Times change, but core values still the same
I HAVE a fairly extensive collection of music by The Police and Sting and when I look back on my CDs and records, the album covers reflect the changing times quite accurately.
Sting has clearly made an attempt to reinvent himself with each new solo album and so one gets the long-haired Amazon rainforest Sting singing some songs in Spanish on
the optimism and strangely Chaucerian theme of
the moody introspection and cold blue colours of the chilly
the bright green tones of the renewed optimism of
and the list goes on. Renewal and change is important to longevity. Personally I don’t like change very much, but I know it is necessary and therefore periodically I throw myself into a metaphorical deep end in the interests of ensuring that change occurs in my own life.
Teachers need to change. Every five years at Woodridge College the entire pupil body is refreshed and begins again and therefore we need to adapt and change quickly or we will quite simply be left behind.
As educators, if we are still teaching today the same way we taught yesterday, then we are failing the pupils of tomorrow.
It is as simple as that. We don’t need to make wholesale changes to everything, but we mustn’t be scared to adapt and to review the changing landscape we operate in. I write this article on my iPad Air. When one looks back, the first iPad was released in May of 2010. I still have mine.
At this stage we have seen the release of six new iPads. Along with this we have also been sold three different variations on the iPad Mini. That equates to nine tablets from Apple in five years and if one factors in the iPhone 6 Plus, which is ostensibly a tablet, we have seen a new Apple tablet every six months. What is particularly sobering is that in 2009 we didn’t even have the word “iPad” in our vocabulary.
Change will happen. It is unavoidable and while it is difficult to cope with, good forward-thinking schools need to be ahead of this curve.
At Woodridge we know that change is important. We know that education needs to adapt to the demands of a new generation of pupils. We also know that some things need to remain. It is important to not throw out all those “invaluables” such as strong family values.
It is important that we keep working and partnering with parents in order to provide the best for the young minds in our care.
And so while change is necessary, it is critical to remember that not everything needs to be changed. The trick is ensuring one identifies accurately the things that need to go and the things that need to stay.
ý Simon Crane is principal of Woodridge College an d Preparatory School