About Schools and Hospitals

During one of my readings I came across a metaphor between schools and hospitals, it said something like this:

" If someone would ask you to have surgery in a 19th century type of hospital you would start running, so why do we let our kids study in a 21st century type of school?"

I think we should start to run, run far away from this type of institutions. With this I am not saying that technology is the solution to all our problems, actually the way that is being used in some of the centers is invading teachers' comfort levels in ways that are affecting their efficacy delivering content. This is not good, not good.

So, how do we have 21st century schools, keep current teachers, and have our students happy and learning? Some of my own tips:

-Start slow with an adventurous group of teachers not afraid of new technologies, or new pedagogical approaches, or...

-Train, train, train. Knowing the tools that are supposed to be used increases teachers confidence enormously. Let them experiment in an empty classroom, let then try new approaches as a team. No-pressure environments work for teachers too!

- Look for advice, copy, adapt other school's ideas that are working, don´t be afraid of saying: We are doing this wrong, we are ready to explore and change.