To say
that in the education world Michelle Rhee is a polarizing figure is like saying
that infants have a little trouble with calculus. I recently read Anthony
Cody’s and John Thompson’s articles about the ongoing Michele
Rhee saga in Education Week. What is helpful about vehemently condemning
her personally and professionally?
One of
the biggest problems with the vilifying of Michelle Rhee is that we are
becoming a society increasingly intolerant of the necessary time it takes to go
through the learning curve to become great. We value experience, but we no
longer have the patience to give people in leadership positions the time
necessary to acquire it. We shouldn't have thrown Rhee out like a
disposable diaper; worthless as soon as the littlest bit of mess appeared.
We should have given her time to gain the experience she needed from her
mistakes.
Do I
think that Rhee knew about the cheating in her district and chose to do nothing
about it? The evidence suggests that perhaps she did. Does that mean that I am
ready to stone her politically and lose out on all the ideas and strategies
that were good enough to make her Chancellor in the first place? Absolutely
not.
Think
what you like about Rhee, but at least she spent her time working to make the
education system better. I am tired of smart-mouthed critics who spend their
time publicly crucifying others just to hide the fact that their own
strategies aren't working either.
We have
a crisis in education. We as educators and reformers are all on the same side.
We need to work together, to learn from our collective failures and to create a
safe space for people to try and to fail and to learn from those mistakes and
try again. If critics tried as hard at positive reforms as they do
at tearing down others who tried and did not meet expectations, we might all
move a step closer to closing the achievement gap.
1 comment:
Dear Jennifer,
I enjoyed reading your post about Michelle Rhee. I interpreted the article with a view that this is a much broader topic than Michelle Rhee; she is just at the forefront. With the intense pressure on student achievement data and instant success, school systems have become so “cut throat.” I believe this idea of early career teachers or administrators’ being non-renewed so quickly is a huge mistake. Just yesterday I got a phone call from a friend who is a first year teacher in Baltimore. She was a special education teacher and taught an elementary school classroom with twelve students, all with IEP’s, and who are in grades 1-3. At the start of the year she struggled with classroom management. After she was placed on a Plan, she attended many professional development sessions and observed many teachers, holding up her end of the plan. Her classroom has improved, but not enough to the standards of the administrator. She was just non-renewed for next year. The first thought that comes to my mind is, we lost another passionate teacher who loves kids, who just needed a bit more support she would have been incredible. Her kids will most likely get another teacher next year who struggles at the start, improves, and depending on the Principal or the quota he or she has to make, that teacher may be given another chance or will be able to stay. I have heard this story time and time again. I question whether this “cut throat” idea that many administrators have become accustomed to is what is best for students. Is that teacher completely useless to Baltimore City? Can she be give support or maybe another role?
The story connects with Jennifer’s post and the article on Michelle Rhee. Was Michelle Rhee useless to the DC Schools? Should we just fire her? Like my friend, she is young and inexperienced and has a lot of knowledge to gain. Jennifer, I love when you said, “To say that in the education world Michelle Rhee is a polarizing figure is like saying that infants have a little trouble with calculus.” An infant having to do calculus is not too different than a young inexperienced professional teaching in our schools or, furthermore, leading our schools.
Baltimore, before we let someone go, can we really think about the following things:
1) Is this teacher here for the right reasons and loves kids?
2) Is this teacher coachable and willing to work on improving their craft?
3) Is this teacher professional and shows up to work every day and on time?
Thank you for reading,
Justin Garritt
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