Another Mind-Blower: The School of the Future in Philadelphia
Wednesday, 31 January 2007 Clay Burell 
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By textbook standards, this Fall 2006 “news” is “current.” By web-text standards, I’m behind the times, only learning about the “School of the Future” opening in Philadelphia five long months ago.
It will take the educational publishing industry a good two or three more years to publish about this old news. And charge extortionate prices for it.
Textbooks: a soon-to-be-relic of the “School of the Past”? We can only hope. Imagine how much more effectively school funds could be applied to learners’ learnings.
Anyway…
The following blog post is from a woman who spent three years “willing” the School of the Future into being. She only posted about once a month in those years, and the post below attests to her determination to distill her journey’s lessons into the fewest, and most eloquent, words.
As my school takes its first steps toward becoming a “school of the future” as well, I find the following unspeakably encouraging. It’s worth reading the whole post–written less than a week before the new school opened its doors. Before reading, maybe watching this 10-minute PBS NewsHour feature on the school and its vision will increase your appreciation. Like the New American Schoolhouse and the Science Leadership Academy, this school fills me with a heady mix of ideas and emotions. (Even if it is sponsored by Microsoft instead of Apple 
)
http://blogs.msdn.com/phillyhi/default.aspx
3. This is hard. It shouldn’t have been this hard. It shouldn’t take a miracle to build a great school in an urban community. It shouldn’t be an exhausting experience, leaving participants tired and frustrated. It needs to be easier. We need more agile learning organizations. We need to figure out a better balance between control and creativity. We need to create an environment that is inspirational, not just functional. We need governance structures and public policy that set high standards, but also provide resource to achieve them.
4. Hope matters. This school was willed into completion. As the months progressed, more and more individuals jumped on board. More were motivated by the thought of creating something that hadn’t been created before. People were inspired. And when people are inspired, amazing things can happen. We need more inspiration in our schools. We need to fill district offices, hallways, community centers, neighborhoods with a sense of hope, We need to communicate a message that we understand the challenges, but that we are ready to take them on.
5. You have to ask the question. If you want to bring reform… ask. If you want to try something new… ask. If you want to change the status quo… ask. This project would never have come to fruition if Paul Vallas hadn’t ask the question, “What if”. 9 out of 10 times, the answer will probably be no. But if that one time the response returned is yes… all the years of being turned down just became worth while.
6. It’s the journey… September 7th will be amazing. But it will pale in comparison to the moments experienced over the past three years. I’m pretty sure I will never have the opportunity to be part of something like this again. (I don’t think I’ll be up to it J) However, the past three years have been the chance of a lifetime. I hope I have served it well.
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