What does a subversive educator do? This question came to mind after reading Kathy Sierra’s article the other day. I was impressed by the synchronicity of her vision for corporate change with my own thinking about school culture. In fact, as I was reading her piece, I began inserting the word ’student’ for ‘user’ in each instance and the whole thing made perfect sense. Kathy pointed out that even though she worked for a big company with an entrenched bureaucracy, the organizaton was really just a collection of people, many who were smart, caring and creative. She described how she and a small group of people conspired to subvert the corporate culture. This might be a worthwhile goal for teachers who feel the same sense of frustration with the institutional culture of ed.

I offer few suggestions for educational subversion:

Value students.-
When it’s all over they’ll remember how you treated them, not what you taught them. Teaching isn’t about the curriculum, the standards, your lesson plans, grades, or the school rules. It’s about students. Any time you feel the need to exercise authority to get someone to do something, ask yourself, “Is this demand necessary?” A great question that I was asked in my interview for the job I have now is, “How do you let your students know they are doing a good job?” Sometimes we forget we need to do that.

Be open to “flow.”
I have plans every day. But the things that get done are frequently inspired by the demands of the time. I’ve learned to trust my intuition more than the teacher’s manual. Make it interesting. Make it fun. Keep things upbeat. Mess around with their imaginations. How can you put that in the lesson plan?

Self preservation is the prime directive.
You gotta’ be there to get the job done, so try to not get fired or burned-out. Don’t accept a bunch of crap from students (see Fair Play), or parents (see Good Manners), or your principal (see Common Sense).

Good manners succeed with even difficult people.
Maintain your composure when you’re dealing with people who don’t know what they are talking about.

Fair play is appreciated.
Kids have no power other than to expect justice. If you’re evenhanded, they usually don’t resent your authority. Of course, there are always going to be a few hard cases who don’t think you should have any say in what they do. These people are not fun to work with.

Mind the discourse.
The way people use language tells you a lot about whose voice is privileged and whose isn’t. You can the hear ideology dripping from every official pronouncement. The power to control definitions is the power to influence behavior. Don’t buy anybody’s bullshit - including mine, or even your own.

Know the research.
In light of the previously mentioned suggestion, be aware of what research literature tells us about teaching and learning. You can justify almost any approach to education with references to somebody’s research.

Common sense is one of the basics.
It isn’t rocket science.

Speak up.
If you’re going to be a change-agent working to transform the culture of education, you can’t expect to do it all by yourself. At the end of the day it’s sometimes hard to find words to synthesize our experience. The act of writing for a real audience is a personal expression of power. A blog can help with this. Being outspoken in professional meetings is another way to get the attention of many people who might enjoy seeing things from another point of view. Discovering that others value your ideas is incentive to keep working for change.

If anyone has more ideas on this subject, I’d like to hear them. Educational change is cultural work, and requires the efforts of many.