Schools, like all organizations, reach tipping-point moments. For many of us that moment is here or on the horizon. Will we keep teaching what and how we have been teaching for decades, or will be respond to the real, inevitable, and irreversible changes in the world around us? We don’t weigh these questions and make these decisions lightly. But we are vastly more likely to reach sustainable outcomes if we undertake a good process, and that is what I am thinking a lot about now. So I added these two slides to my deck this week and am happy to share:
What does it mean for a school to become more innovative? My friend David Monaco, Head at Parish Episcopal in Dallas used this phrase over the phone and I told him I was going to steal the heck out of it:
There is a Jet Stream of dynamic change blowing around the world of education. You are either up in that flow, or you are still planted on the ground of the industrial age, assembly line model. Organizations that remain firmly planted because they ignore the inevitable changes of the external environment become extinct.
And what is that inevitable change. I think it is simply this: we are moving from a world where the known stayed known for periods of time that were long relative to career and life spans, to a time where the unknown is always right up ahead:
If you don’t agree with what these images convey, I would love to hear why not. If you agree, then let’s talk more about what we shall do about it!
Agree with the “jet stream” metaphor about new ideas and teaching practices. However more important is why these new ideas do not get translated into actual curriculum and school culture. Everyone should read the chapter “Fads, Fashions, and Rituals: the Instability of Curriculum Change,” in Herbert Kliebard’s book “Changing Course: American Curriculum Reform in the 20th Century,” to understand why changing the curriculum and how we teach is so difficult to institutionalize.