The parent had alleged improper penalties applied to her son, and the purpose of the meeting was to assign all blame to the student.A bunch of big guns from the district office were there — I calculated the salaries of those present on the district side added up to over a million dollars a year. Teachers presented little data tables on the student’s non-submission of homework, tardiness to class etc etc. After one paused for breath I asked in a cheery tone what *use* they made of the data. Did they inform the parent? Did they develop a behavior plan or contract? Did they have a conference with the student? Did they, in fact, do ANYTHING AT ALL?

There was a dead silence for over a minute, coupled with shuffling feet and nervous coughs. It turns out the answer was, No, no, no and no. They just “collected the data.” Somehow this was going to solve a problem. “We are a data-driven district.”

The top-paid bigwig did have the grace to be embarrassed and shot me a very angry look. The parent and the community agency worker then had the opportunity to discuss the student’s many strengths and the parent’s support at home (extensive). I asked if there wasn’t some way staff at the school could mentor the student (who lacked organizational skills) and teach him strategies for completing and turning in assignments, etc.

Dead silence, again. All these highly paid educators seemed to have no idea how to teach a seventh-grader to use a planner or a checklist. Finally a youth worker (no college degree) piped up with a sensible idea. She probably made less than $15/hr, but she was the only one with something practical to contribute.

It was an eye-opening experience. I had thought severe idiocy was confined to my district and especially to its more challenged schools. This was a school in a “good” district, in a stable non-diverse college town. Yikes.

Lunacy is everywhere.

You’re right about private schools. One of the most expensive in my area told children to take off their shoes and count on their toes.

Charters are just another way of saying “government” although some of them are very effective.

Cheers, Grant Coulson

“we’re looking into changes in that area” – yes, but they won’t be meaningful or evidence-based

“we don’t believe in drill and kill” – yes, dedicated practice is evil

and so on . . .