NAIS Annual ConferenceFebruary 28 – March 1, 2013

Pennsylvania Convention CenterPhiladelphia, PA

Remarks from the NAIS President, Patrick F. Bassett

The 1st American Revolution 1775-1787

Revolutionaries are dreamers. But revolution is dangerous & hard. The first great American Revolution…• Conceived in Boston, Lexington, Richmond in 1775 (Patrick Henry) • Seeded in Monticello (Declaration of Independence - a dream

about freedom)• Sealed by John Hancock (an acceptance of risk)• Challenged by inadequate resources for war (Washington’s

Crossing, a commitment to strategy)But revolution is dangerous & hard.

The 1st American Revolution 1775-1787

Revolutionaries are dreamers. The first great American Revolution…• Made manifest in 1787 in Philadelphia, the dream to create a new

kind of government (Madison’s “tipping point” leadership)– Do the homework– Work the network– Communicate frequently– Change course as needed

The 2nd American Revolution1963 - 1964

Revolutionaries are dreamers. The second great American Revolution…• Rooted in the March on Washington in 1963• Immortalized by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s, “I Have a Dream”: a

speech with a vision for all times and places.• Made manifest it the Civil Rights Movement & Civil Rights Act (LBJ

the Madison of the 2nd American Revolution)But revolution is dangerous & hard.

The 3rd American RevolutionRevolutionaries are dreamers. But revolution is dangerous & hard. The third great American Revolution…• Emerging now, in 2013, here in Philadelphia, around this great

country, and around the world• A dream of educational revolutionaries regarding how we re-

define teaching, re-think learning, and re-design schooling• A dream when manifest will impact America and the world, as the

first two revolutionary dreams. • A dream led by great teachers who wish to create “schools of the

future”: The “speed innovation” teachers, and the NAIS’s ToF teachers, and others like them in each of your schools.

The 3rd American Revolution2013

Revolutionaries are dreamers. But revolution is dangerous & hard. The third great American Revolution… (our time, our revolution)• Nick Carraway, narrator in The Great Gatsby:Most of the big shore places were closed now and there were hardly any lights except the shadowy, moving glow of a ferryboat across the Sound. And as the moon rose higher the inessential houses began to melt away until gradually I became aware of the old island here that flowered once for Dutch sailors’ eyes — a fresh, green breast of the new world. Its vanished trees, the trees that had made way for Gatsby’s house, had once pandered in whispers to the last and greatest of all human dreams; for a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder. • F. Scott Fitzgerald’s point: What we’ve lost.

The 3rd American Revolution2013

Revolutionaries are dreamers. But revolution is dangerous & hard. The third great American Revolution… (our time, our revolution)• Columbus sailing off the edge of the universe? The naysayers of our time?• I believe just the opposite and on these beliefs I would wager the future: I

believe that…• Independent schools are the “green light at the end of Daisy’s dock”…• Our teachers are the Dutch sailors in an enchanted moment, holding their

breath, compelled into a philosophic contemplation about what schools can become in the 21st C.

• The new shore is now before you. • You will be the revolutionaries this country needs and the pioneers who build a

new civilization. You have it within your power, literally, to change the world.

The 3rd American Revolution2013

Revolutionaries are dreamers. But revolution is dangerous & hard. The third great American Revolution… (our time, our revolution)I believe that…

You are face to face not with the last time but the next time in history with something commensurate with your capacity for wonder.