The last night... bitter sweet.

They say a camel is just a horse designed by committee... this adage is very true in the education world. All of the committees I have sat on over the coarse of the last six years have been an utter waist of time. There is rarely a division of labor and never an effort for collaborative problem solving. Inevitably meetings over the year degenerate into a round table gripe fests in which the status quo is maintained or at the very most begrudgingly nudged in the direction of progress. Then after the committee presents there 'no change' changes the school in general ignores them and continues upon the path they have always been on.
Doing the Lego challenge this week has shone what can happen when multiple groups are working on multiple tasks with a single focus and a total lack of ego... well we all have egos, but none of us were cemented into our thinking. We divided and conquered, we crossed groups to help where ever help was needed, and best of all we all celebrated each others victories and shouldered each others minor failures. It has been an exercise in community for certain.
For all of us the real challenge is going to be bringing this positive feeling of team work and support to our work places. We are going to have to stare the old unmovable forces that fight progress in their faces and lead them through example and through assistance. We are going to have to fight through the noise of 'why bother' and through all of the reasons they will undoubtedly bring forth which justify the failure of students and their complete lack of involvement theirin. The status quo can not stand we as a world need better students who grow into better adults. Our problems are not going away, they are simply multiplying. The camel analogy must not be embraced, we must teach all of the world how to overcome it... there are just too many of us to not work together... and there is just too little time not to start now.