We have been hearing a lot about change, lately. That word is falling from the lips of our presidential candidates with greater and greater frequency. The general concensus seems to be that we are all pretty frustrated with the state of our country right now, so change is not only good–it is crucial.
Why is it then, that when the educational voices from “on high” tell us that it is time for some rethinking of our teaching methods, we teachers sometimes react as if that change is the worst thing that could possibly happen? Phrases like “paradigm shift” , “out of our comfort zone” , and “new educational initiative” fill us with a sense of dread.
Part of the reason, I think, is that most teachers have spent years getting their “stuff” together, and just about the time they think they are organized enough to take a breath, some new strategy mandate comes down the pike, and they have to start again.
There are other reasons–we may be having success teaching as we have been, and don’t see a reason to rock that boat, or we see a strategy as a flash-in-the-pan, and are not quite sure that it is worth our time to re-adjust perfectly good lesson plans. And let’s face it, sometimes we just are too tired or (GASP!) too lazy to make the effort.
Back in the day when I was a fresh-faced undergrad, I wrote a paper in which I suggested that the best thing that could happen to education would be to trash the whole system and rebuild it from the ground up. I did not realize at the time how logistically impossible that would be.
Well, now I am older, and a little more realistic in my outlook. I recognize that, having turned the corner into the 21st Century, it is time for us to re-examine how we teach those “digital natives” who just plain learn differently than students of the 20th Century did. There is more and more brain research that indicates that this is a fact. The times they are a-changin’, and we have a responsibility to keep up!
In a workshop that I teach, I cited as an Essential Understanding that “change causes conflict, and conflict causes change.” That statement holds true in education, as it does in other areas of our lives. New teaching strategies , new technologies and methodologies DO cause us a certain amount of discomfort.
But, dedicated educators will do as they always have done. They will examine and use the best of those practices to ensure that, for our students, change is not only beneficial, it is exciting!
OH–BTW–if you wonder what inspired these musings–you can blame a comment to this blog from Debbie Underwood! <grin>
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