Crime-Solving Slueths Inspires

I have an idea percolating in my head. It’s not fully formed, but I’m so excited about it that I want to see what everyone thinks about it and what you can contribute to forming it into reality. This idea came to me in quite the same way that most ideas come…in a strange and obscure manner.

In this particular case, we happened to be lost in the middle of the countryside looking for the local farmers market. Part of the reason we were lost was because we were listening to an interesting NPR story about a pro-bono group that comes together once a month, and solves cold case crimes. The group, called the Vidocq Society, and is named after Eugene François Vidocq, an 18^th-century criminal-turned crime fighter. The society credits its success to its ability to look at a case from a variety of angles. Members come from a diverse set of backgrounds. Sitting next to a blood splatter expert might be a psychic and next to him might be an anthropologist.  Journalist Michael Capuzzo says the group is like “CSI to the 10^th power but real.”

So I got to thinking, what if we formed a Vidocq like society for issues revolving around the topic of education? (Clearly, we’d need to come up with some cool and meaningful name). It seems to me that there are a variety of forums out there that are talking about issues in education, but few are really doing anything.  This new group would be different in that there would be actual concrete solution at the end.  Here is how I envision it working:

- Collect members from diverse fields

- Solicit issues and presentation of facts from school districts, teachers, DOE, and administrators

- Choose an issue

- Members discuss the issue on some kind of live forum

- Deliver two or three resolutions to the “client”

So, who’s in? Post comments about how you could contribute?  Send me an email katie (at) theteachinggame.com.