Systems Thinking

I apologize that this is so late for anyone reading it. I have finally risen from the sinus infection stupor come Easter vacation I guess appropriately so.

I really enjoyed the Senge (2002) reading and would like to touch on a few things that jumped out at me. To begin, I thought that the whole idea of systems thinking and how we need to understand that there needs to be a relationship with the community outside the school walls was interesting. The idea that the relationship between to two can impact the success of the school seemed a bit scary. As soon as I read it I wondered if this idea becomes more or less of a challenge when thinking of a Catholic School. On the one hand we can be very connected through the parish to the community and any others that find connection with the Catholic faith. On the other hand, since we are Catholic, does the community as a whole not consider us really part of the community. Do we sort of seclude ourselves from everyone else.

This brings me to the second idea I connected to which was how important it was not just to change the rules but to change the methods of thinking and interacting between everyone involved in the system. (Since I feel I may need to change my thinking about the community.) I think my principal does a good job of understanding that there needs to be "buy in" from staff and families before change can really occur. This is no easy feat. What I have observed though is that you not only need to work to change the way people interact or view things but you also need to continue to encourage that change. It doesn't occur over night and needs to continue to be nurtured, and in the absence of nurturing and consitency the change begins to break down and people begin to regress back to their old habits.

Finally, I loved the quote that said,"...if you are learning in a classroom, what you understand is determined by how you understand things, who you are, and what you already know" (p.21). I think these blogs prove that point very well in that we all read the same subject matter but none of us learn exactly the same thing. So why do we still get upset at our students for not extracting the same meaning as we do from the subject matter that we teach...