Why Not?

Just got off the phone with an education professional who sees the possibilities.  She has thirty years experience in the education system and instead of being mired in the traditionalistic views that many who have served so long end up in, she has a contagious eagerness to create impactful and beneficial changes.  In my experience, this is rare… quite rare.

As we rambled back and forth with erupting ideas, and the natural enthusiasm for having found a cohort in a mutual quest for improving school systems, we saw many new and readily available possibilities that evoked a simple question.  “Why not?” 

• Why not shift the emphasis from teacher-centric strategies to learner-centric strategies? 
• Why not use technology to release teachers from the droning repetition of rote lessons and elevate their student interactions to the higher levels of subject integration?  
• Why not save money and also accelerate each student’s progress? 
• Why not use algorithmic software to track each student’s progress, rate of learning, and areas of need?
• Why not embrace the obvious momentum, the inevitable integration of new visions for a remarkable learning system that gives our children the greatest advantage in a global economy that is quickly distancing itself from what we are providing? 
• Why not accelerate the rate of change and simultaneously create solidly effective foundations?
• Why not invite the teacher unions to take the lead in transformation instead of applying the brakes of traditionalism?
• Why not create individual learning tracks that allow students to learn at their own pace, in their own direction of interest, and in the manner that best suits their personal learning styles?

As we chattered on, each nudging the other from the proverbial microphone, we prudently retained a whisper of caution – realizing the wheels of change grind slowly in school systems.  The process is tantamount to moving a mountain that does not want to be moved and only having a single spoon to move it.  Yet, we still saw the possibilities and were excited that someone else agreed. 

Where two can see the same horizon and the same paths that cross over it, more can come and stand with us.  Maybe all they need is to be invited… and to be asked, “Why not?”

Being the Ant On the Elephant's Trunk

A while back I read an amazing book by Vince Poscente about change management called "The Ant And The Elephant - Leadership For The Self" where the tiny ant rode around on an elephant trying to help it change direction - for the benefit of the elephant.  It is a great metaphorical message and I recommend it to anyone studying change management.

In the book the ant represents the conscious mind and the elephant represents the enormous, powerful, and difference-making sub-conscious mind.  The metaphor also carries over to organizational culture and bureaucratic change applications.  The small influence of a knowing leader trying to get the entire organization to shift direction, shift behaviors, shift expectations, etc. becomes like an ant on an elephant.  The current crisis at the Veterans Administration is an example of "bureaucracy out of control" and asking one person (even the Director) to change it is like asking an ant riding upon an elephant to change the pachyderm's direction.

When I look at our national education system as a conglomerated bureaucracy it is easy to see it as the elephant.  The voices of the many who cry out for change are the cacophonic ants who are frantically trying to keep the elephant from heading over a cliff.  But, they do not cry out in unison.  

I have failed to give my loudest plea, and therefore accept the responsibility of education's peril as much as I can own.  For some, myself included, the urge to save this plodding, stumbling, and ill-fated monstrosity is like watching a trainload of first graders chugging toward a ravine with no bridge.  I constantly wonder, "Which ant will be heard?"  

In Poscente's book, the key to reaching the elephant's will comes through the ear.  But too often our agents of educational change rush out front and position themselves on the trunk because it is farthest forward.  Well, if you have ever watched an elephant walk you can see the problem; everything moves all over the place, and the trunk is constantly moving the most.  

Being the ant on the elephant's trunk may seem like a brave and "leader-like" thing to do, but it changes nothing.  In order to save the train of children, we must come together in our voice.  We must compose a message the elephant will revere and heed. We must gather at its ear and shout in unison.  

The longer we ants rely on our own single voice, the closer we get to the cliff's edge.