Walter’s blog archive: http://surfaquarium.com/blog.htm
"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler..."
We are approaching the path to a new age...yes already...a new age: the Age of Irrelevance.
No longer the Industrial Age…nor the short-lived Information Age…but the Irrelevant Age. What? How? Why? It is a result of our own actions…the ways we are choosing to use all the information and communication tools we have at our disposal. Consider the choices we have in these two very different paths:
The Path to Irrelevance… | The Path to Empowerment… |
Expect everyone in education to think the same and share the same values | Value the diversity of thought among colleagues just as you do among students |
Enjoy your comfort zone | Push yourself to take risks and learn |
Take things at face value | Question everything at first glance |
Embrace what reinforces your thinking | Embrace what stretches your thinking |
Do what you feel like doing, just because you can | Think deeply and act responsibly |
Share information without verifying its accuracy | Share information after you have vetted its value |
Post to the end of a discussion without reading the thread in its entirety | Read a discussion thoroughly before responding in a way that adds value |
Place your personal agenda first | Make your professional obligation your priority |
Ask and answer your own questions | Listen and respond to others’ queries |
Insist on others agreeing with your viewpoints , values and beliefs | Engage others of differing viewpoints in discussion that expands your understanding |
Treat everything as subjective opinion | Subject everything to rigorous examination of fact |
React based on bias and assumptions | Respond based on what is verifiable as true |
Feel entitled | Feel grateful |
Be self-interested | Share a global vision |
Allow commercial interests to purchase your favor | Inform commercial interests of their proper role |
Interpret the trend towards individualization as the nullification of standards | Interpret the trend towards individualization as an opportunity to improve delivery of instruction |
Celebrate new technologies as the focus of education transformation | Celebrate new ways to be successful as the focus of education transformation |
Participate in media events to advocate for your beliefs | Participate in the political process and engage policymakers to advocate for your beliefs |
Maintain the status quo | Be an agent of change |
Fight for your share of a finite set of resources | Pursue the unlimited possibilities of transformation |
Allow business interests to co-opt and privatize public education because of our inability to change | Revolutionize public education to meet the challenges of the global information economy |
At first glance, this is a comparison of professional concerns. But the choices we make are deeply rooted in our personal habits, values and attitudes.
Can we stop it from happening? Yes…choose wisely…act professionally…and transform ourselves before we attempt to transform the profession…
On the other hand…you don’t have to do a thing…the decisions can be made without your participation.
Are you willing to settle for doing nothing? Because if we stay on the path we are on...the destination is clear...it is the path to irrelevance…
"I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference...."
The Road Not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I couldTo where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
-Robert Frost
Accessed online at http://www.bartleby.com/119/1.html on June 5, 2011 at 11:25 a.m. e.t.
Posts
Hello, Walter!
ReplyDeleteI agree that we have these choices daily- in our lives both personal and professional. I wonder, though, if this is new? Yes, there is a lot more information available at the touch of a key, and connections can be made easily now with many others, but are the choices you list really just now becoming important? I believe that educators and indeed, people, have always had some of these choices to make.
The responses on the positive side all require recognizing first that we each have a choice. And mostly, the choices seem to be about how we choose to "Act" and "React."
I have certainly made a choice to be "proactive" this year in some ways. However, we have to choose wisely the ways in which we choose to become more involved. Diluted effort among too many projects results in little being accomplished.
Many people have allowed themselves to be "irrelevant" over the ages. I do hope more people will choose to be "relevant" in their own communities by making some of the proactive choices you note.
...and as a side note: When Egypt erupted earlier this year and Twitter & Facebook seemed to be the communication method of preference for the activists, I was fairly disillusioned with some systems I see out there in Education. I wondered how *Educators* could start a revolution. I wanted to activate Educators here along with those in Wisconsin, etc. The sad part to me was that many teachers still feel that Twitter and Facebook are *dirty* sites and that they wouldn't be caught *dead* on them. :-) That, and the fact that we can't engage in political speech on school accounts and equipment.
Yours in the ongoing struggle,
~Bonnie