Network Schools – Wayne Gerseny to https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/04/03/magazine/thomas-piketty-interview u w B l.html?h I’ll smid=url-share the Is for

After reading Linda Jacobson’s article on “the unsettling season of public outrage” Superintendents are facing, I recalled a conversation I had in the early 1980s. At that time, early in my career as a Superintendent, I crossed paths with a veteran from an affluent suburb in Philadelphia who lamented the days when School Boards were led by businessmen who wanted to serve in their communities as opposed to (his words, not mine) “…over-educated women with too much time on their hands“.  A few years from now it is possible that Superintendents may have a different lament: they will be longing for the days when school boards were populated by educated members who are uncommitted to public education. Why, because a consequence of serving on school boards and as school leaders in the COVID, post-George Floyd era is intense and rapid burn out which, in turn, will create openings on school boards that few will be willing to consider…. except the zealots who want to undercut “government schools”, ban “divisive topics”, push back against medical experts and government officials on health precautions, and believe everything they read on the internet.

I had dinner a few evenings ago with a doctor and in the course of our conversation I asked how the internet had affected his work. He rolled his eyes and became animated as he discussed arguing with a 19-year old who professed to know more than he did about COVID based on an article he “read on line”, and article my physician friend noted could have been written by a 12-year old in pajamas in his parent’s basement. If patients are not being deferential to physicians who are seeking to provide them with sound advice based on science, why would a school board member defer to the advice of a school superintendent, business manager, facilities manager, or ANY “expert” when they can find a contradictory position somewhere on line?

There are many reasons I am glad I retired a decade ago. No more snow-day decisions, no more endless budget meetings in the months leading up to a vote, and no more thorny personnel decisions. I often had different opinions from individual Board members and, in some instances, had to proceed with difficult decisions rendered by boards who could not achieve consensus, but I never encountered the vitriol that appears to be routine nowadays. When shouting replaces civility, those who value civility will shy aware from public office and leadership. Those who embrace it will be street fighters. I fear that the brawlers are about to take center stage in school district leadership and their target may well be the institution of public education itself.