Remaining Status Quo

Remaining status quo is something many people are ok with. "I seem to be doing fine, why change things?" The problem with this mentality is that the world is changing around you. The bar is continuing to be raised. Remaining status quo makes us reactive instead of proactive in many realms of life. Our education system is broke and has been broken for many years. How has it gotten so bad? My suggestion: because we have remained status quo. Some/most are comfortable where they are at. Some/most do not challenge themselves. Some/most don't set higher expectations for themselves or the people they lead. Leaders must be striving to be ahead or above the status quo. Leaders need to set the vision and communicate the vision to the followers. Often in times of change, leaders make decisions that seem "unpopular", but the decision usually is what the leader forsees as necessary to make the vision a reality. With NCLB and now the start of "Race to the Top", great visions, great goals, but realistically, not attainable, especially for NCLB. One thing is for sure, some are striving and finding innovative ways to reach students and their performance in some cases increases. Leaders in this reform of taking the educational profession above the status quo, must include teachers, administrators, communities, parents, and students. Leaving one of these elements out is setting us up for failure before we even begin. We need reform, we need it now, we need to be striving to be above the status quo.