My mother always talked about how history is like a pendulum, which swings to each extreme side. I have always taken that as encouraging. The other view is of a straight line that keeps heading in the direction we are going now (which is usually scary), or maybe of a circle, going round and round and round.
The advantage of perceiving life as a pendulum is that really most of the time things are somewhere in the middle, not very extreme in any way. Thus, when life gets a tad too extreme, and I start to worry about where things are heading, I just visualize a pendulum reaching its outer arc and beginning to swing back the other way.
Thus, I am starting to feel more comfortable about where education is going right now. It seems pretty scary right now, but I have faith that things are actually getting better. Proof? You want proof that it's getting better? How about the following:
Diane Ravitch, an original supporter of NCLB no longer supports it. Education think tanks are touting Finland as a model now instead of Japan. I think I like Finland, with its emphasis on providing strong education and practice for teachers, then assuming they can do their jobs without being micromanaged. Wow. What a concept. Finland also doesn't seem to expect miraculous results in three months. They have been working on overhauling their system for years (decades?), and knew it would take years. In the US, a long term goal/vision tends to be about 2 years, if we are lucky.
So the fact that people here are noticing Finland, and talking about it, gives me hope. Maybe the pendulum is starting its downward swing and things will get better. I sure would like to recommend teaching as a profession to my students again.
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