Change From the Radical Center
My notes and takeaways from Doug Johnson’s “Change From the Radical Center” session. His resources from this session are here. He is the author of the Blue Skunk Blog. The event was sponsored by http://skoodat.com/ (looks interesting)
Doug introduces himself as a Radical Centrist. There are those who push to the outer extremes for change, but Doug looks for practical radical change from the center. He talks about the practicality of transitional/incrimental change versus transfmorative/revolutionary change. He adopts a “both/and” mindset versus an “either/or” mindset. We should look for truth and value in all beliefs and practices. We should respect the perspective of the individual.
“Why do we look for single solutions to current problems? A single technology, or a single media. Truth is, there is not a single solution, but a combination or tools, perspectives, skills, etc. Recognize that one size does not fit all for kids or teachers.”
As an example, he asks the audience about “teacher pay based on student test scores.” Who’s for it and who’s against it? Everyone was against it. Then, he brings up this Washington Post article by Michele Kerr from June 18. She is FOR it, with some conditions: 1. Teachers be assessed based on only those students with 90 percent or higher attendance. 2. Teachers be allowed to remove disruptive students from their classroom on a day-to-day basis. 3. Students who don’t achieve “basic” proficiency in a state test be prohibited from moving forward to the next class in the progression. 4. That teachers be assessed on student improvement, not an absolute standardized test score. Everyone in the audience seemed to like this thinking now.
Doug talks about The Wisdom of Crowds, by James Surowiecki. He quotes: “The crowd tends to make its best decisions if it is made up of diverse opinions and ideologies.” If everyone believes the same thing, its mob mentality.
Doung also explains how his school staff uses Edward de Bono’s PMI (plus minus interesting) decision making tool to make the best policy.
We need to attend to our attitudes. We must recognize that some horses are already out of the barn. “Its always easier to steer the camel in the direction its already heading.” Don’t fight issues like social networking, student cell phones, etc, rather find ways to capitalize on them to make education better.
Make sure everyone is moving forward, not just the early adopters. He talks about the speed of adoption/change and that slower and incrimental change lasts longer and will be more meaningful that fast, wholesale transformation. All new ideas should be built on previous knowledge and skills.This is the difference between transition and transformation. His way (slow incremental change) is not total transformation, but its a step in the right direction. We should be happy with that.
There was much more that Doug talked about after this but I had lots to think about his thoughts on slow incremental change. It resonated with things I’ve been thinking about regarding things in Guthrie, TX. I’ll write more about that later. Be watching for my “Allowing for Digital Equivalents” post in a few weeks.
Doug is a knowledgeable, level-headed, clear thinking educator. This was a great session that really got me thinking. If you are interested in learning more about him, check out his list of freely admitted personal biases.
