“Don’t Bring a Résumé. Bring Receipts.”

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In the article, ‘The Proof Economy’ Anand Sanwal says, “Don’t Bring a Résumé. Bring Receipts.” Anand starts with two definitions saying that we’ve moved from the Parchment Economy to a Proof Economy,

“We’ve entered the Proof Economy, a world where the most valuable signal isn’t where you went to school, what your GPA was, or which honors you collected, but what you’ve actually done and can do. In this new landscape, demonstrated ability trumps pedigree, and what you’ve built matters more than where you studied.

Meanwhile, the Parchment Economy, that centuries-old system where formal credentials and institutional validation serve as proxies for capability, is losing its monopoly on opportunity. The elaborate dance of transcripts, recommendation letters, diplomas and prestige markers is becoming increasingly irrelevant in field after field.”

This is something I’ve been describing for a while now, without properly defining the difference in the two ‘economies’. Beyond credentialed professionals like doctors, engineers, and lawyers, what now matters most is your portfolio, not your schooling certificates. ‘What is it that you can do better than others to earn you a spot in our organization?’ (Regardless of your credentials.)

Anand says,

“When anyone can access expertise through prompts and build a prototype video, software product or design via AI, the value shifts decisively from knowledge possession to knowledge application.”

But for me the most interesting section in his article is:

What Education Needs to Become

If we accept that we’re entering the Proof Economy, schools can’t just add a few electives or rethink assessment to focus on progress and not perfection..

They need to rewire what they reward.

We should expect:

  • Projects over problem sets: Real-world challenges that apply knowledge, not just recall it.
  • Portfolios over transcripts: A body of work that shows thinking, skill, and growth.
  • Public work over private grading: Output that lives in the world, not a Google Doc.
  • Coaching over compliance: Adults who challenge and support, not just evaluate.
  • Failure as fuel: A system that treats failed attempts as essential steps, not permanent marks.

At Inquiry Hub Secondary our students are still entrenched in the old public education system in that they complete required courses to meet provincial high school graduation requirements, and most of them still head off to university, college, or a technical institute to further their studies. However, along the way they are given the time, space, and credits (towards their graduation), to produce documentation of learning in areas of interest. They have an opportunity to design and build projects, (documented receipts), most other students could only get done on their own time, outside of traditional classrooms.

They also get to live in an environment where they have to cooperate with fellow students in scrum projects with tight timelines and defined roles (not just group projects with everyone having identical outcomes and expectations). They have to do frequent presentations, alone and in groups, with training to give and receive feedback with radical candour. They understand iteration, they pivot based on where their learning takes them, and they embrace failure as learning opportunities because sometimes obstacles become the way. And they are provided with greater and greater autonomy over their time as they progress from Grade 9 to 12.

Essentially, Inquiry Hub students still get their resume of courses, but they are also provided the opportunity to bring receipts too.

Students choose, AI delivers

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Thinking about AI use in schools, the vast majority of assignments are currently pretty easy to use AI to assist. Students can use this to extend their learning or to do the work for them/make the work significantly easier to do. And then teachers become police… not teachers, trying to figure out how a student is using AI to cheat.

Two big takeaways, one being a positive shift the other being a challenge:

  1. Process matters more than final products.
  2. Students will choose if they want AI to help them or do the work for them. Will they choose to have AI assist their thinking or do the thinking for them?

We have control over whether we focus on process or content. Students have the choice as to whether they use AI to help them think or to think for them. A focus on process can reduce how much a student relies on AI… but a student can always get AI to assist them with the next step.

I’m excited about how students will use AI to dig deeper and extend their learning. I’m equally concerned for students who are choosing to use AI to take the friction out of leaning… opting out of thinking for themselves. Whichever of these approaches students choose, AI will deliver.

Conference conversations

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A few years ago I wrote ‘the spaces in between’:

“I’ve never been to a session at a conference that has taught me more and been more engaging than the ‘spaces in between’ the sessions.

Connecting with distant friends and colleagues; Engaging conversations about teaching, learning, and leading; Topical discussions and meetings over coffee and meals; And getting to know bright people who have similar jobs but unique life and work experience that open my eyes to things beyond what I tend to learn and in my scheduled blocks of conference time… these are the moments that make a conference a rich leaning experience… it’s the spaces in between.”

Sometimes I’ve actually skipped sessions to connect with someone to have a learning conversation, like I did with David Jakes, Jeff Richardson, and Barbara Bray. Other times the conference is an opportunity to connect with people and find time outside of conference times, like I did with Shelly Sanchez Terrell, Kathleen McClaskey, and Remi Kalir… And these are just examples I took the time to record for podcasts, there are so many other conversations that were rich learning experiences, which were often better than the conference presentations themselves.

I’m not trying to say that conference presentations don’t have value, but rather that rich conversations in the spaces in between sessions can be even more interesting and valuable. Put these experiences together and a conference can be such an inspiring place to learn.

…And it’s keynote time… so much learning to be done today!

The last dance

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Today I head to an all day meeting of Provincial Online Learning School (POLS) principals. This is followed by an Executive Meeting of our Principal’s organization and the opening of the Digital Learning Conference which goes until Friday. This marks my last face-to-face meetings with these groups, and my last conference before I retire.

I’ve been involved with online learning since 2011. I’ve been on the executive since 2014. This is a special group of educators, and looking back, I don’t think anyone in this group of principals was around when I started, although at the conference I’ll see many educators who have worked in this field longer than me.

It’s a real special bunch of principals and educators who work in online learning. We are a unique group who have far more in common with each other than we have with educators and leaders in our own districts. Our challenges are common, and our relationships to things like audits and Ministry of Education criteria are lived in a way that typical principals and educators have no idea about.

And so for me this is a bit of a last dance. It’s a farewell to a group of colleagues whom I’ve shared a very special bond with. We’ve faced similar challenges, we’ve fought similar battles, we’ve called each other up for support, and we’ve openly shared to make our practices and our schools better. Upon retiring I’m going to miss this group… but for the next few days, I’m going to thoroughly enjoy their company.

The benefits of a long tenure

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Last night I had my second to last PAC (Parent Advisory Council) meeting for Inquiry Hub Secondary School before I retire. I’ve had the privilege of running the school for almost 13 years. Year one of the school I was the co-founding VP, and half of a year in my principal got promoted. I’ve had the honour of running the school ever since.

At the PAC meeting I noted that in that entire time, I’ve only had two PAC presidents, both with 3 kids going through the school. This got me thinking of how rare these two stats are. It’s unusual to see a principal of a school go past 7 or 8 years, and rarer still to be approaching 13 years. The longest you will usually see a PAC President keep their position is 4 years.

Sometimes it’s good to mix things up, but there are times when you’ve got a good thing going, and it’s fantastic to stay and make things really work. I feel blessed that I’ve had that opportunity, and that I’ve been in a stable community of families that love and support what we do. It has made the journey extremely rewarding.

Recovery time

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I’m so frustrated dealing with injury recovery. I feel like I’m living my life in recovery mode.

Sciatic pain: 4 months of limited cardio, stopped my weekend walks for 5 weeks, and while now pain free, I am still coming back slowly so as not to trigger it again.

Golfer’s elbow: Ongoing. It reminds my that it’s still there every few days.

Teris major (the muscle behind the deltoid on my right shoulder): No idea how I injured it, but it stops me from getting a good night’s sleep, and has forced me to take it easy on all kinds of exercises to avoid pain.

My buddy is coaching me on keeping the weights I do down and focusing on good technique. I’m actually listening rather than being a stubborn fool who just pushes through pain like I’ve done for decades. But, dang, this is mentally tougher than actually pushing myself.

I’ve spent my athletic life being the underdog. I was the smallest kid being picked last on teams until Grade 10. Playing water polo and having the most inefficient swim stroke made me one of the slowest players in the pool… who had to work harder than anyone, with less rest, on every swim set.

I got accustomed to pushing hard to compensate for my shortcomings. What I lacked in talent I made up for with heart and effort. I learned how to push myself… hard! And now I know that this is not the way forward. Now I have to be smarter than to push through pain and injury. I need to be ok with showing up and doing the work that will protect me from future injuries rather than bring them on.

It’s so much easier to say than to do.

If I’m honest, this sucks. A few days ago I mentioned that I’d like to go one week injury free, I concluded in that post,

I’m reminded of the quote, ‘Choose your hard.’

When I’m sedentary my back aches. When I’m working out, different muscles choose to ache. Well, I guess I just have to choose my ache. Yet I’m actually not joking when I say, when I beg, can I please get one week ache free, just to know what that’s like.”

Being constantly in recovery mode is not the kind of hard I want, but it’s the kind of hard I have to face right now. Progress currently isn’t getting better or stronger, it’s not losing ground while I let my body heal. The trick is not to injure anything else in the process.

Proximity matters

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I got to see my sister and cousin this weekend. It was so nice to connect. My sister flew in, but my cousin lives 40 minutes to an hour away depending on the time of day I’m travelling there. It’s not far, and yet it is. I remember reading a stat that if you move just an hour away from someone you are likely to see that person more than 80% less than when they lived closer. My visits to my cousin would suggest that stat is higher.

I enjoy the company of him and his wife very much. Good people. Yet I barely see them. It takes my sister flying in to make it happen. Why? Busy lives. Time flies by and an hour drive is 2 hours travel when you also have to go home… well a little less because an evening drive is usually shorter, but still, it’s a lot of driving. It’s the end of April and the next time I’ll see my cousin is probably early July, when I have a gathering planned.

People have asked when I decide to downsize, where would I want to live? I might fantasize about living somewhere tropical but the reality is my wife and I won’t move that far from our kids, and also, we’d like to stay pretty close to where we are now. Why? Because we already don’t see our friends enough, and moving away will just make this harder. Finding time for friends and family is a lot easier when you’re close.

Proximity really matters.

High contrast lives

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It’s amazing how differently people live in the world. Growing up in Barbados and moving to Canada in the late 70’s, I faced a fare bit of culture shock. This is quite a different experience than a student at my school who has only ever left the province to go one province over, and hasn’t even been to the USA, just a 30 minute drive away.

But even that contrast isn’t comparable to a friend who grew up in a village with no electricity or running water, who now lives in a gorgeous home a couple towns over from us. She shared how her first husband was embarrassed by her when they went to a big city for the first time and she was frightened to go on an escalator. She’s younger than me and she has lived in worlds that seem 100 years apart.

This exposure to different worlds extends beyond travel. I spoke to a 91 year old man today and he shared how his father never once hugged him, and so he made sure that his kids always got hugs. Some people break the trauma cycle, others get stuck in it. Again, the contrast can be so extreme.

We walk around blindly unaware of what challenges people have faced or are currently facing. We see kids acting out and blame them for their outbursts, unknowing of what challenges they face at home. We fall into patterns in relationships that are affected by past relationships both in positive and negative ways.

Some people are exposed to experiences you or I could not imagine. Some of them do so with poise and grace. Others struggle and deal with more than we could handle, and might not be able to handle it themselves.

People do the best they can with what they’ve got. We don’t always know where they have come from, or what they’ve had to deal with. We don’t see the contrast, and so maybe we shouldn’t be too quick to judge.

Close to the source

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Please visit Kelly Tenkely’s Substack and read, ‘Staying Close to the Source’. She starts with a wonderful metaphor,

“I was the kind of kid who loved to collect rocks. I was especially taken with any rock found in a stream or lake. Those rocks felt different. They seemed uniquely magical, luminous, and glittering just below the surface. Smooth, as if they’d been polished over time, their colors saturated and alive.”

… “Each time we visit a learner-centered school, I’m struck by that same kind of magic.”

I’ve had visitors to Inquiry Hub tell be they could feel this magic. They’ve described that this is a special place. They’ve been struck by the way our students share their learning experiences, and how open they are to articulate both their learning processes and their personal inquiries.

We still have percentage grades in grades 10-12, we are still a BC, Canada school providing our students with a regular diploma that they would get at any other school. But we offer opportunities that most students don’t get. We can’t compete with elective course offerings a big high school can provide, but we can have students design their own elective… but only after 1-2 years of doing shorter, less comprehensive, inquiries with continual reflection and sharing built into the process.

I’m not sure how this compares to the schools Kelly visited, but her post concludes with:

“May we stay closer to the source where learning happens. 

May we teach educators how to notice, how to listen, how to see the glitter. 

May we trust that teachers can sit beside learners and bear witness to their growth, without needing to pull it out of context to prove it exists.

Learning, when you’re close enough to see it, is unmistakable.”

This spoke to me, and reminded me of the special teachers and students I get to work with. I encourage everyone to read Kelly’s full post.

The right music

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Sometimes you can hear a song and you know it came to you at the right time.

Just the right song for just the right occasion.

And it can by any occasion, a high, a low, a wedding, a funeral, a moment of melancholy, a moment of joy. A song comes along and says, ‘Here you go, this is exactly what you need.

And it is.