Sunday, December 19, 2010

It just takes one...

Inspiring a school district to transform is a big undertaking to say the least. There are many obstacles to change. Is the effort worthwhile? To answer that question, one would have to ask a few others: Are our children worth the time and trouble? Does their future matter?

Our school adopted a children's book as a theme this year. The book is One by Kathryn Otoshi ( http://amzn.to/hdg0pm ). The book demonstrates how it only takes "one" to make a difference. Our halls are lined with ideas from our students about the things that "one" can do. I would like to add a few.

It only takes one to be an agent of change in education and set transformation in motion.
It only takes one administrator to stop that change.
It only takes one mandated standardized test to suck the life out of teaching.

We do an activity in first and second grade called Making Words. The children are given a set of letters. By moving the letters around they change from word to word. I discovered an interesting possibility with the letters a,e,e,i,c,r,t,v. You can make the word "creative" and with one quick change, have the word "reactive". I would ask which is the more positive word? Which word would you choose to describe the future life of our children? Which is your choice for the future of education?

I took a walk this morning and enjoyed the peaceful, muffled quiet of a walk in the snow. Then it started to rain...

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