I was speaking to a group of high school students the other day — not SLA kids — and I asked them what they wanted their high school experience to be. Many of them said, "We want it to be fun!" It echoed some of what I think I hear from some voices in the School 2.0 movement. (Not all voices, probably not even most voices, but enough that I think this is worth exploring…)

I’ve some conversations with kids at SLA about this idea… and yes, I think that SLA is a fun place to be, but more importantly, I think we’ve created a place that is a meaningful place to be, and that matters more.

And that strikes me as what we want to create in our schools — places of true meaning. I worry that we spend so much time looking at these amazing tools as tricks to make stuff more engaging and fun without tending a critical eye toward meaningful learning. I worry that we mistake engaging and entertaining, and I worry that the tools we have at our disposal allows us to amuse ourselves and amuse our kids without getting down to meaningful work.

One of the biggest challenges we face today is that we live in a society that doesn’t necessarily reward meaning. We have more distractions at our disposal, and I worry that more and more, Neil Postman’s warning to us in "Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business" (Neil Postman) is more and more true. How do we compete with Wii? How do we compete with Facebook? How do we compete with Saw?

The answer is simple — we don’t.

We have to understand — we cannot compete with the ever-more-fast-paced and realistic entertainment world. What we can offer is meaning and purpose and authenticity.

Kids know the difference. It’s the difference between enjoying playing Guitar Hero and learning to play guitar. One is fun, the other is meaningful. It’s the difference between playing pick-up basketball in the park and working every day at practice as part of a team. It’s the difference between a class where the teacher excels at keeping the kids amused and one where the teacher excels at keeping the kids engaged.

The thing is this… what we have to offer in our schools is harder than immediate gratification that much of the rest of youth culture is offering. Our kids walk a path these days where they must navigate distractions, both legal and illegal, of an increasingly powerful type. What we offer is, I believe, an antidote to that. School can offer a path to meaning, authentic learning, and a reflective and contemplative space where kids have the time and tools to make better choices.

What we have to remember, as we attempt to do that, is that we don’t have to mimic the world outside our walls that seems to constantly be selling one thing or another to our kids. In fact, that might just be the worst thing we can do.