The Abilene Paradox

If we are to ask teachers and parents about our (Singapore) education system, we will find almost unanimous agreement that the system is very stressful for all concerned. They will lament about the over-emphasis on examinations, the heavy workload on the students while the teachers will moan about being buried under the marking of the students’ work. Parents complain about the need for private tuition for their children, not to mention the streaming and labeling of of students. Yet, we find this strange agreement to somehow continue with this system of ours. This reminds me of the Abilene Paradox (see video excerpt here).

The Abilene Paradox was introduced by management guru, Jerry B. Harvey in his book, The Abilene Paradox and Other Meditations on Management (left). From an anecdote from this book he describes the paradox as the following:

“On a hot afternoon visiting in Coleman, Texas, the family is comfortably playing dominoes on a porch, until the father-in-law suggests that they take a trip to Abilene [53 miles north] for dinner. The wife says, “Sounds like a great idea.” The husband, despite having reservations because the drive is long and hot, thinks that his preferences must be out-of-step with the group and says, “Sounds good to me. I just hope your mother wants to go.” The mother-in-law then says, “Of course I want to go. I haven’t been to Abilene in a long time.”

The drive is hot, dusty, and long. When they arrive at the cafeteria, the food is as bad as the drive. They arrive back home four hours later, exhausted.

One of them dishonestly says, “It was a great trip, wasn’t it?” The mother-in-law says that, actually, she would rather have stayed home, but went along since the other three were so enthusiastic. The husband says, “I wasn’t delighted to be doing what we were doing. I only went to satisfy the rest of you.” The wife says, “I just went along to keep you happy. I would have had to be crazy to want to go out in the heat like that.” The father-in-law then says that he only suggested it because he thought the others might be bored.

The group sits back, perplexed that they together decided to take a trip which none of them wanted. They each would have preferred to sit comfortably, but did not admit to it when they still had time to enjoy the afternoon.”

Few dare to say no to our current system. Yet few think that many of the characteristic results of the system is desireable. But we still go along with it and just grin and bear with it. Either it is because we are so afraid of going against the official view or we somehow think that the others think it is great too. After all, we have teams from all over the world to study our educational system. So they must think it is good. So it must be good. Is it? Or are we on the road to Abilene where education is concerned?

By the way, I highly recommend the book. It is not only that the subject is interesting but the book is hilarious. It had me laughing all the way.