Psychopathic Schools

I read a fascinating article by Time author and blogger Eric Baker.  Baker reviewed the book by Dr. Kevin Dutton, a renowned research psychologist from Oxford, entitled, The wisdom of Psychopaths: What Saints, Spies and Serial Killers can Teach Us About Success.  Dutton postulates based on case studies and research that a degree of psychopathy may yield success.  The very attributes that make Ted Bundy so scary may be attributes that lead top CEO’s to be successful.  Further, it appears that our society is more psychopathic than ever and it is clear that we love our psychopaths.

Psychopathy is a personality disorder that has been variously described as characterized by shallow emotions (in particular reduced fear), stress tolerance, lacking empathy, cold-heartedness, lacking guilt, egocentricity, superficial character, manipulativeness, irresponsibility, impulsivity and antisocial behaviors such as parasitic lifestyle and criminality.  Psychopaths tend to be fearless, confident, charming, ruthless and focused, a perfect set of attributes for success in this century. 

Dutton argues that we all have attributes of the psychopath; that there is a sliding scale with serious criminals on one end and folks who are very empathetic on the other end.  Dutton’s research identifies the professions that are most likely to include folks with psychopathic tendencies and those that are least likely to include folks with psychopathic tendencies:

Most Psychopathy                                Least Psychopathy

1.      CEO                                             1.  Care Aide

2.      Lawyer                                          2.  Nurse

3.      Media (TV/Radio)                           3.  Therapist

4.      Salesperson                                   4.  Crafts person

5.      Surgeon                                         5.  Beautician/Stylist

6.      Journalist                                       6.  Charity Worker

7.      Police Officer                                  7.  Teacher

8.      Clergy person                                 8.  Creative Artist

9.      Chef                                              9.  Doctor

10.     Civil Servant                                 10.  Accountant

Interesting list.  If I were to simply guess, I would place clergy on the lest psychopathy list, and possibly police officer as I know a bunch of really caring officers.  Chef surprises me, but I really do not know any and from what I hear about the food network some of them are ferocious.  The minus or low psychopath list is not surprising to me. 

The bottom line is that professions and occupations that include power and prestige tend to attract folks with psychopathic tendencies.  Professionals and occupations that include the need for high levels of empathy and human interaction tend to attract folks with low levels of psychopathy.  Where would you place Legislators, Senators, Governors, etc.?

By definition, I would add elected officials to the plus psychopathy list. 

I have lamented long and strong about the total lack of understanding of the school culture exhibited by lay people, legislators, etc.  I have argued that schools are more like families and churches than GM or Shell.  Herein is an additional slant regarding those differences.

Ask someone with psychopathic tendencies to think about ways to improve schools and you get what we currently have.  Bill Gates, Koch brothers, Broad Foundation, Sam Walton etc., all feel that we should have more high-stakes testing, more accountability, more tax supported choices for parents, more accountability for teachers and principals and superintendents, more sanctions with evidence of poor performance, etc., etc.  The list of these so-called reforms are right out of the psychopathic handbook.  These reforms demonstrate no empathy for teachers and kids. 

Teachers tend to be empathetic by nature.  That is one of the reasons adults choose to be teachers.  It is not for the power.  It is not for the prestige.  It is not for the income.  It is to make a difference in the future lives of the children sent to us.  This way of thinking is alien and abhorrent to folks with psychopathic tendencies.   The argument that schools should function more like the private sector is a blatant announcement that schools should be more psychopathic than they are.  I totally reject that argument.  I believe that we are not only headed down the wrong road, we are accelerating. 

Do we really want our teachers, our classrooms, our schools, our school districts to exhibit more psychopathic attributes than empathetic attributes?  Is that what we want?  Is that what parents want?  I would stand in the courthouse square and at the top of voice scream “No!” 

I see myself as recovering from psychopathic tendencies.  After all,  I was a school superintendent.  A public education CEO.  I had power.  I had prestige.  I had to make personnel and budget decisions that hurt people.  It taxed me deeply.  Early in my administrative career I made decisions that in hindsight were much more psychopathic than now.  I tried not to care.  I tried to be objective.  I tried to do what was “right” regardless of consequence.  I also see I made a ton of mistakes.  Can a truly empathic person be a successful superintendent?  I am no longer sure.  I exit my post with my heart on my sleeve, my caring for kids and teachers deeply ingrained.  I still said no, but it hurt.  I stood up to psychopathic mandates, but that helped to get me removed from this post. 

I hope to continue this recovery process.  If the most successful superintendents are more psychopathic than empathic then I do not want to be a successful superintendent.  If elected officials tend to be more psychopathic than empathic then we need a new breed of elected officials; we need public servants, not public power and prestige hunters. 

For the sake of the next generation of kids we can not afford to make our schools psychopathic.  Not if we really care for kids and want the best for them in years to come.