Someone wrote me about the absolute hell they are in being in a new school and trying to introduce CI to kids who were taught in the old way. I wrote back:
But do keep in mind that the more you back down right now, the better it will be. That sounds like a contradiction, but really don’t you think it would be better to bend more now so that you can SLOWLY bring in your new work into this building?
The secret is to make the transition over years and not months. Give the older students what they have known, beat them to a pulp with that kind of instruction, maybe ending your classes with some CI as a relief. It has taken me a long time to realize that in most cases those older kids are unreachable. Their parents certainly are unreachable, even if the admin team is on your side.
Give the first year younger ones much less hammering of the old stuff and more CI, but not completely CI. The young ones will come to appreciate the CI more and eventually they will be asking you for less traditional. That makes it their idea!
It’s the ones who have been trained the old way who make it so hard for us, but they graduate. I just think it is better to do it that way than try to reach older kids with CI. It works so rarely to run into the new building waving a CI flag. Most people see it as a red flag.