I asked last week for constructive, insightful thoughts on how the Las Cruces Public Schools board and community should proceed from here. Here are the best responses I received. Many others contained good points but also rumor or nasty personal attacks, so I could not publish them.<\/p>\n
A couple of notes: Board Member Leonel Brise\u00f1o will be on The Morning Show With Michael Swickard<\/a> on KSNM-AM 570 from 9-10 a.m. today to discuss the situation. I\u2019ll be at the board meeting, which starts at 4:45 p.m., and will stay until the end. I should be able to update my blog periodically as we await board action on the superintendent\u2019s contract, so check back here this evening.<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n We all need to listen and communicate<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhat we\u2019ve got here is failure to communicate.\u201d – Cool Hand Luke<\/p>\n The threat of change is perceived individually. Therefore, how we perceive the change really determines how we manage to adapt to it (The Psychology of Stress Management, click here<\/a>).<\/p>\n Disputes in the workplace are not uncommon. A little give-and-take often leads to resolution. However, this particular dispute involves emotionally anchored perceptions. Resolution will be extremely difficult.<\/p>\n Every action has a cause and a consequence, something that led to it and something that followed from it. But research shows that while people think of their own actions as the consequences of what came before, they think of other people\u2019s actions as the causes of what came later (He Who Cast the First Stone Probably Didn\u2019t, click here<\/a>).<\/p>\n Add to this the probability that people on all sides of this dispute harbor hidden agendas (unannounced objectives, needs, expectations, or strategies of a person or group when participating in an activity) and the expectation of community healing grows even more distant.<\/p>\n Is there a way out of this mess? Certainly. Here\u2019s a starting point. I learned of \u201cactive listening\u201d when I sat in on mediation efforts between the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the Ku Klux Klan in 1977 in North Alabama.<\/p>\n Very simply, \u201cactive listening\u201d works like this: \u201cFred\u201d makes a statement. \u201cMary\u201d reflects the statement back to \u201cFred,\u201d who then responds either positively (\u201cYes, that\u2019s what I\u2019m saying.\u201d) or negatively (\u201cNo, that\u2019s not what I\u2019m saying.\u201d). Once \u201cMary\u201d receives affirmation from \u201cFred\u201d she responds to his now verified statement and the process repeats itself, i.e. \u201cFred\u201d must now reflect the statement back to \u201cMary\u201d for verification. It\u2019s a labor-intensive form of dialogue, but its one great advantage \u2013 eliminating misunderstanding in face-to-face communication \u2013 is well worth the time and effort. For an excellent and detailed overview of \u201cactive listening\u201d click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Can our community heal itself? Most definitely. But it will take a lot of hard work and a plenitude of good faith.<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n Decision makers must support teachers<\/span><\/p>\n She drags out of bed at 5 a.m., gets the kids ready for school, makes breakfast, frantically dresses and slaps on some make-up. Just before running out the door to go to work at the elementary school, she glances at the paper. Page two reveals that schools aren\u2019t making AYP and it\u2019s the teacher\u2019s fault. Page four quotes a legislator who calls for firing every school employee. The cartoon on the editorial page shows a duck commenting that teachers can\u2019t even spell, so how can they teach our children? It does not evoke a smile.<\/p>\n \n She rushes out the door, clicks on the seatbelt, and turns on the radio as she drives to work. Rush is taking a call from someone who shrieks that the public schools are infested with Godless, un-American socialists posing as teachers. She turns off the station, content to focus on the road infested with red-light running maniacs on one side and little old men driving with the cruise on twelve miles an hour on the other.<\/p>\n \n She arrives at her school, walks past a security guard and policeman, and goes to her box. There, among the cafeteria menus and IEP reminders, is a contract from central office requesting that she sign and promise that she will not harass, harangue, or molest her students. Moments later, she notices a diminutive girl cowering in the corner of the hallway, obviously traumatized. She kneels down, strokes her hair, and says, \u201cAre you all right, honey?\u201d Lips trembling and tears welling, the girl reaches for her and latches on in hug of gratitude and desperation. With the professional behavior contract still in hand, she walks the child to the nurse\u2019s office so that the abuse investigation can begin. She forces out a weak smile and tells the girl everything will be all right, knowing full well it won\u2019t. She refocuses her emotions and marches down the hallway to begin her school day anew.<\/p>\n \n For a brief, shining moment, as she enters her classroom, with soft morning light streaming through the faux stained glass windows of crepe paper, the world is right. She is a teacher and in a few moments she will dispense knowledge, motivate the intractable, and help educate the masses. The crack of a knock on the door breaks the solitude. It is her friend next door who breathlessly asks, \u201cHave you heard the news? Our principal is being fired and they are taking up the new books. And, if you don\u2019t sign the contract the word is out we will be fired too.\u201d Her face blanches and her bangs droop, as if pulled down by a mysterious gravitational force. With eyes glazed and sad, she forces out a faint defiant smile.<\/p>\n \n Welcome to a day in the life of a \n Why cannot each decision made in our school district be about supporting teachers so they can teach children? Why cannot we base each educational decision on the simple question, \u201cIs what we are doing best for kids?\u201d A school district that does neither of these is a school district doomed to fail, no matter who the adult personalities are at the top echelons of governance.<\/p>\n Del Hansen<\/p>\n \n An earlier version of this posting incorrectly stated the time Brise\u00f1o was on this morning\u2019s radio program.<\/p>\n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I asked last week for constructive, insightful thoughts on how the Las Cruces Public Schools board and community should proceed from here. Here are the best responses I received. Many others contained good points but also rumor or nasty personal attacks, so I could not publish them. A couple of notes: Board Member Leonel Brise\u00f1o […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}