Repairing a Culture of Blame
Maybe we can all agree on a basic starting point: no one is perfect, and every individual and organization should strive for growth and improvement.
To go a step further, perhaps we can all agree that it is our shared responsibility to monitor public institutions – including schools, school districts, state and federal governments – and hold them to high standards.
What happens when we fall short? Or when “they” fall short? How do we respond? What do we want to see happen? Too often in this culture, I think we assign blame. Someone must be held accountable – and if it wasn’t my job, then I certainly can’t be blamed for the results. By shaming or punishing those responsible, we feel like we’ve done our job as monitors or guardians of whatever values we uphold and whatever institutions have let us down. It feels good, doesn’t it – seeing the scandal hit home, the lies revealed, the hypocrites exposed, the inept upbraided and the corrupt brought low?
But I think we’re conditioned to look for someone to blame. For some, casting blame is an addiction, and the