In the first instalment of this series, I hoped to show that ‘change’ in public education must be hard. No matter how much we might (say we) want it, things seem to stay the same. I noted what hasn’t changed over the last few decades (children, adults, schools, administrators, the insularity of public education systems, funding concerns, Trustees, or politicians, to name just a few).
So, why?? Why isn’t public education changing? To be honest – I can’t say I know all of the factors. But I sure have opinions. I always do. I might add more factors as I go, but I already know I want to comment on at least five things. Later instalments will talk a bit about things like ‘change management’, ‘implementation science’, ‘organizational psychology’, and ‘power and politics’.
But for today, I want to share with you the main idea that links everything together. Why is change SO hard? Well, IMO, mostly because of human nature. In short . . .
People Are Weird.
I think that ‘people are weird’ explains quite a bit about the difficulties of change in public education. We’re certainly animals, and we have characteristics of other animals put together in weird combinations.
People are like puppies
People are perfect; like puppies.
They can be full of energy but then they ‘crash’ at a momoment’s notice and are sound asleep.
They start off pretty-much confined to sticking with their little pack (litter), but it doesn’t take long before a few brave ones start wandering farther and farther from the rest of the pack.
Puppies are driven by different motivators. Some are primarily ‘prey’ driven. They just want to chase something. Some are almost entirely ‘food’ driven. They’ll do absolutely anything for a treat. It’s fun to watch the ones who are ‘play’ driven. They’ll find a way to use just about anything like a toy and tempt all those around them into playing a fun game.
Puppies have an amazing capacity to learn, but you better not ask them to pay attention for more than a few minutes at a time.
People are like puppies. Imagine putting a litter of puppies in charge of changing an educational system.
People are like elephants
People are wonderful; Like elephants.
Elephants are wise, and they remember forever. They operate under the principle of ‘slow and steady wins the race’. They care for each other to the point where their grief is palpable in the face of loss.
A herd of elephants “knows” deep in its collective soul to always go back to a place of sustenance and safety (water). They don’t stampede across a continent. They are slow moving; slow and steady. There is strong leadership. And that strong leadership is ‘programmed’ to always go back to the same place, year after year.
People are like elephants. Imagine putting a herd of elephants in charge of changing an educational system.
People are like snakes
People are fascinating; like snakes.
Snakes are wonderful creatures, but they are also unpredictable and unreliable. They seem slippery. You can’t pin them down easily. They know what they want and they’ll swallow a mouse whole, if need be. I could watch a snake with fascination, but I wouldn’t trust it. We might think that they warn before striking (think the rattle of the rattle-snake, or the hiss of the cobra). But really, snakes are self-interested. They don’t rattle before they strike when they are attacking prey. Only if it’s to their benefit (to warn off something that could be dangerous to them) will they warn before they strike.
People are like snakes. Imagine putting snakes in charge of changing an educational system.
People Are Weird
People are weird. They are like a cross between an elephant and snake and puppy (with lots of other characteristics thrown in, of course). Let’s just say ‘it’s complicated’
We’re going to need to keep in mind that humans are animals, and human nature (which has commonality with other animals’ natures) *has to be accounted for* when we try to understand how change does/doesn’t/could occur in public education.
People need to be like ants and fish
We also needs to understand something else about people though. They’re not just individuals with their various unique manifestations of human nature. They also operate as part of systems. As ants carrying logs, or fish moving in schools, humans have to organize themselves to move together. Public education is an ‘effort’ to move together, I think. But unlike ants banding together to carry objects they couldn’t possible carry as individuals (that’s their ‘task’), we don’t always know what the task is in public education. What *is* the exact purpose of public education? There really is no ‘shared understanding’ of that, among us all. And we don’t always know the right direction to move. We’re not really like a school of fish, where a shared destination seems to be driving movement. These ideas of ‘what are we trying to accomplish?’ and ‘how do we get to our destination?’ will re-assert themselves as this blog progresses.
Following instalments will address two related concepts of change management (what are the necessary elements to manage in order to actually get change), and implementation science (what needs to happen to implement something new), as well as how large organizations function (organizational psychology) and the biggest element of all, ‘power and politics’.
And even though I dont’ have any magic bullet answers, after looking at the elements of ‘why change is SO hard’, I’ll eventually try to make a few suggestions about ‘what can be done about it’.
Stay tuned!
Sara Peden 