photo by retroimage on flikr
It’s a truism in political and personal: if you don’t own your story, your story owns you.
For decades Education has been telling a bad story about itself, a disempowering and zero-sum story, a story that everyday grows more dysfunctional and badly-adapted to giving people what they need. Education needs to understand what its story is, and to change that story. I know it can do this, because I work with clients everyday who decide to turn a story in which they give their own power away, into one where they fight for themselves, become more effective and powerful, and start owning their narrative, their way.
Education’s “old” story looks something like this:
We’re misunderstood as a sector, no one appreciates us.
Other people make the rules, I have no power.
It’s okay to get inadequate and superficial training for this job; anyone can teach.
If we’re going to be successful, we have to be superhuman. We have to work killing schedules and demand the maximum from everyone, for very little money and possibly very little respect and recognition. (See also “Teaching is women’s work.”)
No one understands how hard the work is, therefore I won’t be appreciated for what I do. Because of this, I might as well be passive, angry and a little dramatic.
None of these stories are empowering stories. None of them locate the power to change internally, with us. All these stories give the power of teachers, school leaders, and students away.
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