Problems

We live in a world that is fascinated by solutions. Not just solutions, but quick solutions. Between kitchen gadgets that create great meals in half the time to 6 minute ab workouts that promise to undo what those meals did to us, we like what we want, when we want it. Why not?! We live in a consumer-based society where products and businesses seek to provide us with just that. Perhaps that is why education and learning can be frustrating. We want results now, not at the end of a unit, a semester or a year. What we get is often quite different.

Modern research on education says that it takes six full years to fully turn around a high school. While the evidence tells us that, none of us can imagine writing a 6-year PDP goal. Our SMART goals seek quick and measurable student growth highlighted with benchmark assessments that tell us exactly what we should predict on an end of course assessment. We further exacerbate this problem by seeking quick solutions through curriculum changes, technology updates, new programs and new textbooks. We spend millions of dollars and man hours on solutions. These are just tools. What we really need is a better understanding of our problems.

Just think. When your best plans failed because you realized that your students were not ready for that activity or method, you better understood them as students and made a change. You may have even felt failure at the lesson not working, but as a result, you changed and learned something valuable about your class. The solution was not the lesson, the solution was in understanding the classroom problem.

Educational solutions do not come quick. They are hard fought, hard learned, and come with long hours, sweat and tears. Growth is hard. Here is what I know...we are on the right track and we are understanding this unique problem that we call school. We are creating the solution.