Footballs, Business Cards, Gavels and Scientific Method

This article in today's Tampa Tribune enlightens us in to the daily struggles that face our public education system of today. These struggles probably have been going on for a while, but now that the stakes are higher, the faltering sense of control may be making the stirred muck more noticeable.

2 Districts Limit Athlete Transfers

I am becoming aware that within the public education system there are a few people who at least take education and teaching as a very serious matter. I imagine this is a reflection of how seriously they took their efforts to obtain a position within a public school system, and they are quick to defend any perceived unfair, and sometimes fair, criticism of the system.

What may be unfair to these real professionals is that there may be a belief by those who are in decision making positions that education and teaching just happens. Attention to processes and mechanisms that will ensure and promote education and teaching may not be a priority.

One who follows along various concerns about our local education system may recall that there have been concerns about teachers, nurses, school bus drivers, contracts, and athlete transfers. Each of these areas has at least two common components of numbers and money.

I will concede that education is not a business, 'cause I don't want to argue anymore. However, it is difficult to understand how education and teaching can be effective as a whole if someone isn't paying attention to how the business of the system is monitored.

Within the article, we find this paragraph:

"District coaches told The Tampa Tribune that shopping for an athletic program is common and increasing. But Hillsborough County officials said they do not know how many athletes in the district are on special assignments to schools outside their assigned boundaries or how many moved into a new boundary to play a sport."

The phrase "they do not know how many" seems to be a common denominator in all of the aforementioned issues. It brings reason to wonder just what numbers they pay attention to. I am sure it isn't Avagadro's.

Using special assignments as an example of how major decisions are made without any science of reasoning is almost laughable, if not so disconcerting. A student who is asking for a special assignment because the school they want to get into has a particular educational setting that they want or need might go far in enhancing the education and teaching purposes of the system. A student who is given a special assignment so they can hang out with "tbf" may in fact have a negative consequence on the education and teaching purposes of the system.

What I don't understand, again from a business perspective, is that there seems to be money and time spent in a decision making process that there appears to be no accountability for. If the one's with the gavel have to take time to confirm a decision made by a group that doesn't know if kids are going to the science lab or the football field, why bother.

PS or update or whatever - It should be of utmost importance to those who are serious about the serious goals of education and teaching, that the above example leans heavily towards a convincing argument that it is "who you know" instead of "how many" and other vital variables that one should know to make an educated decision, whether it be in the best interest of teaching or business. I have seen the rebuke from the dias by some when one questions "those who should know"'s knowledge of "how many", so maybe it truly is the "who".