Detroit Future Media: Education Track

Output to Input

1. In one sentence, what is your purpose of education (OUTPUT)?

The purpose of education is to gain the skills and knowledge to be able to solve problems, develop healthy relationships, and contribute to one’s community (and/or society).

2. What SKILLS will a student of yours need in order to manifest this purpose of ed?

People need strong literacy (reading, writing, listening, and speaking) skills.  People need to experience things that are meaningful to their lives.  People need to problem solve.  People need to be able to use their imaginations.  These are the skills that need to be learned in order to manifest this purpose of Ed.  In this age, I would also add, they need to have strong media and use of technology skills.

3. What CONTENT will a student of yours need to build these skills to manifest this purpose?

The content should be relevant to their lives and to the health of the community they live in.  The should learn where they came from and how they got to where they are.
    
 4.  What PRACTICES and PRINCIPLES must you INPUT so that content and skills are learned and enacted towards your purpose of education?  

Our Guiding Principles- The Boggs Educational Center

Community

Our ultimate end must be the creation of the beloved community.
- Martin Luther King Jr.
Humans are social by nature, and connected to one another through our interactions and the spaces we occupy. Our lives are interrelated through dependence on one another. Community is the manifestation of this dependence.
Our students will understand that, even as children, they are vital members of multiple communities and therefore have the opportunity and responsibility to contribute to them. By nurturing a sense of belonging to community and accepting a responsibility within it, we will foster an environment where students learn to become empowered members of society. From their classrooms to the expanding global community, students will develop their academic skills and a social consciousness by identifying community needs, proposing and mapping out innovative solutions, and putting realistic plans into practice.
In this sense, the community itself is also a classroom. Conscientious participation in our communities deepens the humanity of our students and all others in our school community.

Creativity

The essence of creativity is the ability to generate new ideas or concepts. Creative expression is a joyful process that harnesses human potential and inspires imagination. Creative thinkers are empowered by the ability to pursue ideas from a rich perspective and can communicate both emotions and ideas in a variety of ways. Education should nurture curiosity by embracing creative expression. Creative expression is imbedded in our approach to all learning disciplines. Those with creative minds are innovative problem solvers and will contribute to a progressive discourse that helps us understand our world.

Critical Thinking

Critical thinkers question assumptions that appear obvious. Critical thinking leads us to rethink our perspectives, develop questions, and solve problems. It transforms our curiosity and rudimentary questioning into a powerful intellectual ability.
Critical thinking not only aids the acquisition of content-specific knowledge, but also is itself a valuable tool for understanding and altering the world in which we live. We will encourage reason, reflection, and questioning as powerful tools our students can use to examine their world.

Multiple Literacies

Literacy is the ability to understand and communicate thoughts and ideas. Becoming literate is a process that grows from a number of human interactions: family, school, neighborhoods, and work. It is a skill that goes beyond competence in reading and writing and includes media, technology and even our emotions.  Too often, we are rendered mute in situations where the language being used is different from our language of origin, or the words are unfamiliar, or the speaker is of another age, gender, class, ethnicity, or value-set. Our students will learn to employ multiple literacies, empowering them to communicate across these dividing lines and powerfully in a variety of exchanges, through a variety of media.