Failed success...Successful Failure...

So I am pounding through a first month on a new job, and the ultimate test is this thing called in-service. I've toiled many  hours on putting it together, taking up the very well coordinated leavings of the former director and the behind the scenes works of several people who dealt with room reservations and speakers and purchase orders and the like.

No one was (physically) injured in the making of this in-service. Seemingly important things were conveyed. It's now almost over, and so then I had a hearty talk with my (second) worst critic. Here's an approximation of what was said:

I didn't learn a single thing about teaching, about what goes on in the classroom. There was a lot of bureaucratic marching orders, but there was no music. The administration is going away self-satisfied, but they have just been quipping legislation, statistical forecasts, but not really anything meaningfully intellectually challenging. I was not stimulated. 

Why not stand traditional in-service on it's head, squash it flat and have it be unplugged from powerpoint. No more talking at teachers, but let the professors share powerful content. I refer you to the model offered by Terry Sader on the selfish gene, on the meme that claims there is no altruism. THAT was an educator offering up some food for thought.

As it is, we are studying fingers and toes, but do not ask or know how it feels to be one.  We do not celebrate the absolute beauty of the ear's architecture; instead we know of it from the road. We don't hear the symphony through the vessel, just measure amplitude and retention, etc. In the same way, we may look at statistics and talk about engagement, but we are not engaged, not engaging one another in meaningful discourse.

Too much talk about turn it in and plagiarism and documentation and attendance versus participation...we're laying out and painting all these lines that constrict us to the point we cannot function at our best. (Lots of what I call "education-ese" seems to dominate in-service sessions, always, invariably  dished up with powerpoint slides and bad puns.)

In short, I think the claim is that we're busy being busy and not perhaps having any thing move us intellectually. He said, "I'm an intellectual, and I thrive on intellectual stimulation. If I did not long for that, I should otherwise be a [window washer]."  He said we were talking about and around education but not ever making reference to primary sources, never quoting Shakespeare or waxing eloquent on the rhythms of Longfellow.

I offered that maybe we need an enrichment track. Maybe faculty needed open space to testify how they were successful in the classroom. He turned back to modeling (I think) intellectual dialogue and discourse by having, I think, guest lectures.

Then he shared a tableau / skit that was the most engaging and enjoyable moment of 20 in-services he's sat through. It was a skit in which Susan Bradley was a student and Kim someone was an advisor, etc. The situation was modeling a student's first encounter at college and the many questions they had and problems they encountered....I wish I knew more about this, since it meant so very much to him.

SECOND ENCOUNTER was with a completely different breed, a staffer who was once a person in my role. She emphasized that all the nuts/bolts could be handed out on paper, then get to the heart of what made Butler a truly great place: the people, being a person, making that connection with students, building rapport....and modeling that with FT and PT faculty at all these trainings. She veered away from talking down to people, too, again disparaging powerpoint, instead emphasizing the hug and handshake. Eye contact. Remembering detail. Following up. 

There you have it. I don't know what to do with it all.