The Wand Chooses the Wizard

As parents of seven and eleven year old children, we are preparing for a great adventure. Soon we will be venturing to see the Harry Potter exhibits at Universal Studios. While Star Wars was the great adventure of my youth, Harry Potter is the quest of my children's. Preparations for this journey have included watching the movies as my youngest has not seen them all nor is ready to read the books. Whereas Star Wars provided great examples of constructivist learning, Harry Potter takes us straight to Hogwarts Academy where we discover the truest learning comes from doing.

Why do kids flock to Harry Potter, Star Wars, and the Lord of the Rings? Simple, the unlikely hero finds themselves in unexpected circumstances and learns to do things previously thought impossible. It is the hero who does the doing. Not the mentor, not the teacher, but rather the unlikely moisture farm boy from Tattooine destroying the Death Star. In school, we have traditionally sought opportunities for learning that prepared us by transferring content knowledge. In a world where knowledge was scarce, the skills for quickly remembering knowledge, transferring knowledge, and finding knowledge were paramount. What you knew could quite frankly save your live and those around you. If you were bitten by a brown recluse spider, recognizing that it was a spider bite and getting to the hospital as fast as possible made a difference. Now, we simply take a picture of the infected area, compare it to Web MD, and seek support necessary. In our prior experiences, much like the children of Harry Potter, learning could and needed to look like this:

Preparing for OWLS

However, we don't live in a knowledge economy any more. We live in an innovation and creation economy. The value is not in what we know but what we can do. This is a benefit to both us and the children. No longer do we need to be the guardian of the facts but rather the issuers of challenges. It is more effective for us to use the content as the springboard for the creative and collaborative things that the children can do. The experiences and explorations we create can be ones in which children are passionate. In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, the children learn a series of basic spells. These spells become the groundings in which they are able to collaboratively stop Lord Voldemort from returning. Their learnings and background knowledge, such as Ron's understanding of chess, become effective tools in solving the film's challenge.

In film, much as life, heroes don't save the day as solo acts, but rather collaborative entities. Where would Luke Skywalker be without Han, Leia, Chewie, Lando, C3PO, and R2D2? Frodo Baggins would have never fulfilled the quest without Sam Gamgee next to him. In Harry Potter, like Ender's Game, the true solutions only come from information and skills the children can develop themselves:

Children Organizing Themselves

Student Led Learning

Our children crave the opportunities to lead in their learning. Content is important, but what one does with it is more important. Children being given problems, resources, and the challenge to create great things is more powerful than any grounding in rigorous knowledge of our current time.

My youngest has been running around for two weeks with a stuffed owl in one hand shouting, the wand chooses the wizard. For him, the wand is the tool that would allow him to do great things. For our kids, whether it be a tablet or a netbook, the digital tools open the world for them to learn about great wonder and create the unimaginable. I wonder how Harry, Ron, and Hermione might feel if Google and Wolfram Alpha were available in the wizarding world.

School Books

Looking in the Mirror - Actualizing the Growth Mindset

Growing up, the mirror was something I never bothered to spend much time with. Sure it was in front of me when I brushed my teeth or washed my hands. Occasionally, at special times I did my hair, but lets face it that was pretty rarely. As I grew older, the mirror was this foggy object I stared at simply to make sure I didn't slice my face up as I tried to shave the six hairs on my face. As a kid, mirrors were that thing other people needed. I don't think I understood the power of a mirror until I was engaged or married. See in the mirror, my wonderful bride would find things I could never see. She could find the tiniest start of a possible scar that I, who had spent hundreds of hours staring into her gorgeous face, had never seen. She could see any little bump in her hair. She could notice any fluctuation in her weight. And she could make judgements on each of these. Like all of us, infatuated with the one we love, while I see amazing beauty, she can provide a deposition of things out of kilter after standing before the mirror.

In the book, Good to Great, Jim Collins identifies that one of the essential components of moving towards greatness is the Stockdale Paradox. This is based on the life and philosophy of Admiral Jim Stockdale, a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War.

“You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end – which you can never afford to lose – with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.” - Admiral Jim Stockdale

Collins' interpretation of the Stockdale Paradox for individuals and organizations is that we must "confront the brutal truth of the situation, yet at the same time, never give up hope." We need to look into the mirror, and truly see who we are and where we are now so that we can identify not only where we want to go but the next step in the journey.

Good to great is based on a growth mindset. It looks at not how one currently ranks, but what potential we have to become the best in the world and how do we move forward in the journey. So the question arises, when we look in the mirror, what do we see, and what do we expect to see. Do we expect sunshine and rainbows or do we see the flaws, the chinks in the armor, the opportunities to make it better.

On the wall of the chapel at my temple, the words "Know Before Whom You Stand" is written. While the implication is that we stand before god, more readily we stand before ourselves gazing back deciding who we are and who we will become. We make choices and we make strides. We take actions and we act in faith that we will move forward. The mirror is a look into ourselves and into our souls. In the beginning we may believe we are judged by an employer, ranked by others, but the reality is that we are the ones who make judgement, we are the ones who decide who we are and what we can become, we are the ones who look at the standard and decide can we move closer to greatness today.

In my favorite book, Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, the story ends with the tale of Ender's new journey as a traveler who goes and tells the stories of others after they have passed. Card describes the role as such, "a believer would arise beside the grave to be the Speaker for the Dead, and say what the dead would have said, but with full candor, hiding no faults and pretending no virtues... their life was worthwhile enough, despite their errors, that when they died a Speaker should tell the truth for them." And that's the thing. None of us are perfect. None of us are always gold stars. None of us should hold ourselves to such a standard. We need to leave the fixed-mindset world and enter the world of growth. Confront the brutal facts as we look in the mirror and recognize the next step forward in our journey closer to greatness. As Mahatma Ghandi said, "Be the change that you wish to see in the world." We need to be honest in who we are and recognize that there are steps that we can take to become even greater.

I know that I have made mistakes in my journey. I recognize the multiplicity of missteps that have happened. Friends I have wronged, things I have impulsively said or done, feelings I haven't considered. There are moments in this life, I wish I had back. Times at which I could have a do over. I also recognize the opportunities I have created for others, the steps and supports that in my words or deeds have helped them move forward toward greater things. My story is not unique but rather the story of all of us. We each need to look in the mirror and not be the deluded queen asking who is the fairest but see who we are and what we can become.

The amazing thing about my bride is that while she can be hypercritical of herself, her hair, and her outfit, after she gazes into the mirror, she makes a myriad of adjustments and comes out even more beautiful than I could ever imagine. I am not sure she sees all the beauty because she sees what she can do next. Very simply each day whether in front of mirror, raising our family, or working with others she is constantly on the journey good to great.

The Fairest of them All