Mastery will be mandated and goals met in Reading and Math, Science too. Compulsory requirements for Scholars will imposed in every subject area. Modern society necessitates that our students excel, at least in Reading, 'Rithmetics, and Relativity. These move all else on the globe, or so are the trendy thoughts in modern-day education.
Every one of us is told that we live in a competitive world. Tycoons will tell you that Total Quality Management brings out the best in people. Indeed, innumerable citizens American citizens concur. "Continuous improvement" must be the mission statement adopted by each school District nationwide.
Children need be tested. Exams must be uniform; that will ensure that the statistics gathered are precise. Scores will be mathematically measured. Charts graphed. Students and Teachers ranked. Funding will be appropriated as it is in business. If a school does well, it will profit. If the educational institution, or the students fail, so be it. The public cries, we cannot continue to subsidize a program that reaps few if any rewards.
This is the mindset in today's America. A former business executive and Attorney, Jamie Robert Vollmer felt that way. However, that was in a time now past. Currently, Mister Vollmer works as a motivational speaker and consultant. His intent is to advance awareness. Jamie Vollmer strives to increase community support for public schools. In his novel role he shares this telling tale . . .
The Blueberry Story: The teacher gives the businessman a lesson
By Jamie Robert Vollmer
"If I ran my business the way you people operate your schools, I wouldn't be in business very long!"
I stood before an auditorium filled with outraged teachers who were becoming angrier by the minute. My speech had entirely consumed their precious 90 minutes of inservice. Their initial icy glares had turned to restless agitation. You could cut the hostility with a knife.
I represented a group of business people dedicated to improving public schools. I was an executive at an ice cream company that became famous in the middle1980s when People Magazine chose our blueberry as the "Best Ice Cream in America."
I was convinced of two things. First, public schools needed to change; they were archaic selecting and sorting mechanisms designed for the industrial age and out of step with the needs of our emerging "knowledge society". Second, educators were a major part of the problem: they resisted change, hunkered down in their feathered nests, protected by tenure, and shielded by a bureaucratic monopoly. They needed to look to business. We knew how to produce quality. Zero defects! TQM! Continuous improvement!
In retrospect, the speech was perfectly balanced - equal parts ignorance and arrogance.
As soon as I finished, a woman's hand shot up. She appeared polite, pleasant -- she was, in fact, a razor-edged, veteran, high school English teacher who had been waiting to unload.
She began quietly, "We are told, sir, that you manage a company that makes good ice cream."
I smugly replied, "Best ice cream in America, Ma'am."
"How nice," she said. "Is it rich and smooth?"
"Sixteen percent butterfat," I crowed.
"Premium ingredients?" she inquired.
"Super-premium! Nothing but triple A." I was on a roll. I never saw the next line coming.
"Mr. Vollmer," she said, leaning forward with a wicked eyebrow raised to the sky, "when you are standing on your receiving dock, and you see an inferior shipment of blueberries arrive, what do you do?"
In the silence of that room, I could hear the trap snap?. I was dead meat, but I wasn't going to lie.
"I send them back."
"That's right!" she barked, "and we can never send back our blueberries. We take them big, small, rich, poor, gifted, exceptional, abused, frightened, confident, homeless, rude, and brilliant. We take them with ADHD, junior rheumatoid arthritis, and English as their second language. We take them all! Every one! And that, Mr. Vollmer, is why it's not a business. It's school!"
In an explosion, all 290 teachers, principals, bus drivers, aides, custodians and secretaries jumped to their feet and yelled, "Yeah! Blueberries! Blueberries!"
And so began my long transformation.
Since then, I have visited hundreds of schools. I have learned that a school is not a business. Schools are unable to control the quality of their raw material, they are dependent upon the vagaries of politics for a reliable revenue stream, and they are constantly mauled by a howling horde of disparate, competing customer groups that would send the best CEO screaming into the night.
None of this negates the need for change. We must change what, when, and how we teach to give all children maximum opportunity to thrive in a post-industrial society. But educators cannot do this alone; these changes can occur only with the understanding, trust, permission, and active support of the surrounding community. For the most important thing I have learned is that, schools reflect the attitudes, beliefs and health of the communities they serve, and therefore, to improve public education means more than changing our schools, it means changing America.
Reprinted with permission from the March 6, 2002 issue of Education Week
Copyright 2002, by Jamie Robert Vollmer
References and Resources . . .
Subscribe to Site [RSS]
