Making change meaningful is the best way to sustain morale and generate commitment. Three steps are helpful here. First, wherever possible, change must be linked to the enduring values that have bound people together and that lie at the heart of the school, not simply sold as the latest new idea. Second, everyone needs to know what won t change, what they can count on to remain in place. Working with educators and trustees, as they have struggled with issues of change, has left me with a tremendous respect for the realities of school life.
Schools are simply less suited to innovation than most organizations, and they adapt more slowly.
We may wish they were different, but they have good reason to be as they are. The business they are in, the raising of the young, is not just traditional but timeless. We can best help them fulfill their mission in new ways by meeting them on their own terms, tempering our expectations, concentrating our efforts, and celebrating their strengths. Robert Evans is a psychologist and school consultant and the Executive Director of The Human Relations Service in Wellesley, Massachusetts. He is the author of The Human Side of School Change.