Shame on Teachers

It is my belief that change is necessary and inevitable in education. Our students of today differ greater than students that we had even five to ten years ago. It is the duty of all educators, teachers and administrative, to always keep ears and eyes open for new ideas that can best help to educate students. We need to step out of our professional comfort zone and into a world that can contain a variety of new practices and ideas to assist our students' development. We also cannot react to quickly to a minimal adaptation in student performance. Research shows that it takes 4-6 years for an educational reform to reach its maximized potential ina school environment. I fear that, at least in my district, our administration is always looking for a quick way to raise our standardized scores, and we quickly dismiss eductional methods and gravitate towards other ones. We should be willing to accept long-term change and see how it can help our students before we scrap it to search for new ideas.
Now, I think it is fair to say that educational personnel need to always keep a look out for new ideas that can help in the classroom to add to daily lessons. I think that my main concern with education today is that many in our field feel it is quite alright to rest on their laurels and actually not search for new ways to teach. Once a teacher decides that the way they work their craft is paramount, I believe that teacher needs to retire. We are never going to be perfect at aiding all of our students. I hold that teachers who disagree may simply be unwilling to learn new practices and would probably benefit greater from retirement. I do not wish to come acorss and harsh and combative. I do, however, work with several teachers who go against the ideas that my district promotes [differentiation, lesson study, etc] simply because it would take them to much time to learn these new techniques.