UNM College of Education gets new dean; "... frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"

With the hiring of a better dean,  it is hoped that UNM's College of Education will become a better college turning out better teachers turning out better students turning out better performance on standardized tests.

Fine in theory, but does anyone really believe that there are people you can hire, who know more, and who have better ideas, than everyone else combined?

There are "leaders" who through enforcement of their will, can marginally improve bad situations.  They cost a lot of money and in the end, may do more harm than good.

Look at APS Supt Winston Brooks.  Through no inspirational leadership of his own, he lays claim to marginal improvement in the APS.  The cost; Brooks is a named respondent in more civil rights suits than you can shake a stick at, and teachers are leaving in droves.  Marginal success at unduly high cost. 

If you were looking for a unique type of person to lead an endeavor, the type you should look for are those with a record of creating synergy among interest holders.

Real leaders in any endeavor are the ones who are able to create a synergy that folds in all of the resources that can be brought to bear on whatever problem they are seeking to solve.

Take public school discipline for an example. Discipline is a problem in public schools.  It is a big problem and will continue to be a problem until a synergy among stakeholders is created.  There can be no synergy around an issue that is secret.  Secret synergy is oxymoronic.

You have to be willing to talk about issues openly and honestly to have any hope to create synergy.  Brooks cannot create a synergy around solving student discipline issues because he won't even admit that they exist, link.  He gets away with it because the establishment's media steadfastly refuses to investigate and report upon student discipline issues in the APS, as manifest in their record; they haven't covered it once (in my memory, I will bow to controverting fact).

In my search for Journal coverage of student discipline issues;
I stumbled upon a Journal report about APS not gathering relevant data, link.  A few years ago, an audit by the Council of the Great City Schools found routine falsification of crime data by administrators trying to protect the reputations of schools and of the APS.

Brooks and leaders like him, don't create synergy because they can't, or because they won't.  Leaders without personal skills cannot create synergy because of their incompetence.  Brooks lacks the personal skill set to inspire synergy.

Brooks is also a "leader" who won't create synergy.  He won't because synergy is created around round tables, not from podia.  His fist will pound on the table last in any discussion he is part of.

my way, or the highway

What would happen if Brooks folded in the community in an effort to create some synergy to bring to bear on the problem of out of control students in classrooms?  What would happen if he asked APS teachers, who among them share nearly 100,000 years of experience; what do we need to do, to re-establish and then maintain adult control in our classrooms and schools?

Brooks, like others in his position and of his ilk, does not participate in open and honest two-way discussions.  In particular, he and those like him, eschew open and honest discussions of any issue where the failure address the issue adequately, is their own failure.

If they communicate at all, it is under circumstances over which they remain in control.

• You have two minutes.
• Don't ask any questions.
• Don't criticize any leaders by name

Is that really how problems get solved?

Leaders find and support the best ideas, even though, maybe especially though they may not be their own.