I alluded to this in other posts, but the biggest step I can see toward fixing the problem with special education or public school education in general is to eliminate the bureaucratic mindset.

Maybe it’s because I have a degree in marketing and am a capitalist, but I can’t help but frame everything in the terms of meeting the needs of the consumer/client. In this case that is the CHILD (ok, maybe the taxpayer, too). But I would argue that what’s good for the child IS good for the taxpayer (an educated child who is able to be self-supporting and less likely to need long-term government assistance or incarceration is really what most taxpayers want from their public schools.)

I realize that I’m oversimplifying things, but someone needs to simplify things entirely. There’s just too much bureaucracy in public schools – too many administrators. I was talking with a friend the other day, a retired teacher who is a grandparent and went to school on his grandchild’s behalf. “I went in to talk to the principal about an incident. And I discovered that the school had 6 vice principals,” he exclaimed, “I wonder what they all do all day!”

I know what some of them do all day. At Kay’s high school they’ve been adjusting schedules. No one I’ve talked to knows exactly what happened, but some major glitch (computer error or human?) screwed up the schedules of the over 3,000 students at Kay’s high school. Today is the last day of the third week of school and yesterday Kay’s schedule got totally revamped for the 3rd time. The first two weeks of school Kay attended a class that she hadn’t registered for but was on her schedule…knowing full well that once the administration got around to it, they would change her schedule. Well on Tuesday of this week, they did. The switch of that one class caused her to have to switch five of her other eight classes, only two remaining the same. This was not only a hassle for her, but for the teachers as well. It seems that the school has no way to automatically transfer grades from one class to another and she had already taken several quizzes, turned in summer projects and even taken a couple of tests. Even though all the grade reporting is computerized, and teachers are required to post daily, there’s no transfer option – so the two teachers have to talk and then the new teacher has to re-enter the grades manually.

So Kay starts on her new schedule on Tuesday. Then, unbeknownst to her, on Thursday an administrator changed her schedule again. So she shows up in her “new” health class and the teacher says that even though she was on the roster on Tuesday (when she last attended the class) she’s not on the roster today. However, he wants her to stay and complete the in-class assignment so she doesn’t miss it and then go to the office to get her “new” schedule. By doing this she missed her “new” language arts class. She goes to the office, gets the schedule from a secretary, but is told her administrator is not able to talk to her right now…in a meeting. Kay notices that she is now in the wrong chorus class (not what she signed up for or auditioned for). On her way to tell the chorus teacher, she swings by her language arts classroom, since she now realizes she missed the class. Meanwhile, the bureaucratic computer calls my house to report that my “student” was absent during 4th block today. I’m baffled and send her a text message. (Could she have skipped class?)

Chorus teacher and Kay are both fit to be tied (seems most of the chorus students have been moved willy-nilly over the entire three weeks). Mama Bear, ready to spring into action, is waved off by Kay. And she’s right. For some reason the high school administrators seem to be more responsive to her and to the teachers. Chorus teacher has agreed to accompany her to the office first this morning during the chorus time she’s now been assigned. I’m on stand-by to jump into action should they not put her back to the “old, new” schedule.

What a mess! Fortunately for us, Kay is an excellent student and mature enough to be really on top of things and concerned about the schedule change. What about other children ? What about those with special needs? And if they can’t transfer grades smoothly from one teacher to another when they revamp a schedule, how can they transfer knowledge about what’s in a child’s IEP?

And the big kicker…how does it serve their “client” (the child) to be in the WRONG class for nearly three weeks and then to have to do a wholesale change the third week of school?

Which brings me back to the original point. Are the administrators thinking “is this in the best interest of these children?” “Are we enhancing or hindering their education?” I frankly wonder if they ever ask those questions. Kay’s scheduling quagmire is just a minor example of this. I continue to be baffled by the crazy bureaucracy (and turf wars) that swirl around everything about our battles for LuLu’s education. It’s almost as if they go out of their way to make things harder on purpose, justifying the reason for their position. Not just harder for the parent and child, but harder for the teachers too.

Isn’t there a way to get back to the heart of teaching? Isn’t there a way to realize that public schools (any school) is about creating a situation for children to learn and providing those whose passion it is to teach an opportunity to connect with the children? It’s not about tenure, turf wars, and administrators with six figure salaries. It’s not about mountains of paperwork required by the state and the hundreds of state employees or the conflicting regulations and crazy computerized systems that dictate how the school runs.

When do we remember it’s about the children?

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