BFTP: The good girls/good boys club
Monday, June 15, 2020 at 05:49AM While this was written as a reflection on the lack of change in the educational system, I am growing increasingly aware that it also applies to the larger society...
Job preservation is commonly cited as a factor in resistance to change in education. But I am suspicious there is a stronger reason as well.
I call it the good girls/boys club.
Most of our school leaders - directors, principals, superintendents, union leaders, etc. - have been very well served by our traditional education system. Performing well academically, conforming to standards and norms, and even behaving well have allowed our current teaching staff and administration to obtain the degrees needed to get their current positions. (Myself included.)
So consciously or unconsciously, do we as humans protect and maintain systems that have personally served us well?
As my rather cynical (and still unpublished) article "The Illusion of Change" suggests:
... what impetus is there for innovation if the one in charge of change has done quite well under the current system? They don’t pull superintendents, principals, or classroom teachers from the ranks of those whom the current education system failed! (Well, maybe a few tech directors, but they are different case.) College professors are the total masters the educational system – having risen to pinnacle of academia simply by being very, very good at “school.” And you expect them to change this perfect system that rewards the best - they themselves? Please.
The reason these “leaders” have the ability, the position, the power to make change is that they have all have succeeded in some fashion in a traditional education model. And subliminal questions run through every decision they make - "Is this change going to screw up the system that has made it possible for me to hold my position?" "Why do that which might shake me from my current branch?"
They will therefore only initiate those changes that don't really change anything very much, that won't threaten their standing in their school or community. Risks are for fools, especially when taken for anyone outside their own genetic make up or social class. Both Zorro and the Scarlet Pimpernel were, after all, quite fictional.
As our populations become more diverse, as our technologies change, and as the demands placed on education grow, we in the good girls and boys club must be aware of how we may be protecting an outmoded system that serves an increasingly small slice of the population. Future educators, perhaps?
Reader Comments (2)
Wow! I couldn't agree more with your thoughts about the lack of change in our educational system. I've just retired from 20 years as an elementary school librarian (I started late in the field of education---came from many years working in offices), frustrated by the fact that our educational system is the same now, for the most part, as it was 60 plus years ago. We still essentially pay no attention to a child's individual talents, gifts, learning styles, needs, etc. The months of emergency remote learning/teaching over the past few months has made the deficiencies in the system even more pronounced. It is definitely an outmoded way of educating children. I look forward to reading more of your thoughts on this!
Hi Anne,
Thanks so much for the thoughtful comment. I just retired after 43 years in education (starting at age 24). And classrooms still look pretty familiar to me, with perhaps the exception of ill-used computing devices! I've been fighting for personalization for years and years without much success, but the closest I got were the years I was a school librarian.
Take care,
Doug