One Schoolhouse

  • STUDENT COURSES
    • School Information
    • Student Information
    • Parent & Guardian Information
    • Summer Courses
    • Register
  • ACADEMIC LEADERS
    • Association for Academic Leaders
    • Join the Association
    • Lisa Damour: The ​Emotional ​Lives of Teenagers
    • Open Doors Blog
  • CONSORTIUM
    • Join the Consortium
    • Our Schools
  • COURSE LOGIN
  • STUDENT COURSES
    • School Information
    • Student Information
    • Parent & Guardian Information
    • Summer Courses
    • Register
  • ACADEMIC LEADERS
    • Association for Academic Leaders
    • Join the Association
    • Lisa Damour: The ​Emotional ​Lives of Teenagers
    • Open Doors Blog
  • CONSORTIUM
    • Join the Consortium
    • Our Schools
  • COURSE LOGIN

Disruptive Innovation: The Mirror and the Crystal Ball

9/16/2014

0 Comments

 
PicturePeter Gow
​The other night on the #PubPriBridge Twitter chat we took on the topic of change in schools, and the conversation surfaced some pretty strong feelings on the point and purposes of change. Consensus, I feel comfortable saying, lay on the side of change, Heck, yes! but change without clear purpose or rationale, Hell, no! The veteran participants had all seen their share of fad-driven “innovation,” untethered from school missions, strategic vision, or—this above all—a clearly stated connection to the best interest of students.

Late in the game chatters were asked about their own skepticisms. I posed my own response, which was, in prime Twitter-speak, “Tired of ‘Innovate or die.’ Prefer, ‘Figure out who you are as a sch[oo]l & then work hard to BE it well.’”

This isn’t exactly an original sentiment. There is plenty that we need to be doing differently, from curriculum and pedagogy to the design of learning spaces to the cultures of schools themselves, but I think there is a more lofty and even more strategic way of framing this whole disruption thing, a framing that provides educators with an affirmative rationale for deeply interrogating practice and policy. “Figure out who you are as a school and then work hard to be it as well as you can” is my shorthand version.

Figuring out who you are ought to be an exercise not just in identity but in institutional confidence-building—just as in all those young adult sagas in which the young hero survives the ordeal to become a stronger, more prepared and sure adult. We read these stories every day in our schools without recognizing their possible value as parables for our institutions themselves.

Most independent schools extant today have at least some track record of success, and for most this hasn’t just always been a matter of good demographic luck. As we’ve observed here time and again, there is or was a compelling idea at the core of most schools, a notion of how kids can learn best.

What was it, or is it, that core idea, that mantra, that founder’s dream, that shining star of belief to which some little group of educators once hitched their wagon?

My advice to any school perched giddily on the precipice of some kind of innovative practice that sounds exciting, promises to upend things in some 21st-century way, and has a chorus of supporters chanting, “Jump! Jump!” is to take the time to examine its own identity.

I’ve written in other places about using the “authentic – relevant – differentiating” triad of acid tests for any policy or message, an exercise that—if done with honesty and real effort—gets to the fundamentals of what a school really is. This is the “figure out who you are” task that many schools often perform with outside assistance as part of either a branding or strategic planning process; well and good, but the product of the exercise ought to be something far more substantial than just a lively message or three more years of staff work.

Like the youthful questers in all those novels, schools probably need to experience some struggles in discovering and becoming who they are. Some of these struggles will indeed disrupt what we think we understand, and new ideas will appear and take root in the course of clarifying and then solidifying institutional identity and confidence. I guess this is disruptive innovation, but I would rather call it a case of growing pains—necessary but still tied to something at the institutional core.

And there’s a sobering little secret: Just as the coming-of-age novels leave out what every adult knows, namely that the quest to know and be yourself is never-ending, the process of being self-aware and acting on this awareness never ends for schools. We have keep looking just as hard into our mirrors as we do into our crystal balls.

If we’re insisting on dire language around all this, perhaps a better slogan ought to be something along the lines of, “The unexamined school is not worth keeping.” This gets right at the complacency the disruptors don’t like but frames the issue around what last night’s Twitter chatters clearly ranked as high and noble values—intentionality and articulated, mission-informed purpose.

In point of fact our crystal balls haven’t always worked so well when we’ve tried to envision the future of education, our schools, or even ourselves. Predicting what disruptive innovation will change things for the better has not proven to be an easy task, no matter what gurus, gadflies, or even Jeremiahs may say.

But our mirrors have worked and will continue to work just fine, as long as we have the nerve and the humility to examine what we see in fine detail and to acknowledge the weaknesses—as well as the potential—we see revealed there. Figuring out who we really are is about quests but it’s also about mirrors, and so, just as much, is being it, sustaining and building and adjusting that identity through whatever comes to pass.

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Don't miss our weekly blog posts by joining our newsletter mailing list below:

    Authors

    Brad Rathgeber (he/him/his)
    CEO & Head of School
    Beta Eaton (she/her/hers)
    Director of Student Support
    Corinne Dedini (she/her/hers)
    Senior Director, Academics (retired)
    Elizabeth Katz (she/her/hers)
    Senior Director, School Partnership
    Kerry Smith (she/her/hers)
    Instructional Designer for Professional Development
    Peter Gow (he/him/his)
    Independent Curriculum Resource Director
    Sarah Hanawald (she/her/hers)
    Senior Director, PD & New Programs
    Sienna Brancato (she/her/hers)
    Program Manager for PD & New Programs
    Tracie Yorke (she/her/hers)
    Instructional Designer for Equity, Inclusive Innovation & Accessibility
    ​Lorri Palko (she/her/hers)
    Finance & Operations Advisor; CFO (retired)
    Karen Douse (she/her/hers)
    Director of School & Student Support (retired)

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    March 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    March 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    September 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    October 2013
    August 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    October 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    May 2012
    March 2012
    November 2011
    October 2011
    July 2011
    June 2002

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Organization

About
Welcome
​History
FAQs
​Calendar
​
Team Members
Board of Trustees
Employment Opportunities
© COPYRIGHT 2020, ONE SCHOOLHOUSE, INC.. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Policies

Tuition & Policies
Equity and Inclusion & Non-Discrimination Policy
Technology Requirements & Policies
​Privacy Policy

School Resources

Advanced Independent Curriculum
​Partner Professional Learning Courses

Get In Touch

Have any questions?
Send us an email or give us a call.
info@oneschoolhouse.org
202.618.3637

​1701 Rhode Island Ave NW
Washington, DC 20036


We'd love to hear from you!​