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Themes so far and how they relate to schools

Categories > 6/9 to 6/15 – Part 1 Introduction, Chapter 1, and Chapter 2 (44 pages)
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skipolsen
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I must tell you that I spent my whole career in one urban school system. I was a middle high school history teacher, a high school counselor and a union business agent for the last ten years of my career. So, in the area of self-disclosure, my experiences have profoundly shaped my point of view.

One of the themes that comes out in the book is the importance of talking. Put nicely at the bottom of page 29, "Helping residents learn to confront problems is essential. We've got Crips, Bloods, white suprmacists boarding with us, and they're all bunking together. As you might imagine the tension runs high. Everything we try to change in here is about getting rid of the gang culture. So we talk a lot"

Generally speaking, I don't think educators talk a lot—not about important matters. The old excuse that there's not the time has, I believe, some truth to it. I've been amazed how anxious educators are to talk about meaningful and important topics in my university classes.

So if there is a behavior I'd like to see it is talking about things that matter most.

A second theme that I see in this first section is a determination to find out, to investigate, to think about a problem. Educators, I don't believe, share that trait. They are more like clerks in the school store dispensing their specialty in predefined doses—mandated curricula, 55 minute periods, September to June, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., in age-segregated rooms, and with drive-by, mandated staff development. There's not much to wonder about if you're locked into this system like this and virtually the whole society has the same picture in their head about what school and learning are about.

I think we might be able to identify best behaviors, but they would be about us as educators and people, not about the delivery of our craft. What if our craft is non-deliverable in a deep and meaningful way in the 100+-year-old institution with protocols, practices, attitudes and perceptions that no longer fit the context of the world or the individual?

Anyone pickout any other themes?
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Skip Olsen
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11th June 2008 19:03 p.m.
jrs
rookie - member
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There were a couple of very practical items in Ch 2 that should not be "new" to anyone but are certainly reinforced here.

1 - p 29 - re: limit you scope of influence by identifying only a couple of behaviors and working on them. Otherwise you dilute your efforts and eventually fail.

Is that not a considerable factor in the declining student performance in many public education schools today? We have had the contemporary program of the year for many years (not to mention additional expectations to deliver social programs) and rarely continue with anything long enough to fairly evaluate its effect. Has our comprehensive approach to education (academics plus arts, athletics, music, etc.) served to "dilute" our focus on the fundamentals of why public schools were begun? Were we to focus on core academics to support thinking, communication, reasoning, citizenship etc. and turn over the activity and special interest programs to clubs we may have a better chance to show improvement in those areas. In a perverse way the budget restrictions may actually play a positive role in forcing school boards, patrons, administrators to return to a focus on their priorities rather than trying to be all things to all people's interests.

2 - p 37 - This section referenced a study to identify higher customer satisfaction scores in a medical services setting. I would suggest that education is similar to the medical setting in the type of public service we are providing. With that premise it seems public education systems could improve their repute within the community by pursuing the vital behaviors identified in the study:
1 - smile
2 - make eye contact
3 - identify yourself - we often presume others (beyond our students) know who we are
4 - let people know what you are doing and why
5 - I suggest a minor change to their final item of "Is there anything else you need?" to "WHAT else do you need?" This small change indicates there is a likely question where the former sometimes comes across less positively. In our go-go society with everyone in a rush there remains a personal need to know others care and the extra moment of consideration would pay huge rewards in terms of future understanding and cooperation.

This is not rocket science and could/should be common practice by all of us as we work in the public domain.

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11th June 2008 22:18 p.m.
Categories > 6/9 to 6/15 – Part 1 Introduction, Chapter 1, and Chapter 2 (44 pages)
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