The economics of change

Change is inevitable. The seasons change; our stage in life changes; our work changes. Change is just a fact of life, but the personal economics of change is very different in the educational world versus change in the corporate world. 


I think a lot of folks outside of education don't understand how truly different the two worlds are when it comes to change. 



In the corporate world, if you change jobs or change companies. The "out-of-pocket" cost of change is relatively minimal. Most companies supply laptop computers and, while commute distances may change, there is relatively little financial cost for changing companies or changing jobs within a company.


In the education world, the cost of change can be frighteningly expensive. Many outside of education will disagree because "after all a teacher is a teacher". From what I've seen, that couldn't be further from the truth. 


Much of what goes into a classroom is dependent upon the grade being taught. And, much of what makes a classroom a dynamic and vibrant learning environment comes out of the pocket of the teacher. While some of the material may be reused at another grade level, some of the investment is just lost.


For example, the cost of a classroom library. This is the reading center in the back of the classroom or over in a corner. Those bins overflowing with reading material are often built, at substantial cost, by the teacher. 


Unfortunately, a library for say a fifth grade class will serve little purpose should the teacher move to say teach a second grade class. 


Now one could argue that, if the costs are substantial, then clearly a teacher would make a sound economic decision and stay put. Unfortunately, given the changing nature of education- reduced funding and growing class sizes- what would have been a sound personal economic decision isn't always possible. 


This is where, I hope, Classroom2Classroom can help. By allowing educator to buy and sell unused classroom library books, hopefully we will be able to lower the economic cost of change while helping to build better classroom libraries.