When we decided to name this organization the Great Lakes Constructivist Consortium, many people scoffed at the use of that word “constructivism”.
“How ivory tower! Academic!” they cried!
“Meaningless nonsense!” they whined.
“Just more of the left’s propaganda!”
“Socialists!?!”
We decided on the name anyway. We wanted to make sure that we interrupted the usual presumption of understanding typical of most audiences. We thought that most people would pause and wonder what that word meant. They might even ask us to explain the tenets of constructivist thinking or at least how we intended to use that term.
After two years, we found that the word “constructivism” is actually distracting to our efforts. We spend more time supporting attempts at pronunciation than exploring meaning and strategies.
This is all to say that we are contemplating a name change. We are seeking a name that more immediately informs and provides identification with our vision and mission. We have spent the summer exploring and attempting to capture the essence of our work in a language accessible to most people.
How do we say, in two to four memorable and meaningful words, that we support high school communities to become masters of self-directed learning, and then, facilitate partnerships between these constructivist schools and business and community organizations working on projects that make communities thrive?
Stay tuned…