...(Post) Secondary Education Continued...

In my last embarrassingly-wordy and somewhat stream-of-consciousness post, I enumerated six principal stakeholders involved in high school education:

1) State Department of Education
2) Scholars in higher education
3) County and school administrators
4) Teachers
5) Students
6) Parents

While higher education does not have to deal with *quite* the level of bureaucratic oversight, they have their own initiatives, endowments, and strategic vision hoops to jump through, so both groups may benefit from some reflection on the principal concerns of each of these groups. Let's take a blog-level survey:

Any state department of education has one major consideration the other groups do not, at least to near the extent: politics. They have to worry about cultural bias in math questions, so you better believe those near the top of bureaucracy are deeply concerned about minimizing the angry op-eds from parents decrying the marginalization of one group, the anti-American bias, the American gloss, etc...If someone in a state (or the federal) Department of Education cannot acknowledge the tension this creates between sound pedagogy and wise statecraft, that is a huge red flag.

As a general rule, scholars in higher education are probably the most difficult subjects of generalizations. This is more a hunch based on a smattering of anecdotes, but it seems that academics either esteem themselves primarily as writers or primarily as instructors (though perhaps some like to fancy that they maintain a perfect complimentary harmonization of the two). For those who primarily identify as writers, conscience rather than passion will dictate what they do with their students. For those who primarily identify as instructors and mentors to students, writing will likely come in fits and starts--too much tinkering with lectures competes with the research. I can't resist pointing out that given the universe's manifold ironies, there is only partial correlation between an academic's primary identification and which of the two is where his or her greatest contributions come. Extraordinary orators can feel perfunctory as they give high quality lectures, gifted writers can crank out high-impact scholarship in an almost desultory manner, and sadly the inverse of each of those. What does it matter? If you are working with a professor, it is respectful, and practically wise, to know which aspect of the profession gives him/her the most gratification.

County and school administrators are concerned with local politics, which includes internecine issues between the different parts of government. City councilors can threaten the job security of school board members, so you better believe that there are issues that bleed into what is required from local school boards and principal offices. The biggest difference between the county and school administrators is the proximity to the classroom, and therefore the ability to recognize what effect (if any) a policy may have on what teachers and students do. It is a sad truth that many pace guides, model lesson plans, and other support materials are produced at the county level and never get downloaded from the server on which they were first created.

Teachers come in two basic types: the inspired and the disaffected. If you are a student or parent, do your best to find out tactfully who the unquestionably inspired teachers are in your school, because getting them will make a world of difference in the student's education. It is unlikely you will get anyone to cast aspersions on any teacher, so don't try to find out who is jaded, though you'll hear some rants that give you enough information to have a pretty good idea.

Students, like teachers, are essentially binary: motivated or not. It is simply stunning how many educators are content to only worry about the motivated. While I understand the temptation, it belies some intentional amnesia about the experience of life from 5-18 years old. Even if you have always been a naturally curious, self-motivated student, there were some areas of life you needed some graciousness, and were not helped by "tough love" that refused to extend to you any of it. Think of the kids who are missing out on your subject because of a lack of inspiration, and try to sympathize and supply it. I have known of several teachers how were able to teach a lot to unmotivated students almost solely because of the compassion they showed them at the situation of having to learn things you're not interested in.

Finally, parents: universally they want to know that you care about their children. Some rationalize dishonesty and disregard for anyone not in their family when dealing with educators, but even when they fight dirty, they're way more inclined to accept defeat if you repeatedly demonstrate and verbalize your concern for the student. This does not resolve differences of opinion over what is best for the student, but it helps.

Reviewing this initial look, I hope it has some merit--it's admittedly a somewhat haphazard collection of observations. That said, let me know if you see anywhere I'm way off base or missing something far more significant.