Julia Steiny: When talking about the problem raises a problem
1.31.10 – Over an early-morning hot tea, Deborah Gist, Rhode Island’s new (as of July) commissioner of education, chatted with me about how she felt things were going. With her extreme-energy style,
When talking about the problem raises a problem
Over an early-morning hot tea, Deborah Gist, Rhode Island’s new (as of July) commissioner of education, chatted with me about how she felt things were going. With her extreme-energy style, she’s working for reform on myriad fronts, demanding that everyone from Department of Education officials to parents and teachers step up and work harder.
But rather boldly, to my mind, she’s put teacher quality at the center of her administration. She believes that a laser-focus on improving everything about the quality of instructors will break the Rhode Island curse of paying top dollar for generally underwhelming educational results.
She’s been all over the state, visiting every district and holding public events to give everyone an opportunity to respond to her initiatives. But educators often react to her concern for quality with defensiveness, even taking much offense.
At one such event, she’d finished her own presentation, complete with PowerPoint slides, and opened the floor to questions. The last slide had been left up on the screen, which read: “All educators will be excellent.” A man, presumably a teacher, got up to the microphone and angrily demanded to know why she assumes “we’re NOT excellent?” She replied, “What makes you assume I think that YOU’RE not excellent?” To which he had no answer.
Oy. It’s not about you, sir. It’s nothing personal. But criticizing the poor performance of some teachers is almost inevitably taken as an insult to them all.
Gist looked a little hurt herself for a moment and declared, “I feel like I am the biggest champion for teachers you could ever find!”
Welcome to my world, Ms. Gist. When I point out patently obvious problems such as some teachers don’t care about their subject, or yell at the kids, or just can’t teach worth beans, I’m immediately labeled a “teacher-basher” or “teacher-hater.” When I mention that powerful unions and their contracts keep those teachers in place, I’m a “union basher.” How on earth can we teach problem-solving to the kids if just identifying a problem is so insulting that the specifics can’t be discussed?
Gist says, “The single most important factor in education is the quality of the teacher. People say ‘That’s ridiculous. It’s their parents!’ Well yes, but I’m talking about education, so what can we do within our schools? While welcoming parents is important, there’s so much more we can do as educators. Honestly, I don’t understand what it means when I’m ‘blaming the teachers.’ Aren’t they responsible? But am I blaming? No. We need to help them be as successful as they can be. So I’m holding school committees and principals accountable. All of us have to be accountable, starting with me!” more…
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Comments
As a former inner city public school teacher who has been married for more than 30 years to an inner city public school teacher, I strongly agree with this column.
The best teachers readily acknowledge that some of their counterparts do not do a great job with students. But raising this issue does produce the label "teacher-basher." Ironically, the best friends teachers have are those, like Ms. Steiny, who honor excellent teachers and work to help spread their ideas.
Personally, I suspect it is a support issue, in part, and a perception that teachers are the minions and grunts the administrators, and other folks, place mandates upon. Too often, this is the way changes are foisted upon teachers and this approach never works in any organization.
Teachers do not necessarily appreciate people outside the classroom showing spiffy powerpoints, decreeing what they will or won't do and how they will do it. This is threating in any organization.
I think teachers do appreciate leaders who make a significant effort to understand what they do every day, to hear their concerns, to come up with solutions, etc. If teachers feel they are heard, are part of the process and are valued, they are far less likely to feel threatened when powerful individuals take their dog and pony shows around proclaiming how things will change, or what will happen.
This year, for the first time, we actually got an administrator over special ed. in my district who has had multiple meetings with special ed. teachers. She has asked us to share our concerns, she has made lists, and we have all brainstormed. She has demonstrated a complete willingness to understand what we do, and to try to solve the most pressing of our concerns (we have historically had no real support and are continually expected to do more with less). We are more confident that we are a part of this process, that we are valued, and we have seen some promises to us made good. This builds trust and decreases threat.
Maybe this woman will be great. But, any educator will tell you there are many more of the sort who will promise change, inflict unreasonable mandates, and do nothing to actually support and listen to teachers. Teachers must be part of the change process. An administrator with a spiffy powerpoint needs to do so much more to prove herself. And, teachers are a group that has been disappointed in administrative leadership over and over.