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.
