Danger in the Passion

Sometimes I think the most dangerous people are those who know very little, but believe very passionately. These are charismatic, natural leaders, people with great rhetoric and warmth. People who believe 100% in their words and actions. People who convince others to rise up and join them in their fight.... and in the meantime, sink the very ship they are trying to save.

Somehow, they fervently believe, somehow, they will turn that ship around by dismantling the rudders and the sails, and replacing them with designs "innovative" but never tested or proven. No data. And when and if  data comes back to say, hey.... not only are you going the wrong direction, but you're taking in water.... well, then comes the blame. This is exactly what happened at my last school. The lion-hearted but misinformed, convincing others that their way will revitalize.....these erroneous prophets who stomp and scream that if only, if only they were given more time, it would work.

There's certainly something to be said for that. A program needs to be tried out for a couple of years before you start to see the effects. But sometimes? Sometimes it is just the wrong fit. Sometimes, in your quest to promote social justice, you actually create more injustice.  But, you've spoken so eloquently and so often that you can't turn back now. That would be humiliating. You have to continue with the nonsense you've spread to save your ego. You have to hide all of the things that are rotten, and cover them up, and threaten....


Case in point. After two students brought a loaded gun into Ms. V's classroom, the rest were told that they were not allowed to tell anyone about it. They were told that legal action would be held against them if they did, and that the whole incident was "confidential." In other words, if you talk to the orbiting media, bad things will happen to you. The local reporters were pushed to the dean of students who told them an entirely concocted story about how he found the weapon. How the gun was found a backpack, hanging on the back of a chair. Completely false on both accounts. Later, this same man chased media off campus when they tried to ask students what really happened.

On the other end of the student spectrum, seniors were promised that they would graduate. All of them. No matter what. Ignore the failing classes, the lack of credits. You will graduate, administration told them. Wanting to the the hero, the champion of students is something we all aspire to. Thinking that holding them to low expectations and enabling them is the way to do it? Well, you may be cheered in the short term, but you will be cursed down the road.

When the district found out about this, the administrator was fired.  Of course, said administrator blamed it on his predecessor and claimed he had nothing to do with it. Yet, if you ask all of the students who was going to save them, who their hero was, they give you one name.

We all know-- education for low-income or non-white students in the United States is a largely broken. We can't fix it simply by believing we can. We can't fix it by simply having high expectations for the kids or hiring good educators. We also need proven leadership, structure, professional development, parental input, and a mix of students. We need to stop tracking--creating schools within schools where the "smart" kids get one set of teachers and classes, and others are held in classrooms that only prepare them for the cell. We need kids to learn from and collaborate with each other. We need to provide more opportunities for those who aren't privileged. There are probably a thousand other things we should be doing, collectively. I sure as hell don't have all the answers.

But the one thing, the one thing that will hurt us the most is if we are tempted by fairy lights, and go wandering off into a forest. Off any sort of proven path. Into the wild. Lured by something that sounds and looks and feels so, so beautiful. These melodious words, the righteous indignation. The cheers for "these are our kids" and "this is our community"!

It's true. The cry of revolution sometimes causes a shift that heals, and fixes, and restores balance. But sometimes, the war cry just brings in a new dictator.

Kids' lives are at stake. There is no time to experiment on them. We need better leadership. Leadership that listens, learns, is reflective, apologizes when necessary, bucks systems that clearly aren't working, and looks for those which are successful. Not a bunch of charlatans.