Memphis: Is Anyone Listening?
When the Transition Planning Committee rolled out its plan, based on the recommendations of the management consultants, the Boston Consulting Group, and led by Stand for Children, teachers were not sure if the public hearings would be genuine and if their voices would be heard.
In a comment posted here, this teacher describes her experience at a town hall meeting. Corporate reformers seem to have an aversion to the give and take of genuine democracy. It is hard to listen when you think you have all the answers. What do educators know about education anyway?
In a comment posted here, this teacher describes her experience at a town hall meeting. Corporate reformers seem to have an aversion to the give and take of genuine democracy. It is hard to listen when you think you have all the answers. What do educators know about education anyway?
I went to the town hall meeting today. They went over the TPC powerpoint for the first hour. That powerpoint can be found on the website and if a person chose to go to this two-hour long meeting, that person had probably
How to Run a Meaningless Meeting
A reader writes:
The tactic of breaking meeting attendees into small groups with one staff member per group who runs the group discussion and writes the comments on chart paper is commonly used at the system level in the county where my children attend. They did it for controversial redistricting plans, and when they were acting as if they cared about teacher and parent input regarding conversion to a charter system. The tactic drives me crazy because it is a way to control the crowd, a way to keep the masses at bay. It avoids the opportunity for the “whole” of who cares enough to show up to HEAR from each other and build a discussion that has the potential to become loud enough to BE HEARD. It was so patronizing to be led in these small group discussions, which were largely controlled by the facilitator anyway because they had parameters and categories and ultimately decided what to |
