Today at work we had to do this book study. The Chapter was about the Top 10 reasons educational reforms fail. What this all boils down to is a resistance to change. If you talk to my mother this is not something I do well. Hell, I told them today, "I don't mind change as long as I can control it." Classic Anorexic. However I am finding that when it comes to teaching, you can never be too proud. This is pretty impossible. Teaching is not like any other job that you can just leave at the office. You take those kids home with you and worry if they got something to eat or are safe or (in our kids' case if they got robbed and shot at during the night, or pimped or drugged or whatever happens in their homes). When you become this invested in what you do, it's hard too step back and realize that you don't have all the answers or that you may need to try something else. 

The other thing is that you have too many smart people in one place. We're used to being listened to and being right, at least I am. My brain works faster than most people I know. I think too, that it all boils down to laziness. It's easy to rest on your laurels if you look like the one who can get the good test score (which is what gets noticed). It's also easy to stay with what works because you can see results. Teaching doesn't have visible profit margins or new buildings or (for me being a retail slave for so long) a new pretty display to look at. A friend of mine says. "I look at the kids like a slot machine that you have to keep putting quarters into, even if you don't get anything back when you pull the lever." How disappointing is it to not hit that jackpot you've been trying so hard to get. That's why we must celebrate the small victories, square our shoulders, and rush into the burning building, chocking on the smoke. Like a moth to the flame, we like playing too much in the fire to worry about dying in the flames.