The sharp end

Last year's #pencilchat hashtag was probably the best Twitter discussion I have seen or participated in. It tore into the age-old resistance to technology and all things new that we continually encounter in schools and other traditional institutions and it lampooned the laggards, change resistors and other stick-in-the-muds we all know and love. Several of us were inspired enough by the dialogue to write our own blogposts, pushing the metaphor to its limits. My own offering was entitled A Headteacher Writes. The very best thing about #pencilchat though, was its capability to focus our minds (in a fun, enjoyable way) on the serious issues we all face when we try to introduce innovative practices into conservative environments. I have written extensively on this, and I won't elaborate, but there are many causes for resistance to change. Some are more defensible than others, but any resistance to progress is merely that - resistance. Progress does not slow down to pick up stragglers. Progress does not respect barriers. It bulldozes its way through them, drives roughshod over all objections and ultimately achieves its goal. Then it makes way for even more progress, because education in this respect has the characteristic of a shark. The shark has to keep moving, swimming forwards, otherwise it dies. Education also has to move forward because if it stands still and doesn't incorporate constant progress, clear vision, innovative practices, it soon becomes irrelevant to society.

I stumbled upon this graphic earlier in the week. It comes courtesy of the Positive DV8R blog, and I wanted to share it with you. It's another simple and humorous, and yet all too painfully true pencil metaphor. Our old friend the pencil points us to definitions of six types of people you can find in any given organisation, and their various responses to innovation. The graphic is adapted from a short piece by Lindy McKeown who elaborates better than I could and is certainly worth a quick read. I wonder if you are able to identify the different responses with people you work with?


The sharp end by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.