Skip to main content

The "How" Can Not Be an Excuse

Once the "what" is decided, the "how" always follows. We must not make the "how" an excuse for not facing and accepting the "what."

Quote by Pearl Buck

I recently came across this quote. It struck a chord with me. How often do we give up on a great idea, because we disagree on the "how."?

Comments

  1. Michael WalkerApril 20, 2009 at 3:57 AM

    Interesting...
    When some teachers talk about writing curriculum, they often focus on the "how", as opposed to the "what"! I think for curriculum directors, it may be just the opposite! ;-)
    I thought your recent post on the debate over content vs. 21st Century skills ties in to this... They are not mutually exclusive!
    The 21st Century skills show HOW the WHAT will be taught/learned!

    ReplyDelete
  2. dzukorApril 20, 2009 at 4:59 AM

    Thanks for your comments Michael. I hadn't thought about it that way. I was thinking in terms of people using the "how" as an excuse to stop trying new things. For example, incorporating more Internet research into your course may be the what. Teachers might agree that this is an important skill to be taught in class. However, we often see moving to a new way of doing things as difficult so we use the "how" as a reason not to start doing more research.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Teaching for Tomorrow Part 1

A group of teachers are reading Teaching for Tomorrow by Ted McCain as a summer book group. As we read we will be sharing (I hope!) our ideas about the book. If you are not part of our summer book group, feel free to join in the discussion. All ideas are welcome! If you have any thoughts about Section 1: What Skills Will Students Need for the 21st Century?, please leave a comment on this post. Hopefully this will lead to a discussion on this topic. I look forward to hearing what you have to say.
3 comments
Read more

Metamorphosis revisited

I posted before about metamorphosing in an evolving world. I want to revisit this idea. It has been bothering me that change seems to come so slow. There are many reasons for this, including leadership, state testing, resistance to change, resources, etc... But despite all of these factors, I truly believe that we can bring about more significant change. I'm not talking about technology, so much as I am talking about rethinking what we teach. While I see many teachers evolving (including myself), I think we are too painfully slow for the kinds of changes that need to take place. Photo by Morti Riuuallon http://www.flickr.com/photos/ultimorollo/2520525316/ The best way for us to metamorphose is to follow the example of the butterfly. The caterpillar starts by eating constantly. We, as teachers, need to consume information as if our future depended upon it. It does. We are becoming obsolete and our only chance of remaining relevant into the future is to understand it and adapt to i
3 comments
Read more

The Wonderful World of Updates

As a SmartBoard district, we have many teachers using SmartBoards, Airliners, and, of course, Notebook software. So as a Notebook user, I am very excited about the new version 10 that has recently been released. It has many great new features which I will be sharing in later posts. However, as the primary trainer for users of Notebook software, this transition raises many questions about the value of updates. Many of our users are new to Smart Notebook software. I have trained about 100 people this year alone. Now I need to go back to them and tell them that this great tool I showed them is about to look quite different. To a third of them, this will be welcome news. They want the updates. They want the new features. They will pick it up quickly. To a second third, this will raise trepidation. Just when they are getting the hang of it, they go and change it. They will require a fair amount of support to bring them up to the same level of comfort with the new version. That leaves the re
2 comments
Read more