Penny Wise, Pound Foolish
I had a correspondence a while ago from a representative of childs services in one of our schools.
He wanted this one school to meet its budget without using discretionary funds.
That's fine and good.
But it fails to help this school much.
The kids at this school suffer because of this.
Did he out and out reject our program?
No.
Did he say the cost of our program was extravagant?
Actually, he said it was reasonable.
He did say that he had to cut funding for other teachers. To identify and eliminate redundancies.
But we are talking about kids here.
And what they need. And he is acting as if the education system is some sort of company. Which it is isn't.
He also said he was somewhat hesitant about the fact that our people do not have "the proper credentials."
I'm not sure what those credentials are.
A teaching degree?
Many people have such degrees, and have no idea how to teach.
We expect more from our teachers, not less.
We are not satisfied with what they might be able to do or what the state expects them to do.
The head teacher of this one school did not have a problem with our teacher. She raved about how good he was. OFSTED visited and was similarly impressed. I don't like it when people, despite their apparatus approving of what we do, reject us out of hand.
They're thrilled we are doing we are doing, but are even more thrilled to not pay for it.
Well, fortunately, not everyone is so myopic.
Literacy is not a matter of redundancies.
It is a matter of excellent education, and tapping into the students and, more critically, getting them to tap into themselves.
We will be turning to companies in the business community to do the right thing. To take the long view, not the short. Because they are longsighted, not short sighted. They have to be.
Ultimately, the problem highlighted by the assistant head of child services' refusal to give this one particular school money for a superior program is one of Efficiency triumphing over Effectiveness.
He failed to see that efficiency is good only insofar as it is creates the environment wherein Effectiveness can flourish.
This is not what is happening in this particular borough.
There, it is Penny Wise and Pound Foolish.
drg