Might Some School Reformers Have Anything In Common With The Bahraini Monarchy?
“You could create security, but you cannot create stability. “
So says Mansoor Al-Jamri, former editor of Bahrain’s largest independent newspaper, after being arrested by Bahraini authorities for “destabilizing” the country. He was interviewed on the PBS News Hour.
Hearing that comment on the way home from school today prompted me to think if it could be applied to the efforts of many school reformers today.
Many school reformers appear to have a technocratic perspective of believing that we really do know what should work in all learning situations, and that by imposing the same standards, the same across-the-board teacher evaluative algorithms, the same non-evidence based turnaround strategies, that this will bring “security” to our schools. The Latin roots of the word security means “without care.” I fear that as more and more non-educators reach positions of influence, that might happen in more and more of our schools — whether intended or not.