Using what criteria? What crosschecks are there to prevent problems one and two?
'Fourth: Beaurocracy – what is the final product of this school? It's the kids. Anything else should be secondary to graduating well-rounded, thoughtful, thinking kids, ready to face the world for the first time in their lives. Most may well go on to college – how prepared are they,
'Fifth: balance. What does it accomplish if you talk to them about justice, and have a teacher with the power to arbitrarily punish them for some imaginary offense? What does it teach them about ethics if a math teacher crams them in preparation for a state test?
'Sixth, but certainly not last, quality. Get the best teachers you can, and let them TEACH their subjects. Don't micromanage them, let them teach. That's what they're educated and trained for – they know how, if you just leave them alone to do it.
'When you've got the smart, educated, motivated teachers, you'll see the student in this school come alive – they'll WANT to learn, they'll want to think, they'll want to do better and better, always wanting to know what's in the next chapter in their schoolbooks.'
'And if there are problems?', he asked.
'That's why you have rules and standards – uniformly and consistently applied. If a kid sees the captain of the football team get bounced off the squad and out of school because he got caught smoking dope – regardless of how the team is doing – he's going to know that he's going to get the same treatment – no more, no less.'
'What do we do about the other problems you mentioned?'
'That depends. Do you want to fix the problems, or just make them go away?'
'What's the difference?'
'If you FIX them, they don't come back. Just making them go away, they tend to ooze back in after a while – maybe months, maybe years, but they DO come back.'
'Then let's fix them. How?'
'First, I expect that you're going to wind up firing about half your staff, for one reason or another.'
'Why so many, and for what reasons?'
'So many because the greatest percentage of them are just the kinds of people that Kelly was complaining about. The rest will be because they either don't get the message from the first round of firings, or think that they're somehow immune.'
He sighed, and asked'What then?'
'You get the word out – strongly, and in plain language – that this school WILL turn around, and will start graduating the kinds of kids you're actually proud of. The first round of firings will help make that clear – if you actually follow up on it by making the second round, which will last longer. The first bunch will be your obvious knuckleheads. The second batch will be the ones that are better at it.'
'Then?'
'Then you start looking at what you're doing, and how, and why. You get your people to start looking at what they're doing – what's good about it, and what's bad? How could they make it easier, faster, better, cheaper? Then get them talking to each other, to see if they can't simplify and smooth things out. To make up an example, why would student go to the gym to get their registration cards, then go to the auditorium to sign up for classes, then go back to the gym to get their schedules signed off? Why not swap the registration or signoff with the scheduling, so that any two steps in the process are close to each other?'
He nodded, and said 'I see your point. I'm afraid that even*I* don't know why we do some of the things we do.'
'That's the ticket, right there: if it isn't blindingly obvious why you're doing something, you need to ask why you're doing it at all. If you can't explain what you're doing to someone else, easily, then it's too damn complicated. I'm an engineer; the questions I always ask myself about things are 'What does it do?', 'Is it good or bad? why?', and 'How can I make it better and cheaper and easier?'.'
He nodded again, and turned to Kelly, asking her 'Kelly, could you, or would you, tell me who some of the teachers are that you talked about – the ones that you, ah, put a pox on?'
She looked at me; I smiled and nodded, and she told him 'I could, and would, my only concern is that I would mention someone that I simply had a 'personality' problem with, by accident. If I could make a suggestion?'
'Of course!'
'Don't just ask me, or a few students. Ask all of them. If you do it as a kind of survey, you can help the students distinguish between teachers they didn't like, and teachers that didn't deserve to be liked.'
'What do you mean? Give me an example.'
'Well, for instance, if you ask a student which teacher was hardest on him, he may give you one answer. But if you also ask him what class he learned the most in, you might find out that it was the same teacher.
But if you ask him which teacher he hated having for ANY class, you might get a completely different answer – and if enough kids give you the same answer, you know what you're looking at.'
He smiled at her, and said 'That's an excellent idea. Kelly, you are one student that I can honestly say that I AM proud to have graduated.'
She blushed a bit, and said 'And one more idea. Go back and look at how many kids did bad in which classes – and how they did in similar classes before and after.'
'How would that help?'
'Well, if a lot of kids do good in Science, say, except when they had one particular teacher, you can figure that it's the teacher, not the kids. Isn't that the kind of thing you're looking for?'
He beamed, and said 'It is, indeed. A most valuable insight, Kelly.
Would you like a job? I'm offering you one, right now, as a consultant to this reorganization. Tell me what you want, and we can negotiate!'
She smiled at him, and blushed again, before telling him 'I've already got a job, thank you. Dan offered me one a long time ago, and I've accepted it. I don't think I'll have time to work for you like that; but if you really want my help, I can do that – for the kids that aren't here, yet.'
He sighed, heavily, and said 'Noblesse Oblige – a concept I was afraid had been lost. Where did you learn such a thing, Kelly?'
She pointed at me, and said 'From him.'
He made a face, and said 'I was afraid you were going to say that.' before looking at me and saying 'Dan, I'm finding that the more I learn of you, and the more I get to know you, the more amazing you become.
Would you be interested in a job?'
'I have my own business, Kevin. Between it, and Kelly, and her friends, my time is pretty well occupied.'
'No doubt. Still, I hope that you would consider becoming one of our teachers here – you seem to be just the kind of person that you described as being necessary for our success.'
'With the offer coming from you, Sir, I would give it the appropriate consideration – but make no promises.'
'Very well, then, I fear that I must return to my office with little to show for it but the faint glimmer of restoring our school to it's proper state. Thank you, both of you, for taking the time to sit with me, and discuss this matter. Dan, if you think of anything else, or have anything to add, please don't hesitate to contact me – my secretary knows who you are.'
With that, he stood up – as did Kelly and I – and made his way around the desk, stopping to shake hands with both of us before taking his leave.
When he'd gone, Kelly and I were both surprised when Jenkins cleared his throat, and said 'Mr. Marshall?'
We turned to him, and he said 'Since your last visit to this office, I've had a lengthy discussion with the Bishop, and had more than enough time to consider the things that you said, and that Kelly wrote in her speech. I've realized that I was one of the causes of the problems here at this school – and that there is little that I could do under these circumstances to help correct it.'
I nodded, and told him to continue.
'Accordingly, and with the Bishops blessing, my contract with this school is being cancelled, so that I can take a job at a smaller school, and try to get back to doing the kind of work that I should be doing.
I know of several of the problem teachers here, and have so advised the Bishop. I believe I know who you were referring to, Kelly, when you spoke of the one memorable teacher that proved to be a tyrant – and I can assure you
