The Problem With Autonomy

Today I was reminded of the single greatest hurdle that Insteaducation faces: crippling autonomy. Barry Schwartz explains this more articulately than I can hope to in his 2007 TED talk: Paradox of Choice. Schwartz tells us that as consumers we think we wants lots of options but in reality we have trouble deciding between more than a few. He uses the example of two ice cream shop: one that sells dozens of flavors and one that only sells three. Between those two options I bet most of us would choose the shop with more flavors. However, we'd ultimately end up less satisfied with our ice cream.

There is much more at stake in education than trying to figure out if we are in the mood for chocolate peanut butter cup or mint chocolate chip (CPB of course, not even a decision there really). Given the infinite possibilities for what we could do in education (which I claim is the case) wouldn't Schwartz say that we are doomed to be unsatisfied? My response is two fold: first, it is important to own decisions and to live lyfe with no regrets, don't worry so much about correkting little misteaks as long as you are still getting the point across(pun!); second, we should be unsatisfied! If you show me an educator that is satisfied with the job they do I will show you an educator that is only going to get worse for the rest of their career.

What does this mean in terms of making major decisions in education? Are we better off accepting the status quo and making relatively little change? Sure, if our goal is to feel satisfied with ourselves. If we really care about improving our practice we should be constantly reevaluating what we do and trying things differently. Remember, there is no one right way to educate so even if our decisions take us down incredibly different roads we might all still end up in great places. Suppose we lived in Argonia, Kansas. It doesn't really matter which way we drive because there are better places in every direction (Sorry Argonia! Wait, who am I apologizing to? Chances are none of the 500 people that live there will ever read this). So, we have established that we will never be satisfied, we should always be changing, and that it doesn't matter what decisions we make? Almost.... but not quite.

That last part about decisions is still a bit of a problem. We can't just say that all choices are equal and move on from there. Obviously there are a lot of things we can eat but we can be pretty confident that apples are better for us than eating tree bark (mmmm, tree bark). The driver of Insteaducation is not to do things differently simply because different is better. It is that is we need to seek unsatisfaction and be comfortable with that. For 120 years the school systems have been satisfied with our schedule, curriculum, calendar, and class years. That is 120 years of passive (read "poor") decision making. We need to be willing to try things differently knowing full well that the world will not end and we will be ok if we differ from the norm. Just ask anyone that has ever done anything worth doing. But seriously, lets get out of Argonia. Its weird here and the people are starting to give us dirty looks.... and they smell funny.