The philosopher Otto Neurath once offered a beautiful metaphor when he compared the evolving nature of knowledge to a boat that must be repaired at sea: “We are like sailors who on the open sea must reconstruct their ship but are never able to start afresh from the bottom…”. This image has been used to describe the dilemma, and opportunity, of those who are attempting to make changes within an already-moving enterprise. The idea is that -- absent the luxury of a dry dock -- teachers and educational leaders need to make changes one plank at a time.
My own sense is that we must do both things: rebuild our boats on the move and establish dry docks to create something new from the ground up.
In existing schools, maybe we can identify those one or two pivotal changes that will ultimately put us on the path to rethinking our entire way of doing things. Perhaps we run a pilot program on mixed age learning cohorts, or maybe we introduce project-based learning as a central part of the program. Note that this cannot simply be a matter of replacing the planks in the boat, for if we do just that, we end up with the same structure. It must instead be a matter of subtly changing the design of the boat one initiative at a time.
At the provincial or state level, maybe it is time to create some “dry docks” -- by supporting laboratory schools connected to universities, for example, or by creating special “demonstration schools” within districts. In the latter case, districts would need to be upfront about what they are attempting to do and who should be involved. Students, parents and staff alike should be able to come to these schools with a clear picture of what they are getting into. Districts and parents should understand, moreover, that the core rationale for creating these schools is not to provide greater choice for students and families, but instead to explore ways to improve the quality of education for all.
In all cases, we would also be well served in further investigating more outlier schools (both public and independent) to find out what is promising and what is not.
The point is that, as teachers and educational leaders alike, we need to begin from an entry point that is realistic and doable within the context of our own particular situation. That said, I think we need to be at least a little impatient in our desire to make changes for the better. While we can’t make expansive transformations overnight, teachers and administrators alike need to maintain a quiet determination to move things along by being active and persistent agents for positive change.
Dr. Ted Spear has over 25 years of teaching and administrative experience in public and independent schools. In July, 2019 he published a book about the future of education entitled, Education Reimagined: The Schools Our Children Need. He is an engaging speaker who invites parents and educators to change the way we think about schools.