Mental Models

What is your mental model of school?  My guess is that it is the school you attended.

Over the next few weeks we have a group of teachers and patrons walking our facilities as we update our facility maintenance plan.  The first walk through was earlier this week.  It was at our high school.

Interestingly, several participants seem to want to recreate our high school as the high school they attended.  Some partcipants attended the high school and spent time discussing what teacher was in what room, how the building had grown, how programs had expanded, and how other programs had dwindled or been eliminated.  Regardless, it was fairly clear that people wanted to see things as what they had when they were in school.  When we talked about the future of school and what it could look like, they had a hard time grasping the potential changes we will see.  Are they stuck in their mental model?

There are more buildings to walk through.  Can and will their mental models change?  Can they see beyond the school they attended?  I think so...they want the best opportunties for their kids.