Dr. Mike Bartig

...Taking the Red Pill,

 

The Matrix is my favorite movie of all time. It is enjoyable to watch. It is complex in meaning but simple in delivery. It leaves one wanting more. In all these respects, it feels like good public education should look and feel.  Some quotations from the movie have recently had me thinking about how they relate to education at SHS.

 

Consequently, I will share ten of my favorite quotations from the movie then lay them out with contextual reference.  My explanations are simply a collection of ideas derived from each quotation - a perspective on what The Matrix can teach us about the importance of strong PLC teams and student learning.

 

1. Morpheus: This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill - the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill - you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.

 

This is about the choice between a difficult path and blissful ignorance. You can make clear parallels between the red pill and any tough undertaking, such as making difficult decisions about the written curriculum and/or the teaching and learning process. You know it will be hard work (require skill), and that it will likely take you to some difficult places.  Yet, remain steadfast in the knowledge that it will be worth it to your professional happiness and student learning.

 

Alternatively, you could take the path of least resistance, the blue pill, and never know. As educators we are faced with these choices daily. Working on our weaknesses, being part of an effective PLC team, building on our teaching and student learning - these are all things we can either grab by the horns and attack wholeheartedly, or ignore and live in a state of supposedly blissful denial.

 

Ironically, in education there are no magic pills to help us, contrary to what many vendors and/or marketers would have us to believe.

 

2. Morpheus: The matrix is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work… when you go to church… when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth. … That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else you were born into bondage. Born into a prison that you cannot smell or taste or touch. A prison for your mind.

 

There is a irony in the fact that the burden of championing education to new heights has been a way of life for our predecessors, and is inherently part of who we are too. The irony lies in that this is anything but a default way of life for most teachers today. Much of the material outside of school and marketed toward our general student populations is concerned with making life easy - and kids lazy.  Rigorous, deep thinking, is out of fashion.

 

Yet, the truth is that to some, rigorous and relevant learning is an alternate reality. Fight the good fight. Maintain your position as a rigorous and relevant educator despite the constant barrage of our societal feel good mentality.

 

3. Trinity: I know why you're here, Neo. I know what you've been doing ... why you hardly sleep, why you live alone, and why night after night, you sit by your computer. You're looking for him. I know because I was once looking for the same thing. And when he found me, he told me I wasn't really looking for him. I was looking for an answer. It's the question that drives us, Neo. It's the question that brought you here. You know the question, just as I did.

 

When we have content area questions to be answered, we often reach for the Internet. Fair enough - these days the World Wide Web (WWW) is an accessible resource with a virtually never-ending supply of information. But it’s easy to get carried away with this search for answers - so much one may not even have a question for which we are looking to answer. This is not aimed at people who browse quality, peer reviewed content with an open mind. This is talking about people (and we know a few) who spend night after night looking for ‘it.’

 

I have two truths for you:

• There is no ‘it’ - “There is no spoon.”

• Even if you stumble upon a light in the distance, there is more to it than just finding ‘it’ or knowing it exists. We must build our skill through a ridiculous, sickening work ethic walking the continuous path in search of it – how to serve students better.

 

4. Morpheus: Neo, sooner or later you're going to realize, just as I did, that there's a difference between knowing the path, and walking the path.

 

Smithville High School is rich with top class minds and content area leading coaches. What makes them so good is that these people not only know the path, but have walked the path and are still continually putting one foot in front of the other and continuing on their journey to meet the responsibility to make the lives of students better.

 

We do not have to follow a particular path - it’s our team’s journey. But these paths have been traveled by those who have made similar journeys before us. To truly make use of what we now know, we must undertake the journey to be the best high school possible and become a functional team – walk the toughest paths together. Deepen the treads that others have worn in and use them to guide our new journey.

 

5. Morpheus: I'm trying to free your mind, Neo. But I can only show you the door. You're the one that has to walk through it.

 

Keeping an open mind is important in what we will do. The most obvious application of this quotation relates to our choice to embark on our journey to be a functional team. Though if you are reading this, I am going to assume you have already decided you are ready to walk through this door.

 

So let’s look at another perspective on this. Free your mind to learning from colleagues. Leave all your baggage at the door. Leave your ego at the door (Lencioni). Choose to talk through the most difficult decisions with an open mind and heart - only then will we find out what being on the other side of the door is truly like.

 

6. Cypher: I know what you're thinking, 'cause right now I'm thinking the same thing. Actually, I've been thinking it ever since I got here. “Why oh why didn't I take the blue pill?”

 

Once our team has made the difficult decision, be it a tough transition we must stick to our commitment. We will all have our moments of doubt. Yet, we will know we have made the right decision – when we start to see/get results.  We must stop changing programs every few weeks because they do not instantly provide answers. Have no regrets. I can honestly say that I have no regrets in life. Not a single one. Every single decision made as part of a functional team was just that - our best decision. The combinations of these ideals have molded the teams I have worked on and made me the educator I am today.

 

7. Agent Brown: Perhaps we are asking the wrong questions.

 

The answers you get are only as good as the questions you ask. Speak with your colleagues often and question assumptions. Ask questions that are important and relevant to our teams thematic goal. Comment on best practices with a view to engage in conversation. The first step is to actually ask questions. Only by asking questions will we get better at seeking the best solutions.

 

8. Morpheus: You have to let it all go, Neo. Fear, doubt, and disbelief. Free your mind.

 

The first thing I think of when I read these words is attention to results is a state of mind. Training ourselves to free our minds is a skill that will need to be practiced just like any other skill. Learn to use the ideas of others to improve team focus, concentration, and take student performance to that next level.

 

This also applies to belief in our agreed up thematic goal and the strategies we collectively choose to get us there.

 

9. Mouse: To deny our own impulses is to deny the very thing that makes us human.

 

You are “The One”. You hold the truth within your own discipline or department. Trust your instincts. During decision making processes, propose what your tacit/research has taught you. This is far more valuable than following what others do, or even what others tell you they think you should do.

 

10. Morpheus: [to Neo who is choosing the red pill] Remember...all I'm offering is the truth. Nothing more.

 

The truth is out there and I believe it is found first in the creation of a functional PLC team.  The next step for SHS is ours to decipher, the questions are ours to ask, and the choices, ours to make.

 

Take the Red Pill.