Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Balance is the Key to Education



Quality of Education is in the “Balance”

For the most part I always believed when I challenged something that was supposedly concrete in stone I was challenging “Conventional Wisdom.” I still think this true but perhaps a good majority of the time it is really challenging, “Balance.”

When people or something like a process or system reach a balance a comforting feeling sets in and all is good in life. However, balance changes over time (some fast, some slow) and if you don’t keep up everything gets off kilter and we begin to get depressed, antsy or don’t know what to do. The worst part is if someone or something is challenging our balance because our defense mechanisms arise and we fight the change with “What are you trying to do to ME.” Aaagh, ME, the most important person in the world --> ME. Well, sometimes ME is stupid and needs to wake up before ME starts bring other MEs involved until chaos and negativity abound the situation and now we have USs with their entire individual ME symptoms fighting to regain their balance.

Balance is one of the wonders of God’s creation, it allows everything in the universe (including humans) to move and rotate in a systematic fashion. If something or someone alters the balance change occurs, sometimes good and sometimes bad. What most people don’t realize is that change is an on-going phenomenon and in order to keep up or survive you must bring your own self in balance with it in order to move forward.

Think of the balance of our own bodies, we have defense mechanisms built in to combat disease and outside bacteria and germs from throwing our balance off into to sickness. However, if we keep our bodies in tune with the changes that are needed and required we eventually will get better and be back on balance.

Another way to describe this is by stating our world is made up of interdependencies that is somehow we all have to work together in order for the best results to occur. Sometimes it looks like one piece of the puzzle is greater than another but without all the interdependent the big piece will not survive as well the whole.

I can put all my efforts into building a great physical body but if I concentrate solely on that and not pay attention to my mental capabilities the body will eventually fail bringing the body down with it.

Education is a balance and for far to long we have built so many “Independent” silos not only nationally but also within each school system and schoolhouse. Everyone has the correct methods to what is right, which really means everything is wrong because the whole is so off balance nothing gets changed for the better.

There is a lot of criticism toward the No Child Left Behind Act (me included) but at least it is a standardized attempt for change. There is nothing wrong with this type of change as long as we keep the balance and continue to improve upon what is wrong and make it better.

Hopefully, President Obama's education plan will improve upon the NCLB Act for continual improvement but I am doubtful after reading American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.


Yes, balance is key, you are reminded of it each month when you take out your checkbook or build a monthly budget.

Think about it, are we not all wonders of God's own creation?