Classroom Walls: We Don't Need No Thought Control - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher:
Classroom Walls: We Don't Need No Thought Control
One of the things I found most fascinating in Dan Brown's Great Expectations School were the ongoing controversies over--of all things--his bulletin boards. There was a lot of fussing about whether his displays met "quality standards"--i.e., were they standardized to the point of monotony?--and a ridiculous administrative smackdown over commercially purchased borders.
It seemed to be another example of something you see in schools all the time--wresting control over minute, irrelevant details, a response to the certain knowledge that you can't control much in an enterprise as vast and complicated as education. Plus, of course, school leaders' need to assert titular authority they may not have earned.
When arguments erupt over minor issues, they're almost always a smokescreen for Big Irreconcilable Problems. You may win the battle over the recess schedule or bathroom passes, even while you're being crushed in the war
It seemed to be another example of something you see in schools all the time--wresting control over minute, irrelevant details, a response to the certain knowledge that you can't control much in an enterprise as vast and complicated as education. Plus, of course, school leaders' need to assert titular authority they may not have earned.
When arguments erupt over minor issues, they're almost always a smokescreen for Big Irreconcilable Problems. You may win the battle over the recess schedule or bathroom passes, even while you're being crushed in the war