by design. Such learning
communities have their roots in meaning, not memory; engagement, not
transmission; inquiry, not compliance; exploration, not acquisition;
personalization, not uniformity; interdependence, not individualism;
collaboration, not competition; and trust, not fear.

Personal Review: The Power to Transform: Leadership That
Brings Learning and Schooling to Life by Stephanie Pace
Marshall
THE POWER TO TRANSFORM: Leadership That Brings Learning and
Schooling to Life is a brilliant and compelling book -- must reading for
anyone interested in transforming today's educational system into one that
truly meets the needs of 21st century children and 21st century society.
Marshall points out that the model upon which most of today's schools are
based reflects society's present priorities of practicality and immediate
usefulness. Children are looked upon as beings with innate learning
deficiencies, and the job of education is to fill their minds with facts and
attitudes that will be useful in present-day society. This approach does not
equip today's children for the world of tomorrow. As Marshall put it, "A
world dominated by excessively competitive and acquiring minds who
cannot think holistically, systemically, long term, and wisely is
dangerous. ... Exploration, creativity, imagination, passion, wonder, and
awe lie at the heart of life and learning. They must also be at the heart of
schooling."
The remedy that Marshall proposes is to use the principles of living
systems as design principles for creating a "new [educational] story" --
creating "learning communities" that are "naturally autonomous, open,
creative, self-organizing, connected and adaptive." Rather that trying to
pour dry facts into the heads of bored, disengaged children, the approach
is to excite and enthusiastically engage them by having them explore real
world issues and problems -- "problems that matter." In the process, the
children gather the facts they need, and are receptive to learning new skills
(reading, 'riting, 'rithmatic, and more) because they realize that they need
these tools to analyze, solve, and report on the problems they care about.
"Great questions" are another focal point in Marshall's approach. She calls
them "portals to a future of unknown possibilities." Her advice to students
is "Ask questions that matter. Ask questions that make a difference. Ask
questions you love so that as you live your life seeking the answers you
will find joy." She lists 28 "big questions for deep learning" that relate to her
four pillars of learning: learning to know, learning to do, learning to be, and
learning to live together.
Marshall stresses that this new approach does not abandon standards,
formal curriculum, instruction, evaluation, measurement, or assessment.
But old approaches to these matters have been transformed into ones that
reflect the changed values which underlie the new schema.
This book is rich and deep, and almost every page had me saying, "Yes,
yes, of course!" Marshall ends the book with the following call to action:
"Please do not wait for others. Courage is the capacity to claim what we
imagine. If you are carrying this new story in your heart, now is the time to

step forward. There is a place in the world for your unique voice, and it
carries a message that must be heard. Start anywhere, but begin the
conversation, and tell the new story that brings learning and schooling to
life."
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