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?”