<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" ><tr><td valign="top" style="font: inherit;"><DIV>Thanks for sharing, Tom.</DIV>
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<DIV>Donovan Arnold<BR><BR>--- On <B>Thu, 3/31/11, Tom Hansen <I><thansen@moscow.com></I></B> wrote:<BR></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="BORDER-LEFT: rgb(16,16,255) 2px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px"><BR>From: Tom Hansen <thansen@moscow.com><BR>Subject: [Vision2020] The Blueberry Story<BR>To: "Moscow Vision 2020" <vision2020@moscow.com><BR>Cc: "Penni Cyr" <cpenni@gmail.com><BR>Date: Thursday, March 31, 2011, 12:32 PM<BR><BR>
<DIV class=plainMail>With thanks to a loyal Viz subscriber . . .<BR><BR>Courtesy of Jamie Vollmer's "Blueberries" at:<BR><BR><A href="http://www.jamievollmer.com/blueberries.html" target=_blank>http://www.jamievollmer.com/blueberries.html</A><BR><BR>----------------------------------------------------------------------<BR><BR>The Blueberry Story:<BR>The teacher gives the businessman a lesson<BR>By Jamie Vollmer<BR><BR>“If I ran my business the way you people operate your schools, I wouldn’t<BR>be in business very long!”<BR><BR>I stood before an auditorium filled with outraged teachers who were<BR>becoming angrier by the minute. My speech had entirely consumed their<BR>precious 90 minutes of inservice. Their initial icy glares had turned to<BR>restless agitation. You could cut the hostility with a knife.<BR><BR>I represented a group of business people dedicated to improving public<BR>schools. I was an executive at an ice cream company that had
become famous<BR>in the middle1980s when People magazine chose our blueberry as the “Best<BR>Ice Cream in America.”<BR><BR>I was convinced of two things. First, public schools needed to change;<BR>they were archaic selecting and sorting mechanisms designed for the<BR>industrial age and out of step with the needs of our emerging “knowledge<BR>society.” Second, educators were a major part of the problem: they<BR>resisted change, hunkered down in their feathered nests, protected by<BR>tenure, and shielded by a bureaucratic monopoly. They needed to look to<BR>business. We knew how to produce quality. Zero defects! TQM! Continuous<BR>improvement!<BR><BR>In retrospect, the speech was perfectly balanced — equal parts ignorance<BR>and arrogance.<BR><BR>As soon as I finished, a woman’s hand shot up. She appeared polite,<BR>pleasant. She was, in fact, a razor-edged, veteran, high school English<BR>teacher who had been waiting to unload.<BR><BR>She
began quietly, “We are told, sir, that you manage a company that makes<BR>good ice cream.”<BR><BR>I smugly replied, “Best ice cream in America, Ma’am.”<BR><BR>“How nice,” she said. “Is it rich and smooth?”<BR><BR>“Sixteen percent butterfat,” I crowed.<BR><BR>“Premium ingredients?” she inquired.<BR><BR>“Super-premium! Nothing but triple A.” I was on a roll. I never saw the<BR>next line coming.<BR><BR>“Mr. Vollmer,” she said, leaning forward with a wicked eyebrow raised to<BR>the sky, “when you are standing on your receiving dock and you see an<BR>inferior shipment of blueberries arrive, what do you do?”<BR><BR>In the silence of that room, I could hear the trap snap…. I was dead meat,<BR>but I wasn’t going to lie.<BR><BR>“I send them back.”<BR><BR>She jumped to her feet. “That’s right!” she barked, “and we can never send<BR>back our blueberries. We take them big, small, rich, poor,
gifted,<BR>exceptional, abused, frightened, confident, homeless, rude, and brilliant.<BR>We take them with ADHD, junior rheumatoid arthritis, and English as their<BR>second language. We take them all! Every one! And that, Mr. Vollmer, is<BR>why it’s not a business. It’s school!”<BR><BR>In an explosion, all 290 teachers, principals, bus drivers, aides,<BR>custodians, and secretaries jumped to their feet and yelled, “Yeah!<BR>Blueberries! Blueberries!”<BR><BR>And so began my long transformation.<BR><BR>Since then, I have visited hundreds of schools. I have learned that a<BR>school is not a business. Schools are unable to control the quality of<BR>their raw material, they are dependent upon the vagaries of politics for a<BR>reliable revenue stream, and they are constantly mauled by a howling horde<BR>of disparate, competing customer groups that would send the best CEO<BR>screaming into the night.<BR><BR>None of this negates the need for change.
We must change what, when, and<BR>how we teach to give all children maximum opportunity to thrive in a<BR>post-industrial society. But educators cannot do this alone; these changes<BR>can occur only with the understanding, trust, permission, and active<BR>support of the surrounding community. For the most important thing I have<BR>learned is that schools reflect the attitudes, beliefs and health of the<BR>communities they serve, and therefore, to improve public education means<BR>more than changing our schools, it means changing America.<BR><BR>----------------------------------------------------------------------<BR><BR>Seeya round town, Moscow.<BR><BR>Tom Hansen<BR>Moscow, Idaho<BR><BR>"The Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to change<BR>and the Realist adjusts his sails."<BR><BR>- Unknown<BR><BR><BR>=======================================================<BR>List services made available by First Step Internet, <BR>serving the
communities of the Palouse since 1994. <BR> <A href="http://www.fsr.net/" target=_blank>http://www.fsr.net</A> <BR> mailto:<A href="http://us.mc381.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=Vision2020@moscow.com" ymailto="mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com">Vision2020@moscow.com</A><BR>=======================================================<BR></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></td></tr></table>