Debra Slover on the Future of Education

OurBlook interview with Debra Slover, founder of Leadership Garden

Many people in the United States are highly concerned about improving the quality of education. They believe schools are underfunded and students are underperforming, and some have shown their dismay by joining the voucher and charter school movements. What do you think is the state of education in America ... its strengths and weaknesses?

DS: I share the same concern as many but for a different reason. My concern has to do with context of the conversation and the condition of education that I believe is a direct reflection of the state of America’s social, economic and political policies.

The charter school movement is gaining momentum for both the wrong and right reasons. Wrong in the sense that when it comes to a child’s education, that can translate into whom to blame for the underperformance. Is it the teacher, parent, politicians or educational leaders?

In addition, when blame occurs, it causes the creation of alternative systems, rather than to look at the root causes of the underperformance of the public schools from a holistic viewpoint. For example, what is the condition of the environment in which our public schools and charter schools operate?

By early accounts, charter school students are not necessarily performing better on standardized tests and when they do perform better, the test scores do not measure the cultural, social, and environmental conditions that support the child to perform well.

These types of apples to oranges comparisons using standardized tests scores miss the very basis of quality education; the need to educate, empower and engage the whole child (body, mind, heart and spirit) in a nurturing environment to do their best. How do you standardize a child’s best and measure their unique potential?

The right reason is that charter schools and other alternative systems have more freedom to design the curriculum to meet individual student needs with smaller class sizes, smaller populations and increased parental support ... and all those factors help teach and nurture the whole child. Moreover, when parents feel they have a choice and the means to ensure their child has the very best chance in life, they are empowered to engage more in the system to make it work.

Therefore, the strength of the current system is we have the knowledge to teach our children well; the weakness is we use that knowledge in the wrong context and under less than optimal conditions.

What are the goals of the educational system, and are they what you think they should be?

DS: According to the Ed.gov website, the goal of No Child Left Behind ... our current system ... is based on four pillars: stronger accountability for results, more freedom for states and communities, proven education methods, and more choices for parents. On the surface, who could argue with those goals?

The first change I would make is a contextual shift beginning with a new title. Something like “The Child Potential Act” and then create the goals inside that context. I would not necessarily alter the four pillars, rather redefine, and enhance them inside of context for reaching full potential.

Our current educational system is complex and has many outside factors that influence it. The major concern I have about the current act is the political climate. When it comes to a child’s education, partisan politics MUST be set aside ... we need to find common themes and create fertile ground for our children to flourish. Though the act was said to have bipartisan support, the debate around it now is less than that. Even I have my bias, as an advocate for children to reach their full leadership potential that is unique to them.

How has the major school reform movement ... No Child Left Behind ... impacted either positively or negatively the educational system? Should it be continued or scrapped? Are there any improvements that could be made?

DS: I do not believe it has to be an either/or situation. I do believe it is time to pause and reflect. I dislike the word reform because for me it conjures up a negative context. According to my dictionary, the first definition of reform is the improvement or amendment of what’s wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. Given the mood of the country today and the economic crisis we face, anything presented by the government is suspect whether it does good or not.

Personally, I would go to work on designing a school transformation movement that takes us back to a time when the school, community, family and business worked together as child advocates and not adversaries.

Transform means to change in form, appearance or structure. As long as we are trying to fix what is wrong, we fail to examine the efforts we need to replicate from the current successes. Not everything is wrong with our system. In either context: things can improve and change for the better with the latter more empowering to our children. The truth is there is nothing to fix in the child but there is something to transform in the environment.

For example, Public Agenda just issued this report:

Public Agenda's research shows that teachers are open to many different ways of assessing their work. More than half of teachers, 56 percent, said test scores were a "good' or "excellent" way of measuring teacher effectiveness, but other yardsticks were more popular, such as student engagement (92 percent), how much their own students learn compared with others (72 percent) and feedback from administrators (70 percent). ... Our Teaching For A Living study found four in 10 teachers "disheartened," struggling with their work environment and their ability to make a difference.

I took the time to read this report and was most interested in the “Teaching For A Living” study. Teachers are on the front line and can give us the greatest insight into what is happening in our classrooms. The report identified three groups with distinct attitudes about their profession: Disheartened 40 percent, Contented 37 percent, and Idealists 23 percent. The most alarming aspect of the report for me was the “Degree of Confidence” who strongly agree that all their students, with the right support, can go to college in each group. Among the Idealists, 54 percent strongly agreed. Of the Disheartened 39 percent strongly agreed and only 30 percent of the Contented strongly agreed. While overall the Contented had the most positive attitudes about their job, having the lowest agreement about the potential of each child to go to college indicates to me a sense of apathy about the ability of each child.

Author Bonnie Benard in her book Resiliency: What Have we Learned (WestEd, 2004) has this to say:

A few years ago, resiliency theory was relatively new to the fields of prevention and education. Today, it is at the heart of hundreds of school and community programs that recognize in all young people the capacity to lead healthy, successful lives. The key, as Benard reports in this synthesis of a decade and more of resiliency research, is the role that families, schools and communities play in supporting, and not undermining, this biological drive for normal human development. Of special interest is the evidence that resiliency prevails in most cases by far ... even in extreme situations, such as those caused by poverty, troubled families and violent neighborhoods.

Therefore, the focus on what helps children become resilient in our every changing world is paramount to me. Furthermore, in the teachers study, the policy implications showed the comparison in attitudes across a range of many factors and alluded to that many of the disheartened teachers may be ill suited for the job and ready to move on. The report also referred to a previous study of school superintendents and principals that can fall into two groups: “Copers,” whose main focus is successfully completing the work of the day, and “Transformers,” who aim to change the schools they manage. I pose a different view of the disheartened and I have a hunch that “Copers” are disheartened as well if not overwhelmed.

The term disheartened means to depress the hope, courage or spirits of: discourage. When your hopes are dashed and your ability to do what we know inside is right for a child is suppressed by the very systems we work inside of, it often leads to anger, apathy and leading you down a coping and survival path.

Best-selling author Barbara DeAngelis says anger is passion turned inside out, and I believe that may account for much of the controversy surrounding the No Child Left Behind. People are passionate about education and show anger on both sides of the debate.

Given that 77 percent of the teachers fall into the disheartened or contented category, with the vast majority of them over 33, it is an indication to me of what I have witnessed over my career; a slow erosion of the passion veteran teachers once had that is stemmed by the environmental conditions they face. The current policies, though well intended, I believe evoke both anger and apathy and a sense of just getting by until you can retire. I know of no teacher who entered education with that in mind. Those who may have would not still be in the system today. Contrary to what some may think, the daily demand is too great and pay too low to endure no passion for 30-plus years.

My point -- most veteran teachers are there because they deeply care about kids. We need to pay attention to what they have to say and look for more innovative ways to restore their hope and passion. Their attitudes do matter day in and out in the life of a child in school.

You are a former teacher who has founded the Leadership Garden Legacy in Oregon in an attempt to help children. Please tell us what you hope to achieve with this program.

DS: The Leadership Garden Legacy is designed to provide a framework that educates, empowers and engages individuals, families, schools, communities and businesses to thrive as leaders in life. Our intention is to help people, young and old, reclaim their power, focus their energy, and re-ignite their passion to make the difference they desire in a thriving context.

We provide the U.N.I.Q.U.E. series of products and services we call our empowerment tools. How this fits with the educational debate is that a current structure that values standardized performance on tests over leadership in life undermines the very fiber of the biological drive for normal human development that Benard mentions.

To learn how to lead your life with integrity, responsibility and choice is essential to thrive vs. merely survive in the 21st century. The U.N.I.Q.U.E. (Understanding, Nurturing, Inventive, Quality, Unstoppable, Expression) Tour provides leadership development tools that pave the way for academic achievement, not the other way around. With the focus on developing and nurturing the unique leader in each child, we help transform the view of leadership from a job, position or title to a way of life that expresses purpose, imagination and goals. In other words, reach your full potential.

To support our vision to seed and nurture 11 million Leadership Gardens to help create a thriving worldwide legacy by 11/11/2011, we created the Leadership Garden Registry and established the Leadership Garden Fund to offer grants to eligible (school and nonprofit organizations) members to aid in the creation of leader-friendly gardening "Practice Projects" in the following six categories:

~ Inclusion Projects - Be nonjudgmental

~ Safe and Healthy Community Projects - Do not enable harmful behaviors

~ Compassion Projects - Use empathy

~ Kindness Projects - Prune gossip

~ Accountability Projects - Eliminate blame

~ Healing Projects - Eradicate Victimization

Imagine a world where everyone uses leader-friendly gardening practices. By providing young people organization, the necessary skills and opportunities they need to be leaders in life, we pave the way to a thriving future for generations to come.

Educationally, how does the United States compare to other countries? What methods and conceptual concerns from other countries could the U.S. incorporate into its educational models?

DS: Though I am not an expert on other countries' educational models, I did find an interesting paper that supports the premise I hold for education in the U.S., Leadership Garden Legacy vision, and some promising efforts I do see in the U.S.educational system.

Overcoming Exclusion through Inclusive Approaches in Education Conceptual Paper

A CHALLENGE & VISION

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)

© UNESCO 2003

“One of the greatest problems facing the world today is the growing number of persons who are excluded from meaningful participation in the economic, social, political and cultural life of their communities. Such a society is neither efficient nor safe. ... While there are also very important human, economic, social and political reasons for pursuing a policy and approach of inclusive education, it is also a means of bringing about personal development and building relationships among individuals, groups and nations. ... Inclusive education is concerned with providing appropriate responses to the broad spectrum of learning needs in formal and nonformal educational settings. Rather than being a marginal theme on how some learners can be integrated in the mainstream education, inclusive education is an approach that looks into how to transform education systems in order to respond to the diversity of learners. It aims to enable both teachers and learners to feel comfortable with diversity and to see it as a challenge and enrichment in the learning environment, rather than a problem.”

One of the promising outcomes of No Child Left Behind was the establishment of 21st Century Community Learning Centers CCLC’s which provide academic enrichment programs in non-school hours for students and their families in underserved communities. However, I fear as with most government initiatives when the funding ends or is redirected, so too will many of the programs.

In addition, the School Wide Positive Behavioral Support system is data driven and based upon extensive research and clearly demonstrates how using a school-wide approach to behavior can actually increase a safe and rich learning environment for all students. But it’s going to take more than government programs and funding to create a sustainable and flourishing educational system. Individuals, families, schools, communities, and businesses need invest in our children in a substantial and sustainable way beginning right in our own home and community.

How might social media and ever-changing technology improve classrooms and the learning environment for teachers and students? How might they be impeding the educational process?

DS: Social media and ever-changing technology can go a long way to improve the classroom-learning environment if used in meaningful and purposeful ways to make a positive difference on the planet. The impediment of today’s technology is a shift away from human-to-human contact. Cyber-bullying can be as harmful to our young people as playground bullies can, as seen in some recent landmark case where a young woman died by suicide after being bullied by a classmate and her mother.

The instant exchange of information allows for transparency and accountability in business, education and our personal lives. The flip side, the anonymous nature, makes it a harmful medium and reduces the accountability for what you say in cyberspace. Just as the days when we taught our students to decipher the hidden messages and meaning of advertising print and television advertising, we need to do the same with the Internet and teach our young how to harness the power of the technology to do well and not harm in the world.

For example, last year I encountered an Internet store order fraud scam that I was able to combat by sharing how these scam artists operated on my blog. I suspected fraud and played along just long enough to expose them. I received a few contacts via my website and one phone call thanking me for my blog post. Rather than fall prey to this group, they found the information I shared saved them unwanted hassle, loss of inventory, and their money.

Therefore, I view the technology as an ally more than an enemy. It gives the individual access to information and personal power to make a difference. For all the security and accuracy of information problems associated with the Internet, it is changing the landscape of the world for better and worse. Incorporating the use of the technology in the classroom, coupled with a sound education and appropriate leadership development skills, will go a long way.

Will education in the U.S. get better or worse?

DS: The answer to that question remains in the realm of context. If we continue down a reform path, I fear a never-ending downward spiral of right or wrong. I would rather reframe the conversation and am hopeful by what I see on the ground. My visits to some local schools to share our vision and see how my work can support their community centers and teaching gardens warm my heart. These people deeply care about their students and any veteran disheartened teacher can once again become a pragmatic idealist like me. When you remove the dis from heartened, you once again have passion.

Is there anything else you'd like to say about any aspect of this topic?

DS: I’d like to close with my vision quote:

Leadership Garden Legacy

Every person is a unique seed in the world garden.

Each seed grows a leader from which everything blossoms

Imagine the future of our planet if we nurture each leader to sprout greatness.

The time is now to help re-sow the seeds of passion in our educators and plant the seeds of confidence in our students.

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