Fed up with the term ‘status quo’

03-16-2011

Guest blog by Diana Senechal/Washington Post

I have had it with the term “status quo.” Everywhere you go, if you question any of the dominant reforms (value-added assessment, virtual schools, school closings, rigid pedagogical models, etc.), you are branded a defender of the status quo. Apparently the world is divided into two camps: those who embrace change and those who resist it. The latter group, of course, is an inconvenience to those seeking “progress.” If only those status quo people would get out of the way, we’d see some good old-fashioned change. Balderdash. All depends on what sort of change is being sought and in what manner. Many question a particular change with good reason, not because they reject change in general. By presenting change as an unequivocal good, reformers sabotage whatever elements of good the change may have had. Embracing a reform recklessly, without care for the questions and concerns of others, they end up making reams of mistakes, wasting time and money, causing distress and damage, backtracking, undoing the change, and ultimately spinning in that same old “status quo” they derided. (more...)

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