Recent ly I have been reading through a bunch of posts and blogs on the PLP Ning site. A reoccuring theme in these discussions is; Why would anyone not want to make changes to not only how they teach but to the whole system of educaton? This is my response to that line of thinking.

Why are some people reluctant to changing education in the ways that we think it should be changed?!? You’re kidding right? We are advocating nothing less than a wholesale revolution in education. We are saying that the system that everyone, living and dead, since the industrial revolution has been educated in and has been enshrined in our culture as a basic right, is not only broken, but irreparably broken. We are advocating a complete paradigm shift in how we “do” education in our culture. We are doing this at a time when politically, we are in the midst of a conservative resurgence. It’s like walking into a meeting of the tea party and announcing that capitalism is a failure and we are now going to implement a communist economic system!

We are the revolutionaries. We are the radicals. We are the people who are persecuted for our beliefs in this scenario. We need to keep in mind that most other people have not even started to think about how the changing landscape of information processing will affect them let alone the structures of our society. Of those people who do feel the ground shifting beneath them, there are at least as many who want to resist the change and hang on to their old familiar institutions to preserve the traditions and heritage of the culture as there are who want to change them.

Do not doubt that we are in for a long and difficult struggle to change our education system. We will have to convince not only a majority of our collegues, but also parents, and politicians before any real, meaningful, lasting , institutional change happens. That does not mean however, that we cannot individually make positive changes in our classrooms and schools at a grass roots level to more accuratly reflect and teach about the world our students live in.

Take it from an old radical, change is hard, and it is hardest on the ones who want the change the most. It is, however, worth it and in the end one or two of us will be remembered as visionaries.