If you could create a new education system...

Tom Watkins is one of the leading advocates for education reform, and as former State Superintendent he speaks with authority.

This is really a great piece, and I have two favorite quotes:

"If you could create a system that would provide our children with the education they deserve and need to be competitive in the 21st century, global economy, would you create the system that currentlyexists?"

and

"It is pure fallacy to think that public education can be sustained, let alone thrive, with the old rules of the past."

This article could not be more timely, and speaks exactly to the frustration I've experienced trying to introduce and discuss new ideas about the teacher contract, and many other issues in Rochester Schools.


Rochester Eccentric - Change, new ideas must be incorporated into schools (03/29/07)

Change, new ideas must be incorporated into schools

In a time of rapid change, just how adaptable is the enterprise called public education?

There are many involved in the "school reform movement" who will argue that change is the most talked about and least acted upon concept in public education today. Many who work in the public education system will say differently. They have begged, "Leave us alone -- let us absorb the changes that have been thrust upon us!"

One educator recently told me he felt as if he is drowning in all the new programs, rules, laws, regulations, etc. And everywhere he goes, "Some new 'reformer' is offering me a glass of water," i.e., more "new stuff to do.We are constantly asked to do more while the politicians provide less resources and more rhetoric," he added.

The pace of change is exploding. While I appreciate, and often share, educators' frustration with the pace of change, all of us need to find ways to harness its energy and make it work for us.

It is pure fallacy to think that public education can be sustained, let alone thrive, with the old rules of the past. Schools must find ways to adapt to the fast-paced change that is swirling about us. Our mantra must be "Real change, requires real change."

Public education needs to continually ask itself if it has become fixated on owning its old ideas so much that they have become liabilities. It is difficult to leave behind old ideas or think differently when there is a steady and familiar chorus from within the school system telling educators that what they are doing is fine. All being said while educators simultaneously are battening down the hatches from the constant barrage of negativity that seems to be constantly thrown their way from those outside the fortressed walls of the schools. Perhaps, somewhere in the middle, reality exists.

Our school leaders need to ask this question: "If you could create a system that would provide our children with the education they deserve and need to be competitive in the 21st century, global economy, would you create the system that currently exists?" If the answer is "no," then every waking hour needs to be devoted to bringing about the necessary changes to create the system they need. Rest assured, the three billion new capitalists in China, Russia, India and other emerging nations are not sitting back waiting for us to get our act together.

Ours is a borderless world where ideas can and do flow across the globe. Michigan is experiencing transformational, technologically drivenand disruptive change. The opportunity exists to harness that change for Michigan's students, teachers, families and communities. The question is, "Will we?" We need to imagine the possibilities -- with enthusiasm and urgency.

Stan Davis and Christopher Meyers in their book Blur: The speed of change in the connected economy wrote, "The speed of change on so many fronts -- in science, in manufacturing, in nature of demand, in the importance of other cultures -- is now so great that closed uniform organizations can't even hope to catch up. A couple of dozen varieties of ideas aren't enough diversity. To make organizations more adaptable, less likely to be blind-sided, and more capable of creativity, bring in new types of people, or form teams that don't seem to be the most efficient -- and won't be."

The authors go on to ask some penetrating questions that our system of public education would do well to ask and answer:

* Are you creating an adaptable organization?

* Are your colleagues and/or employees encouraged to exchange information with counterparts outside your organization, to cultivate knowledge networks, to seek solutions from disciplines not represented in your company?

* What barriers do you erect to preclude permeability?

* Where are the barriers to becoming an "agile bureaucracy?"

Clearly the world is changing in dramatic ways and our system of public education must embrace those changes -- or it will be engulfed by them.

Public education has been the bedrock upon which America was built. However, we need to understand and learn from history. Just because we are great does not mean we are guaranteed to stay great. The 21st century will be driven by leadership, innovation, creativity, knowledge, change and China. That is the new reality. What we make of it is up to us. One of the greatest strengths of our country historically is our ability to be persistent, innovate, adapt and change.

Will our schools resist or adapt to change? How permeable will public education be in letting in a variety of new ideas? The answer to these questions will help determine the strength of our democratic foundation and set the course for the 21st century. Are we ready, Michigan?


Tom Watkins is president and CEO of TDW and Associates, a business and education consulting company. He served as Michigan's state superintendent of schools from 2001-05 and as director of Michigan's Mental Health Department, 1986-90. Read his report, The New Education (R)evolution, at www.nacol.org. He welcomes comment at tdwatkins@aol.com.