not teaching,
still THINKING …
Change. It can be just as strongly embraced as it can be deeply rejected.
People tend to be fond of change when it affects someone else, but resistant to change when it affects themselves. That’s human nature.
Change, however, can be a good thing for a lot of reasons. It can prevent drudgery from setting in or people from settling in — at work, on the job, in personal relationships. It’s good to mix things up every so often.
Change is a positive force that keeps people in motion. Some might argue: Why change for the sake of change? I would counter: Why not?
Proponents of change should not have to defend their reasons for it, presuming that the change causes no harm. And getting people out of their comfort zones should not be categorized as harmful.
Protectors of the status quo should not require reasons for change because that position presumes that change is in response to a problem that needs to be solved or an issue that needs to be addressed. As we know, change can be inspired by the simple desire for newness of some kind.
Every day, each of us could aspire to effecting some kind of change in some aspect of our lives. And if that makes others around us uncomfortable, then I guess our next challenge should be to change those people’s minds.
This post is an encore about an issue that is as important and relevant today as in September 2010, when it was originally published.
(These two profs are no longer teaching at Syracuse University’s Newhouse School, but we are still thinking.)