A Man(ifesto) For All Seasons

Over a long weekend in February of 2001, 17 leading software developers held talks that resulted in the beginning of Agile software development and the creation of the Agile Alliance. The Alliance was formalized with the writing of The Agile Manifesto and the The Twelve Principles of Agile Software Development.

This is the original Agile Manifesto:

The Agile Manifesto

We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value:

• Individuals and interactions over processes and tools;

• Working software over comprehensive documentation;

• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation;

• Responding to change over following a plan.

That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.

Here is an adaptation of the Agile Manifesto for the world of school:

The Agile Schools Manifesto

We are uncovering better ways of educating children by doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value: More

• Individuals and interactions over processes and tools; More

• Meaningful learning over the measurement of learning; More

• Stakeholder collaboration over complex negotiation; More

• Responding to change over following a plan. More

That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more. More

It's easy to adapt the core Agile philosophy to education and to see how these ideas, if we allowed ourselves to be guided by them, would have a dramatic and positive impact on the way we run our schools, conduct ourselves professionally, and teach our children.

Discussion

Add your feedback below. To keep track of who is saying what, use an H1 tag (a plus sign "+" in the edit window) to identify yourself. For example:

Steve Peha

Modifying the Agile Manifesto for school took all of 10 minutes and maybe two or three 5-minute revisions. In going through the process, I realized three things: (1) This is a simple but profound set of beliefs; (2) These ideas provide as much leverage for positive change in education as they have in the business world; and perhaps most importantly (3) We rarely guide our schools in this way—and we really need to start.

I see many parents choosing schools these days, and while they all have different needs and values, they all want the same thing: schools that know who they are. This means schools, embodied by the adults who run them, that share a set of core beliefs and use those beliefs to guide their actions.

Most great schools do this. But in most public schools, it's as though we strive to appear belief-free. We have beliefs, of course, we just don't write them down, talk about them, share them with parents and students, or use them in a consistent way to guide our decision making.

As such, we are not truly belief-free, we are belief-opaque—we have beliefs but we don't let anyone see them, even the people we work with. As a result, a lot of guessing goes on, suspicion creeps in, and trust is lost. Over many years in a philosophically unpredictable system, we lose our way, and the people who depend on us to help their children can see this.

Adopting almost any reasonable philosophy in a transparent way would probably help any school or teacher. Fortunately, we know one important thing about Agile even before we take it up: it has worked very well for many years, in many different situations, and for many people all over the world.