Feb 24 Who's Got the Monkey?

As prologue, let me plug one of my must-read blogs, Give2Attain, published by a fellow traveler in the land of the Robbinsdale Area Schools.  We take different approaches, we don't always agree, he lives west, I live east, but we absolutely agree on the need for civil debate and civic involvement beyond our blogging, rather than just complain.

His recent Monkey Business post has had me thinking for several days now.  I trust most of you have heard of the authors he quotes who wrote "The One Minute Manager " and "Who's Got the Monkey" and recently collaborated to write, what else, "The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey."

Monkey management is about the understandable but unproductive tendency of managers to allow their subordinates to delegate their problems upward.  In this vernacular, monkeys are problems.  They ride on your back, and when you meet with your boss / mentor / parent to discuss, it's amazing how often the monkey hops off your back onto theirs.  Quoting G2A's quote:

"We do not have a problem, and we will never again have one. I'm sure there is a problem, but it is not ours, it is either yours or mine. The first item on the agenda is to neaten up the pronouns and find out whose problem this is. If it turns out to be my problem, I hope you will help me with it. If it turns out to be your problem, I will help you with it subject to the following condition: at no time while I'm helping you with your problem will your problem become my problem, because the minute your problem becomes my problem, you will no longer have a problem and I can't help a person who does not have a problem!"

Now, how does this relate to our common interest, Independent School District 281, and without loss of generality, all of public K-12 education?  Quite simply, we the public in our various roles as residents, parents, and taxpayers have all the monkeys on our backs, the monkeys of poor results despite high costs.  As I commented on his post, "[when] did you last [hear] a school district say 'we really let that kid down. We should have done better, much better.''"  I'll add now, when did you last hear a school district say, "we didn't manage that referendum money you approved very well.  The new teacher contract we signed is proving to be much more expensive than we thought."

No, we have all the monkeys.  We don't pay enough taxes to get the job done. We're not involved enough as parents or volunteers. Our local businesses should be coming forward often and generously in mutual self-interest.  But it's never the district's fault.  They're just doing the best they can, and to an extent they're right.  School Boards and Superintendents are hemmed in at every turn by needless regulations and unchecked union power.  I understand that.  But that doesn't mean the monkeys should leave their backs.  They are the ones elected and hired to do this job, and that's where the accountability must begin and end.

Admittedly, we, especially as parents, can have a significant impact on the results.  But unless you qualify those lofty mission statements like "A Future Without Limits" (Anoka-Hennepin) and "Every Child College Ready" (Minneapolis) to say "provided the parents do the following and we get all the money we want" the responsibility is the district's and the district's alone.

"Hey, we're doing the best we can.  It's more complicated than you know.  And we're clearly not in this for the money."  So might every School Board member in the land say.

So what's a beleaguered School Board member to do?  Next post.

Cross-posted and comments welcome at Speed Gibson.