Dennis Littky
PopTech 2009
“If you’re not standing on the edge, you’re taking up too much space.” With over forty years of experience at the frontier of education policy, Dennis Littky believes the cookie-cutter approach fails too many students. The aim of Big Picture Learning, which Littky co-founded and co-directs, is to make alternative, nonstandardized curriculums the new standard.
Many of Littky’s educational philosophies are realized at the Met Center in Providence, Rhode Island, an innovative public school system that attracts kids with spotty records, takes them out from behind the desk, and partners them with adults doing work that the kids actually find interesting.
Littky’s previous work as a principal in Winchester, New Hampshire, was featured in an NBC movie, “A Town Torn Apart” which was based on his book Doc: The Story of Dennis Littky and His Fight for a Better School. In 2003, Littky was awarded the Harold W. McGraw Jr. Prize in Education. In 2006 the George Lucas Educational Foundation selected him as one of their Daring Dozen—movers and shakers who “represent the vibrant heart and optimistic soul” of the teaching profession.
Watch Dennis Littky’s talk at PopTech 2009