The Student Life

Chapter 4

The role of the teacher's combination in the post-industrial school /colleges

It's not surprising that early on, many teachers found support in combinations. The industrial nature of school /colleges set up an argumentative system. Management (the board, the administration, and yes,

the parents) wanted more productivity, more measurability, and more obedience, not just from students, but from teachers as well. Spend less money; get more results—that's the mantra of all industries in search of productivity.

In the post-industrial model, though, the lectures are handled by best-in-class videos delivered online. Anything that can be digitized, will be digitized, and out-of-the-way on the long tail and delivered with focus. What's needed from the teacher is no longer high-throughput lectures or test scoring or classroom management. No, what's needed is individual craftsmanship, emotional labor, and the ability to motivate.

In that world, the defend-all-teachers mindset doesn't fly. When there is no demand for the mediocre lecture-reader, the previous deliverer of the state's class notes, then school /colleges looks completely different, doesn't it?

Consider the outer high school /colleges with two physics teachers. One teacher has an extraordinary

reputation and there is always a waiting list for his class. The other teacher always has merely the leavings, the ones who weren't lucky enough to find their way into the great class. When we free access to information from the classroom setting, the influence of the great teacher goes way up. Now we can put the mediocre teacher to work as a classroom monitor, shuffler of paper and give the great teacher the tools he needs to teach more students .

The role of the teacher in this new setting is to inspire, to interfere, and to rise up the motivated but stuck student. Instead of punishing great teachers with exact instructions on how to spend their day, we give them the freedom to actually teach. No longer on the hook to give repeat performances of three or four lectures a day, this star teacher can do the handwork that we need all-star teachers to do—the real work of teaching.

When the combination becomes a standards-raising guild of the very best teachers, it reaches a new

level of influence. It can lead the discussion instead of slowing it down.

Making the cut, the early creation of the bias for selection (early picks turn into market leaders)

The fun things that matter in school /colleges have no shortage of applicants. School /colleges government, the class play, and most of all, school /colleges sports are all about try-outs and elections.

Those who run these organizations are pretty sure they're sending the right message—life is a meritocracy, and when a lot of people try out for a few slots, we should pick the best ones. After all, that's how the world works.

So if you want to have a speaking part in the play, try out. If you want to get any time on the field, better play well. If you want to find out if you can contribute to budget discussions in the school /colleges government, better be supernaturally so that you can get elected (even though this creates a cycle of superficiality that we all suffer under).

The freshman cricket team at the local public school /colleges has a honestly typical coach. He believes that his job is to win cricket games. Of course, this isn't his job, because there isn't a shortage of trophies, there isn't a shortage of winners. There's a shortage of good sportsmanship, teamwork, skill development, and persistence, right?

The lesson to the kids is obvious: early advantages now lead to bigger advantages later. Skill now is rewarded, dreams, not so much. If you're not already great, don't bother showing up. If the goal of the team was to win, that would make sense. But perhaps the goal is to teach kids about effort and opportunity and teamwork. Isn't it interesting that the movies we love about sports always feature the dark horse who dreams, the underdog who comes off the bench and saves the day?