I spent the day on Friday working with a school in Kentucky that is actively seeking ways to enrich the learning experiences for their students. The superintendent kicked-off the meeting with other school leaders with a clear directive for the meeting. He wanted the group to think and talk about “what if” statements. The group discussed some possible “what if” statements, but more importantly they planned to do the same with their staffs.
As I sat in on the meeting, a couple of different thoughts came to mind. The first was that every school has staff members with ideas about how to change their school. My second thought was that schools all too often fail to “dream” about the possibilities for the school. All too often schools get in the habit of talking about ideas in “yeah, but” terms instead of “what if” terms.
- Yeah, but the parents at our school won’t support that.
- Yeah, but our students won’t do that.
- Yeah, but our budget doesn’t allow for that.
I would be the first to admit that I certainly can be a “yeah, but” type of person. I am very practical at times, and I sometimes quickly dismiss ideas that don’t seem practical. Unfortunately, that attitude isn’t one that always harnesses creative and innovative ideas. As schools look for ways to change and transform, they should certainly take the time to have some conversations about the what ifs.
- What if we involved students in important school decisions?
- What if students were challenged with work that was relavent to them?
- What if teachers routinely observed each others classrooms?
I have had the opportunity to learn from design thinkers
Christian Long and
John Nash, who is a colleague. Their work is extremely relavent to schools trying to redesign themselves. One major concept that I heard centers around the development of ideas. In that stage it is critical to focus on generating ideas, and
not evaluating ideas (What ifs vs. yeah buts). A second idea is that we have to be willing to fail. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you gamble on one huge change for an entire district at the same time. It may involve pilots or phased implementation of an initiative.
If you work at a one-to-one school, someone at some point certainly dreamed of innovation and change. Beyond implementing one-to-one, has your school continued to have real conversations about the “what ifs” for your school? If not, it may certainly be time to have those conversations!
Nick Sauers
