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I was ironing and came across a stain in a shirt. I had already ironed 3-4 other things, and instead of putting this aside to be washed, I ironed over the spot. It was highly unlikely anyone would notice. In short, I didn’t care enough to do my best. This dilemma can be applied to more significant issues. The quality of the work or effort is almost always aligned with the joy we get from completing it. Unfortunately, when effort is not recognized, and failure and excellence are rewarded equally, it is inevitable that quality will decline. Self-pride may motivate some, but many more succumb to low standards because quality is not recognized. This works in many ways.
I enjoy coming to school almost every day. It brings me joy when I see my students learning and being happy, but I have given up trying to do what is best for them if it means confrontation or putting in even more effort. I am already strained from the workload. I am fine stacking stones but I will not attempt to alter an immovable object. Self-preservation matters. There are too many things holding me down. I would like to fly but after twenty-five years, I have accepted that coasting is as good as it gets.
There is a new Superintendent. I don’t think many people are inspired about this. The system will continue to run with little change despite the lack of success. People and policy change but the failing structure remains solid. Those at the top tell the rest of what to do. Things that are clearly broken go unfixed for years and we all continue to get paid the same regardless of our worth. There is not a demand for change from anywhere because no matter what they say, everyone has accepted the way things are. The stains will continue to be ignored until the students and families are treated as more than numbers.
John Bliss
Rochester City School teacher, charter school founder and long-time city resident
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This is a good analogy of a very sad situation that as major impacts on Monroe County! ( of which the City is a part of).
Soooo… how about WE, in Monroe County, start scrubbing the stain! First we know what the stain made of = combination of Rochester School Board, Adam Urbanski’s Teachers Union and RCSD administration( with rotating Superintendents). Second, assemble cleaning solution and brushes to remove School Board, Adam Urbanski and many in Administration. Third, start ironing! The Iron is made up of County Executive Adam Bello, Bob Duffy, 4 respected business leaders, Dr. Paul Miller, Sebrone Johnson and 2 City parents. Get this Shirt looking sharp and ready for the future.
Statements such as the following, are really misnomers:”The system will continue to run with little change despite the lack of success.” It’s far beyond time for us to STOP thinking and talking about “the system” – as if it’s something that has a life separate from everything, and especially EVERYONE else. “The system” was created by PEOPLE; has been perpetuated, reinforced, and maintained by PEOPLE.
People created, perpetuated, reinforced, and maintained “the failing structure.”
It’s NOT entirely true that “those at the top tell the rest of us what to do,” that is, UNLESS you mean the real “top,” which is NOT locally based. It’s true that “there is not a demand for change from [ENOUGH] anywhere. It is also NOT true that “everyone has accepted the way things are.” especially those who are suffering the most. “…the students and families [WILL be] treated as more than numbers” IF, AND ONLY IF THEY GET ORGANIZED, AND DEMAND IT. All the rest is rhetoric and noise.
The RCSD is an ongoing train wreck. I won’t take odds on how long our new superintendent from out of town will last. Leadership is a revolving door, with an ever-changing cast of Commissioners who don’t understand their primary role as fiduciary overseers. Who seems to generate a toxic relationship with every superintendent they hire. Everyone has an agenda, but there is no cohesive plan, strategy, or even vision of bringing the Board, Staff, Management, Teachers Union, Teachers, Parents, Community, and Taxpayers together. When will we get all concerned and pull together to ensure student success? Somehow, we need a visionary, inspirational leader that will get everyone on the same page long enough to get a cohort of students through their twelve years of education, without disruption, and have them not only graduate, but have the required academic and social competencies to be functioning citizens in an ever-changing world. I have zero confidence that some outsider from Poughkeepsie will last long enough to comprehend the byzantine functioning of the RCSD’s stakeholders. I hope I’m wrong, but I doubt it. I’m sick and tired of funding an entity that spends nearly a billion dollars a year on a failing enterprise. Isn’t it tragic that a disheartened educator has to use an ironing a stain analogy, to describe their day to day experience.
Just like all the rest, whether or not he is effective and whether or not he lasts, depends entirely on whether or not he is serious about “believing that a strong partnership between school, home, and the [BROADER] community [AS OPPOSED TO SOLELY, THE USUAL SUSPECTS] is essential to ensuring that every Rochester child has access to high-quality education.” ALL THE REST IS RHETORIC AND NOISE.
https://13wham.com/news/local/amid-dades-departure-40-years-of-superintendents-provides-perspective
“Things that are clearly broken go unfixed for years and we all continue to get paid the same regardless of our worth”
Perhaps the way to bringing about the desired changes is to inform those of us not in the school system and the public in general just what is broken and the cost of not fixing the broken things. More advocacy from the general population might help bring pressure for the change that is desired.
YOU’RE RIGHT!!! That’s an issue that the Superintendent needs to take the lead on:
Just like all the rest, whether or not he is effective and whether or not he lasts, depends entirely on whether or not he is serious about “believing that a strong partnership between school, home, and the [BROADER] community [AS OPPOSED TO SOLELY, THE USUAL SUSPECTS] is essential to ensuring that every Rochester child has access to high-quality education.” ALL THE REST IS RHETORIC AND NOISE.
https://13wham.com/news/local/amid-dades-departure-40-years-of-superintendents-provides-perspective
I agree. It’s not just the city schools, but our entire education system that is suffering from the “we’ve always done it this way why change” attitude. The education system as it is implemented today is still rooted in it’s past. School ending at 3pm was so kids could still go work the farm when they were done before they ran out of daylight. In most other countries school hour correspond with work hours in other industries so that parents can better plan. The summer break was designed so that children could work on the farm all summer. How many kids these days actually farm? Again – most other countries school is year round, with at most a month long break. The pedagogy of todays school echoes the skills needed to work in a factory and were determined back in the 60’s when that’s what school was training kids for. Things like memorization are emphasized even though today with ubiquitous internet just looking things up is so much more efficient than memorizing lists. We do almost nothing to train kids for the skills they’ll use every day – typing, efficient email communications, teamwork, working together whether online or in person. Instead we emphasize individual achievement and competition among peers. Our physical training involves mostly team sports, rather than individual fitness – something that rarely carries over into adulthood except for the most skilled. In short, education needs a complete overhaul. And it’s unlikely to occur from within. It’s a shame that we have to go to private industry to see revolutionary change in action. Our school boards and superintendent should be willing and able to envision a better future for our kids.
Well stated. We need to reinvent the education system from the ground up by prioritizing what is relevant and necessary NOW. Forget the 60s, today’s educational needs are nowhere near what they were even 15 years ago. Change the schedule to match today’s world. Change the curriculum in a way that recognizes everyone already has an encyclopedia of the entire world in their pocket. Teach the things that will actually help them adapt and prosper in the outside world… logic, reasoning, conflict resolution, nutrition, persuasion, personal development, economics, fitness, personal finance… all life skills that get extremely short thrift in today’s diploma factories. Honestly, the answer probably lies in privatization and competition; it’s a pipe dream to hang any more hope on the notion that current environment of administrative grift and self-preservation will ever self-correct.