Changing
ideas about students’ capabilities. Yet
another needed change, for many educators and community
members alike, is a shift in perspective about what can be expected
from students. Many of us have become jaded in our attitudes about
"kids today"; we think of them, as a group, as pleasure-oriented,
lazy, careless,
irresponsible. Can students make useful choices in helping to direct
their own learning? Can they be helpful, attentive members of a
collaborative group? Can they handle the responsibility of working
in the community, of managing complex projects where others
depend on them? Again, experience
shows that they can—with
appropriate support and supervision
of course. In fact, most students
seem hungry for these kinds of
activities, once they see a connection to their own lives and interests.
Believing
that change can happen. Perhaps
the greatest challenge is overcoming the feeling that, though exciting
ideas might be taking hold in other places, nothing can ever change
in your environment. Perhaps it’s the school board, or a community
harshly divided by class or ethnicity, or an administrator who hires
only family members, or parents who wouldn’t hear of taking
their kids away from their textbooks. Whatever the list, you can
be sure there have been similar problems in other places–that,
nevertheless,
have found ways to make
change happen.
There
are factors that can help you to overcome the "can’t do"
mentality. It
helps to have a sense of urgency. The
threat of consolidation, for example, or the sudden shutdown of
a factory that provided most of the community’s jobs, sometimes
motivates people to
try ideas they’d never otherwise consider.
But even without such immediate
harbingers of doom, it’s possible
to break through entrenched patterns and beliefs. The most basic
guideline is to start small (though not
so small that your activities seem inconsequential). Work slowly
but systematically
to build confidence, energy,
and enthusiasm.
Another
strategy is to show folks what’s worked elsewhere. Identify
schools and communities much like
your own that have developed innovative solutions (agencies like
SEDL can help you to find them), and
take a small group of key people to see for themselves. And finally,
use a developmental process that offers tools for bringing diverse
constituencies together and working constructively. SEDL and others
have identified step-by-step
procedures that can help groups work collaboratively to plan and
implement ambitious projects, with supporting tools and techniques
for everything from identifying needs to handling conflicts (see
sidebar). By adopting such an approach, you can help your community
to step out of the
usual ruts and routines.
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