Sir Ken Robinson is a highly respected voice in the global education community. In a recent article you can read here, Robinson shares his views on the purpose of school and the learning revolution that is afoot. He advocates for true personalized learning, a buzzword that has experts and edtech companies offering myriad solutions for all the challenges schools face. I jumped on this bandwagon about twenty months ago and the pedagogical shift at MJDS towards personalized learning played a significant role in my decision to both work and enroll my children here.

So why am I blogging about this on a random Wednesday in frigid February? Because as I sit at my desk reflecting (see: my recent post on reflection) on my day, I am so grateful for the learning revolution occurring at MJDS. Robinson offers a purpose for school that I believe is reflected in how we teach and learn every day: “To enable students to understand the world around them and the talents within them so that they can become”. We are continually improving in truly meeting every student where they’re at. This is individualized/personalized learning and it looks/sounds/feels different than the schooling most of us experienced in the last forty years. While our education may have set us up for success in life, today’s world continues to evolve at an exponential pace and our treasures must be prepared in a very different way if they are going to be similarly set up for success.

We believe in enabling students to be curious, to maximize their natural talents and interests so that learning is not forced upon them, in a box we’ve defined. As we provide the foundation for wondering and learning from and with one another, amazing opportunities are realized every day at MJDS. I see this in every class, every day and our incredible staff is the reason why the learning revolution is here.