A goal of schooling in our nation written into all district mission statements is preparing our sons or daughters for the world of work. Putting aside the argument over which goal of schooling should predominate —to educate or to prepare—let’s assume most school communities lean towards school organizations, curricular, and teaching methodologies that align with world of work. The next four blogs summarize the findings of survey conducted by McKinsey & Company on private sector organizational trends. For each private sector trend I describe how school organizations and pedagogies are poorly designed to respond to these trends.
Trend #1: “Increasing speed, strengthening resilience”
“Half of the respondents in the McKinsey survey say their organization is unprepared to react to future shocks. Those able to bounce forward—and quickly—out of serial crisis may gain significant advantages.”
School Response: “We are not learning organizations”
The organization and model of teaching in our nation’s schools continues to operate on a turn of the century model of schooling that valued bureaucratic goals over learning goals (see tables below:
| A Bureaucracy |
| Top-down decision making Role differentiation Impersonal environment Paper trails Technical competence Accountability |
| A Learning Organization |
| Collective sensemaking Role specialization Collaborative environment Performances Professionalism Responsibility |
The structure and goals of bureaucratic organizations are designed for stability and predictability. They are poorly designed to quickly and effectively respond to unpredictable shocks to their organization. How schools responded to the COVID-19 shock is a prime example of a schooling model unable to quickly transition to quality remote learning platforms and to create safe learning environments in their buildings.
Alan C. Jones 