Human Restoration Project

I am joined today by Burton Hable. Burton Hable is a music educator, currently living in Central Virginia. He is a doctoral student in Boston University’s Music Education program, and his research interests lie in how people construct music knowledge in the context of a makerspace. He also serves as the Operations and Building Manager for the Charlottesville Band. Prior to moving to Virginia in the summer of 2018, he taught instrumental music in Iowa for eight years. I’ve also known Burton for 20 years now, as we were high school classmates and played trombone in the same high school band together, and both of us came back years later to teach in the same district we graduated from. In so many ways, Burton and I share a similar journey in arriving at progressive education, and I am grateful to call him a friend and a learning partner for these many years.As the title mentions, this episode focuses on the niche pedagogy of “constructionism” largely attributed to one man, Seymour Papert, who published his first book, Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas, back in 1980. It’s both fascinating and frustrating that despite 4 decades of research supporting the powerful impact on cognition and the opportunity for collaboration inherent in these ideas, the philosophy and framework of constructionism and similarly modeled “makerspaces” are still only deployed in limited pockets on the fringes of the standard model of school. This conversation gets at the same central premise as so many others on this podcast, that is our limited imagination about “what works” in schools as they are currently structured, and “what works to do what” within music education in particular. What does it mean to be musically literate? To be a musician? Burton Hable imagines the role of makerspaces supported by constructionist pedagogy in music ed as a way to expand and enrich the standard model for students, with the goal of creating a broader collaborative experience for students to engage with all aspects - creating, performing, responding, and connecting - of what it means to be musical.Connect with Burton @ burtonhable.com or on Twitter @burtonhableGUESTSBurton Hable, music educator & Operations and Building Manager for the Charlottesville BandRESOURCES Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas by Seymour Papert (open access) Review: The Case for Constructivist Classrooms by Nick Covington

Today we are joined by Dustin Hensley. Dustin is the library media specialist at Elizabethton High School in Tennessee. He is an advocate for creating spaces that cultivate a student’s love of learning. He was one of the co-founders of the Bartleby Program, which centers community improvement and entrepreneurship with students, and is one of the winners of the XQ Super School competition, remaining active in the XQ Community of Practice. He currently teaches courses on Community Improvement and Academic Research.In this podcast, Dustin and I talk about the state of libraries today:  the purpose of a library how libraries interact with students political forces attacking books and librarianship transitions from libraries to Makerspaces and Fablabs and how libraries provide a pedagogy that transforms learning.GUESTSDustin Hensley, library media specialist, project lead, and grant-writer for Elizabethton High School, part-time professor, co-founder of the Bartleby Program, and active member of the XQ Community of PracticeRESOURCES A Library Transformed by Dustin Hensley (Getting Smart) #FReadom movement in Texas Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors by Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop Readicide: How Schools Are Killing Reading and What You Can Do About It by Kelly Gallagher and Richard L. Allington

*This podcast contains content regarding suicide and child abuse.In this podcast we are joined by R.L. Stollar, a Child Liberation Theologian and child and survivor advocate. Stollar is the author of the upcoming book, The Kingdom of Children, which reports on the issues and concerns of the evangelical homeschooling movement. Stollar, who was himself homeschooled, is an advocate of homeschooling who is calling attention to the issues that many face in the system, connecting the concept to faith — which is often juxtaposed with the practice of homeschooling. His work in Child Liberation Theology, which you’ll hear about shortly, centers the idea of young people being leaders in their faith-based decisions.This is an interesting topic, because it blends ideas that aren’t commonplace in progressive education. Although I am personally not religious, there are fascinating connections between a faith-based education, self-directed learning, critical pedagogy, and more that we’ll explore in this podcast.As a side note, this podcast also features Thomas White. Thomas is our prior development director who accepted a new position after this podcast aired. Essentially, Thomas did his job so well with us that he accepted a full-time position doing development work, leading to a conflict of interest with his current part-time role. We’re sorry to see him go! Thomas is writing a book on Classical Christian Education, which has a lot of overlap with the upcoming conversation.We introduce R.L. Stollar as a Dr....but in fact he has not earned a doctorate (yet!)GUESTSR.L. Stollar, Child Liberation Theologian and child and survivor advocate and author of the upcoming book Kingdom of ChildrenThomas White, former HRP development director and author of upcoming book on Classical Christian EducationRESOURCES R.L. Stollar's Website Overview of Child Liberation Theology

This podcast is our first of what we’re calling the “spotlight” series. Every so often, we’ll reaching out to schools who are doing intriguing progressive practices that could inspire and influence others to do the same. Each has a twist on how their school is operated, and we’re bringing in students and teachers to talk about it. They’re not all perfect, and they’d all acknowledge there are things they’d change; but there’s so much to learn from these schools as we reimagine education in our communities.We are joined by students and faculty from Assumption College, a Catholic co-ed 7-12 secondary school located in Kilmore, Victoria, Australia, featuring 1,200 students, some of whom board on campus. Assumption is doing a lot of fascinating work that would interest people interested in progressive education and reform measures. In the last few years, they’ve transferred to the “MyMAP” program, which stands for Mastery, Autonomy, and Purpose. Instead of assigning students to traditional classes, students have the option between many different classes that are then mapped to traditional graduation needs. This means that students that have an interest in the arts will have a drastically different curriculum than say, engineering.To learn more, we’re talking today with Kate Fogarty, the principal; Vaughan Cleary, the Deputy Principal; Kendall Aglinskas, Professional Practices Coordinator and Learning Leader; and Bel Luscott and Billy Carlin, both year 11 students. All of these folks have been at Assumption before and after their self-directed curriculum began.SCHOOLAssumption College, a Catholic co-ed 7-12 secondary school located in Kilmore, Victoria, AustraliaRESOURCES MyMAP Overview MyMAP Learning Program (YouTube) Assumption College Website

Today we are joined by Dr. Joanne Golann. Dr. Golann is an Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Education and an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Vanderbilt University, and focuses on how culture shapes educational policy and practice. Her recently released book, Scripting the Moves: Culture & Control in a "No-Excuses" Charter School, follows Joanne over 18 months as she observes a “high-performing” charter school, documenting the various regimented structures, student and parent perspectives, what the teachers do...and more - which we’ll begin to talk about in this interview.GUESTSDr. Joanne Golann, Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Education and an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Vanderbilt UniversityRESOURCES Scripting the Moves: Culture & Control in a "No-Excuses" Charter School by Joanne Golann Empty Pedagogy, Behaviorism, and the Rejection of Equity by Chris McNutt Teach Like a Champion Playlist Uncommon Schools Playlist

Our guest today is Keenan Crow. Keenan Crow is the Director of Policy and Advocacy for One Iowa, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to advance, empower, and improve the lives of LGBTQ Iowans through education, advocacy, and collaboration. Keenan has been active in Iowa politics since 2010 when they interned with Chris Hall’s campaign for Iowa State Representative. Since then, they have been involved with several nonprofit organizations including Planned Parenthood of the Heartland and Cedar Valley Citizens for Undoing Racism. They were also involved in One Iowa’s campus group at the University of Northern Iowa, where they obtained a BA in Political Communications and a Master’s in Public Policy. The campus at UNI is also where I met Keenan, now well over a decade ago.In this episode, we talk to Keenan about their work at One Iowa Action - and how listeners can get involved in supporting similar groups around the country - current challenges that LGBTQ youth are facing, from book banning to bathroom bills, and what allyship looks like, especially for teachers, in 2022. How can we make our schools and classrooms safe and welcoming places for LGBTQ students?GUESTSKeenan Crow, Director of Policy and Advocacy for One Iowa and champion for LGBTQ civil rightsRESOURCES OneIowa @OneIowa (Twitter) @KF_Crow (Twitter)

Joshua Seigal is a highly acclaimed, award-winning professional poet, performer and educator. Joshua uses poetry to develop literacy skills and inspire confidence and ​creativity in communication. He has worked in hundreds of schools, libraries, theatres and festivals around the world, had books published by Bloomsbury and other major publishers, and has written and performed for BBC television. Joshua Seigal has recently been awarded the 2020 Laugh out Loud Book Award for “I Bet I Can Make You Laugh”, and shortlisted for the 2021 Peoples Book Prize for “Yapping Away”. In this episode, I talk to Joshua about his journey from academia to poetry as well as his own experiences attending British schools and the perspective he has on them now as an adult, and of course we get a bit of a poetry reading near the end. I should add that I recorded this at home with a very busy 3.5 year old, who you may hear throughout the episode. Thank you Joshua, for being very gracious during a chaotic recording on my end!GUESTSJoshua Seigal, award-winning poet, performer, and educatorRESOURCES Joshua Seigal's website @JoshuaSeigal (Twitter)

A conversation around student loan debt has been happening at the margins of American political life for nearly a generation. By 2012, total student loan debt in the United States surpassed one trillion dollars, with the only relief coming from a pause on interest and federal debt collection that began with the pandemic in March 2020. Today, a majority of Americans, nearly 60% of polled voters, support some kind of forgiveness on the nation’s now 1.7 trillion dollar student loan debt, and borrowers have benefited from the pause on payments, recently extended to May 2022. That’s over two years without a single required payment…and seemingly without a single negative economic consequence. A recent study from the Student Debt Crisis Center also found that nearly 90% of borrowers are not financially secure enough to resume payments.Is it time to pause these payments indefinitely? Is it past time for mass student loan debt forgiveness? While most of the conversations we have at HRP happen at the intersection of the theory and classroom practice of education, today I am joined by Thomas Gokey, Eleni Shirmer, and Jason Wozniak, as they talk to us about their organization, Debt Collective, make the moral, economic, and pedagogical case for debt cancellation, and let listeners know how to join their grassroots movement. GUESTSThomas Gokey, organizer and co-founder of Debt Collective, visual artist, adjunct professor at Syracuse University, and activistEleni Shirmer, researcher at the Future of Finance Initiative at UCLA's Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy, and organizer with Debt CollectiveJason Wozniak, assistant professor at Teacher's College, Columbia University, and author of the upcoming book, The Mis-Education of the Indebted StudentRESOURCES @StrikeDebt (Twitter) Debtcollective.org

Today we are joined by Dr. Nick Stock. Dr. Stock, a former English teacher, now serves as a researcher for the University of Birmingham. He has published various essays which focus on critiquing education by using philosophy typically seen outside of traditional pedagogy, such as Evangelion, Schools and Futures; Education after the end of the world. How can education be considered a hyperobject?; and Paradise Shall Remain Lost. Readdressing Deschooling through a Miltonian Lens.Specifically, we invited Dr. Stock on to talk about his recently published work, The Weird, Eerie, Exit Pedagogy of Mark Fisher, which dives into the work of Fisher, who wrote Capitalist Realism, and connects it to pedagogy, something that it isn’t typically associated with.This podcast covers: "Exit Pedagogy", connecting Mark Fisher's capitalist theories (and to an extent, Baudrillard's theories) to education "Hauntology" and reimagining a world without capitalism Critiques of liberatory and critical pedagogy and their connection to capitalism What it means to apply exit pedagogy to the classroomGUESTSDr. Nick Stock, former English teacher and current researcher at the University of Birmingham, who focuses on an ironist perspective to education through postmodern, poststructural ideas.RESOURCES The weird, eerie, exit pedagogy of Mark Fisher by Dr. Nick Stock Capitalist Realism by Mark Fisher Unpacking "Neoliberal" Schooling, Part 3: Progressive Education: Enter the Matrix by Chris McNutt

Long time listeners may recognize the title to this podcast: Re:Teaching. Last year, Nick released a series of short podcasts on a separate channel, focused on current events and short-form highlights of writing. We soon realized that by splitting our podcast into two segments, most folks didn't hear any of this series! Enjoy, and there will be even more new Re:Teaching episodes on the way.This episode is a feature read of Why What Works Won't Work and Why What Works May Hurt by Nick Covington, published in March 2020. Learn more about Human Restoration Project and find a wealth of free resources to create human-centered classrooms at humanrestorationproject.org, and follow us on social media, @HumResPro.