The Anna Karenina Principle

[Steve J. Moore]

I was driving back to Kansas City from Springfield along Highway 13 while listening to the audiobook of Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, & Steel when it occurred to me that I was one third of the way through and had heard next to nothing about Guns. It being the most primary titular component, I expected its theme to present first; alas, I was driving disappointed. As the second period of this most actionless hockey game of a book progressed, Leo Tolstoy's name caught my attention.



Diamond was talking about why certain large animals have never been domesticated when he paraphrased the Russian master's opening line,

"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."

When I heard this, I slowly stopped thinking about the reasons pachyderms can't be pets and found my thoughts in a more familiar place: school. I may be struggling to keep my attention on the dissertation-like structure of Diamond's Pulitzer Prize winning piece, but he checked me from behind with this device for examining a complex system.

Like a family or a phylum of animals, a school system can be examined with the Anna Karenina Principle. I started to think about what it was about schools, learning, and teaching that was observable in successful examples. As I do with many important questions, I looked to my personal learning network online for responses.

I'd love to hear what you have to say. Here's the audio of my question too if you're curious. Feel free to interpret the question personally, your own modified answer may address something more interesting than what I've asked (as my students sometimes do).

[Annie Palmer]

I think successful schools have many facets that make them successful. I think one factor is that every individual in the building is expected to work towards improving their knowledge and skills and to strive to meet their potential. It's a given that this includes students, but I think what we sometimes forget is that this should include educators as well. In the book On Excellence in Teaching, Grant Wiggins discusses how teachers are often not required to improve professionally. Sure they attend the district required professional development sessions, but attending these sessions doesn't mean you've improved professionally. Administrators need to hold teachers more accountable in having specific goals in improving as professionals. If more teachers modeled the life-long learner appraoch we preach to our kids, we would have more successful schools. With that said, let me also say that I do know there are teachers out there who set these goals for themselves. I very much appreciate the teachers who hold themself to a high level of expectations. I just think we need to do a better job of requiring more of our colleagues to do this, instead of making it optional and hoping they jump on the bandwagon.

[Steve J. Moore]

I am still finishing the book, but you may be right! I love what you say about student choices, it's so true!

[WmChamberlain]

A successful school is a place where students have the opportunity to grow and learn. Notice I used the word opportunity, we can't make our students' choices for them. We have a responsibility to do the best we can to make school a place they want to attend where learning is relevant and obtainable.

I think Diamond would argue (he may have done so in the book) that the native population was done in by the germs, the guns and steel just slightly hastened the process.