WBWA, MYOC

Acronyms make me uneasy. I always wonder what comes next. A special danger is when the acronym is converted to a verb and then used on me! In the case of WBWA, I think that I would hate it if my boss started WBWAing me. Ouch! I’ve been WBWAed!

I call the scholarship that goes into getting a Doctorate of Education, “Educationist Theory” (Or to get in the spirit of this title of this blog, let us call it ET!). ET Educationist Theory, (I repeat for the benefit my regular readers with short term memory problems) is an ersatz scholarship consisting of freely borrowed jargon and broad concepts from other fields of genuine scholarship. ET borrows these legitimate concepts and then uses them as metaphors for educational problems. These ET concepts result in bizarre theories of teaching coming out of University Education Departments on a quite regular basis. Here let me note: I freely admit that I paint with too broad a brush. In point of fact, I have known brilliant Doctors of Education.

My God! There is a long list of this destructive crap that has come out of our Universities in the last 30 years and then imposed upon our students. Ask any veteran elementary school teacher. Think New Math (anti-counting), Whole Language (anti-reading), Self Esteem (classic cart before the horse) and Higher Thinking (anti-rote learning crap that assumed that to have an actual fact in your head was crowding out a kid’s ability to think). All this stuff got it entirely backwards. All this stuff was based upon untold hours of worthless and phony research.

Good News! After 30 or so years of wasted and destructive effort there is now a cadre of educational professionals that seem to be getting their heads around the idea of the scientific method. ISTEP is a good example of what has been needed for quite some time. That is why I am so very pleased with the Exemplary classification, based upon ISTEP results, in the Knox Elementary School. ISTEP isn’t some fancy feel good metaphor for learning. It actually sees if the kids know anything.

So what is MBWA? Management By Walking Around. This is a business management practice that was popular in the 1980’s. It is so common sense that it seems outright stupid to even give it a name, much less an acronym. In a nutshell: a good manager needs to know what is going on in the enterprise she is managing. DUH! Rather than rely on subordinate toadies that regularly cover up problems and pander to their boss, the boss walks around and sees what is really going on. This concept MBWA does require that the boss is competent enough to know what she is observing.

The Knox School Board recently renewed the contract of Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Kimberly A. Knott. I am not privy to the confidential discussions but I did observe that Dr. Knott’s contract was extended for only one year. This shows a certain lack of confidence by the Board. Shortly thereafter Kimberly was escorted about town by Ed Hasnerl. They hit the coffee clutches. I assume the Board told her that they wanted more community involvement. Then she made a few appointments to actually sit in a few Knox classrooms. Of course the Principals arranged the whole thing. I suppose the Board wanted a bit of MBWA.

Dr. Knott was a Physical education instructor prior to becoming an administrator. Do I really need to finish this blog? Why don’t you, my dear reader simply MYOC, that is make your own conclusion..