Humanizing the Education Machine: How to Create Schools That Turn Disengaged Kids Into Inspired Learners

"Offers a plan of action for what education needs to become, to prepare our children for a future none of us can predict."
SIR KEN ROBINSON

Praise for
HUMANIZING THE EDUCATION MACHINE

"Our work at the Clayton Christensen Institute focuses on elevating the conversation and positive potential of disruptive innovate to transform our struggling education system. Humanizing the Education Machine captures the potential with a combination of in–depth research and compelling stories. Read it to further your vision of how you can play a role in this transformation."
Michael Horn, Coauthor of Disrupting Class and Blended, and Cofounder of the Clayton Christensen Institute

"The central issues for education in the twenty–first century are to keep the role of technology in perspective while discovering human solutions to uniquely human problems. Humanizing the Education Machine is a valuable contribution to this key topic that can be appreciated by administrators, teachers, and parents."
Lou Cozolino, Author of Attachment Based Teaching and Professor in the Graduate School of Education and Psychology at Pepperdine University

"For decades we have known that our education system is failing our students, teachers, parents, and communities. Now a new kind of education is developing for the connected twenty–first century and it′s kid centered. How we got here, how we go forward, and what we should expect from our schools is explored in detail, using smart research and lively writing. I was caught up in the text, you will be, too."
Susan S. Szenasy, Publisher and Editor in Chief, Metropolis

"More than anything else in education, we need a culture shift. We need to shift from trying to create a one–size–fits–all solution to a culture of continuous innovation and iteration across the classroom, school, and district levels. We must think about the future our students face and ask new questions. The research, stories, and insights in Rex Miller′s Humanizing the Education Machine gives educational leaders the new questions. It also provides a new framework for that cultural shift."
Jaime Casap, Google′s Chief Education Evangelist

"This is one audacious book. In fact, Miller makes the case that education is in such crisis that the only appropriate response is to swing for the fences. Somehow it is personal, global, nuanced, outrageous, and perfectly logical. It is a book for the ages, and it presents the first way out of our current circumstances that makes so much sense. It′s a must–read."
Steve Peifer, recipient of the 2007 CNN′s Hero Award, the 2007 Yale Counseling Award, the 2010 Excellence in Education Award from the National Association for College Admissions Counseling and the 2013 NACCAP Guidance Professional of the Year

"Our current systems of education were designed to meet the challenges of the industrial revolution. What sort of education do our children need now to meet the radically different challenges of the twenty–first century? Humanizing the Education Machine explores this dilemma through the numerous voices of educators, community leaders, and parents. It is not just a call to action. It offers a plan of action for what education needs to become to engage our children in the present and prepare them properly for a future that none of us can predict. There can hardly be a more important conversation."
Sir Ken Robinson, Educator and Author of, Creative Schools: The Grassroots Revolution That′s Transforming Education

Preface

Chapter 1 Numbers Don t Lie

Chapter 2 Two Guys From Gainesville

Chapter 3 Mindshift: We Didn t Seek Permission

Chapter 4 The Learning Manifesto

Chapter 5 How the Road to Transformation Began in Failure

Chapter 6 Gutenberg to Google

Chapter 7 The Learning Matrix: Mapping the 5 Eras of Learning

Chapter 8 The Pandorification of Learning: The Future Is Here

Chapter 9 Changing the Odds: Getting Beyond Zip Code Destiny

Chapter 10 Humanizing the Great Education Machine

Chapter 11 The Healing Power of Social Emotional Literacy

Chapter 12 Creating a Healthy Learning Culture

Chapter 13 How Technology Is Supposed to Work

Chapter 14 Designing A Place That Inspires and Equips

Chapter 15 The Power of Positive

Chapter 16 Leading Change at Your School

Chapter 17 Humanity High: The Movie

Appendix From Accidental Change Agent to Up Front Grief Counseling

Notes

References

Core Leaders

Acknowledgments

Index

Rex Miller is the principal and thought leader for MindSHIFT, a future–focused consultancy and organizational performance firm. He has more than thirty years of upper management and executive leadership for two Fortune 500 firms. He uses an innovative model for research to write his books. His expertise and reputation have allowed him to recruit specialists in critical issues and work together over a series of summits. This approach achieves a depth and practicality that few authors are able to reach.

Bill Latham has been involved in designing learning environments for the past 15 years.  Today he is the CEO of MeTEOR Education, an organization that works with communities to inspire and create holistic, high impact learning environments that engage today s students and teachers.  As an Accredited Learning Environment Planner (ALEP) and noted expert in planning functional interiors (F&E), he is focused on creating harmony and synergy between a client s chosen pedagogies, technologies, and learning spaces. He has worked on projects throughout the United States, assisting clients in developing their actionable strategic and tactical plans to support their progressive visions of teaching and learning.  He is passionate about ensuring that the design intent of their facility is driven all the way through to real–world instructional practices. He is an ardent proponent of broad–based education reform and preparing the next generation of creative, agile workers.

 Brian Cahill is the California Division President for Balfour Beatty Construction Services US. With over 32 years experience in the Construction Industry, and part of the Balfour Beatty team for 23 years, he manages in excess of $600M annually, with over 400 employees.  During this tenure, the Division has managed the construction of over 1,000 K12 projects in California, valued in excess of several Billion Dollars.  In 2014, the Company was ranked by ENR as the largest K12 builder the State of California, and is currently ranked as the 4th Largest Educational builder in the U.S.  Brian is also involved in construction related industry organizations such as the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC), the Construction Management Association of America (CMAA), and the California Coalition for Adequate School Housing (C.A.S.H.).  Brian serves on the Board of Directors for Junior Achievement of San Diego and Imperial Counties, and is currently the Board Chair of Ronald McDonald House Charities of San Diego County.