ACTUNG: This is not a “fair and balanced” article. It is an editorial by the editor.
While watching and listening to the proceedings during the first day of the Wayland Union Schools’ superintendent search, I was surprised when no one expressed interest in hiring a business CEO.
For those who have been on Mars for the past two months, Wayland must find a successor to Norman Taylor, who has been school chief for the past 10 years, but is retiring July 1.
A consultant from the Michigan Association of School Boards Thursday asked a group of parents about what they’d like to see in a new superintendent. When the consultant asked about whether they’d want a manager of a hotel, restaurant or chief executive officer of a company, no one responded in the affirmative.
They all said they would prefer someone who has a wealth of experience as an educator or school administrator. And they really wanted someone with an ability to get along with people.
This flies in the face of those who continue to insist that public institutions should be run like businesses, which is pure poppycock. Hiring a top-down manager who orders people around like a corporate CEO has proven too often to be a bad fit for democratic public institutions.
Most people have come to the understanding that a manager of a school district must be a consensus builder, who uses cooperation and respect with other administrators and subordinates to get things done.
Some of the most awful things in education over the past 40 years, particularly with the hand wringing after the publication of “A Nation at Risk,” have involved the private corporate takeover of public education, turning it into a commodity rather than a public service. It’s gotten even worse with lawmakers who control the power of the purse and insist on business-friendly goals and testing, as if children are widgets being made in a factory.
Too many people who have made decisions about education in the past 40 years have tasked educators with teaching kids skills they can use in factories and businesses. They have overlooked the more important effort in promoting students to use critical thinking in preparation for their lives ahead.
So we’ve spent a lot of time insisting the kids learn how to serve the machines, the companies and decision makers so they can eke out a living. That’s doesn’t square with me on the purpose of education.
One particularly interesting development from the superintendent search kickoff meeting, however, was the silence when asked if someone with a military background should be hired. The group seemed to believe such a person might be too autocratic to be effective, much like a CEO.
I suppose there is some truth to this contention, but it provides me with an opportunity to express my personal appreciation for former military man David Britten, who was principal at Pine Street Elementary before moving on to Wyoming Lee, eventually to become superintendent and eventually retiring. Britten, at first, appeared to be steeped in a rigid system of management, but most impressively had the good sense to adapt to his new surroundings.
I have watched from afar and noticed Britten continues to be a work in progress, perhaps a different man than who he was 20 years ago at Pine Street.
Charles Darwin famously wrote about the most successful species of living things surviving because their ability to adapt to changing conditions, while others may have been stronger and smarter, but failed.
I submit David Britten as proof of a military man who proved he could survive and thrive very well in the field of education. So please don’t rule out a man or woman who served in the military. Especially if they have the ability and the will to adapt.
