The Beatles or The Rolling Stones: Who Would You Rather Be?

By bcurran On October 24, 2012 · 4 Comments

So, it appears I recently entered a bit of an unplanned blogging and tweeting hiatus. Busy with work. Neil and I are finishing up a book, in the middle of writing another, and preparing for a day’s worth of presentations at an upcoming conference. NOT complaining…just trying to explain our absence to you, our faithful readers.

This time “away” has got me thinking about staying power in education. As educators, we become so tired of hearing about the “next great thing” or finding out that the new program our school has adopted a couple of years ago has been abandoned in favor of something “better.” And so on and so on. This issue is common in so many schools and districts. Public. Private. It doesn’t matter. Here today, gone tomorrow…it’s all too common a refrain (I won’t get started about the impact of this sort of thing on urban education and the achievement gap…).

I guess what I’m saying is this–until we start focusing on the important essentials of teaching and learning and stop worrying about bells, whistles, and the hottest trends, things are never going to change.

There’s a song I like whose chorus asks, “Who’d you rather be, the Beatles or the Rolling Stones?” And I think we need to ask ourselves this question. Do we want a meteoric rise followed by a massive flame-out? Or do we want staying power? Do we want to blindly buy in to flashy trends without considering rationale or purpose? Or do we want to move forward with ideas, practices, and products that will stand the test of time?

I know what I want. I want to be a part of change that lasts. That matters. I bet you do, too. You’re in the right place. I hope you take a moment to subscribe, follow, like or leave a comment.

Epilogue: I am sure there will be some music fans who’ll remind me that there are plenty of Beatles songs that stood the test of time (hello… A Day in the Life!). And others of you will remind me that the Stones are currently far from relevant. My point is that The Beatles no longer exist. The Stones, however, are alive and kicking. (Even Keith Richards.)

Photo via FlickrCC

http://twitter.com/blocht574 Todd Bloch

Great Post! I feel that teachers are getting caught up in all the new apps that help learning. Key is to focus on student learning. You can learn anywhere with any tools. Teachers need to be care not to go for the the flash in the pan. They need to concentrate on learning and the results.
- http://engagingeducators.com bcurran
  
  Thanks for your comment, Todd. It’s not about the tech. It never should be. It’s about the teaching.
http://twitter.com/brotherk_13 Mike Krywy

Wow – this is one of my favourite bands + songs as well. Never thought I’d see it in an Educational blog title. I’m more of a Stones guy, though it’s a hard decision.

When it comes to education, I think the challenge is how do you get the organizatin inspired enough to break out of dated model? Some institutions are, but I’d argue most are trapped in fairly old model and struggle to reinvent themselves because they don’t necessarily see the need to. With the music analogy, it would be like imaginging the Beatles never made Revolver and all that followed, or if the Stones were still playing cover songs like in their early days. When it comes to education, you wouldn’t go far wrong by choosing either band, as both reinvented themselves many times over the course of their careers – and kept innovating. To me that’s the lesson in it all.
- http://engagingeducators.com bcurran
  
  Thank you for your comment, Mike. You make some great points about how BOTH bands evolved over time, and that’s critical for educators to do, as well. Maybe, like with so many other pairs of great things, it’s better to take the best parts of each and combine them into something better.
  
  –Ben