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' I am entirely certain that twenty years from now we will look back at education as it is practiced in most schools today and wonder how we could have tolerated anything so primitive.' John W Gardner
Aug
04
Are We Our Own Worst Enemy?
Filed Under (Uncategorized) by Beth Still on 04-08-2010
I wanted to do a little experiment so I sent out a tweet asking for people to tell me in one or two words what the object in the picture was. I figured I would get a variety of replies, but what I got was very interesting. The thing in the picture was referred to as a couch, sofa, loveseat, davenport, Ikea Ektop, beige couch, and chesterfield. My favorite reply was from someone who called it an uncomfortable nap. (Agreed!)
So why did I ask such an insanely ridiculous question? I wanted to prove a point. Most of us call this either a sofa, couch, or loveseat, but what if you were one of the people who called it something else? Would you be wrong? Are the people who refer to this object by a more common name more correct? An even more important question is does it really matter?
Seventeen people replied when I asked them to name the object in the picture. Let’s pretend for a moment that instead I had asked for people to define reform. If seventeen people provided eight different answers when I asked for the name of a simple piece of furniture how many different definitions would you expect to see? My guess would be no fewer than seventeen. Defining an abstract concept such as reform is much more difficult because how we define it is guided by our life experiences.
A Google search for the definition yielded the following results. I have eliminated the ones not related to this post.
- make changes for improvement in order to remove abuse and injustices
- bring, lead, or force to abandon a wrong or evil course of life, conduct, and adopt a right one
- a change for the better as a result of correcting abuses
- improve by alteration or correction of errors or defects and put into a better condition
- a campaign aimed to correct abuses or malpractices
- change for the better
- self-improvement in behavior or morals by abandoning some vice
Which of these definitions do you think of when you think of educational reform? All of them? None of them? What does educational reform really mean and what does it look like? I can barely answer that for myself, much less anyone else. I know it means changing what is done in our classrooms. But what does that mean? I know it means doing things better. But what does that mean? I know it means working towards making myself better equipped to teach my students who are 21st century learners. BUT WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
I think a very simplistic definition of educational reform is “improving our current educational system.” But how do we do this? What is our vision? Do we have a common vision or is this such a complex question that each person will have their own individual answer? While we each have our own idea of what educational reform looks like, it is critical that we have a common vision before we can move forward. I think this is true for individual schools, districts, states, and ultimately a national vision for school reform. In order to move forward we must work together to achieve educational reform.
In order to hammer out a common vision of what educational reform looks like we have to talk about it. Conversations that center around this are a good thing to have, right? Not so fast. Twitter seems to be the most popular place for conversations surrounding educational reform to occur. There are several groups that voluntarily come together on a regular basis to discuss different issues in education. Edchat is one of the most popular. It seems like there are different variations of Edchat now that focus on specific content areas. There are also different unconferences that have sprung up around the country where people get together to talk about issues in education. Some of these conferences happen in face-to-face venues like Edcamp Philly while some are virtual like the Reform Symposium that just happened last weekend.
All of these conversations help move us towards a better and possibly more common vision for what educational reform means. For many it helps paint a picture of what we are working towards. I have no doubt that some of the ideas that come from these conversations are not all good, but at least the conversation is happening. Let’s go back to the sofa (couch, loveseat, whatever) for a minute. If the seventeen people who replied to my tweet started having regular conversations about the “sofa” and they consistently used the word “sofa” then eventually the other terms would not be used at all. As new people join the conversation they will start referring to the piece of furniture as the sofa, too. I believe the same holds true for coming to an agreement about educational reform. The more we discuss it them more common our vision becomes.
Some people have been in the business of educational reform for as long as I have been alive, while others are just barely beginning to realize that they want to be part of the movement that brings change to our educational system. Unfortunately, there are a few people who seem to have a bee in their bonnet when it comes to us talking about school reform out in the open. They are very critical of the topics that are discussed and the various forums that are used to discuss these ideas. For reasons that I do not understand, they feel compelled to insult the people who are trying to make change happen. Instead of sharing their valuable expertise they take pride in making fun of the efforts of others. Instead of taking the time to share their ideas and insight, they waste time taking jabs at those who are truly dedicated to making sure educational reform happens.
By working against each others efforts, I believe that we have indeed, become our own worst enemy.
6 Responses to “Are We Our Own Worst Enemy?”
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August 4th, 2010 at 6:27 p
Brilliant post Beth. Thanks for speaking so highly of Edchat and the other events you mentioned.
I consider myself lucky. Lucky in the fact that I have an outlet to talk about these ideas that I have had for a long time. When I became a teacher I had grand ideas of what an education should be. And then the wake up call came when I got my own classroom and the pressures of district/state/national standards and testing began to pile on. Wait, this isn’t right? Learning is supposed to be fun and engaging yet so many try to suck the fun right out of the room. But I had no one to talk to about it, for years. Yeah, there were a few people around me but we all said the same thing. It wasn’t until I joined Twitter and other social networks and found other like-minded individuals that I could flesh out my ideas of what education should look like. What was and is great is that we don’t always agree, and you know, that’s alright.
Edchat and other conversations about reform are valuable. They are getting educators who, normally would not have that outlet, talking. A movement is brewing and I think that threatens the livelihood of some who have been talking about this stuff for a while. Or perhaps it is just that our ideas are different and people don’t like different. So instead of engaging in conversation they sit back and use their “status” to bash, complain and dismiss those who are actually talking. The beauty of all this is I can point you to countless people that, because of a conversation they had on Twitter or Edchat, effected real change in their school. So to those that say we are irrelevant or who say we can’t change anything in 140 characters, I say, perhaps it is time to open up minds and really take a look at what is going on.
Thanks for the awesome post Beth. As always, you rock!
August 4th, 2010 at 6:43 p
Beth –
I love this post!
Common language is developed in community, through conversation. In fact, I think learning is communal, in general.
I am so glad you took the time to write this, and, I hope, get all of us thinking together.
August 5th, 2010 at 12:23 p
Problem is: at some point educators are going to HAVE to agree about what reform is and what it looks like. How will the changes take place if there is no agreement? I have a feelign we are not going to get to a national, state, local consensus on this.
The couch/sofa/loveseat is just a couch/sofa/loveseat. Use of it doesn’t have far reaching effects like education. So while we can all call that thing what we like with little imapct (simple misunderstandings perhaps), we can’t all talk about reform if there is no clear description or definition.
You are right is saying we need clarity and to stay together. But your needed school reform may not be what my school needs.
August 5th, 2010 at 3:07 p
The problem with us all coming to a consensus on what reform looks like is somewhat different than the problem with us all coming to a consensus about what to call a sofa. Sure, if we all decide that that thing is a sofa it might lead sofa manufacturers to produce less diverse types of sofas but that is not nearly as likely as it is with reform. If we all have to come to a consensus about what reform looks like it will mean that many many different kinds of learning environments will be written off and consolidated into a package ready for mass production. I don’t think that serves the needs of our kids. It has not served the needs of most of them for as long as we have been doing that. We need more divergent thinking, not less. We need more opportunity for learning environments (you can call them schools if you must) to be allowed to come into existence that liberate those students not served well by our scripted curriculum written primarily for those with learning needs best met through systematic, monolithic, one-sided, concrete-sequential modality. Reform is necessary NOT to come up with another ONE-SIZE-FITS-ALL model but rather to liberate liberate liberate DIVERGENT ideas and allow for PLURALISTIC approaches to teaching and learning to happen. We have already gone down the road of “We all need to be on the same page,” for too long and look where we are. The pushback against #edchat and #rscon10 I have seen has all been an attempt to try and prevent us from coming to a common concept, that would be disastrous.
August 6th, 2010 at 9:04 p
Your “sofa” exercise and analogy demonstrates, for me, one of the paradoxes of our experience with language. As a unifying force, Sue Densmore points out, we share a common language and we develop a stronger sense of community. However, as a divisive force, we have all seen what can happen when the meaning of a word or a label becomes fixed and concrete: a standard or norm is created and anything or anyone outside of that becomes the “other”.
One example of this in education has been the “one-size-fits-all” model for ‘regular’ students, with the option of special education for those who are ‘exceptional’. But, when you consider that the foundation of special education is responding to the strengths and needs of individual students, I can’t help but wonder if we have many divergent and pluralistic approaches right there, staring us in the face. The number of students enrolled in special education continues to rise; this shouldn’t surprise us when we know that every student, in one way or another, will have varying strengths and needs as they grow and learn. If they can’t be met in the ‘regular’ classroom, they must be met elsewhere.
It would be interesting to try the “sofa exercise” with the word “special”. And then try it again with the word “inclusive”.
I’m writing from Canada, so I have to admit I’m not terribly familiar with specific issues around education reform in the U.S. I’m curious as to whether those who are looking at education reform are considering other models for ideas. I recently read about the educational system in Nunavut. They were finally given responsibility for the education of the Inuit people in 1999 and, because they were able to start from scratch, they’re approach has been studied in recent educational research. They have been praised as an outstanding example of how learner diversity is facilitated as they focus on empowering the classroom teacher with the skills and knowledge to meet the needs of all children. They have an incredibly rich communal life and philosophy, and they also ardently avoid “one-size-fits-all”.
July 13th, 2011 at 4:23 p
I think you identify an interesting concept in your discussion of the ‘one size fits all’ mentality Tracey. Clearly, this philosophy does not work in education, however much the authorities try to promote national consistency and coherence in schools. In a country as large and diverse as the US I simply do not believe that this is possible. Nor indeed does it seem the best tactic to pursue; instead of trying to come to a general consensus over educational reform, I think we need to take a more individualistic approach, responding to specific needs.