Building School 2.0 Quotes

“We need to figure out how to build systems and structures that allow good people of honest intent to do great things together. It”
― Chris Lehmann, Building School 2.0: How to Create the Schools We Need

“Good people are capable of great things under the right circumstances. But absent those circumstances, schools will squander the good will and best intentions of everyone—students and teachers—who works there.”
― Chris Lehmann, Building School 2.0: How to Create the Schools We Need

“teaching is not an individual affair—or at least it shouldn't be. Teachers are better when they work collaboratively, but even more than that, teachers teach better and students learn more when the school has a vision that actually means something and a plan to make that vision a reality.”
― Chris Lehmann, Building School 2.0: How to Create the Schools We Need

“When students become empowered to ask questions and seek out answers, everything changes, and you cannot—and should not—think that you can leave inquiry at the classroom door. When teachers see themselves as learners and researchers and planners, they will question traditions and policies. And as a community, everyone has to learn how to bring these ideas to bear to make the school whole. We must understand that this is what is”
― Chris Lehmann, Building School 2.0: How to Create the Schools We Need

“What's more, it is likely that the critical thinking required to blend pedagogy and practice in whatever context a teacher finds herself will lead to an inquiry-driven practice.”
― Chris Lehmann, Building School 2.0: How to Create the Schools We Need

“By asking how children learn, how others have suggested children learn, and how teaching might assist in that learning, teachers are compelled to train their minds to think critically and to put a premium on asking questions and seeking answers. This”
― Chris Lehmann, Building School 2.0: How to Create the Schools We Need

“When vision is put into practice, when who we want to be is constantly reflected in our practice, then we can move closer to the better versions of ourselves and our institutions.”
― Chris Lehmann, Building School 2.0: How to Create the Schools We Need

“The vision of a school can live in practice only if it is shared by all within the community. We have seen many schools where teachers arrive for their first professional development day of the new school year, sip coffee from industrial-sized mugs, and listen as the school's principal stands before them and explains the vision for the new school year. Often,”
― Chris Lehmann, Building School 2.0: How to Create the Schools We Need

“You cannot want one thing for students and another for teachers. The principal in the article tried to bully the teacher into caring about the kids, when everything we see about her behavior showed that she did not care about the development of this teacher. If we want classrooms to be active places, our faculty meetings must also be active. If we want students to feel cared for by teachers, then we must care for teachers. If we want students to be able to engage in powerful inquiry, so must teachers.”
― Chris Lehmann, Building School 2.0: How to Create the Schools We Need

“It's hard sometimes. Teachers are adults, and they get paid. So, as administrators, we want and expect more from them. But the values that administrators hold will be reflected in the values teachers manifest when they work with the kids. Both kindness and cruelty flow downstream.”
― Chris Lehmann, Building School 2.0: How to Create the Schools We Need

“The modern school movement does not have to focus solely on tools or skills; rather, it can also focus on ideas and people and the lives we live today.”
― Chris Lehmann, Building School 2.0: How to Create the Schools We Need

“A modern school movement does not assume that because we learned a certain way when we were kids, our children must learn the same. A modern school movement does not assume that what was good for us will automatically be good for our kids, nor does it assume that just because we did something a certain way in the past that it holds no value in the future. The”
― Chris Lehmann, Building School 2.0: How to Create the Schools We Need