Yes to this! Innovation in schools starts with listening, not launching. We can't design meaningful change from the outside in, we need to center the voices of teachers and administrators who live the system daily. Empathy isn’t a soft skill here; it’s the only skill that leads to real progress.
"It’s just that the dynamics outside of schools make it so damn hard to change within schools."
Amen, Danny. Schools, and individuals within schools, just cannot make change happen in the same way that other organizations do. As you point out, because everyone has a direct and personal experience with school in some way, many also believe this makes them an expert in how it should operate. That is a recipe for conflict which is also something many education professionals really try to avoid. Talk about a challenge!
Yes to this! Innovation in schools starts with listening, not launching. We can't design meaningful change from the outside in, we need to center the voices of teachers and administrators who live the system daily. Empathy isn’t a soft skill here; it’s the only skill that leads to real progress.
Every sentence of this just gets better and better.
"It’s just that the dynamics outside of schools make it so damn hard to change within schools."
Amen, Danny. Schools, and individuals within schools, just cannot make change happen in the same way that other organizations do. As you point out, because everyone has a direct and personal experience with school in some way, many also believe this makes them an expert in how it should operate. That is a recipe for conflict which is also something many education professionals really try to avoid. Talk about a challenge!
Oh man. The amount of impactful initiatives that have been stopped by a parent email--or worry about a potential parent email--is too many.