THE ELEVEN LAWS OF NAPLAND 

As negotiated between the Learning Oracle, and the tribes of Napland

Once upon a very recent time, on a faraway planet known as Edutopia, there existed an island state called Napland. This magical place was inhabited by a race of people called the Naplanders, who were obsessed with standards, targets and goals. Once each year, the younger Naplanders (known as the Offspring) completed a national examination that evaluated their performance.

This came to be known as…. the NAPLAN TEST.

This almighty TEST determined whether the aforementioned Offspring had acquired the rules and dictums of their civilization’s communication systems. And also whether their schools would get a bucketload of money to support them in acquiring those rules and dictums in the following years.

When it came to these TESTS, three of the Naplander tribes featured strongly (although many others, such as the Parenticus, and the Media Circus, had a part to play as well). These three tribes were:

1. The Napland Educatus, who are most often found teaching in environments (commonly known as schools) that feature high levels of tension, stress, very long hours, and quite a few successes. The Educatus openly welcomed the development of high standards in the Offspring (they always had), but questioned the manner in which the TEST was used to measure / analyse/ sort / sift the Offspring, as well as to rank their schools.

2. The Napland Politicus, who are generally found wherever the Media Circus congregate (or sometimes the other way around). The Politicus hold the pursestrings, and thus, the rights, to insist upon the TEST.

3. The Napland Offspring, who are meant to be the focus in the whole saga. Funnily enough, while they have the greatest numbers of any tribe, and while everyone says that they matter the most, they invariably have the least say in the whole process.

Sadly, the Educatus and the Politicus can not always agree on the manner in which the TEST results are to be displayed to the rest of Napland. Some in the Parenticus and the Media Circus have become obsessed with simplistic test scores in these online displays, to the utter frustration of the Educatus, who know that many deeper criteria determine a great Napland school.

And so, into this Naplandic Impasse, there recently came by chance an all-wise Learning Oracle. This great Oracle represented the collective wisdom of all of the tribes of Napland; a wisdom that sometimes seemed to disappear out the window when it came to Decision Time on any major initiative.

Upon consulting with the Oracle, all Naplandic tribes agreed to give their full support to a special set of Laws. These Laws, according to the Oracle, would ensure the sustainability and general worth of the ongoing TEST.

Since that time, these Laws Of Napland have been passed down on a stone tablet, talked about over many a coffee, and featured in facebook.

And so, to the Laws:

The 1^st LAW. The TEST is here to stay, so get used to it.

It’s just how politics works. Don’t bother to resist it; work with it instead. That way, you might get to have some influence in adjusting the near-future directions of the system. It doesn’t mean that you meekly accept everything that will be decided. Rather, that you get involved, and offer your opinion. So, blog / twitter / Facebook, and engage in proactive dialogue about the worth and future direction of the TEST.

The 2nd LAW. Collation of evidence is an invaluable process. Use it to support the Offspring.

Sometimes, raw data is used to poor effect (eg to politically compare schools and systems). However, that same data can be hugely instructive when it comes to supporting individual children’s learning. Don’t let your political attitudes colour the worth of this data. Educatus must consistently analyse the individual and collective data from the TEST, and then respond with explicit teaching that targets each child. Professional dialogue between the Educatus is the most effective way of implementing these targeted practices.

The 3^rd LAW. Don’t teacher-proof the system.

Sadly, other education systems around the world are based upon the assumption that teachers can’t be trusted, and that the system has to be teacher-proofed. This is a professional embarrassment to all parties concerned. The Educatus are the ones who make it all work. And the vast majority of them are outstanding at what they do. Give them the resources and support to create quality learning in the classroom, and you’ll see better results on all tests over the next few years.

The 4^th LAW. Teach for the longer term, not just for the test.

Yes, schools might be under pressure to ‘perform’ in the eyes of the Parenticus and the Media Circus, but this must never distract from the focus on long-term learning. The research is indisputable everywhere in Edutopia. If you teach to the test, you may get marginally better results on the test itself in the short-term, but the long-term results will plateau. Pay respect to the need for sustainable long-term improvement in all fields, and it will rub off in the TEST results anyway.

The 5^th LAW. Collaboration works more effectively than competition.

It’s about time that the competition cliché (ie that we have to compete with each other in order to improve our standards) died a quick death. We’re not talking about the Olympics here. Not all of life has to be a bitter competition. Do you compete in your family? Your local church? Your neighbourhood? Outstanding human performances result from a deep personal inspiration to be exceptional. It’s a drive from within, and not an externally motivated obsession, that leads to world-best practice.

When it comes to the TEST itself, websites full of comparative data are based on the fragile premise that the competition will somehow challenge schools to do more. So what’s that indicating? That they’re not presently doing as well as possible? This is another professional embarrassment on the part of all concerned. The Educatus want the best for their students, full stop. They’re already doing whatever they can to help students to reach those high standards. Setting up artificial competition between schools doesn’t inspire them to do more. Replace the fear factor with the peer factor.

The 6^th LAW. Focus on the heart as well as the mind.

We learn everything off by heart. For the brain to be engaged, an emotional connection must be made with the learning. Literacy rates might rise during strict instruction, but rates of reading for pleasure can sometimes fall. Remember that we’re meant to be developing a love of learning in our Offspring, and not just creating a set of numbers that have the Media Circus lauding education systems for advancing by some miniscule measurement over a two-year period. Build the Inspiration Factor, the heart, into every lesson every day for the Offspring. And this is why we need the best, the brightest and the most inspiring of adults to be the Educatus. Because they model that inspiration.

The 7^th LAW. It’s not EITHER / OR. It’s BOTH / AND.

Too often, we feel compelled to choose between work and play, or inquiry and memorization, or phonics and whole language. Yet, powerful choices often pay respect to both sides of the process, and align them to the benefit of all. Pity the poor school or system that decrees that they must choose between endless prep for the TEST; OR a comprehensive development of creativity, initiative and love of learning in the Offspring. It’s not an Either / Or. It must be a Both / And. If you’re professional enough, you can generate a strong degree of initiative and creativity, while still respecting the need for explicit TEST skills development.

The 8^th LAW. To measure the quality of a school, look for deeper authentic criteria.

You might measure your bank account, or the length of your index finger, with a clearly defined number. Schools are not that simple. And it’s not good enough to dismiss this perspective by saying that this is just our starting point with the online recording of data, and that later on, we’ll improve it further. It’s just the wrong approach, right from the start. TEST data is only a small part of the big picture. We must take into account other authentic data such as: whether the kids want to be there; whether the school contributes to the social fabric of the local community; whether parents will stick up for the school at a Saturday night party. The world is consumed by the endless simplification of issues that are invariably much more complex. This simplification fails to pay respect to the depth and substance that contributes to a sensational school.

The 9^th LAW. Focus on Third Decade skillsets.

It’s a whole new world out there, and while the 3Rs will always be critical, there are other very important skills that are worth learning. Skills such as: cybercitizenship (being able to participate effectively in an online environment); emotional intelligence (being able to self-regulate one’s emotional state when working with others); and philanthropic endeavour (being able to contribute to a better community with your personal and team actions). In this Third Decade, these skills will be vital if we want our Offspring to make a worthwhile contribution to our societies. Beware any system that reverts to simplistic 19^th Century skills only.

The 10^th LAW. When using the data from the TEST, make a decision that is based upon our own country’s culture, and not some other culture. 

While we can learn from other high-achieving systems and countries, we always must be careful about duplicating what they do. There are some countries that are barely democracies, and others that have a lifetime obsession with single scores. That’s their choice. Do we want to make those same choices about our lifestyle? We unfortunately carbon-copy the eating habits, the movies and the language patterns of other countries. It doesn’t mean that we also have to take what they do with school data, and simply transpose it to here. We’re just different. Think about our egalitarian nature, and the community spirit that drives our best endeavours, Then make use of those strengths to create sensational schooling systems.

The 11^th Law. It’s not about the great god Economy. It’s about our children and their love of learning.

The TEST must never be solely about preparing young people for a life of economic subservience. A world that is dominated by wealth and power has nearly destroyed us. Track deeper, and realize that TESTS such as this are simply an effective way of helping students to improve in some very worthwhile learning skills. Believe it nor not, there are even more important issues at state: We want our Offspring to be safe, to feel valued, to love their learning, and especially, to believe that their world up ahead will be one in which it is worth living. And that will be determined by the choices we make with them today. Let’s get going.