Those of us who are able to tackle the job of improving
our public school system should be very, very afraid. We stand with each
foot in a separate boat. The boats have been released from their mooring,
and set adrift, they are moving away from each other. Being
products of the very system we seek to change, we are stuck waiting for someone
else to assign us a solution or a text to read that will tell us what to
do. But, life does not go according to the practices of schools.
Most every decision we make in life is one we had to figure out on our own.
Those of us who have been in two boats at the same time
know that waiting only gets us wet. Earlier decisions... uh, earlier
better decisions bring us relief, dry feet, and commitment to a singular solution.
The hope of continuing in the old boat while committing to the new boat's
promising future is akin to walking on two paths simultaneously. Can't be
done and shouldn't be attempted.
There is writing on the wall. If you can't see it
from where you stand - step closer. Whether you look for it or foolishly
wait for it to reach out from the paint and grab your sleeve - it is still
there. Like a tornado warning that falls under the desk, it is still
there and the tornado is still coming, whether or not we look for the
report.
The gap between what students need to know and what they
are being taught in public schools is widening exponentially each year.
The problem is monumental and includes millions of stakeholders in more than
100,000 organizations, schools, universities, businesses, governments, and
institutions. The problem we see isn't the actual problem. The
actual problem is that we are all products of the system we seek to change.
Just as if a top Microsoft engineer was asked to make Windows
7 run like Leopard OS X the task would be insurmountable because the Microsoft
mentality and culture that he/she absorbed in order to succeed would inhibit
and taint the need for new thoughts and ways of building an operating
system. The solution provider would need to be someone who knows Windows
7 but left Microsoft and went to work for Apple developing the Leopard OS X
system. The problem we see, converting the system, isn't the main
issue. The main issue is inside the existing mentality that prohibits
Microsoft from hiring the programmer from Apple who once rejected Microsoft and
left. Territorialism is the problem.
In trying to solve the pending crisis of our two-boated
leaders, their insistence that they know best, even though they themselves
perpetuated and still advocate for the existing system, fails to inspire
confidence. At the rate we are changing, by my conservative estimate, we
will be lucky to move halfway toward any collaborative and effective solution
within 10-15 years. That is an entire generation of children, and the
problem is still only halfway solved.
Why is the peril ours if we ignore the writing on the
wall? Because the system will continue to produce new members of our
society - new retail clerks, new sales reps, new factory workers, and new
delivery drivers as well as new college students, engineers, managers, and
voters. Most terrifying of all is that the system that needs to be
changed will continue to produce new teachers for the next 10-30 years.
The longer we ignore the tornado report, the closer the
tornado looms. We are going to be dealing with these members of our
community who could be so much more prepared to contribute instead of being a
burden to the economy, the cultural goodness we love to experience, and other
areas where they are not providing good thinking and good solutions.
And, besides, who is going to teach them to decide for
themselves what boat is best before they get soaked?
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