When Did Elwood Become Eden?

PANGLOSS:
“Once one dismisses
The rest of all possible worlds
One finds that this is
The best of all possible worlds!”

STUDENTS:
“Once one dismisses
The rest of all possible worlds
One finds that this is
The best of all possible worlds!”

No, this is not an essay on musical theatre, but I find a number of parallels between some themes of Leonard Bernstein's Candide, roughly based on Voltaire's Candide, and this community of Elwood.

One of my frustrations is the failure of many, though certainly not our Board of Education and not some of our teachers and some of our administrators and not most parents, but many, to embrace a Best Practices approach in improving the educational experience for the children of the Elwood community.

There is this disturbing and periodic obsession about a mythical Elwood of ten or twenty years ago, as if it was Camelot (whether the Camelot of King Arthur or of JFK), or as if it was some blessed kingdom of the educational fairies, and there is certainly a revulsion by some against engaging in honest and candid dialogue about how we might do better.

Pangloss, who is both philosopher and teacher and mentor to Candide, continues in that song about the best of all possible worlds:

ALL:
“Now onto conjugations!”

PANGLOSS:
“Amo, amas,
Amat, amamus!”

STUDENTS:
“Amo, amas,
Amat, amamus!”

PANGLOSS:
“Proving that this is
The best of all possible worlds
With love and kisses [blows a kiss]
The best of all possible worlds!”

STUDENTS:
“Proving that this is
The best of all possible worlds
With love and kisses [blows a kiss]
The best of all possible worlds!”

Does any of that seem familiar to you?

I have witnessed far too many parallels, over the past nine years, after I was finally able to take part in the educational experience of my children, and after I was finally free in July of 2000 to work on something other than my responsibilities at Chase, and my responsibilities in the Navy.

My own attempt to bring a Best Practices approach to the Elwood School District, which began in 2001, was based upon what I learned from some of my Chase clients, along with the very successful Japanese auto industry concept of Kaizen, which means “continuous improvement.”

I kept visiting other school districts to attend their Board of Education meetings, and I kept looking at their websites to glean useful information, and I would periodically bring that to the attention of our own Board and whomever was Superintendent at the time.

Later, after our Board created the myriad of committees and subcommittees which we now have (to channel the experience and intellectual curiosity of Elwood residents into helping the Board to improve their own performance), I brought those Best Practices and Kaizen applications to committees on which I was serving.

To be succinct, “good enough” is not an acceptable attitude, whether that is in industry, or in the military, or in government, or in education.

In the Finale of Bernstein's Candide, there is a beautiful and poignant song, begun as a duet and ending as a triumphal recitation by the cast, in which they identify a key element of life, which is to do all that you can, and to be honest about it.

Candide starts the song, and in the middle of the first verse, he pleads:

“And let us try,
Before we die,
To make some sense of life.
We're neither pure, nor wise, nor good
We'll do the best we know.”

My friends, what so often saddens me is the attitude of complacency in parts of the Elwood educational bureaucracy and even among some parents.

We see the denial, by some, that other school districts do a number of things better than Elwood.

We see the disdain, by many, for even caring about trying to do better.

We see the preference, by most, that we keep our metaphorical pinkies in the right position when metaphorically drinking tea, and that artificial propriety is preferred to having an honest and free dialogue about getting better, and doing better.

For those folks in Elwood, the last line of Candide which I cited would have to be rewritten:

“We'll do the least we know.”

When are we going to get serious about getting better and doing better?

When are we going to acknowledge that while some districts do things not as well as Elwood, it is also true that some do things better than Elwood, and that we can indeed learn from them?

But, like trying to overcome an addiction, the first step of any twelve-step program is to acknowledge the problem.

And, like any intervention, it is essential that there be honest and free dialogue.

This is not the best of all possible worlds.