The Meeting

   In corporations committees are convened when there is a large task at hand that is bigger than just one person. Schools utilize the same procedures.When you get more than one person in a room, you typically multiply the complexity of solving a single issue. This increased complexity of solving simple problems is to some frustrating and a waste of time. To me it is an opportunity to study the system. I have learned a lot over the past year by being involved in one of these panels. Today I spent my time after school in a panel called the Instructional Leadership Committee. The function of this team is to analyze and look at instructional issues that impact the kids. We look at teacher effectiveness and how well the kids are responding to changes that we make. Our entire purpose is to make the school better.  Everyone in that room is in there to help the school be a better place. However, with that comes the group mentality of not wanting to rock the boat. I sit in there sometimes and disagree with what is being said. I am one of a very few that publicly disagrees with recommendations that are made that are not beneficial to the student body. This is because I really think that discourse is the way to improve circumstances. I try and offer solutions but also try and offer a perspective that is reflective of the teachers and students of the school. In today's meeting we rated how we did over the course of the year. Everyone agreed that we had some work to do, but people felt more comfortable talking about strengths than weaknesses. I would argue that weaknesses are where we learn the most from. If we are going to make things better we have to look introspectively at ourselves, and build on that. We do need to look at what we do well, but we also need to be honest about what we do not. As educators we all have differences in how we approach problems. The differences can be our strength or they can be our weakness. Now this small criticism is not overshadowed by what this panel of teachers has done for our campus. Improvements that we have made have really helped out the students of our school. Our special ed kids are more successful at regular ed classes, and our AP program is growing. I would like us to imagine what we could do if we embraced the critical aspects of the school, and rocked the boat a little. If there is anything that we can learn it is that we gain the most when we rock the boat.

Until tomorrow,
My idea of education is to unsettle the minds of the young and inflame their intellects.  ~Robert Maynard Hutchins