[Ansteorra] Teahcers' Day-rant

[Galen W. Bevel]

Good story.  However, the point I would take home from this is that the
good teachers would take those "bad blueberry's" and make the best ice
cream they could with them.  Maybe it wouldn't be as good as if they had
only the best blueberries, but it would be the very best they could achieve
with what they have.  A bad one would say, "these are bad blueberries and
will never make good ice cream, let's just get them through the process and
be done."  I have seen both kinds at work in our school system.  I think we
should reward the first kind _far_ beyond what we do today, and if we
cannot realign the thinking of the second kind we should redirect them
towards some less critical area than teaching, such as making ice cream.

Galen K.

> --
> [ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
> I debated on sending this but have decieded  that all would enjoy it.
>
> Donnel Shaw
> PreKindergarten Public schools 12years certified Early Childhood Teacher
>
>
>
> > THE BLUEBERRY STORY: Teacher Gives
> >
> > =A0 Businessman a Lesson
> >
> > Written 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=A0
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
Cre=
> am
> > in America."
> > =A0
> > I was convinced of two things. First, public schools needed to change;
th=
> ey
> > 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."=
> =A0 I
> > smugly replied, "Best ice cream in America, Ma'am."
> > "How nice," she said. "Is it rich and smooth?"=A0 "Sixteen percent
> > butterfat," I crowed.=A0 "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=A0=A0
w=
> icked
> > 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?"=
> =A0=A0
> > 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."
> > =A0 "That's right!" she barked, "and we can never send back our
blueberri=
> es.
> > "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! Yeah!=A0 Blueberries!"
> >
> > =A0 And so began my long transformation. Since then, I have visited
hundr=
> eds
> > 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
mu=
> st
> > 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.
> > =A0
> > For the most important thing I have learned is that schools reflect the
> > attitudes, beliefs and health of the communities they serve, and
therefor=
> e,
> > to improve public education means more than changing
> > our schools, it means changing America.
> > SEND THIS TO A TEACHER!
> >
> > =A0 Better yet:
> > SEND THIS TO A BUSINESS MAN OR WOMAN
> >
> >
> >
>
>
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--- Galen W. Bevel
--- galenbv at ix.netcom.com