The Saber-Tooth Curriculum is a wonderful story of the way in which educational change—and perhaps any meaningful change in virtually any area—evolves over time. The evolution, however, is not without its bumps and is rarely an easy road to travel. The messages contained in the story seem as meaningful and appropriate today as they were when it was first written.
New-Fist was truly an innovator and a somewhat progressive thinker who questioned the established and traditional ways of doing things and recognized and proposed that the life of his children and the tribe as a whole could be improved and its continuation secured if changes were made in what and how information was taught. While some progressive members embraced his thinking and his approach to fish grabbing, horse clubbing and tiger scaring—all of which were necessary for survival—other more traditional members would have none of it and opposed changes on religious grounds—grounds which often are used as the basis to resist change and was seen in the famous twentieth century Scopes trial and in the current discussion of intelligent design. To enable traditional members to appreciate his point of view, New-Fist—like many other revolutionary thinkers who propose change—had to find a way to mesh his ideas with their conservative beliefs and their belief system, help them assimilate new ideas and accommodate new ways of thinking and enable them to overcome their fear of what changes would bring.
As demonstrated in the case of the Saber-Tooth Curriculum, once changes are adopted, they become the new established ways of doing things and those who heralded their arrival years before become those who remain steadfast in their resistance to change in the present. In my district, those who have been teaching the longest have found it difficult, if not impossible, to recognize and accept the changing role of education, understand and work with the changing needs of students and their parents and alter and modify the ways in which they teach. Most resist exploring their inability and/or unwillingness to change and, as a result, continue on their way to the detriment of the students.
While the district’s Superintendent/Principal encourages and wants change—particularly with respect to increasing differentiated instruction—and makes technical assistance available to all teachers, it is not enough. To effect real change, teachers and other stakeholders in the educational process have to alter their mindset, buy into new concepts, see themselves as agents of change and recognize its benefit to students, the community, their world and themselves. Still, it just may be as New-Fist’s society found, that necessity truly is the mother of invention—replacing old fundamental knowledge and the prevailing zeitgeist with new fundamental knowledge or at least expanding old knowledge to prepare for an ever changing world.
Change is the product of an often difficult birthing process. When making changes, you must make sure that you are not throwing out the baby with the bath water.
New-Fist was truly an innovator and a somewhat progressive thinker who questioned the established and traditional ways of doing things and recognized and proposed that the life of his children and the tribe as a whole could be improved and its continuation secured if changes were made in what and how information was taught. While some progressive members embraced his thinking and his approach to fish grabbing, horse clubbing and tiger scaring—all of which were necessary for survival—other more traditional members would have none of it and opposed changes on religious grounds—grounds which often are used as the basis to resist change and was seen in the famous twentieth century Scopes trial and in the current discussion of intelligent design. To enable traditional members to appreciate his point of view, New-Fist—like many other revolutionary thinkers who propose change—had to find a way to mesh his ideas with their conservative beliefs and their belief system, help them assimilate new ideas and accommodate new ways of thinking and enable them to overcome their fear of what changes would bring.
As demonstrated in the case of the Saber-Tooth Curriculum, once changes are adopted, they become the new established ways of doing things and those who heralded their arrival years before become those who remain steadfast in their resistance to change in the present. In my district, those who have been teaching the longest have found it difficult, if not impossible, to recognize and accept the changing role of education, understand and work with the changing needs of students and their parents and alter and modify the ways in which they teach. Most resist exploring their inability and/or unwillingness to change and, as a result, continue on their way to the detriment of the students.
While the district’s Superintendent/Principal encourages and wants change—particularly with respect to increasing differentiated instruction—and makes technical assistance available to all teachers, it is not enough. To effect real change, teachers and other stakeholders in the educational process have to alter their mindset, buy into new concepts, see themselves as agents of change and recognize its benefit to students, the community, their world and themselves. Still, it just may be as New-Fist’s society found, that necessity truly is the mother of invention—replacing old fundamental knowledge and the prevailing zeitgeist with new fundamental knowledge or at least expanding old knowledge to prepare for an ever changing world.
Change is the product of an often difficult birthing process. When making changes, you must make sure that you are not throwing out the baby with the bath water.
2 comments:
You said "To effect real change, teachers and other stakeholders in the educational process have to alter their mindset, buy into new concepts, see themselves as agents of change and recognize its benefit to students, the community, their world and themselves"
Bravo!
(Now how do we get us all to do that?) :-)
Teaching will always be behind in recognizing new concepts because it is geared for young students, but taught by older adults. But it used to be far worse. We were all taught a different way, in a different time. However, I am glad that our resistance to change, as teachers, is less than it used to be because there are so many more young teachers than there were even a few short years ago. The age gap between the teacher and the student has been narrowed and so we have a clearer recognition of the need for change.
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