ability, trust and chemistry

Dean Shareski wrote a fantastic open letter to his students - I'm convinced the majority of teachers would wholeheartedly agree with him - it, plus the comments are worth a quick read.

I bet that most teachers would LOVE to embrace the ideas that Dean espoused, flaunt the arbitrary grading requirement, and bemoan the fact that graduating today proves only that you were able to successfully navigate the school system during your twelve year journey.

I also had this recent conversation with Tony Wagner where we talked about his book and the survival skills students should be developing through school. Again, there was violent agreement about the rightness of this, and like Dean's post, there was virtual unanimity that this is precisely the stuff our children should be learning in school - grades be damned - we want our children to be equipped for the real world!

Finally, David Warlick reacted to US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan's view that to compete with India & China, we should teach school six days/week, eleven months/year by suggesting that we just put them all in jail. Judging from the flurry of comments on David's blog, there's even more violent agreement here:)!

So - what's really harshing on our collective mellow??? I think it has nothing to do with what happens in school, but everything to do with the the world outside school.

Here are some hurdles students must overcome to call their learning a success:

• Parents - who at the end of the day still focus on the grade/GPA and relative performance of their child(ren) - parents it seems are more competitive than students
• Universities/colleges - who still filter students largely based on grades or SAT
• Employers - who still prefer students that went to the "right" schools, ranked higher or achieved better grades

Until these three alter their behavior, there is really no way for the public primary/secondary school system to move away from what Dean, Tony and David railed against. The measure of a child's performance during school should be much more about their best outcome and less about arbitrary standardized assessments or grades.

It is rare that academic achievement is the only determinant of workplace success - there are so many other factors that go into it. I wonder whether the hiring managers of tomorrow will get sucked into the same morass that prevails today, or whether they will be able to rise above it and realize that looking at the whole person (attitude, team spirit, integrity, ability, passion, tenacity, intellect, academic proficiency) and their complete portfolio of "work" is so much more critical to the hiring process.

During informational interviews for prospective employees who might be working for me, I review the three things I look for - ability (can you get the job done?), trust (will you trust us, can we trust you?), and chemistry (will you be a part of our family and make us better?). Of these the first is how you get through the door and into the interview process in the first place - it is the easiest to judge. The second and third are what our team will evaluate when we meet with you, these are incredibly difficult to discern, but I trust our team's judgment and instincts.

It is really critical for us to get it right, and when we do, the team/family is better, and our ability to achieve greatness is strengthened. I've never cared whether a candidate went to a "good" school, and have never checked their grades.

But if it's the right person for our team, we are destined for success.