Some Things Just Don’t Change: Schools Are “Outed”! (Part 7)

Categories: Schools Are “Outed”!, Léo’s Insights 2020-2021

Posted on October 12, 2020

The education system is a very big ship with very big inertia. Changing anything within it is very difficult, unless something completely unexpected hits it square between the eyes. Last spring’s COVID-19 pandemic did just that.

Last week, I discussed how politics, driven by fear, vehemently opposes any attempt to change things. There is hardly a better example of this than how the education system has resisted adjusting to the changing environment that technology has brought to us.

This is not to say that technology is not being employed, but that the intransigence of a very large system has largely adopted technology to help maintain the unchanging status quo which has only increased the costs of delivering the same antiquated and irrelevant programming. Modernizing an old system is not the same as reforming it to accommodate modern times.

Throughout my many years as a teacher, I have been constantly frustrated by the non-answers I have received for the multitude of questions I have asked. Now, I must admit that this is a sentiment of my own doing. If I simply stopped inquiring, I could be like the masses who unquestioningly accept all things “school,” as it has always been.

“School” is largely seen as a gigantic government sponsored daycare system with few understanding that the government is, through it, freely given the opportunity to make sure all students conform to the official narrative respecting a predetermined secular ideology.

Why do the vast majority of people see schools as good things? Because most do not consider what schools have become, nor do they question the normalization of all things “school.” Most simply accept the free baby-sitting service while believing that the school is best able to prepare the children for life.

Unfortunately, this attitude is also prevalent within the home education community. Not only do most home educators “play school” at home, but many simply send their children back to “high school” so the professionals can properly prepare them for the future.

However, understanding that the school system failed to properly adapt or change to accommodate the digital age we find ourselves in, should caution us against putting any faith in its ability to prepare students for the future. Unless, of course, having the children consume the anti-Christian secular humanistic narrative being taught in schools is acceptable.

Considering how institutions naturally resist change, we must ask ourselves how anybody can really be considering the future when doing everything possible to resist change? To that question we should add, who usually provides the strongest resistance to change? Could it be the very people we entrust to prepare our children for their futures?

I remain amazed at how many of my colleagues resisted the employment of computer technology in the 1990’s. Some were ready to mutiny! You would think that their very lives were being threatened. Indeed, they were, if one considers how most people see any change to the way things have always been done, as an attack on their personal world.

Most within the resistance movement completely disregarded the fact that computers were here to stay and that the students of that time would be entering a world dominated by digital technology. It was as if that was not nearly as important as their personal fear of changing what had always been done.

These folks obviously could not see the impossibility of preparing students for the future when insisting on maintaining the past or refusing to incorporate more modern approaches to education.

Actually, not much has changed since that time. Although many teachers have adopted modern technology within their teaching methods, there has always been that cohort of resistors to change which has greatly retarded the use of digital technology in the delivery of modern educational programs.

The shuttering of all schools during the COVID-19 pandemic put an end to that. Forcing every student to stay home compelled all teachers to use what should have been employed all along. There is nothing like a crisis to introduce change and in this case one that was long overdue.

Welcome to the modern digital world that most home educators have long ago adopted.