World Class PSO: Daily Thought

I'm back!!!! I hope you had a great week. I sure did. The skiiing at Squaw Valley was great. Visits with family and friends were also great.

While I was away, I was able to watch the movie "Waiting for Superman." (Thanks American Airlines for showing it on the flight!!) This movie was very eye-opening for me. I don't have children in the public school system, and, therefore, don't have current, first-hand experiences. This documentary had very strong views on why our public schools are failing. If 1/2 of what they said are true...we should all be outraged!!

You may be wondering why I am bringing this up...it doesn't really have anything do to with World-class PSO stuff...You're right. (If I had my laptop with me on this trip (yes, I go on vacation without my laptop most of the time), I would have blogged on the subject last week.). Since I have a bit of a captive audience, I wanted a chance to encourage all of you to watch this film and get involved in what is happening in our public schools. Here are a few piece of data that were shared:

• According to the film, there are schools in CA with 75% drop-out rates - teachers and administrators know that only 25% of all incoming freshman will graduate. There are schools all over the US just like these schools; they are a called "drop out factories."
• The city of New York spends $100 million per year on a "rubber room" program for suspended teachers. Teachers under investigate show up to "work" each day, reading the newspaper, books, playing cards, sleeping, and surfing the web, getting paid full salaries and collecting full benefits...even earning pension vesting. It takes 3.5 years for a teacher to complete the process.
• Philadelphia (or was it Pittsburg) spends more per capita on a 4 year prison sentence than for four years of schooling for a student.
• One school system (can't remember which) in the Mid-Atlantic states spends enough time moving bad teachers from school to school that they have given the process a name: The Dance of The Lemons. The hope is that the principle of school A will replace his worst teacher with some "less worst" since he knows he is getting someone else's worst teacher.
• The US is ranked 28th out of the top 30 developed nations in the world for public education. We are following behind!!

Now the tie back to what we do...for a PSO to be truly World-class, it needs to put the needs and interest of its customers first. (This is the first statement in our PS Values or Gomez PS.) That does not mean ignoring the needs of the practice, by any stretch...its a balancing act for sure. I firmly believe that, while the best and even the good teachers work tirelessly for their students, aka their customers, there are all too many bad, or not so good, teachers, bureaucrats, and politicians who put the objectives of the unions and the individual teachers ahead of our students and, therefore, the future of our country. The United States cannot have world-class students, schools, or workforce if we continue to de-prioritize the needs of the students over the needs. We will not have a world-class future.

I am officially stepping off my sandbox and will return to regularly scheduled World-class PSO programming tomorrow. As always, I look forward to your comments.