One Possible Reason Why Education Won’t Innovate

Two teachers in Chapel Hill, North Carolina have been reassigned to another school in the district.  They haven’t lost their jobs.  They haven’t had a reduction in pay.

They simply have been assigned another work location.

And finally, today, they have dropped a lawsuit brought against the Orange County Schools:

CHAPEL HILL — Two teachers say they will end their fight to stay at Chapel Hill High after a judge denied requests to delay their forced transfers to other schools.

Anne Thompson and Bert Wartski said it would not make sense to keep challenging Superintendent Thomas Forcella’s removing them from the school they’ve taught at a combined 45 years.

If you believe that schools in America are in horrible shape, and some don’t, this is a leading reason why:

Soo countered that some coworkers saw Thompson, who taught at Chapel Hill High for 26 years, and Wartski, who taught there for 19 years, as the “old guard” standing in the way of change.

Organizations require flexibility in order to meet new challenges.  Systems need to be developed and implemented so that new technologies, techniques and innovations can be leveraged.

Employees entrenched with a fixation on “how things have always worked” often lead to delays in such innovations.  New ideas require adaptable personalities.

Now, to be very sure, this doesn’t imply that a simple embrace of new things is more desirable than years of experience.  26 and 19 years in place is an extraordinary amount of very valuable experience.  However, the need to adapt can often be more of a driving need than expertise in an obsolete method.

 

4 responses to “One Possible Reason Why Education Won’t Innovate

  1. I teach at the college level, so it’s different, but we have an “innovation agreement” whereby professors can do new and innovative things with a promise that if things go wrong they won’t be punished for trying. Right now education is changing at a dramatic pace. Even in public schools I notice that they are shifting with the info revolution and globalization. I have encountered people who don’t like change – who are comfortable with how things have been. But most people truly committed to education know and agree that we have to adapt to changing economic, cultural and technological circumstances if we’re going to prepare young people for the world they will encounter. I teach much differently now than I did when I started 20 years ago, and I suspect and hope that change continues!

  2. I would love to repost this at RNL. There are two liberal fellas that I chat with over there and they are both in the education field. (James and CCF)

    I’ll only do it if you give me permission. Naturally, you’ll receive all the credit minus the paycheck…. 😉

  3. Thanks, luv! I’ll put it together….

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