Innovation Is Crucial in Education

Do SOMETHING Different!!!

Henry Ford had a saying; "If You Always Do What You’ve Always Done, You Always Get What You’ve Always Gotten." Ford was no stranger to being innovative or trying something new.  Many times he failed, but ultimately he succeeded with the Model T, that used the mass production method and made it possible for the average person to own an automobile.  If he had not been willing to take risks and be innovated, then perhaps we might still be driving "horse and buggy" and the automobile would still be the "rich man's toy."

Education needs men and women who are not afraid to take risks and be innovated.  Too many times there is a fear of being innovative and doing something "different" because we don't want to stick out  (because let's face it; conformity is a steeped tradition in Education).   We want to stick with something every Teacher does because "that's the way it's always been and it's safe."  What if they had that attitude in other professions like medicine?  What would medicine be like today if it had?

What we need is to turn our schools from traditions of conformity and standardization to one where risk-taking is not only happening; it is encouraged!  We need Administrators/Leaders who help create this kind of atmosphere for a campus.  We need classroom Teachers modeling innovation for their students and empowering their students to be innovative and take risks themselves.  America did not become a world leader by doing the "same old, same old," but by people like Henry Ford who were willing to "try something different."  If we want our education system to be the most effective for our students (you know; the reason we have an educational system) we have to be willing to be innovative and try something new!