Telling New Stories
One of the biggest problems we have in education is that everyone is an expert. Almost everyone in our society has spent years involved with the educational system, first as a student and then as a parent. What other profession can say this? For example, besides contractors and engineers, who else has spent that much time with architects?
If people were successful in the system, or if their kids are successful in the system, they see no need to change it. If people did poorly in the system, they may see the need for change, but more likely they discount schools as irrelevant.
We need new stories about education but it may take a generation to change.
The kids currently in the system, if they are being poorly served, need to be creating knowledge on their own, readying themselves for the digital economy. But the kids who are being well served, those who are in classrooms that are preparing kids for the advanced economy, are few and far between.
We need new stories for classrooms. Stories that emphasize what our mission is now and how it has changed. The problem is, can we collect enough of these stories, can we tell enough of these stories before our schools become fossilized into a mission from a past age while new types of institutions form around us?
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