I don't know about you, but I'm not Waiting for Superman. I never have, and I never will. That's part of the reason that I have absolutely no desire to spend 2 hours of my time in a movie theater pretending that I am.
I see the problems with education through a very different lens than most people seem to. I lived inside that world for a few years, as an outsider looking in, and that experience has shaped who I am today. It's a major part of why I started this blog. But I have shared little information about those experiences.
That's about to change.
Why are so many of us living in a comic strip? We so want to believe in superheroes, and yet we all seem to be carrying pockets full of Kryptonite.
If the planet of Education has exploded, then we are all holding fragments of it. In doing so, we are only making the situation worse.
Instead of taking the pieces out of our pockets, and trying to put them back together, we are actually planting them and making them grow so big that perhaps they'll never fit together again.
How has the Kryptonite rooted itself so deeply inside our pockets?
We're living in a society where people want to talk AT each other. So many people are talking about education, and yet no one is really listening to each other. It's happening in homes. It's happening in schools. It's happening in all levels of government. And most of all, it's happening on the internet.
People are talking until they are red in the face. Teachers have had it. Parents have had it. Children are frustrated by it.
But who's actually doing something about it? Who is putting the pieces of education back together? Until we start listening to each other, and working together, there is no hope for any real change to come to education.
If we can learn anything from Superman, it's a quote from Mark Twain, "actions speak louder than words but not nearly as often." If he actually stopped to chat and complain about his difficult job, how would he ever help anyone?
I think Superman would also live by the following quotes:
"We cannot do everything at once, but we can do something at once." ~Calvin Coolidge
"Don't find fault. Find a remedy." ~Henry Ford
Superman responds to anyone who needs help. He solves problems without agonizing over them first.
The way I see it, we can choose to be part of the problem or part of the solution. When we complain to friends and colleagues, does it really do any good? Wouldn't our energy be better spent by finding some small way to make the situation better in our own classrooms, schools, and homes, or at least expressing our concern to people who can actually do something about it?
If there is a Superman coming, then it's the one who lives in each of our hearts. It will take all of us to truly change education. Parents. Teachers. Administrators. Politicians. And we can start by putting aside our differences and responding to the needs of the children. Superman certainly wouldn't ignore their voices, so why do we?
If we put children first, instead of mere letters and numbers, don't the answers become so much clearer?
We all have Kryptonite in our pockets. It's only when we take a closer look at it, and ourselves, that we'll be able to put the pieces back together.
