“...because that’s the way it’s always been done.”

Nothing fires me up more than hearing someone utter this phrase.  And being a teacher, I hear it more often than I care to admit.  Perhaps you’ve heard some form of this quote over the years.  Whenever I hear someone say this I immediately feel dismissed as if my (or anyone else’s) ideas are not valued.  It comes across as lazy, non-curious, and makes me feel that the person/business/organization is irrelevant due to this way of thinking.  Working in education, it sounds twice as bad coming out of someone’s mouth in that environment as educators are supposed to be innovators and naturally curious about the “why” to processes and how things are done.  

Love/Hate 

Working in education and music has always been a love/hate relationship for me.  The education part is the “hate” part because much of it is never changing or always changing and there’s rarely ever a well-documented set of reasons for doing either.  And usually the always changing part (beginning of the year professional development…dun dun dun…) is the same old, same old dressed up in different clothes.  The music is the “love” part because music (and the arts in general) rarely follow the same script.  A music lesson, while based in fundamentals, can go a thousand different directions based on the age of the students, a curious student question, the emotional content of the music, the historical content of the music, the type of instruments being used, the intended audience for the music, allowing for creativity with song writing at basic or advanced levels, and the list goes on.  I am constantly questioning myself as to the “why” I am doing something a certain way.  Often, I make changes in the moment or after reflecting on a unit, semester, or year.  If I kept doing things the way I’ve always done them I would be making the same mistakes I made as a first year teacher.  Oof.  That would be painful and discouraging.   

A List of Ridiculous Things/Ideas 

If we stopped questioning the way things have always been done we may still be doing the following:

-100 years ago we thought cigarettes cured asthma.

-We used to put people with mental illness into an insane asylum which often included wives who disagreed with their husbands.

-We used to think that a vibrating belt machine could “shake off the fat” and make us thin.

-Before the 1980’s everyone had to walk over to the dial on the TV to change the channel.

-Before cell phones, if you were away from home you had to find a payphone to make a call or ask to use the phone at a place of business.

-With early cell phones you had to pay a certain amount for every text and long distance phone calls were expensive unless you called between certain off-peak hours.

-Before GPS you had to carry a paper map with you and create your own route.

-In the 1960s kids brought their guns to school because they’d often have shooting clubs after school and some had gun ranges right on campus.

-In the 1950s sugar was thought to be harmless and saturated fats were the devil until it was proven the opposite was true in 1972.  Although this new research mirrored countries like France and Germany (who used little sugar and more fats) the American researcher had his reputation ruined by an industry that was getting rich off of killing people.

-In the 1960s unmarried women could not get a credit card.

-Seatbelts in cars were deemed unnecessary until a mandatory seat belt law was passed in the 1980s.

-Asbestos used to be a great building material.

The quote (“The most dangerous phrase in the language is ‘We’ve always done it this way.’) attributed to Naval Rear Admiral and computer scientist Grace Hopper, shows that she must have come across this way of thinking many times in her time as a female World War II era military personnel.  On top of being a female in the military in the 1950s she was also a computer scientist.  She was literally in charge of breaking the mold of how things were “always done” in order to allow the Navy to do things better, faster, more efficiently.  She’s attributed as saying essentially the same quote (in different iterations) over many years of speaking engagements after retiring from the military.  Below is a picture of Grace Hopper who passed away in 1992.

Let me know in the comments when you’ve heard the phrase “...because it’s alway been done that way” and how it made you feel. 

-Brian