Information is powerful and firsthand gathering of information without bias is essential. Given this as truth, how can a school board member be informed about his school in ways that do not cross the lines between board and administration and employees? I recommend perching.
A board member appearing at school too often raises inappropriate hackles. If drivers on the highway slow down and become circumspect about their speed and safe driving procedures when a highway patrol cruiser appears in their rear view mirror, administrators and teachers too often grow anxious when a school board member walks down the school hallway. Anxiety is a natural phenomena. In the presence of law enforcement, I may be more thoughtful about what I am doing, but it does not change the relationship I have with the laws. We both travel on the highway and I drive on. So it should be in public schools. School Board members come to school.
Perching is being a silent and unobtrusive yet acknowledged observer of the daily life of a school. Perchers watch and listen, smile a lot, and only engage to clarify what they see or hear. Sounds kind of spooky and weird; it is not. As a percher, I am just another adult in the school.
A percher should observe the amenities. Informing the school administration before perching is one of those amenities. There is nothing in a school to be hidden from board view, but if an administrator has scheduled an evaluative observation at the same time and place a board member wants to perch, perching needs to be rescheduled. Secondly, as members on the same team, informing the administration about a planned perch is just good practice.
Perchers need built-in filters. The variety of words and stories and scenes a percher hears and observes is amazing. Once you are seen and acknowledged by students and staff, your silent presence seems to be forgotten and, as the saying goes, “people say and do the darnedest things.” Personal stories and observations of persons doing personal things are filed in the “personal” category. Unless it is the proverbial person yelling “Fire!”, perchers filter out the personal and filter in pertinent.
I perched in the high school media center last week. After communicating my intention to the superintendent and receiving a “happy perching’ response, I took a seat at a library table on the edge of a group of tables where students often sit. From my seat, I observed all the comings and goings in the media center.
A media center is a latter day school library. Our media center looks like and acts like a school library, that is lots of books on shelves and large, traditional library tables that seat six to eight students. I had learned from our media aide who supervises students in the media center and handles material circulation that very few teachers bring their classes to the “library” as used to happen. Because our secondary school issues one-to-one laptops and chrome books to all students in grades 6 – 12, students have almost all of the media and reference material once found in the school library at their classroom desks. And, their personal technology is interactive. Because classes no longer schedule time in the media center, almost all student use is study hall time or meetings with tutors or reading and math interventionists or college reps looking for a quiet place to meet.
On my perch this day, I learned three things.
The first thing I learned involved five high school students who were seated at a larger table reviewing for an AP Psych test. Happenstance led their AP Psych teacher to walk through the media center, and seeing them, to ask the usual “How ya doin’ today?” Without prompting, one young lady said she had questions about the terminology related to brain stimulation – neurons, soma, dendrites, axons – “That stuff.” Their teacher sat in an available chair and for twenty minutes conducted an outstanding tutorial. He didn’t tell; he helped each student clarify what they already knew and corrected a few items that were inaccurately related. Each student was engaged, leaning forward, and profiting from the moment. It was the type of experience that happens with frequency, I believe, but is not often observed.
With all questions resolved, the teacher went on his way. What happened next was icing on a percher’s cake. One after another, the tutored talked about what a “great teacher Mr. X is” and how much they are learning. Their appreciation was genuine, as Mr. X had departed, and no “brownie points” were to be gained. As a percher, I had the privilege of observing the kind of teacher/student interaction and the quality of relationship we assume but seldom see first hand. Later in the day, I found Mr. X and told him about this observation and he was very modestly pleased.
My second learning regarded a school policy, student practices, and student perception of the policy. Our school has policies related to when and how students can use “personal devices” like cell phones and tablets for personal texting, phone calls and game playing. In a nutshell, personal devices are not to be used for these purposes during class time; begrudged permission is given during passing periods and lunch time only. But, children being children, our students push against the margins of rules and policies.
I observed high school students using their study hall time in the media center to game on their school-provided laptops, text and FaceTime on their cell phones, and send and receive texts. It was not so much a startling observation as it was a confirming observation. Several students committed all of their media center time to texting and gaming – not studying. Others allowed the incoming text or silenced phone ringer interrupt their studies – no students appeared to decline a text or call.
High school teachers are concerned that their students believe they are entitled to use their personal devices when and how they choose regardless of school rules. And, student use of personal devices during study time causes too many students to have incomplete or unattempted class assignments. From my perch, I observed about half of the students in the media center committed to their study time and about half who either committed their study time to personal device usage or allowed their personal devices to interrupt their study time.
During the next class passing period, I asked a student I recognized about student use of personal devices to texting and gaming in the media center and she gave me a very Cartesian response. “If no one saw a student texting or gaming, then the rules were not violated.”
My third observation is a cost-benefit understanding. Schools have not always had libraries. The commitment of cost to a school library was innovative in the early 1900s and by mid-century a school library was a “must have” in secondary schools and many elementary schools. The collection of resources for teachers and students in a central location supported the delivery of curriculum and instruction. Today, this is not the case. Technology, either streamed into the classroom or accessible through laptops and tablets on student desks, brings everything from the library to the teacher and student wherever they are. This leaves schools with a large investment in media centers that is not fully utilized in terms of financial resources as well as physical space.
My many perchings in school media centers confirms that the contemporary function of these “centers’ require these –
- Comfortable places for students to read and study. Comfort includes individual and group settings with supportive and cushioned seating. No more rigid chairs that leave marks on your back and cut off circulation to your buttocks and below.
- Abundant and accessible power stations for school-provided laptops, Chromebooks and tablets. Most libraries lack electrical outlets and those that are present were placed for the work of librarians.
- Good lighting and air circulation. Students are increasingly aware of the amount of time they spend under fluorescent lighting and in internally-circulated air. Natural light and fresh air are essential.
- Seating and flooring that accommodates student drinking of water. Brain research tells us that well-functioning brains need oxygen and water. Our classroom teachers accommodate water bottles and our media centers should as well.
- Reconsideration of the secondary collection. Middle school students circulate contemporary fiction, especially graphic novels, much more than high school students. In fact, high school circulation is in continual decline. High school circulation relates to class assignments and most of the reference, research, and supplemental information they seek is on the Internet. Floor space that is committed to the secondary collection can be reallocated.
This returns me to value of perching. Those responsible for educating children expand their knowledge bases from professional meetings, organized discussions, and group interactions. These opportunities assure that there is common breadth and depth in their understanding. However, due to their scope and function, these informational events lack first hand information. To get real, personal first hand information, I recommend perching. Sit quietly. Observe and listen. Filter what you see and hear – some things are not your business. Become informed in the first-hand. And, even though perchers do not typically engage with others while perching, being seen on your perch gives you a real credibility with faculty, staff and students.