From Little Things, Big Things Grow

Where to start? Where does one begin the story of working within the surreal world of DCPS? On top of that, these days the larger world of “school reform” has become a wacky alternate universe populated with so many “experts” who have spent little to no time in a classroom. So, with no idea where to start I'll just begin, slowly.

Every once in a while, while surrounded by varying levels of insanity, a crystal clear thought appears. Today this was mine. Why does a school adopt a rule it can't enforce? I was told that, when training a dog, never give a command you can't follow through on. Don't try to teach your dog to come unless you have him on a long leash and can enforce the come command.  Otherwise, the dog can choose to ignore you.

So, if you can't turn away out-of-uniform students at the door, why bother having the rule? As has happened for the past several years, there are students out of uniform every day. (Usually the “bad boys” and “bad girls.”)

If this rule is ignorable, what others are? That's how it starts. I think this is akin to the “broken window theory” of crime.

Teachers are told to uphold the uniform policy, somehow. We can't turn students away at the door but somehow we are supposed to enforce the policy.

This might seem a rather mundane problem to start with but it is prophetic.

This is how the foundation of a school is chipped away. One small chip at a time. Multiply this over and over and you see how the adults lose their authority.

(For the record, I lean toward liking a uniform policy but my real desire would be to just have a policy that is clear and properly enforced.)