Time-Poor Educators = Innovation Rejection = Global Stagnation
Can you remember a time in the past decade, or even beyond, where educators have been so time poor?
The sense of having no time affects morale. I have seen it firsthand; how the sense of not having time has led to colleagues shutting down ideas instantly. Hatches are battened down so that anything new (as new things normally equals a time investment) presented cannot enter and affect our cognition, or worse, mental-wellbeing.
As important as self-preservation is, in all walks of life (education included) blocking innovation and change will eventually have a negative impact. In my 16 years of teaching, I have been told countless times that education is the slowest turning ship/ industry out there. It pains me that I cannot disagree with them, though that will never stop me and so many others strive to put ideas out there for the benefit of others. The in-agility of the profession I call my craft, my calling, has resulted in ever-increasing numbers of learners disengaged with their learning.
I have been fortunate enough to have heard the wise words of the late Sir Ken Robinson. He worked hard for years to inspire educators and ministers knowing that would have an impact on younger and future generations, a factor leading to global prosperity. One time I was in the auditorium where he had me hooked. An educator, made cynical by the system, boldly exclaimed (I’m trying my best to remember exactly what he said),
“You’re telling us this here, you’re in LA and writing your books that we read but what difference do you expect us to make when those in positions above us aren’t listening to you?”
I took a sharp intake of breath. ‘That guy’s brave!’ I thought to myself whilst gazing towards the stage in anticipation of Robinson’s reaction. He replied (I don’t need to try hard to remember this)
“If everybody thought that, then the snowball would never start rolling.”
There are so many educators who have the same aim of starting a snowball rolling, making changes that they feel are needed in education. I am lucky to have gotten to know some of them.
Speaking to and learning from them, you naturally find yourself in forging or strengthening your own educational principles. The importance of a Professional, or Personal Learning Network is no doubt a point to be (no doubt already) developed via various avenues.
The video below aims to highlight in a minute my principles; that education should be relevant and purposeful. Now the purpose is open to interpretation. For me, the purpose of education is to empower people to be active members of their communities.
One community we are all part of is the global community. It is impossible to know each of our fellow members in this community, but it is vital that we appreciate that the actions we take, wherever we are, has a potential impact on those unknown members in parts of the world we may never visit.
A wise person once told me and keeps on telling me that empathy is at the core of everything. To what extent does your teaching or curriculum foster empathy?
The Global Learning Idea Exchange is my concerted effort to help educators and community leaders put empathy at the core of what they do. It aims to achieve this with a minimal or zero impact on finances or time.
Join now at www.glie.org to gain our free resources. Follow GLIEorg to learn ways in which we can develop a global, empathetic outlook by implementing tiny tweaks to our practise rather than re-writing our pedagogical playbooks.
