"I love that you've brought this to attention. An extensive database of uncommon but resistant and hardy plants/foods could be developed and organized by climate. Ease of growth and processing should also be taken in to account. I will try to…"
A crash course in changing the world.
Must change always be rooted in what is known?
I'm learning more about what it means to be a social innovator right now, and in particular what I'm wondering about is: Must change always be rooted in what is known? I was doing the first Evoke mission this blog post was part of my learning for that mission. Both the quote from Dave Tait below and an early "secret" for becoming an effective social innovator ("Innovate on existing platforms.") had me feeling frustrated about the slow wheels of change.
Increase user acceptance; build on existing platforms, lower costs and beware of radically different ways of doing things.
David Tait, Design in Africa, "Innovation in Africa tips" (10/23/2008)
The quote I chose here is basically saying that you have to do things in ways that the people you are working with will understand and be able to do themselves. You have to embed new ideas and technologies into old patterns and ways of doing things.
I think this is frustrating, because, as a U.S. educator, I think so much of our educational system is broken, unworthy of any attention. Isn't it more effective to make a clean break with the past? Or at least a clean break with the way people have been doing things in recent memory. I think it's possible, for example to attach radical changes in our schools with old traditions that educators are not familiar with, or at least not familiar enough with, like Dewey and other experiments that challenged separating the day into subject areas and dividing children up by age. These are the kinds of things that I would change if I were an effective social innovator in my chosen profession, teaching.
Views: 20
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Comment by Bruce Haynes on March 7, 2010 at 7:35pm
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I like the way you think Paul, I heard a speaker once who said "I live with a certain amount of discomfort" , this seems evident in the way you are grappling with an issue you obviously care deeply about. I would say the world needs voices like yours, because those voices create a space of possibility. This post also reminds me of Buckminster Fuller saying don't try to change/fight existing models, create new models which make the old obsolete.. however as a teacher im sure you consciously choose to make your cla**** exceptional, whatever framework you are delivering them in:)
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I like the way you think Paul, I heard a speaker once who said "I live with a certain amount of discomfort" , this seems evident in the way you are grappling with an issue you obviously care deeply about. I would say the world needs voices like yours, because those voices create a space of possibility. This post also reminds me of Buckminster Fuller saying don't try to change/fight existing models, create new models which make the old obsolete.. as a teacher im sure you consciously choose to make your cla**** exceptional, whatever framework you are delivering them in:)
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Comment by amy ch on March 24, 2010 at 3:34pm
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:)
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Comment by Mihir Shah on March 24, 2010 at 6:22pm
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nice one Paul, I agree that at some point of time some1 needs to break the shackles of the old ways and bring about the revolution of a better future
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Comment by nomadHAR on April 5, 2010 at 1:37am
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having been a teacher myself, i wh***-heartedly agree. there are many traditions in education which need to be revisited and perhaps transformed entirely. blind adherence to Skinner behaviorism does not build effective critical thinking. the grammar-translation method becomes increasingly ineffective for teaching languages as younger learners are considered. the list goes on and on.
while i do have respect for tradition, i also believe that sometimes, change must also happen. sometimes, the change must be quite dramatic and shocking. i think that the change can still be respectful of cultures, but sometimes it just can't be.
slavery, foot binding and female 'circ**cision' were once practices of societies with long histories. just because something has a long history, it doesn't mean that it is beneficial or positive.
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Comment by Optimus Prime on April 5, 2010 at 2:59am
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Great post. I believe that if you continue expressing your vision and have the fortitude to press on, it will only be a matter of time till you see change.
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