Graduation presents

One of the nice traditions at school is for teachers of year 12 students to purchase the subject awards.

The usual items tend to get bought: pens, shopping vouchers and the like.

This year we found one item that I loved. One of our quirky students was given as part of her package (our Discrete Mathematics subject winner), Dr Seuss' Places to Go.

The prose is remarkably apt:

"Congratulations!
Today is your day!
You're off to Great Places!
You're off and away!

You've brains in you head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose."

Another maths student was given Rich Dad, Poor Dad which outlines the difference in financial education parents provide based on whther they have/haven't amassed wealth. It's a great book.

Another that I thought of later was the E-Myth, a book about Entrepreneurialism. The E-Myth and Sun Tsu's Art of war heavily influenced my early business life.

Mr Men books can also be a source of inspiration as they describe so many personality types.

I like the idea of books as you can personalise them with an inscription - and they tend to be kept. One of my teachers gave me a battered copy of Catch 22, I still have it and read it from time to time.

Staffing issues

There's nothing like managing staff. It's a royal pain in the ... No matter what you do you can't please everyone.

There are two main methods I've seen.

a) By the book.
b) With a wink wink.

By the book is the way I always did it. Of course, since it was my book, it was easy. If I didn't like the way it was working I just changed it. Administrators tend to run organisations like this. The crux of it being successful is ensuring quid pro quo occurs and extra effort is acknowledged and rewarded in a way suitable and public for both parties. The less flexibility in the rules, the greater the opportunity for dissatisfaction by those going the extra yard as there is little opportunity/recognition for reward. Over flexibility lends itself to abuse (the situation around L3CT and L3 Admin promotion is typical of this situation).

With a wink wink, is a very popular method. It involves being pally with staff and telling people or groups they will be looked after.. nothing on paper, "just wait and see, it will be ok". This has never been my favourite but often can be used to defer a decision until a point that is more advantageous to the organisation than now and relies on favours/corruption/back scratching. To my mind this is an unprofessional option (I like to know where I stand) - it is usually coupled with "being part of a family" or with "unofficial" perks that are secret from other staff. Staff performance/ability/performance is often of little relation to staff hierarchy. Entrepreneurs tend to operate like this, wringing the last cent or skill out of staff through unfulfilled promises. It has no real appeal to me, but for staff that like the warm and fuzzies/charismatic leader it is quite effective. Many people on temporary contracts have felt the rough end of this recently, being laid off or transferred due to the half cohort despite varying assurances.

Time to reflect about past students

The year 12's are starting their TEE exams next week, and we are all thinking about them. For many, schools have invested hour upon hour getting them ready for the highest stakes exam of all.

Seeing them graduate gives teachers a lift but I am surprised at the lack of middle school involvement in graduation ceremonies. Once passed to the senior school, their job done, that whole relationship built upon over two years is released and left to whither.

I think this could be seen as a failing of the middle school model - in an 8-12 model this sort of relationship continues to be built upon over 5 years and can be a significant part in a student's life.

I wasn't going to the graduation ceremony this year, but I changed my mind at the last moment. I'm glad I did, seeing the kids at their finest hour, at the culmination of 12 years work is not something to be missed.

Chat

We were having a chat around dinner about the role of politics in education. I took the position that party politics had no place in education and others took the role of education is a necessary part of government.

We reached a point where we decided that a weak bureaucracy that allowed rapid change in education was a flawed platform as students ran in 12 year cycles and governments in four year cycles. Ideas are not given time to develop or be researched properly due to political expediency.

The issues in recent years have arisen as ill-researched policy have been able to be introduced (with the idea of gaining votes rather than improving education) because current bureaucracy is too weak to resist or put forward arguments to prevent the worst of political excess.

This has occurred as current government agencies have lost public confidence and are as weak as they have ever been. They lack a knowledge base and have low morale.

It would take a strong government to change this mentality and guide/fund strong and conservative, reputable long term appointments rather than make ill advised decisions.