Decaying monoliths ...

You know when you have been involved with something for too long when you see the greats come and go. When you are able to lament on what was and laugh at what others are doing, as you have already made that mistake.

A mark of longevity is when you see/hear of innovative practice and when you read it think "didn't we do that, way back when?" or more often "many were doing this, but why not now?".

Moreover, you often hear of some organiastions, schools, colleges or universities being the 'best' at X or Y, having acquired a reputation that is no longer a reflection of their current reality.

The reality is that in education, monoliths come and go, often with rapid ease. As education is entirely reliant on the one resource of the professionals teaching the topics in question. Unless there is the collective enthusiasm, supported by an ability to deliver the topic and get results. It can easily be lost in the mists of time.

Sadly, the culture cultivated by various governments, sees the 'leadership' as from the top, and quality in more or less "results and retention" terms. When innovative teaching, designed to give the students what they need rather than "what unknowing others want them to have", is throttled by a slow enduring stranglehold of process, not progress.

Monoliths will come and go, sometimes there may be some scatter remains of where something great once stood.



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