My response to "The Quality School"

-- Anonymous, December 15, 1998

Answers

THIS PAGE WAS HANDED IN TO KAREN ON DECEMBER 16 ON HARD COPY

While reading The Quality School, by William Glasser, I found myself almost laughing. It is not that the book was humorous, but the idea that I could have a chance of implementing these concepts into our school was hillarious to me. We are having a difficult time with our faculty seeing eye to eye on anything these days. As I read further into the book, I visioned this wonderful place where the students were productive and cared about their work. I could visualize faculty and administration sitting down to work out the policies of the building. What a wonderful idea. I believe the students should be accountable for their behavior, therefore, it is wise to allow them to have input into the development of rules and consequences. I do this each year in my classroom. Unfortunately, we cannot please all of the people all of the time. When we get too much input, we tend to have chaos. I also see a problem with a portion of the faculty wanting the policy set one way, but another portion of them wanting it another way. When you have a school as large as the one that I work with, it seems an impossible task to do as Glasser suggests. We have over 100 teachers alone and nearly 2000 students. I do agree with Glasser when he states that it is difficult to teach effectively to all students. To have successful management, the workers have to be willing to be managed. Both teachers and students have to know the value in what they are being asked to do. I dont know anyone that would argue that point. However, we would need cooperation across the board. All the faculty would have to buy into this concept, AND all students would have to be willing to take responsibility for their own learning. Glasser suggests that we do away with the traditional grading system. He thinks that we should give a student a C until he/she can master the skill. How would our classrooms function if the students were working on different skills and at different levels of proficiency? I think you would have chaos. Also, what would become of the graduation standards and our accountability if we did not give students grades to show what they have and have not yet learned. The idea is great in theory, but I know many students who if you gave them three extra days to study a concept, they would not know it any better than the first day you taught it. It comes down to a matter of motivation. If we can motivate out students, (AND FACULTY), to do their best, then we would not have this boss-management relationship. I believe it would naturally become a lead-management relationship. I truly wish I could convince ALL of my colleagues that this would help our situation at our school. However, I dont know if our administration is willing, and I am certain our school board is not willing to make this sort of effort. My energies are best used in my own classroom.

-- Anonymous, December 29, 1998

I, too, choose to spend my energy in my classroom where I can try out different techniques and discover how they work for me and my students. I think Glasser's ideas require school board and administrative support above all else. There will always be those among us who aren't interested in trying any different approaches and they look at the negative side of everything. I would really like information from some of the "quality schools in process" to learn how they solved the problems so many of us envision with implementing Glasser's techniques. If there are over 200 schools involved where are the reports of what has worked and what hasn't?

-- Anonymous, January 24, 1999