Bea McGarvey and I had a great day yesterday in Lindsay, CA.  We felt validated!  Humble, but validated.  The Lindsay Community School District is one of ten recipients of the US Office of Ed Race to the Top competition.  Lindsay's proposal was based on Inevitable: MCL and their district will receive $10 million to make the MCL vision a reality.  Such an opportunity!

We are confident that Lindsay can transform the Industrial Age, Assembly Line approach to education . . . and not so much because of the $10 million dollars, but because of the leadership of Superintendent Tom Rooney, his leadership team, the Lindsay staff, Board, and Community.  Lindsay has been working toward a MCL system for a few years with some very good success already.  It all started when Bea helped Lindsay to create a Strategic Design and when Tom Rooney consciously and consistently made their mission and customized learning vision the basis for all decisions . . . decisions large and small.

Yesterday, the 50+ people who will be most responsible for the implementation of the Lindsay plan had the opportunity to listen to the impact that MCL has already had on learners.  Eight HS learners talked with our group about their experiences and accomplishments.  The subtitle to Inevitable is "Learning in the Age of Empowerment," and learner empowerment was ON DISPLAY when the learners told their stories.  Responsibility for learning had obviously moved from the teacher to the learner.  Extrinsic motivators had given way to intrinsic desires to learn and succeed.  Learners were talking about their futures past HS graduation.  Lifelong learning no longer a slogan on a wall, but being demonstrated by teenagers.  Bea and I left "pumped" and more positive than ever about the future of learning and learners. (cjs)