I Don't Know Art

Around 1899 Mark Twain said, “I don’t know much about art, but I know what I like.”  The same is true for me.  Unlike some, however, I take no pride in this statement.  I do not think it makes me more manly somehow or a better person to not know art.  I wish I knew more about art, and the only reasons I do not are my reasons.  I do believe if I knew more about art it likely would increase my understanding and possibly alter my taste.  Should we listen more to those who know art and have them tell us what they like and why?  Should I reach a point of expertise whereby I could say I do know art and I know what I like?  Or, is this another chocolate versus vanilla question, and why early on a Tuesday morning am I even concerned with the notion?

I am a professional educator, have been for 40 years.  I shall not inflict my curriculum vitae on you but shall simply say I have taught and administered in a host of venues and have never been fired.  I have, however, been Hunterized, Johnsonized, Rosenthaled, Gooded, Brophisized, Lezotted, Ericksoned, Glickoned, Englished, Vygotskied, Gardnered, Bloomed, Senged, Wheatleyed, Deweyized, Skinnerized, Coveyed, and Demminged.  (And, there are others, many others.  I elected not to list Tom Peters as there really was no polite way to do so and keep a parallel structure.)  I have a vast array of theoretical knowledge at my disposal as well as a rich history of experience as a practitioner in what works and what does not work.  I am a pro.  If education is art, I do know art.

As a school administrator I have been through the dress code wars and the school uniform wars, I have been through the closed campus wars, the cheerleader wars, the starting quarterback wars, the immoral employee wars, the class rank wars, the merit pay wars, and the whole language wars.  I have seen multiple iterations of sound research return under a new rubric, but based in the same notions, resulting in the same positive outcomes, whether those outcomes are student performance, staff development or leadership theory.  I have implemented, observed and evaluated a host of strategies to improve schools for kids.  The best ones work and keep working regardless of the name brand this year.  It takes a while to be able to connect whatever is “new” or whatever is this year’s silver bullet to the vast history of educational research.  Once connected, an experienced pro has an intuitive sense regarding the likely success of a possible future effort.  Because I know education, I know what I like because it is theoretically sound, based on good research, and practice and observation imply that it works.

So, what works?  For those of us who are pros and have with open eyes, mind and heart listened and learned and read and studied and observed I believe we know the following:

• Schools must be places of nurture and safety, and as a preeminent requisite must inflict no harm on kids.  Students must leave us better off than they were when they came to us.
• To ask the adults in the system to foster such an environment for kids we must follow the same premises for grown-ups as we do for kids.  Makes little sense to beat up the babysitter then expect them to be good to my kids.
• Schools and staff who practice high expectations are much more likely to be successful than schools and staff who practice implementing high standards.  Any legislative body can raise a standard.  Trained, caring, professional educators maintain high expectations.
• There is no curriculum, no hardware, no software, nothing that can be purchased that can guarantee student learning.  If so, we would all have done it by now. 
• Real learning occurs when a trained, caring professional educator interacts with kids, regardless of the mandates and the resources.
• Real learning occurs when we can define what it is we want kids to learn, and we have pedagogical, parental, administrative and legislative support to accomplish those goals.
• Supporting and praising the positive is a much more powerful tool for improvement than criticism, increased monitoring and heightened accountability systems.
• No research supports high stakes standardized testing.  It harms kids, teachers and school systems and provides little meaningful data.
• No research supports shifting money from public schools to alternative experiments such as charter schools or vouchers.
• No research supports improving instruction by either a merit pay system, a staff evaluation system based on standardized test scores, or union busting efforts. 
• No research supports punishing the victims for the purpose of yielding better results, however we measure such results.
• No research supports making schools more like the private sector for the sake of kids.  All the research shows is that such an effort makes it better for the private sector.
• We are killing educational leadership via mandates and compliance.
• Most education policy today is written by non-educators or those who feed at the trough of non-educators.
• The real issue in public education is not so much how we measure success, but how we define success.  What do we want our schools to do for our kids?  Is it something we can measure annually or is it a much longer event horizon?  Will Rogers said, “Leadership is the ability to get the herd moving roughly west.”  Our great debate today is which direction is west?  I believe we have mistaken how to measure west rather than defining where it is.

Around 1939 James Thurber said, “It is better to ask some of the questions than to know all the answers.”  Sadly, our policy makers in Washington, Austin and on local school boards do not know what they do not know, and do not know that they do not know everything.  Few questions are asked.  The recipients of the majority vote somehow feel empowered to enact their own personal educational theories.  I find that incredibly sad.  I believe it is hurting kids.  Again Will Rogers:  “There are three kinds of men.  The one that learns by reading.  The few who learn by observation.  The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.”  I find it scary that when the rest of them pee on the electric fence it is kids, teachers and schools who get hurt, not the legislative bodies.

I do not know art, and am ashamed of that.  Were I asked to design an art gallery or museum I would have enough sense to know I do not know enough to do so and would call on experts.  I do know education and am proud of that.  I worry deeply about those in elected and appointed positions who do not know education and are proud of that.  It appears they do not have the sense to call on experts.  In fact, I find it shocking that they are not willing to listen, observe and learn and prefer to preach and experiment with a private sector bias and belief system that is not grounded in expertise. 

My hope is that such officials learn to learn.