How Far We've Come?

Reading Deborah Meier's article "Retaining the Teacher's Perspective in the Principalship," I was first struck by how far schools have come since her day. She published the article in 1985 and looked back for the most part at school working conditions in the '60s and '70s. Though Meier's descriptions of the urban elementary schools she first worked in are evenhanded, the conditions still seem horrible. The schools she worked in seem petty, sexist, and boring. Teachers didn't necessarily know what they would teach before the first day of school, which undermines any efforts to make instruction well-planned, thoughtful, and innovating. Predominantly female teaching staffs were treated like children by their largely male principals and these same teachers, at least from Meier's viewpoint, sometimes acted with the maturity with which they were treated. Some teachers no doubt maintained tremendous vitality in this profession, largely out of a deep and authentic love for children and their learning. More teachers would deal with the frustration and humiliation of their positions through less positive outlets. Some "isolated themselves from the rest of the school," others "treated teaching as a stepping stone to more prestigious activities," others took their frustration out on their students, and still more "had learned to distance themselves from the whole experience." And, "of course, many quit." (Meier, 306)

All of this is tremendously sad. And much of it, at least from my experience in pilot schools in Boston, seems dated. Schools seem more equitable than before - at least when it comes to the roles men and women feel, and teachers' unions have made significant strides in professionalizing the work, so that there are saner working conditions that allow for care and preparation to be part of teaching.

Yet in other ways, the article feels just as current as when it was published. Meier writes that "schools should be interesting places for every one of us - children, teachers, and even principals." I'd argue that for many in all three camps, that just isn't true. Children still spend enormous amounts of time filling in worksheets and either completing or avoiding other tasks that add little value to their thinking and serve to quell more than stoke the fire of their curiosity. By the time I meet students in high school, they expect by habit to be disinterested in whatever material or work I bring their way. That, added to the demeaning physical and social conditions they often face in school, makes it no surprise that we have to urge so many so strongly just to stay on the ship until port.

And while some conditions for teachers are certainly better, others may not be. The so-called "teacher-proof curriculum" that Meier so presciently refers to has of course exploded since the writing of her article. I'm not sure that having schools be "personally or intellectually stimulating" for teachers is of the highest value for most leaders. It's still true that many teachers who don't quit survive their jobs through complaining to and about students, deadening their own hopes and dreams, or isolating themselves and their classroom in the hopes that it will be different from "the system."

Ironically, what is so appealing about the school culture Meier describes at the school she herself founded is the opposite of those three. Teachers were encouraged to use their intellect creatively and vigorously in shaping interesting curriculum and instruction. All parties involved had to work together for the common good, necessitating positive engagement and problem solving over complaint. Finally, and most personally appealing to me, teachers collaborated. They met together, planned together, and agreed on the common boundaries that they would live within. Shoot, they even "(shared) the cost of baby-sitting so that all staff could attend weekend retreats or after-school meetings." As a parent of three, that phrase strikes a deep chord, and one that's way outside of my experience working in public schools.

That sense of shared mission, one that isn't just generated by the principal and passed on to the teachers, but is developed by them together with the principal's leadership, seems critical to generating this type of professional community. Only when we all really own the purposes of our work will we want to make sacrifices to achieve them together. And only when we all feel a sense of hopefulness about our outcomes and freedom in unleashing our gifts toward their accomplishment will we find in the journey joy and fun: two pleasures that sustain many worthy human endeavors.