Change can only be made by the rank and file (from Machines Are the Easy Part)

From Machines Are the Easy Part; People Are the Hard Part. 

Illustrations by Brady Johnson

10. Change can only be made by the rank and file.

A tour guide in Nairobi told me this tale about how the Ngong (Knuckle) Hills came into being.

A giant once ravished the land. The animals of the savanna were determined to get rid of it. The big animals went in first: the elephants, the rhinos, the lions. Each in turn were soundly trounced.

That night all the ants gathered and decided each would carry a few clumps of dirt and place them on the giant while he was asleep. By the next morning the giant was buried so deeply that he never rose again. All that can be seen today are the protruding knuckles of one hand – the Ngong Hills.

Who can make the most improvements in education: The Department of Education or all teachers making small changes?

 11. You always have to do something else before you can do what you want to do. 

Schools ignore attention to infrastructure at a high cost. Putting high speed computers in the classroom without thinking about network speed and capacity, security, and teacher training is like buying a Ferrari for someone who lives on a dirt road and can’t drive.

Without reliable networks, good tech support and a degree of personal comfort in its use, teachers will not use technology – period. We are foolish to insist that teachers have a “backup plan in case the technology doesn’t work.”

You think they don’t have enough to do without creating two sets of lesson plans?

Technology has to be adequate, reliable, and secure if it’s to be used.

 
12. Teaching is harder than ever.

I have worked in education for over 25 years and am happy to report that today I work with better teachers, in better facilities, using better resources, and seeing better results than at any other time in my career.

I have also never felt my profession more heavily criticized by politicians and the press. Why?

It simply boils down to the fact that being well-educated – knowing how to communicate, to solve problems using information, and to work productively with others – is no longer optional for anyone in the current workforce. The no-brainer jobs have been taken by robots or by workers in developing countries.

It’s not that we are not doing better. It’s that we are not doing better fast enough.

 13. Research can tell you anything you'd like to hear.

Shakespeare once wrote: “The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.” Were he alive today, he might have said. “The devil can cite Statistics for his purpose.”

The current drive for “data-driven decision making” concerns me because

• Few educators REALLY have the training to make good judgments based on data (quick – define “standard deviation from the norm,” “statically significant,” or “T-score”)
• Data-gathering efforts can be constructed or interpreted to meet political ends
• We overvalue those things in education that can be quantifiably measured

Of course, I like the research that backs up my observations, gut feelings and philosophy. And, by golly, I’ll keep looking until I find it.