Paying $20,000 a Year to Attend a Transfer School

Schools should be places where people care about people, and caring takes time, time that schools feel they don’t have. Administrators and teachers may feel stressed because they’ve got so much to cover (i.e., curriculum obesity - a term by Michael Opitz) and so many standards to meet (i.e., formal and informal assessment overkill). 

Unfortunately, communication is a tool that frequently gets tossed out the door when there’s so much to do. It’s easier to teach students who don’t talk and aren’t curious than it is to teach students who want to know why, why, why. 

Why? Because: 

1. Answering why takes time, time away from curriculum and standards. 
2. Answering why takes time because then the students will always expect answers to why, why, why. 
3. Then, students always ask more questions.
4. Then, those questions have to get answered.
5. Then, the students get curious about how the educator got “to know so much.” 
6. Then, the educator says students can get “to know so much” too.
7. Then, the students ask how?
8. Then, the educator says a good start is with such-and-such curriculum; here’s how it applies to you.
9. Then, the students want the educator to show them how the curriculum applies to them.
10. Finally, the educator can get to page 1, objective 1.

See how long it takes when communication comes into play? Why not jump to #10 and make it #1: Go to page 1, objective 1.

See how easy it “really” is? 

Of course, some educators like Principal Ronald J. Gorsky, principal of Concord High School, recommend the extra steps. SchoolBook recently highlighted this principal of a small transfer school on Staten Island. Students attend this school when they aren’t succeeding at their home campuses. Gorksky joined Concord when it was underperforming in 2002. Now, it is the #1 transfer school in the city with parents saying they would willingly pay $20,000 a year in order for their children to attend this school. 

Relationships are important to Gorsky. He asks students what their goals and talents are.  He wants to know what engages them.  If this scenario sounds a little business-like, it's because Gorsky compares his school to a mom-and-pop store where people care about people. Mom-and-pop places care about doing more. Likewise, as educators, we decide if we will do the extra steps before getting to page 1, objective 1.