Why is change so hard?

Last week while I was at  the ASCD conference I heard about some pretty cool things happening in schools across the US.  Hearing about these ideas always leads to discussions about how can we do that in our district?  Now don't get me wrong. We do some great, interesting and progressive things in our district. But there are always areas for improvement and things you would like to see change.  But for whatever reason, change always seems difficult to bring about.  I guess if it was easy it would have already been done.  

I wonder why change is hard in education.  The idea of change got me thinking of a quote I came across, "We can not solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them." - Albert Einstein.  While at ASCD, I heard Brian Perkins makes the statement (paraphrasing here) . .  we need to stop redecorating and begin remodeling. When we redecorate a room, we might paint, add a few things here and there.  But the function of the room remains the same.  When we remodel we begin to change things.  We take everything out of the room and we tear down or move walls.  When we put the room back together we add back the good stuff and leave out the bad. We change the function and look of the room.  

Maybe we need to get out of the redecorating business and get into the remodeling business.  Change can be good.  It's time to start thinking differently than we have in the past.


Image from Will Scullin