Independent School Educators' List (ISED-L): Re: One Answer to Pat Bassett's Closing Question in his January Blog Post

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Re: One Answer to Pat Bassett's Closing Question in his January Blog Post

Fred,

You seem to be following only part of the science in focusing on money. (An=
d since you started a thread about this a while ago, it seems to be a parti=
cular focus of yours.) Yes, Pink does talk about the dangers of extrinsic m=
otivation, a la Alfie Kohn. And I happen to agree with this notion. But he =
also talks about the key factors of purpose and autonomy. Perhaps the issue=
is not the money heads are earning, but the fact that overly involved boar=
ds and increasingly demanding constituents are stripping away the pure sens=
e of purpose and level of autonomy that heads have had in the past.

As one who is about to become a first-time head, money is not pulling me to=
the position. At the risk of sounding trite, it really is a calling.

Also, if money is the problem, then how do you explain the number of teache=
r who don't exercise creativity in their classrooms?

Mark Crotty
Director of Curricular Programs Pre-K--12
Greenhill School
4141 Spring Valley Rd.
Addison, TX 75001
(P) 972-628-5437
(F) 972-628-5237
________________________________________
From: A forum for independent school educators [ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU] On=
Behalf Of Fred Bartels [fredbartels@gmail.com]
Sent: Sunday, January 10, 2010 6:25 AM
To: ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
Subject: Re: One Answer to Pat Bassett's Closing Question in his January Bl=
og Post

Norman,

I'm just following the science, and a little logic. I could well be wrong,
which is one reason it would be nice to have a frank and open discussion
about this topic.

Here is my thinking, in a simple syllogism.

Pat Bassett assures us -and he should know- that heads are not in the job
for the money but because in their hearts they care deeply about education,
kids and their schools.

The research on motivation, which Dan Pink has brought to the fore, seems t=
o
indicate unequivocally that allowing extrinsic motivation to get out of han=
d
is extremely dangerous and leads to terrible decision making.

Therefore head"masters", who in their hearts are educators and not CEOs,
will do what is best for education, kids, and their schools, and give back
the 25%, thus freeing their minds to make better decisions.

Here is what I think happened. Headmasters, through the business people on
their boards, became caught up in the false ideology of compensation that
has perverted much of the business world. This ideology, which almost led t=
o
a second great depression a year ago -with all the dark and horrible
consequences a financial collapse would have precipitated for our world and
our students- is still with us. My hope is that our heads can show the
wonderful leadership of which they are capable and start to lead us away
from abyss that lies at the end of false ideologies.

Fred

On Sat, Jan 9, 2010 at 2:40 PM, Norman Maynard <nlm1@verizon.net> wrote:

> >
> >
> >
> > There is an easy way to test this hypothesis. Headmasters could give
> > themselves a 25% salary cut this year (bringing them back into line wit=
h
> > recent salary increases of teachers) and we can all watch and see if we
> > have
> > a little bit more creativity from our leaders next year.
> >
> >
> Fred,
>
> I know you to be a smart guy, so - I'm assuming this is a rhetorical
> suggestion.
>
> ; )
>
> Norman Maynard
>
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