At least, that's what the Great Dane said. I suspect that he was on to something. Something relevant to schools.
The great complexity of operating even a small school is not due to organizational logistics so much as it is due to multiple and conflicting values and expectations among its constituents. Depending on who you ask, you might hear that the purpose of schooling is: socialization, job training, baby sitting, the cultivation of each child's unique potential, college prep, therapy, the integration of newcomers to American society, the elimination of poverty, the maintenance of America's competitive edge in the world, national security, making the world green or making parents happy. Not one of these competing purposes is without a constituency, and it is often a matter of which constituency has the most influence locally, within the state or at the federal level determining the size and shape of schools. And no matter what a school does, some of these priorities are going to be given short shrift because no single institution can fulfill all of these hopes.
Schools and districts have a fundamental choice to make. They can operate at the whim of 'current educational research', the professional organizations, the parent organizations, the business round-tables or the state legislature and dedicate their energies to keeping up with the latest fads and shifting priorities on all fronts. This is a more common strategy than one might wish. The result is the educational malaise that we are experiencing on a very broad scale and with very few exceptions.
The alternative path, and what gives rise to the exceptions, is that schools can commit themselves to a vision that cuts across time and trends and profit margins and can instead go about the work of preparing young people to understand the world as it is and shape and cultivate the world as it will be. Sounds simple, and it is. But simple ought never be confused with easy.
So what? Just a truism, really. If you commit to one thing, you are likely to do better at it. All that is required is that you eliminate the distractions. Simple. But in education, the distractions can be extremely difficult to sift away from the heart of the matter. What sorts of distractions are these, that they come disguised as matters of educational urgency?
Part B to Come
