pdZone

Yesterday, I was looking through Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point again, just to see what new insights I might bring to my reading of a few passages. In the end notes, the author directs readers to his web site, where I read through a few of his archived articles. At the end of The Talent Myth (The New Yorker, July 22, 2002), Gladwell writes about the whole Enron fiasco from a few years back: “They were there looking for people who had the talent to think outside the box. It never occurred to them that, if everyone had to think outside the box, maybe it was the box that needed fixing.”

In education we often hear that we need to think outside the box (an expression I loathe, by the way). I wholeheartedly agree that we need to be adaptive and find strategies to be effective problem solvers, and to help the students develop similar strategies. What if, as Gladwell states, it is not just a matter of all of our thinking outside the box? What if it is also a matter of changing the way we do business?

While we still work within some pretty rigid confines, there have definitely been some moves toward more progressive changes in the system. I ofetn read people lamenting the fact that education does not seem to keep up with the bleeding edges of technology and societal changes. Inertia is a hard force to overcome. Many of the old “inside the box” strategies are still very effective, but differentiation of teaching and assessment strategies can certainly allow for greater freedom of student learning.

Where am I going with this? I am not sure, but I find Gladwell’s statement to be quite provocative. I am still trying to pull together pieces of my own understanding of these issues. The more I read, the more I think, and the more I realize I don’t know!

God, I love learning!