[lbo-talk] teachers running schools

[Gail Brock]

GB:  I'm going to be very interested in how this works out.  Management is a 
useful function -- to borrow from another thread going on now, there's a reason 
why pop musicians hire managers.  I don't think the issue is management so much 
as bad management, and what's interesting is whether "bad management" is simply 
redundant.  Does management always go bad?  Walter Reuther used to say that 
there was no reason for unions to organize since management would always do it 
for them.  On the other hand, if I were a teacher I don't think I'd want to 
spent my time on building repairs.  It would be better to have a principal who 
reports to the teachers as their subordinate rather than being the boss.   As 
this is presented, it's kind of organization bashing, and more specifically, 
government bashing.

________________________________

[WS:] Good news, but very un-American.  I am pretty sure that the managerial
class will do everything they can to kill this experiment.  After all, their
very existence as a class of uebermenschen is at stake.

As an old joke gos, it takes five Americans to change a light bulb - one to
do the job and four managers.

Wojtek

On Thu, Jul 8, 2010 at 1:18 PM, <123hop at comcast.net> wrote:


> Good news for a change. Joanna
> ---------------------------------------
>
> Detroit Public Schools Tries Something New: A School Run by Teachers , July
> 8, 2010, Detroit Free Press
>
> Detroit Public Schools is set to open its first school without a principal
> -- teachers will be running the day-to-day operations and making all
> pertinent decisions.
>
> They won't have to wait for the central office's OK to purchase needed
> items or increase their emphasis on fractions or writing, for instance.
>
> Founded on the belief that those within the building know best what their
> students need, Barbara Jordan Elementary will be the district's first
> teacher-led school, open only to students whose parents agree to be
> involved. State officials know of no teacher-led schools in Michigan.
>
> The Detroit school, for students in kindergarten through fourth grade, is
> modeled after teacher-led schools in Boston, Milwaukee, Denver and Los
> Angeles.
>
> It's too early to know test results, said Michael McLaughlin of the Boston
> Teachers Union School. But he can name one indicator of the Boston school's
> success: "The families in the area, they're clamoring to get into this
> school."
>
> In Detroit, the high-profile experiment in school reform could have
> long-reaching implications, said Keith Johnson, president of the Detroit
> Federation of Teachers.
>
> "It's an unprecedented opportunity," Johnson said. "We cannot fail."
>
> Less bureaucracy at school could make it easier to educate students
>
> Summer has barely begun, but Ann Crowley can't wait for school to open in
> the fall.
>
> The 22-year veteran teacher and administrator is part of a new experiment
> in Detroit Public Schools -- a school run by the teachers.
>
> Her enthusiasm is obvious and contagious.
>
> "I returned to the classroom to better meet the needs of the children,
> right at the ground level," said Crowley, who expects to teach at Barbara
> Jordan Elementary. "That's what this school is all about."
>
> She's part of a DPS group called Detroit Children First, which is made up
> mostly of teachers. It has been asking for a teacher-led school for years.
>
> With the backing of the Detroit Federation of Teachers, it convinced the
> district's emergency financial manager, Robert Bobb, to let it run a school
> that bypasses layers of bureaucracy that can often slow decision-making. It
> is a school where the staff makes all the decisions, from lessons to hiring
> to building repairs…
>
> Read the rest @
>http://www.freep.com/article/20100708/NEWS01/7080367/1320/DPS-A-school-run-by-teachers
>s
>
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