Jerry Self, Executive Manager of 21st Century Schools changes his name to Sancho Panza

If you recognize the name, I applaud your literary diversity.  For those of you who don’t know the name Sancho Panza, don’t feel bad.  Sancho Panza was the pudgy, comic relief sidekick who accompanied Don Quixote on his journeys in Miguel de Cervantes’ satirical novel, Don Quixote, written in 1602, that inspired the Broadway musical and movieThe Man of La Mancha.

I’ve often felt that 21st Century Schools’ Director, Anne Shaw, is somewhat like Don Quixote in her philosophies where education is concerned.  Where Don Quixote was “tilting at windmills” (his dragons) Ms. Shaw’s dragons have been slow change and the continual barrage of excuses such as “that’s the way we’ve always done things”, “Oh that’s wonderful, but WE can’t do that in our school”, “we don’t have time, we have to get our students ready for their tests”, “we can’t do that because of our schedule”.

Other dragons are misconceptions about professional development.  Most educators seem to believe that "one-shot", "drive-by","muti-pack" professional development, or one day per year devoted to professional development, is adequate.  The research, and the reality in classrooms, clearly show that this type of professional development will not make things better.

We are constantly being asked how to incorporate change into the curriculum without changing the curriculum or how teachers can “just add something” to what they are already doing to bring their classroom into the 21st century.  The short answer to those two questions is, you can’t.  If you are going to build a house, you start with the foundation, not the roof.  The same applies to education.  Click the Read More button . . .

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