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“An unexamined life is a life not worth living”
~Socrates
I have spent my entire life getting in trouble for asking questions of everyone, parents, friends, my wife, family, politicians, superintendents, principals, and school board members. Keeping the status quo “because that is how we do it” has never sat well with me. If we do what we do because WE decide it is the best thing to do… Great. If we do what we do, and not ask the hard questions, because we are afraid of the answers, than I will continue to be in trouble a lot. One of my earliest memories of school was in the first grade when I was kept in at lunch because I did not fill in the pictures completely with the correct color crayon in the first grade. I marked all the shapes with all the correct colors; I just finished in about 1 minute because I was not that interested in coloring the shapes. The teacher sold me I had to. I asked why. She said it is to see if you know your colors. I told her I did, and I pointed to my paper with all the correct colors in the correct shapes. She then said it was a coloring activity and I said I thought it was to learn my colors. I also told her that I thought it was a waste of time to just color in shapes. She then told me that if I had to color in the shapes because she said so. Even at the age of eight I did not respond to that kind of logic so I ended up spending my lunch recess in the class coloring shapes.
Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten.”
~B.F. Skinner
During my second high school job the science department needed to hire a science teacher to fill a full-time teaching position. At the time we had 6 or 7 applications for the positions. I asked our department head what the process was for hiring a science teacher. I asked her if we (the other science teachers and I) could see the applications and sit in on the interviews when they are done. I explained since we all will be working with this person for the next few years it would be nice if we all could meet them, get to know them and help make the decision. Her reply was why would we want to do that? The department chairs and the principal make the decision. A department chair from another department said, “Yea, that’s how it has always been done.” My response was, “Just because it has been done this way for the past 10 years does not mean it is still the best way. We should talk about it as a department and see if we want to change it.” My department chair responded, “Nope, this is how we do it. I am the department chair and I get to make the decision.” We continued the debate for the next few minutes with the process staying the same. However, I did not stop there. I brought up the question at one of our department meetings (the department chair was not happy… it happens ) and every one of the other science teachers agreed with me and it turned into a mini coup. The discussion went on for the next few months and the next year all the science teachers were allowed to look over the applications and were invited to all the science interviews. Things changed but the department chair began to look at me as a trouble maker. Someone who always wants to change everything. It is not that I wanted to change things, I just ask, “can this be done better?” and see where it takes me. No matter how “politically correct”, by asking the hard questions, someone is going to be mad and upset. I realized years ago that if everyone says I am great and wonderful, I am probably not asking the right questions to effect real change. I asked the tough questions every chance I get. I have gotten better at asking them the right way at the right time. Some things changed and other things did not. But I kept on trying.
“At some point, heroic educators need to stand up and say, “No!” if this violates our values and goes against our calling of who we are and what we stand for as educators, we need to stand up and be counted. To constantly acquiesce to a dysfunctional system, to situational inadequacy, is wrong. Heroism is about personal responsibility. It’s about people who choose to assume an internal locus of control-instead of those who say: “If only… or “Yes, but…” (p. 153)
~ The Hero’s Journey, Brown and Moffett
Rock the Boat
Shawn
