Can we move a rubber tree plant?

I have been doing quite a lot of reading and commenting over the long weekend. This has given me a chance to read and contemplate what others are saying which is always good. Also, I’ve been thinking about what the new school year will bring. With only 5 weeks left, the new school year is approaching quickly while this school year is racing towards its end.

I came across an interesting piece over at Harold Jarche’s site. What is weighing down learning? looks at some interesting ideas concerning the inertia of our modern educational system. Now, I agree with some of what is being said about the school systems. My comment went something like this:

I would agree with some of the underlying assumptions. However, we are still very much driven with by a society that hasn’t moved out of the industrial mindset. As much as we say that things are flattening and changing, much of what happens in the day-to-day life of many N.A. people is still following the same system as it did years ago. Until society changes its view of what schooling is all about and we can come to grips with a youth population that thinks very differently, the present system will prevail with all its flaws. As I deal with students and parents as an administrator, we are seeing a different type of parent - one that wants to protect their child from all ills and consequences to the point where they will take the blame for what the child does. At present, compulsory education now allows both parents to seek employment without incurring the cost of childcare and, with the advent of school extra-curricular programming, provides parents with after-school care so that there is little out of pocket expense. With the advent of childlabour laws, there is little that children can do but go to school unless one parent stays home which, in our society of excess, isn’t necessarily the norm. Marco Polo asks “Who gets to decide?” Is he implying that children get to decide whether they go to school? As I’ve wondered in other discussions, have we entered an era when adults, wanting to enjoy the wonders that our society is creating, are wanting to divest themselves of the responsibility of raising the youth therefore giving them the choice of what they do with the idea that society, with its market mentality, will provide the appropriate consequences if the decisions are not in line with what society will tolerate based on the ideals that society, with its morales and values, will dictate what is allowable and not allowable. Of course, I could be out to lunch!

Now, I could be out to lunch. However, if I am, I’m hoping that I’m at least able to order a clubhouse on brown. If not, then our discussion needs to focus on how we move a system that is embedded in a societal mindset contrary to what we know our students will need to be successful in the future? We also must take into account that the students within the system no longer see things in the same manner that many of the adults do. As I study more about the youth culture, a recurring theme is “It is ________ because I believe it is” where you can substitute a variety of things including truth, right, wrong, good, bad. This individualistic look at societal issues will definitely influence how our schools and education systems will need to adapt and change. So, like the ant with the rubber tree - we cannot move the system alone. We cannot move the system without bridging the societal divergence that exists between those in the system and those in the society in which the system exists. Many of us see that the system must change but, like that ant, we cannot change the system. We must get help from the rest of the society or that plant will stay put. Changing the system, I think, will only come about when we see a change in the way society views the role of schools. People can say they think schools do many things but until they are able to agree that the current system does not fit those within and that learning is something that extends beyond the walls of any institution, we’ll continue in the current industrial mode. It fits our two income lifestyle which we don’t want to lose as it provides us with the necessary income to have the luxuries that our industries produce. Of course, I could be out to lunch - clubhouse on brown, please with a tall glass of ice-water.