Urgent Optimism

I’ve posted nearly 650 articles on the ABPTL website (along with Facebook and LinkedIn postings). Most of those articles have been critical of our present K-12 teaching and learning system. And, admittedly, I haven’t gained the readership I expected when I started writing the column over three years ago.

But, believe it or not, I’m an optimistic person when it comes to providing a better system of learning for our kids. I believe wholeheartedly that “dissatisfaction leads to motivation,” meaning that once we become dissatisfied enough with our current K-12 public education system, we will be motivated to change it. Sadly, it’s just not become bad enough – yet.

Recently, I read a post by the Big Questions Institute titled “Worried About the World? Try Urgent Optimism.” Here are a few excerpts from the article:

“Urgent optimism involves cultivating mental flexibility, which is the ability to believe that things can change for the better, even when it seems far from what’s happening now.”

…

“[Futurist Jane] McGonigal identifies three ‘mini-mindsets’ to arrive at future optimism:

Focus on the opportunity to rethink and reinvent. Spend actual time getting ready for the futures that feel strange and unfamiliar, rather than what is similar to today. Try to imagine how the future will be different. In our Dream Summits we often offer the prompt, ‘What if we got it right?!’ to imagine new scenarios.

Use positive and shadow imagination. Imagine both good outcomes and unsavory ones. This is a tool of strategic foresight – where there is an honest confrontation of the polarities of outcomes – and you get better at thinking of multiple truths at once. As futurists have found, seeing risks more clearly and articulating your anxieties around the unknown can actually lend to feelings of hopeFULness. This technique builds hope because you’re not only focusing on what could go wrong, but you’re also exposing yourself to novel solutions and bold innovations.

Look for actionable ways to increase your ability to shape the future. Begin to gain a sense of control and agency to directly influence the future by taking intentional action today. This could come from identifying solutions and technologies that can excite you and contribute to positive outcomes, in anything from the way you get to work to what you consume, or how you practice collective imagination with friends and colleagues.”

Urgent optimism is not denial, passive optimism, nor worry.

“As Jane McGonigal writes in [her book] Imaginable:

‘Urgent optimism is a balanced feeling. It’s recognizing that, yes, there are great challenges and risks ahead, while also staying realistically hopeful that you have something to contribute to how we solve those challenges and face those risks. Urgent optimism means you’re not staying awake all night worrying about what might happen. Instead, you’re leaping out of bed in the morning with a fire in your pants to do something about it. Urgent optimism is knowing that you have agency and the ability to use your unique talents, skills, and life experiences to create the world you want to live in.’”

Whenever I write about our current public school system, it’s hard to practice “urgent optimism.” But, whenever I write about the possibility of a new learning system, a system that allows all young learners to define, plan, execute, and evaluate their own learning, I can feel “urgent optimism” pouring out.

Learning flexibility, being able to rethink and reinvent, using a healthy imagination, and being action-oriented are all important factors to developing a learning system that makes all kids – especially those who are black, brown, and poor – smarter and stronger.

Friday News Roundup tomorrow. Til then. SVB