As previously mentioned, in Chapter 1, John Dewey described the role of schooling as “either preservers of the status quo or anticipators of the future.” The teacher, parent, student or administrator who advocates a new or different way of responding to a need or resolving a problem may soon find themselves in the land of the “yabuts” or the “whynots.” The simple statement “I’ve got an idea!” may evoke two types of response:

• “yabut” you can’t do that because-it’s against the rules-it hasn’t been tried before-who’s going to pay for it? etc.