Change is hard

Change is hard.  This well known maxim is used in meetings across the world to help make people feel comfortable with the inevitable shifting sands.  And yet, regardless of how may times we say it...it doesn't seem to make change any easier.  The moment the C word comes out of someone's mouth, people in the room tense up and get ready for battle.  I'm sure this is true in any walk of life, but it is especially true in education, a profession that is probably 20 years behind in growth and...well...change.  Unlike business, that have to face the absurdities of people and fads everyday, education has been allowed to sit pristine and separated from society.  This is, however, rapidly changing.  School reform is here to stay.  Data, student results, and teacher evaluations, ideas that once rang out only from the ivory towers are now discussed in staff rooms and they are not leaving.  Unions and teacher leaders are growing to accept that it isn't the amount of time a teacher puts in, or the amount of experience a teacher has, but the amount of effect a teacher has that makes a difference.  School law, leadership philosophy, and evaluation systems are all changing.

Where then is the teacher?  Some are out leading the charge against testing, strict evaluation systems, and professional accountability, some are hiding in their classrooms, and some are searching to embrace new techniques and feedback systems that will be the norm in next 20 years.  As a teacher, I often wonder where my best time is spent.  There are parts of me that agree with all sides of the argument.  However, in the end, I realize each day that this change is here to stay.  I can jump on board or start swimming....but it is here.

Therefore, what will I build?  How will I integrate new ideas into my old philosophies?  How will I help struggling leaders find their voice and motivate and inspire the necessary change we need in classrooms to help our students?

I refuse to sit around the lunch table, thinking about the times 30 years ago and regretting where we are.  It is the students that matter.  They are more important than our beliefs and methods.  Their future is the only thing we should be concerned with.  Change is hard.  But only the things that are hard are worth doing and students are worth it.