Episode 2: How are the Children?

This episode, the second of year one delves into the background of the question "how are the Children? It also explores the concept that the entire district, as a system, either helps or hinders the school sites by means of the culture, climate, and consistency that it creates. 

This episode explains my commitment to the concept that the entire district is instrumental in improving or hindering student achievement. It makes the case that when roles are unclear or chaotic, both teaching and learning function at a less than optimal level.  We go back into history to discuss perspectives on schools from two thousand year ago into the twenty-first century. 

I trust you will enjoy this episode, smile and learn about how the adults in the district impact the answer to the question "how are the children?" Our goal as educators must be to create an environment where is answer is likely to be "the children are well!" Let's all keep on dancing!

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phil@thedistrictmatters.com or
phil@riovistagroup.com

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Dancing in the Mind Fields and Instituto de Estudios de Historia Mexicana are subsidiaries of Rio Vista Group LLC

Enjoy listening to the podcasts and let's all keep on dancing!

Transcript

Episode Two of Season One – Dancing in the Mindfields

How are the Children?

This is Phil Stover offering you greetings from sunny Chihuahua, Mexico. Welcome to the second episode of the first season of my new podcast, “Dancing in the Mind Fields.” This series of podcasts, along with the website and Facebook page will be an opportunity for us to discuss the joys and challenges of the forces for and against public education in the United States.

The pre-eminent importance of the student is the reason for the oft-asked question, “How are the Children?” In the mid-eighties, I had the privilege of serving on the International Council of AIM International. In that role, I traveled to Kenya and visited the organization's work in the Maasai Mara, the Maasai people's home. They left an indelible impression on me.

A few years later, in 1991, a Unitarian Universalist pastor in Framingham, MA, put together a sermon to spearhead his congregation's emphasis on ministry to children. His mind went back to his college days in the late sixties, and the story his friend, a Kenyan exchange student, talked about Maasai greetings, which included the requisite question, "And how are the Children?" That pastor, Rev. Dr. Patrick O'Neill, once told me he could not remember his friend's name, but he remembered how the story impacted him. He wrote a sermon focusing on the importance of that greeting and titled it, "And How are the Children?" He never copyrighted the sermon. No text of it exists. However, it has become one of the most famous and influential sermons of the modern American church, rivaling the impact of the great sermon "Acres of Diamonds," preached by the founder of Temple University, Rev. Russell Conwell, in 1915 in Philadelphia.

The sermon containing the Maasai greeting story was first picked up by nursing associations from several states, then by a Colorado state teacher's college, and then again by the Minnesota State Teacher's Association Convention. In Dr. O'Neill's words to me, "and off it went!" Senator Hillary Clinton used the sermon in a speech, followed in rapid succession by many educational pundits and polemicists, some of whom failed to give Dr. O'Neill a correct attribution. One school superintendent in California used the story without attribution, this leading at least in part, to his termination by the district. 

I first heard the account at some long-forgotten educational conference many years ago. I have never forgotten it. The image of the lean and long Maasai warrior asking his friend while meeting on the road, "And how are the children?" is terrific. The reply "The children are well" provides further insight into a society that knows that all is well if the children are well. It matters not that often the greeting ritual among the Maasai also includes the question, "And how are the cows?" The children are a priority, and that lesson has not been lost on most educational leaders, at least when delivering speeches. What is essential is that we translate that greeting into each and every classroom in each and every US school district. 

A school board member, with whom I closely worked, chose not to run again after serving one term. In an exit interview with the local press, he summed up his term of service as follows, "I give myself an A for effort and a D+ for success." The struggles in school districts are nothing new. Almost two thousand years ago, using the language of his time, the Greek philosopher Epictetus described the challenges students faced in the school he founded in Nicopolis, Greece. He described the education he hoped to provide them as requiring a sort of discomfort: 

 “A surgery - pain, not pleasure, you should have felt therein. For on entering none of you is whole. One has a shoulder out of joint, another an abscess: a third suffers from an issue, a fourth from pains in the head. And am I then to sit down and treat you to pretty sentiments and empty flourishes, so that you may applaud me and depart, with neither shoulder, nor head, nor issue, nor abscess a whit the better for your visit? (The Golden Sayings of Epictetus (pp. 59-60). Kindle Edition.

Using a bit brighter-toned words four hundred years ago, Prague educator John Amos Comenius opined that: 

The proper education of the young does not consist in stuffing their heads with a mass of words, sentences, and ideas dragged together out of various authors, but in opening up their understanding to the outer world, so that a living stream may flow from their own minds, just as leaves, flowers, and fruit spring from the bud on a tree.

Wisely, he also admonished the educators of his 17th century era to realize: 

We are all citizens of one world, we are all of one blood. To hate people because they were born in another country, because they speak a different language, or because they take a different view on this subject or that, is a great folly. Desist, I implore you, for we are all equally human. . . . Let us have but one end in view: the welfare of humanity.

Certainly, these are wise words for his or any other century, including the twenty-first. Dehumanizing those with whom disagree is, to use Comenius’ words “a great folly.”

Just twenty-seven years ago educational theorist Diane Ravitch referred to the New York City School District in perhaps a more biting, yet humorous and metaphorical tone:

Like a huge dinosaur, it is not particularly smart, has an insatiable appetite, moves awkwardly, yet exudes great power. Like wisteria, it is impossible to control; clip it back and it grows more vigorously than before. Like a giant octopus, its many tentacles reach fearlessly into every aspect of the school system.

While each educational guru of their time reflected in a different manner, I am sure that their words apply equally to the challenges, frustrations, joys, rewards, risks, challenges, and the dance of the more than 13,400 US public school districts.

I am interested in exploring the case that the entire district, as a system, either helps or hinders the school sites by means of the culture, climate, and consistency that it creates. That is a function of the action and interaction of all the internal and external forces at work in our subsequent podcasts, especially the governance component, that is board and senior administration. 

When the district is toxic, teaching and learning suffer. If staff and students do not experience psychological safety in their work, teaching and learning will suffer. If at the district, school, or classroom level, staff, stakeholders, and/or students experience a culture of oppression or distraction, learning will suffer. At times, this negative environment is very subtle yet palpable. At times it is right in their faces. Depending on the nature of the stress, blocking, ignoring, or active opposition can result. When a district's processes, methods, focus, and leadership change every few years, teaching and learning suffer. As we will see, school districts are adept and expert at blocking and ignoring. Thus, they resist change, demonstrating their prowess at preferring homeostasis (staying constant) rather than morphogenesis (adapting to change). But more on that in later podcasts. 

Mac Iver and Farley sum up the research, demonstrating that a district can build capacity at the schools to impact student achievement by focusing on the following:

1.    Advising on good curriculum and instructional practice.

2.    Recruiting and equipping principals and teachers.

3.    Helping schools to analyze data and make decisions about instructional changes.

4.    Providing administrative support so that good instruction can occur 

These are logical and common-sense areas on which to focus. I am interested in exploring the case that the entire district, as a system, helps or hinders the school sites by means of the culture, climate, and consistency that it does or does not create. 

When roles are unclear or chaotic, both teaching and learning function at a less than optimal level. As one superintendent I worked for said, "Not staying in your swim lane creates waves all over the pool." Failure of district governance is perhaps one of the chief culprits in all this. Again, more about this in subsequent podcasts. 

My observation is that districts, by and large, are pretty good at focusing on the four components studied by the above gurus. Districts are much less adept at creating a culture and climate where all adults (site, central office/board, and stakeholders) focus with a common intent and purpose on creating an environment that facilitates student learning and maximizing the use of resources for that purpose. This challenge is exacerbated in a district still healing from previous merry-go-round rides by the tendency of new leadership, especially on the board or in the superintendent's office, to move too quickly or too broadly, or to paint with too broad a brush. 

I hope to make the case that sometimes less change is better in a district that is hurting. At times, the best reform movement gives the district a chance to breathe, calm down, and recover. In that sense a school district is more like an organism, a family than an organization. It takes wisdom, judgment, and discernment to know when to introduce change and when to stabilize. The two often cannot and should not be done at the same time. I would graciously suggest to the reader that there are more districts in our country that are hurting than many realize. If I am right in suggesting that, it only follows that there are staff and students in those districts who are also hurting.

I would also suggest that districts suffer when they (staff, stakeholders, or board) get distracted or disrupted and stray away from a laser-like focus on their core mission. It can be argued that a certain amount of disruption may be useful for an organization to shake up its homeostatic tendencies. However, prolonged or extensive disruption is almost always harmful to a system's health. The forces that act on school districts to cause such distraction or disruption are many and varied. A few that I have seen over the years that detract from a district's student focus include (in no order):

 ·         Sudden, drastic, or prolonged changes in funding from local, state, or federal levels.

 ·         Sweeping changes in instructional methodology or curriculum, especially those that are externally driven. 

 ·         Debates over infrastructure, such as implementing technology in the classroom or online learning in the home.

 ·         Any hint or evidence of corruption in the system.

 ·         Political climate (local, county, or state issues); non-educational controversial issues (religious, ideology, and social issues, etc.). These are often very hard for some districts to avoid. Governance in other districts may actually embrace controversy because of stakeholders’ aligned political and ideological interests that inevitably distract from an educational focus. These controversies may create governance debates not directly related to teaching and learning. One example may be spending hours at a board meeting debating whether to restrict employee travel to this or that neighboring state because of its position on social issues.

 ·         Natural disasters (fires, hurricanes, etc.).

 ·         Labor unrest.

 ·         Safety, security, and sensitivity issues and debates.

 ·         Issues such as equity versus equality, diversity, and cultural proficiency are essential topics for a district. However, they can become divisive if they never progress from discussion to culture change or are inconsistently applied due to internal or external pressures. Sometimes equity talk is just that, a mechanism to appease, to appear to be doing the right thing. Such can also wound when they morph into dogma. 

 ·         Capital Expenditures – Bond, building, and facility controversies or issues.

 ·         Anything that brings excessive change or disruption to the district – attendance boundary changes, school closures, grade level changes, senior leadership/board changes, etc.

 In my career, I often was asked to intervene in a district, department, or school in pain, less than optimal in its functioning. From countless hours of sitting in meetings listening to other educational leaders, I am convinced that more districts are in pain than the public might think. Careers, egos, doubt, and fear combine to keep the pain hidden. Leaders may cast about for something safe, like the lack of parental support and cooperation on which to blame learning inertia. 

One cannot minimize the need for public school students and staff to feel safe and secure. From the preschooler to the 12th grader; from the superintendent to the food service worker; from the classroom teacher to the central office clerk, personal safety and freedom from stress are essential. In recent times we must add the need for physical, psychological, medical, career, and freedom to opine safety. When any one component of the school district system is in stress, the district's overall functioning is much less than optimal.

My last job in full-time public education was to serve as an interim superintendent in a district where over several previous years four of five school board members and the superintendent were indicted for fraud. Distrust, single stories, skepticism, and inertia hung in the air. The system was broken, the organism was in pain. Recovery would take years. 

Thanks for tuning in to this, the second of our first season of podcasts. Please subscribe on your favorite podcast channel and let us know how we are doing on either our Facebook page at dancinginthemindfields.com or on our website at the same address. Everyone, enjoy your day. And please, Let’s everyone keep on dancing!