What's Your Price?

Educators are indignant about their treatment by film producers, politicians and the public. Who do these people think we are? And for that matter, why should we take this laying down? The pushback is a good thing. I mean, if you’re not pushing the envelope, why are you still in the profession? And by pushing the envelope I don’t mean slapping a new coat of paint on the existing model, or tweaking it just enough to continue pursuing the same old tried metrics that fly in the face of globalization, collaboration and innovation. Nope, not ed reformation….. ed transformation.

In order to move forward, we have to recognize and respect the fact that, while not within the education profession themselves, all citizens are education stakeholders. We also have to accept our share of culpability for the current state of affairs in education….our ownership of the status quo.

Let’s drill down deeper into these statements:

Public education is not the exclusive domain of educators

While we are the professional experts on human cognitive development, teaching and learning, we have to let go of thinking of ourselves as our own most important stakeholders. Our concerns are as much job-related as they are altruistic, simply because we are employed by public schools. Nothing wrong with that; it’s human nature. But our lack of self-awareness in how we come off to education stakeholders handicaps our effectiveness. Have you noticed that in the current very public national discussion on the state of education, we haven’t even been invited to sit prominently at the table? As one fabulously genuine educator shared at a recent workshop, “If you’re not at the table, you just might be on the menu!”

We are our own biggest obstacle

Stop blaming politicians and big money and mass media and disengaged parents and take a good hard look at ourselves. We have become incredibly insulated, self-interested and self-promoting in our choices. We don't find ourselves in this situation because outside interests have imposed themselves on us and are forcing us to respond. We have created the climate for stakeholder questioning by not providing the leadership and thinking necessary to be where education needs to be. We have maintained the status quo because each time we have been faced with tough choices about moving forward we have fallen back to protecting our own self-interests. We have so completely convinced ourselves that it is “us” against “them” even within the profession that we can’t get out of our own way. We can’t have it both ways: we either are in it to make a difference or we are in it to protect the status quo. Which is it?

Self-interest suffocates altruism

Quick: who speaks for you as an educator? Who else do they speak for? Who in the profession is actively working against your interests to advance their own? Education has been doing more with less for so long, it has cultivated a culture of everyone looking out for him or her self. If I’m getting my needs met as a professional, why rock the boat? If I’m dissatisfied and disgruntled, why stop rocking for even a second? And the most ambitious among us have started selling out to the highest bidder. What? You’ll name me a “Superstar Educator” if I’ll present at your “professional development” events and push your products using my good name and reputation? You’ll present me with an “award” of distinction if I will use it to splash your name across everything I do? If you’re in a relationship where you and a vendor are using one another for mutual gain, you’re part of the problem. The ethical dilemma of big money in education begins with commercial interests blurring the lines of propriety and buying influence in the day-to-day decisions we make, leaving us little credibility in calling for education’s transformation.

Whatever kind of transformation of education we accomplish, it can only be done if we have integrity, ideas and insight into how to get there. It can’t be technology-driven, business-driven, politically driven or personal-agenda-driven. It has to be driven by our own leadership. We are being cornered by private interests who are more than willing to commandeer public education for profit. And once they acquire enough influence to do so, it will be very difficult if not impossible to ever reclaim education as public. In short we are not on the verge of selling out….we are on the verge of being sold.  What’s your price?