I guess what concerns me the most about trying to fix all the not-working-so-well things about schools is not that I fear we cannot fix them.
It’s that we can, but we aren’t, or won’t. #
Bud the Teacher
Inquiry & Reflection for Better Learning
Oh, this is exactly correct. We know what is wrong, and we could sit down and make it better. The problem will always be dealing with the people who will lose something if we do so. From the teachers who will lose that unit they love to do in a curriculum re-alignment, to the administrators who may find their job now requires something different than what it currently does, to the people in the community who may find they will need to invest in the schools to make them something better.
Never mind the political fallout if we start to ask states to move away from the Carnegie unit, dealing with NCLB, and determining what we even want our children to learn. To do all this will require someone to step up and ask people to dream and do something amazingly new…and that’s scary. Most people probably would prefer to stay safe. Leaders don’t last long.
One thing that keeps worrying me.
I guess what concerns me the most about trying to fix all the not-working-so-well things about schools is not that I fear we cannot fix them. It’s that we can, but we aren’t, or won’t. Bud the Teacher: One…
Bud, you are 100% correct!
Improving schools is not like, say, astrophysics, where you are working at the frontiers of knowledge. By looking at more successful school models (private schools, parochial schools, Singapore, Taiwan, etc.) we can see how to make schools better, but the entrenched powers simply won’t let it happen.
When it comes to education, especially policy, who is included in “we”?
Renee,
I guess I’m being liberal with the word. I was thinking “we” as in “we, the people.”
I’m with you on this. I believe we have enough information and enough knowledge to make the changes that need to be made but there is not the collective will nor desire to do this as it might cause even more undo trauma for teachers. It is better to dance with the devil you know than to risk trying one you don’t or something like that! Besides, it would mean changing the way schools look, feel, smell, taste and sound which scares the adults since it would mean having to share control with, ulp, students and risk having to bring parents right into the classroom to show them what is happening, why, how and where we hope it will take us and then ask for their help. We know what to do, we just aren’t.