Hello! My Name is Public School and I Have an Image Problem

iUniverse, Inc.

Contents

Foreword.........................................................xiiiPreface..........................................................xvIntroduction.....................................................xixStep 1 Recognize the problem.....................................1Step 2 Understand the Problem....................................9Step 3 Demonstrate loyalty and pride.............................15Step 4 Celebrate.................................................23Step 5 Know your strengths.......................................27Step 6 Stop feeding the beast....................................31Step 7 Act in brotherhood, always................................41Step 8 Be knowledgeable about the profession.....................49Step 9 Strengthen your communications skills.....................63Step 10 Plug in to the profession's politics.....................73Step 11 Be Outraged!.............................................79Step 12 Train your army of ambassadors...........................85References.......................................................88Authors' Appreciation............................................89Appendix.........................................................91

Chapter One

We are blessed beyond measure to live in a land where people are innocent until proven guilty. Well, most people anyway. Seems the malcontents, conspiracy theorists, and the alarmist media have created a shortage in public confidence. With the stroke of a pen or through the lens of a television camera, public school educators are labeled incompetent, liars, cheaters, thieves, and yes, even pedophiles. (We the authors do not deny that they exist in our schools, but these types are rare and should be purged from the profession when identified.)

From school teachers and administrators to school bus drivers and coaches, educators of all walks of life are guilty of something in the eyes of the public. Even when proven innocent there is still lingering suspicion that they got away with it, whatever "it" may be.

The first step in any recovery process is to recognize that we have a problem. In fact, that's half the battle, many experts say. We cannot address a problem until we have identified that problem, and our public schools have a massive problem.

If you believe everything you hear and read about our public schools, you might be thinking they have more than just one problem. Arguments have been made by very intelligent critics, reformers, politicians, and media types that our schools are actually riddled with problems and failing our students. Hollywood is now weighing in with documentaries featuring the plight of our students. Waiting for Superman and The War on Kids are just two of them. Oprah Winfrey has even jumped on the bandwagon that proclaims our public schools as abject failures. And if Oprah says it, it must be true, right?

These self-proclaimed experts, reformers, and non-fiction storytellers are even suggesting that our schools are responsible for America's decline on the world stage.

"Public schooling is the antithesis of democracy", quotes one recent documentary. This statement must be true with well-respected American personalities such as Bill Gates, Oprah, and the architects of No Child Left Behind condemning our schools as the failures they certainly seem to be.

We have a bit of a different opinion than all of these famous, brilliant types. Do our public schools face challenges? Absolutely. Do our public schools need to improve? Always. Are our public schools the failures they are so often made out to be? Of course not!

That brings us back to Step 1 of our recovery plan. Although our public schools have many challenges, we are convinced that most of them are inspired by a single, monumental, colossal, over-arching, yet simple problem – a poor image.

You've all read the headlines and heard the rhetoric:

* U.S. children lag behind world peers

* Cheerleaders post inappropriate photos on web

* Public schools falling further behind

* Nearly 1 in 10 fails assessment exam

* First grader suspended on weapons charge

* Today's youth are ill-prepared

* Cheating runs rampant in public schools

* Schools miss dropout mark

* Official to monitor troubled schools

* Inappropriate relationships with students reaches epidemic proportions

* Schools top heavy, inefficient, report says

* School spending skyrockets, performance plummets

* Tasmanian school children outperform U.S. peers

These statements and the mean-spirited, disrespectful debate that surrounds our public schools are all part of the greatest smear campaign in American history. We are by no means conspiracy theorists. We believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. We believe most people, who we call the silent majority in America, are well-intentioned and kind-hearted. It's the vocal minority, many with their own agendas, who've hijacked the debate about public education.

Since we started Friends of Texas Public Schools in 2004 we have had quite the education on this subject. Early on we were asked by a journalist if we believed there was an organized effort to undermine public confidence in our schools, and the answer at that time Hello! My Name is Public School and I Have an Image Problem was absolutely not. Critics were simply misinformed, so we thought. Our answer today, after many encounters with these critics and reformers, is absolutely "yes". Smearing our public schools undermines public confidence in our schools, which makes privatization of our public schools so much more attractive. If our public schools are failing then we should redirect our energies and resources (billions of dollars) toward private options where many in this vocal minority can get a piece of this very large money pie. Also, it's easy to lay the blame for our social problems in America at the doorsteps of our public schools. The government should be addressing many of our societal problems, not the schools. Since they haven't addressed them, they'd rather pass that blame onto our schools than take responsibility themselves. When the Russians launched Sputnik, for example, there was widespread panic that America was falling behind. The easy scapegoat for our government was our schools. We simply weren't preparing students to innovate and compete.

Hence, the birth of the education crisis when New York Times education writer Fred Hechinger first pointed it out just 10 years after Sputnik. "Almost 10 years ago, when the first Soviet Sputnik went into orbit, the schools were blamed for America's lag in space. Last week, in the Senate, the schools were blamed for the ghetto riots. In each case, the politicians' motives were suspect. Their reflex reaction, when faced with a national crisis, is to assign guilt to persons with the least power to hit back. The schools, which are nonpolitical but dependent on political purse strings, fill the bill of emergency whipping boy."

Our public schools, and those who've dedicated their lives to serving in them, have an unprecedented image problem. Decades of criticism that was often unwarranted, flawed reports, and international comparisons have left Americans with the underlying belief that our public schools are not performing well. It has demoralized this profession and left educators feeling unappreciated, which we believe, ironically, has actually slowed the train of progress that our critics and reformers are so hell bent on advancing down the tracks via the laser-like focus on high-stakes testing, which, by the way, does not inspire learning.

We wonder how much faster that train would move down the tracks if those working in our schools felt respect and appreciation for their efforts? How much faster would the train be moving if it was fueled with a sense of optimism and hope rather than pessimism and defeatism? What would happen if schools were free from reform-driven testing and instead free to anticipate and adapt to every child's learning journey? Hmm ...

This underlying belief of poor performance held by many Americans translates into a myth of widespread failure that has provided politicians and reformers the leverage needed to "fix" many of the manufactured problems in our public schools, which has led to a sea of policy and mandates that is drowning educators and making them appear inefficient and as though they cannot stay afloat. The truth is, by all accounts and measurements, our public schools as a whole are one of the most efficient human enterprises in human history. They achieve more with less with each passing year while politicians have the honor of claiming they have not raised taxes and are cutting wasteful spending.

As teachers attempting to stay afloat in this sea of manufactured problems, we are sick and tired of being Hello! My Name is Public School and I Have an Image Problem picked on. We are fed up with baseless accusations of failure. We've had it up to our eyeballs with people believing that we are failures and that our students are not successful. Great things are happening in our schools. Our public schools have never been more successful than they are today and we resent the harsh criticism leveled mostly by those with bullhorns who have no formal connection whatsoever to the education profession. Americans have a right to know their children are in good hands, and their tax dollars are being invested efficiently. We also need to remind Americans about the significance our free public school system plays in our democracy. Are there cases of failure? Of course! But rather than condemn, let's wrap our arms around those struggling schools and lift them up rather than beat them down. Let's inject a sense of optimism back into our public schools.

Our intent with this opening chapter is to get you fired up and to motivate you to take back the conversation about our public schools. We want you to understand the severity of the situation, that you and the institution of public education are under orchestrated attack for a host of reasons, and that the only way to change the conversation and strengthen public confidence in our schools is to unite and step up as ambassadors, or champions for our profession, for our public schools, and most of all, for our students. Our kids are the brightest this world has ever known and it's about time people recognize this truth.

Homework

* Discuss the problem identified in this chapter with at least three of your campus or department colleagues. What top three specific negative issues do you and your colleagues believe your school community faces?

* Reflect on a conversation you've participated in when you could have been a better advocate or ambassador for our students and profession.

* Start paying closer attention to the tone of news coverage and debates about public education.

Chapter Two

Decades of criticism and negative news reports about the anomaly of the day, the one thing that goes wrong in our public schools each day, have created a myth of widespread failure that Americans have simply accepted as truth without question. Although our public schools are performing better today than ever before, public confidence in them has hit an all-time low.

So, the million dollar question is, how do we strengthen public confidence in our public schools with so many forces working against us? This question might be more easily answered if we ask ourselves what other industries, organizations, and companies do to build their image among their audiences. They launch branding and public relations campaigns to promote the strengths of their cause, product, or service. Do any of these ring a bell?

* Live strong

* Behold, the power of cheese

* An army of one

* Got milk?

* Just do it

* Heartbeat of America

The business community has long understood the value and importance of message. Over the last five years the public relations industry has seen double-digit growth. Kathy Cripps, president of the Council of Public Relations Firms, says, "It demonstrates that public relations as a discipline is no longer a "nice-to-have" but rather a "must-have" for clients of all kinds." The business world gets it. Isn't it about time that public schools got it, too?

We believe the time has come for public relations and communications to be a "must-have" for public schools. We have to learn how to effectively communicate what is going RIGHT in our schools and how to restore the public's confidence and hope in a public school system that is achieving great things for ALL students, for every child in America, every day. We are no longer the only game in town. The weaker our image, the more likely it becomes that those who can pull their children out of public schools will place them in a private school option because private schools are perceived to be better than public schools. Hear much in the news about a private school's performance? No!!! Nobody cares. They are not funded by taxpayers so they are not news. What we hear (and don't hear) shapes our opinions and beliefs. But we digress. The weaker our image becomes, the more charter schools and homeschoolers we'll have, which is not good for those kids. Unbeknownst to those parents, most charter schools and home schooling options provide inferior schooling to the public schools. That's why we have a professional obligation to every child to strengthen our image and be sure Americans believe in the effectiveness of our public schools so they'll choose the most effective option for their children based on reality, not myth.

You might be thinking exactly what I was thinking when my husband Scott, a public relations professional, first suggested that we should add public relations to our job description. "I am shaping tomorrow today," I believe I said at that time. "What in the world does PR have to do with teaching?" Pretty sure I said that out loud.

PR for educators ... really? In all of our teacher prep coursework in college, not one of them ever mentioned the subject. In education we are taught a lot about effective communication, but only in regard to the parents of students in our classrooms.... not about communication with the broader community we serve.

Here is a little pearl I have picked up being married to a PR man ... When you work in education, friends, neighbors, and mere acquaintances will come to you when they have a question or comment about something school related. It doesn't matter what job you do in education. They just know that you are connected to the schools and therefore must have more information than they have about whatever is concerning them or is in the news at the moment.

Without understanding the importance of communication we may unknowingly let golden opportunities pass us by ... opportunities to correct misconceptions, rumors, or erroneous information about public schools and our colleagues. Every interaction is an opportunity to perpetuate this myth of failure, or to dispel the myth ... to create a sense of optimism, or to perpetuate the standard pessimism. We need to be ambassadors for our profession, our district, our school, and ultimately ourselves! No one else will. It's the only way we'll strengthen public confidence in what we do.

"Okay, Jane and Leslie, tell us more about this ambassador theory you have," we hope you're thinking about now. Thought you'd never ask! Let's start with Webster's definition of an ambassador:

Ambassador\Am*bas"sa*dor\,Embassador \ Em*bas"sa*dor\,n.

1. A minister of the highest rank sent to a foreign court to represent their/his sovereign or country [1913 Webster]

2. An official messenger and representative. [1913 Webster]

This is how we must view ourselves — as ambassadors of our profession, our cause. We are the official messengers and representatives of our public schools. Foreign ministers do not visit other countries with the purpose of carrying a message of discontent or dissatisfaction with their country. Their job is to share the achievements and virtues of their nation and to inspire respect and admiration toward their country. As Ambassadors of public education we must do the same. We must be knowledgeable about our profession and represent it in such a way that inspires trust and confidence in our public schools.

Homework

* Think about your favorite service provider ... car mechanic, doctor, babysitter, dentist, church, etc. What inspires your trust and confidence in this provider?

* Identify three other industries attempting to strengthen public confidence in their product or service. What strategies are these industries using that you could use to improve the confidence in your school/school district?

* Read on!

Chapter Three

"This is why, I think, so many companies fail. Not because of challenges in the marketplace, but because of challenges on the inside." — Howard Shultz, CEO of Starbucks, in his book, Onward (p. 41)

There are many reasons "why" public education needs good ambassadors, but as educators, for us, the most important is pride. We are both proud products of public schools and proud parents of three public school children each. The public schools have served us, our families, and millions upon millions of Americans very well over the last century. Changing the conversation about our public schools starts with all of us who serve in our schools. It starts with the small task of going public with the pride we take in what we do.

One of our biggest pet peeves is to hear an educator say that they have encouraged a young niece, nephew, son, or daughter NOT to become an educator. WHAT??!! If we are to restore the image and reputation that once surrounded educators we must be proud of our profession! We must stand up and tell people that we are proud to be educators and that we love what we do ... and encourage others to join our profession.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Hello! My Name is Public School and I Have an Image Problemby Leslie Milder Jane Braddock Copyright © 2012 by Leslie Milder and Jane Braddock. Excerpted by permission of iUniverse, Inc.. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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