Other than being a great song by Barenaked Ladies, let the title of this post serve as an example of how much times have changed.

The other night in the almost pitch black, I noticed two things: 1) that something in our room must not be functioning correctly because a light that is usually solid was blinking and driving me crazy, and 2) that it isn’t pitch black at all because there are a lot of little indicator lights on in our room.

Because it has happened gradually over the years, I barely noticed until the other night. Tonight, I challenge you to take stock of the lights that stay on when your lights go out. And then ask your parents how many lights were in their room when they were your age. For us, there are 14 items with lights on them at night in our room, for my parents: 1. Full list is at the end of the post for us, just an alarm clock for my parents.

Why does this matter and why am I writing about it?

These lights all serve some kind of purpose, to let us know that something is on or connected or charging. Blinking tells us something different than steady light. Amber light tells us something different than red. But in addition to helping us know what is going on in the machines (notifications), these lights serve as distractions.

Take stock of the things that distract you from daily life. Notice how you have become numb to some of these things over time and how they may prevent you from your goals.

I was shocked when I took stock of the little indicator lights in our bedroom and even more shocked when I took stock of the distractions and notifications that are all part of my daily life. Now, onto the real work of figuring what stays and what goes!

Want to know what is lighting up our room? Here’s the list.

• TV – has a small red light that’s on all the time.
• Router – I guess it’s technically called a mesh wi-fi node now
• Modem – four or five lights on this guy
• FOUR Surge protectors/power strips – one near TV, one near desk, one near each nightstand
• Second TV on desk – being used as a monitor – small red light that’s always on
• Baby monitor
• Computer charging cord – LED indicator that’s on while charging (which is every night)
• Smoke detector
• Wireless headphones charging station
• Philips Hue Smart Hub – for making light bulbs smarter I suppose, three lights on this one
• Air purifier with HEPA filter and UV light.

In my parent’s room when they were my age:

• Clock

This sign warns you not to touch it. Its only purpose is to dictate how you should handle (or not handle) it. The sign has no function outside of letting you know it exists. The only ‘work’ it does is self-created and has no benefits beyond that.

Don’t be this sign.

• Create value for others.
• Exist with purpose.
• Let others recognize your work.

This might be the second in a non-consecutive series about signs and what they can teach us about education, leadership, and life.

I’m tired of hearing that education hasn’t changed in the last hundred years or that education is broken. If you search the phrase ‘education hasn’t changed’, you’ll see articles from reputable educational institutions and publications that assert that education is the same now as it was 50, 100, or 400 years ago. Or that the system is broken. Or they show an image of a classroom from the 1800s next to a picture of a classroom from today to show they are ‘the same’.

A few quick thoughts:

• Education has changed.
  • Teachers aren’t physically disciplining students like they used to.
  • Everyone is allowed to attend school now.
  • Students aren’t leaving school at age 8 to go work in the mines.
  • Students in some of the worst areas of the country have the ability to get exposed to some truly innovative programs that they would never have had access to before.
  • While some classrooms might be set up the same, there are also welding programs, video game programming courses, entrepreneurial studies, graphic design labs, and so much more.
  • Teachers are learning more about cognitive psychology and leveraging these ‘brain science’ techniques to become more effective educators.
  • Teachers are analyzing data to help pinpoint weaknesses in their students learning and address them before they become permanent misconceptions.
  • Teachers are leveraging exciting new technologies to help differentiate instruction to vast numbers of students.
  • The list could go on, but I’ll stop here because I think you understand.
• Showing that a room looks similar to a room from 100 years ago doesn’t mean that the field hasn’t changed.
  • Show a stadium or coliseum from 100 or 1000 years ago that shows seats in an oval around a central point of interest, this isn’t evidence that ‘sports and entertainment haven’t changed’.
  • Showing that an operating room was a table in the middle of a room 100 years ago and still is that way today doesn’t prove that ‘medicine hasn’t changed’.

Is education broken? Of course not.

Are there ways we can improve education? Of course. And we will.

A safe way to explore danger is generally fun. People don’t flock to roller coasters because they really love physics and mechanics being put on display. They’re not huge fans of larger than life examples of kinetic and potential energy.

People go on roller coasters because they are a safe way to explore high speeds, sharp turns, and flipping upside down. Because you are strapped in with an oversized foam mechanical arm in a machine that you’ve seen do the same loop 400 times while you waited on line, it takes most of the danger out of the equation and makes way for the thrills. If you were loosely buckled into a car taking turns at 70mph on a winding mountain road with a cliff on one side, you wouldn’t be so excited.

This also translates to other forms of entertainment- take TV as an example. To get more specific- crime dramas are wildly popular. For many people who watch them, this is the only way they will experience these dangerous, high octane situations. While it might be exciting to binge watch Criminal Minds and see a bevy of disturbing felonies unfold, it is from the comfort of your bed where you’re definitely NOT eating the entire sleeve of Chips Ahoy… it was only half-full when you opened it. The point being, it’s a safe way to explore danger.

This activation of your ‘fight or flight’ response from a safe place also has its drawbacks. People can become desensitized to the actual danger in the behavior. Think of violent video games or the news or videos of people falling- when you are exposed to the concepts over and over again, the actual danger and consequences which would happen in the real world start to lose their meaning.

Nowhere is this on display more plainly that in the digital worlds we all live within. Negative comments on a video or social media page that people wouldn’t dream of saying in person come flying out. Because someone is sitting safely in their chair, they think it’s funny to spew hatred online- where they think there are no consequences. Students casually comment about bringing guns to school or about bombs as if those words carry no weight. They wouldn’t dream of saying any of it aloud to an adult, but it’s safe online. Watch them be shocked as the police come to the door and charge them with a felony. They think because they are at home on their phone eating dinner with their family that those words don’t carry weight, that people will know that they aren’t serious, that it was ‘just for fun’.

The roller coaster problem is great for theme parks but can wreak havoc in our day-to-day lives. Recognizing dangerous behaviors that have become normalized through ‘safe’ means is a vital skill. Sometimes putting words to it is the first step… and analogies help. Next time you get ready to write a negative email or post online, think of the rollercoaster.

Sometimes a question requires a detailed answer. Research and data might need to be presented, justifications given, decisions supported, evidence cited.

Other times, a question requires a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’.

The most effective communicators know the difference and answer accordingly.

What would it look like if we didn’t worry about comparing our data to the neighboring counties’ data?

What would it look like if we measured what we truly valued in our students instead of measuring what was easiest to measure?

What would it look like if we focused first on making schools and classes places that students wanted to be, then worried about the standards, scope and sequence, etc?

What would it look like if we valued student and family engagement as much as standardized test scores?

The first time I saw one of these oddly specific speed limit signs, it was on my way into an interview at a country club for an Assistant Golf Professional job. The specificity of the number really made me think. For the rest of my drive in, I couldn’t figure it out.

Why 17 MPH? Why not 15 or 20? What does 17 MPH even feel like? Does the number 17 mean something specific to this country club? Was it founded in 1917? Was the founder born in 1917?

All of a sudden in dawned on me: the point of the sign is to specifically make you spend time thinking about and paying close attention to your speed. If you see 15, you ignore it and go 25. If you see 30, 40 is your chosen speed. If you see 17, you go 17 (at least for a little while). It stands out because it is so specific and unusual. A sign that people generally pay very little attention to becomes a talking point and all of a sudden everyone knows how fast you can go on that road.

We can take advantage of this same idea in education. When my students were working on a task and it was timed (as most of the activities in my class were), they had 78 seconds to write down their reflection. There was 32 seconds to find a partner and decide on a topic. We are taking an 109 second brain break, so take some deep breaths and relax before we get back into the review.

People pay no attention to a 1 minute or 3 minute timer because it’s predictable. You end up herding cats trying to get everyone back and on task. Tell them they need to be back in their group in exactly 67.6 seconds and odds grow exponentially that they’ll be back on time. Eyes stay glued on the timer.

Let’s learn from the Speed Limit 17 sign.

If you keep things unusual and specific in your classroom, interest and engagement go up. That content that you spent time planning and reworking to get it just right- it will be attended to because it isn’t just another worksheet with 20 questions on it. It’s a free response to summarize the last chapter of the book in 74 words; no more, no less. Does it really matter that it be 74 and not 75 or 73- no. But your students just summarized the main idea or central theme of a text, which also happens to be the standard that you are practicing that day.

This might be the first in a non-consecutive series about signs and what they can teach us about education, leadership, and life.