Culture on my mind
Saturday, June 27, 2015 at 07:27AM Culture
: the beliefs, customs, arts, etc., of a particular society, group, place, or time
: a particular society that has its own beliefs, ways of life, art, etc.
: a way of thinking, behaving, or working that exists in a place or organization (such as a business)
What is the difference between Iowa and yogurt? Yogurt has an active culture (old Minnesota joke)
The term culture has been much on my mind recently. As a part of my district's administrative team, I participated in two more days of cultural proficiency training - practicing viewing the cultural diversity richness of our students and community as an asset rather than a problem. A very good thing for students and adults alike.
The news has been full of culturallly significant events - the legalization of gay marriage, the upholding of the Affordable Care Act, the removal of the Confederate flag from not just the government grounds in Charlotte, but from Amazon, Target, and Apple marketplaces. Gee, the goverment can work on behalf of groups other than the 1%ers.
I can't remember a week that I felt that both our school and national cultures were actually moving, changing in a positive way. Cultural change moves at the rate of the second hand on the clock. It happens but most often it is imperceptible. And that very imperceptibility can be discouraging.
Libraries and technology can and do have a direct impact on a school's culture - both intentionally and unintentionally. In addition to the happenings I listed above, I also attended a workshop on FERPA and student data privacy, that morphed into a boogeyman lecture on online security. Somehow the dots that were being connected were that if your district policy was to let teachers independently download apps or sign up for services without district technology security approval, the next day Iranian hackers would penetrate your firewall through spoofing and steal all your employee social security numbers and student's test score data. I am a little surprised that the man giving the lecture was not wearing a helmet just because you never know when a brick will fall from the sky. (It has happened, you know.)
I am wondering how many of the hundred or so educators in attendance now will go back and try enforce draconian security policies - and thus move the school's culture to one that fears rather than embraces and uses technology to improve learning.
It's important for each of us to remember that through our actions, inactions, and statements each of us does impact the cultures in which we live and work. It's probably dangerous to forget that.
Happy week!
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