Every year, schools lose decades of expertise. The strange part isn't that teachers leave. It's that we keep acting surprised when their knowledge leaves with them.
The distinction between expertise and knowledge is not an idea I have come across much, so thank you for shedding some light on this. I agree that the hierarchical structure of schools definitely seems to echo its industrial past but I suppose it also resembles many other organisational systems like healthcare or the armed forces, with a clear 'rank' lineage. I visited a Steiner School recently where the management is very much an equal landscape; there is no headteacher / line manager / employer – all staff are paid exactly the same and make decisions together on an equal playing field.
Additionally, the idea of 'expert transfer' reminds me a lot of the Finnish notion of teacher collegiality; expertise will often be shared between teachers, with many frequently opting to co-teach two classes together. Your other points about how expertise can spread more effectively similarly reminds me a lot of my recent visit to a Finnish school. I'd be curious to hear if you think there any lessons to be learned from alternative educational settings like these that are relevant to your discussion, or do you think these ideas would prove problematic to implement in mainstream schools? Many thanks again for your work on this topic
I think you had mentioned the Finnish model in an earlier comment, and it was on my mind while I was writing this. I would love to go observe them and see how they handle situations that cause our entire trains to derail.
I’m open to any system from anywhere if it can be shown to be better than what we have and can scale. I find that a lot of times, things that check the box for #1 can’t check the box for #2 (without turning teachers into martyrs).
Funny you mention hierarchies in other organizations and mention the military. My son is in the Army, and I asked him about expertise transfer/mentoring/best practices, and (as many times before) the org system he explained to me made me sad for what we could be. Experts are kept in their areas to pass along as much of their knowledge to as many people as possible; ideas with the potential to upgrade or replace established methods are lab-tested, and they get a three-day weekend at least every other month. Don’t even get me started on the time they have after deployment.
Certainly, the Army’s not perfect, but it always just makes me wonder - if they do what they do in the name of efficiency, national security, and keeping soldiers alive…isn’t what we do more important, and should it be treated with (at least) equal care and organization?
Thanks for getting back on this. A hundred percent - I am keen to continue learning about the application of the Finnish approach but whether it can be transferred elsewhere and check multiple boxes, as you say, is definitely a question worth thinking about. Education systems are so inextricably tied to their surrounding socioeconomic situation, and given Finland's population is significantly smaller the UK and the US for that matter, that's just one problem out of many with simply lifting the model from one country to another.
A fascinating comparison that I can really resonate with, being in the Army Reserve myself. The difference seems to be that the Army treats expertise transfer as mission critical and deliberately builds systems around it. Schools often depend on goodwill and informal conversations instead. It's hard not to wonder how much knowledge and experience we lose as a result.
“Don't get me wrong—most organizations need a hierarchy, but a school is not a factory, and the world is no longer in the Industrial Age. Schools are—or should be—places that learn.” You stated everything perfectly, and school should focus on the modern world.
I teach high school history and one of my first lessons about the Industrial Revolution is a comparison between the daily life of a worker in the 19th century factory system with the daily routine of our high school. While not exactly the same - it's doubtful my students will develop "White Lung" from microscopic shards of cotton fibers for example - my students are very surprised as we complete a Venn Diagram comparing the two of how much of American public education remains anchored to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. "The goal was to create workers, not thinkers." commented one freshman this past year. I agreed. We've exceeded the structural limits of our antiqued educational system. That is the biggest reason why change and innovation feel almost impossible. It's the equivalent of trying to access the internet through a Turning Machine or ENIAC. The revolution in education that needs to happen can't take place within a system that's over a century old.
To your point about the transfer of expertise. We began a peer to peer observation model in my school this past year. Workshopped it and did trial runs within our own departments then across departments. It was well received by the staff. Teachers were asking to visit other classes and have time to share and discuss the visits. Then admin did two things that killed the progress: 1) brought in central admin to join in on the observations and 2) tied it to specific categories in the Danielson model. The buy in from the staff cratered. The experiment faded by the early spring with no mention of its future. The sharing of knowledge, practice and skills from teacher to teacher only works when teachers don't have the worry that its evaluative. The moment the admin showed up in those rooms the lessons became less free and far more performative. For expertise flow to happen admin needs to stay in their lane and trust the teachers, which seems to be a big ask of administration these days.
Wow. That totally sucks, and you’re right about things going smoothly when admin trusts teachers and just stays in their lane. I am curious - is there enough of an open relationship with leadership that this can be candidly addressed?
I’ve found this past year, at least for my sanity, that if I boil things down to “and this is how admin interaction screws it up…” (put nicer than that) and use their language, it’s about the only way I can make a crack in the “we’re never wrong” armor. Like when I pointed out that, with our current SEL model, three out of four periods lose roughly a week’s worth of instructional time. I’m still pushing that one, but I have the numbers and am talking in terms of “instructional time.” Not sure that it will be enough, but like I said, it helps me from feeling like I’m in an alternate reality.
All of what you say is so true. But we no longer have time for the sorts of conversations needed to pass on these kinds of insights. It's the reflection, formal and informal, that is so terribly missing now
I was thinking about that as I wrote it - when I started, 16 years ago, we had time, we had pretty casual meetings where we built things, worked together, and bonded. Now…everyone’s looking at their watch; no one can be bothered, and the cynics and pessimists rule the comments and discussion.
I have clear ideas on what happened with our schools, but man - I never would’ve said it then- but those were simpler, easier times.
Thanks for writing such a thorough treatise on this issue of expertise....so much good stuff in here, but this line rings so true, "None of this is revolutionary. Most teachers already know it. I knew it too. I mean, I’m annoyed at how fucking simple it is." The simplicity of just trusting the professionals and curating the time and place for the open classrooms, protected mentorship, resource libraries (digital) school visits, and conference support SHOULD BE OBVIOUS. The amazing thing is that teachers will seek this out naturally....like a thirsty traveler longing for water. We know who the great teachers are and need time to soak up their expertise. I love that you addressed the "ego", but honestly isn't it great that someone would want to know a secret or two of "mine" that would help them do what's best for kids too? Bravo on this article...I took four pages of notes and can't wait to share with my teacher friends.
This is a great article and every word of it is true. Been teaching 30 years, and the hardest part is that much of the reason for my success and expertise in the classroom is that I don’t follow stupid trends like essential questions and all that nonsense. I recently decided to start a Substack in the hopes of sharing some of my non-revolutionary methods (which often seem revolutionary or to some even counter productive) to the younger generation of teachers. If you and I don’t start, the consultants and “experts” who have never taught will always win and our knowledge will be lost forever. I know I’m being dramatic, but it’s partly true. What I do works. I know it does because my 7th graders are proof of it. It’s not brain surgery, but it is intentional and takes work. Thanks for your article. I love your straight forward style.
Our state politicians, for the most part, are examples of what you get when you don't place value on public education. I'm so tired of old white men acting as if they sprang from God's forehead, like Athena, knowing everything, totally self-made, and are experts, as you said, in everything.
But what they really want is to turn over all of our public goods to that magical for profit free market. I was living in Ohio when wealthy industrialist David Brennan funded the effort to legalize charter schools. He proceeded to set up White Hat Management so he could profit off of charter schools. It was a complete flop. When the boards of schools pushed White Hat out because of disastrous performance Brennan claimed that White Hat owned all of the school’s equipment — chairs, desks, computers, etc. He won the lawsuit.
This jaw dropping account should have been a huge story but the mainstream “liberal” media has completely bought the anti-public school propaganda and are cheerleaders for charter schools. I have noticed that many of the journalists who push that narrative are graduates of private schools and believe they got a much better education than us public school graduates.
Absolutely the case. I documented the heck out of everything I did and, well, it got tossed when I retired. At this point I’ve been away long enough that it’s probably not particularly relevant.
What gets me is that the consultants, the so-called experts, and a lot of admin do not realize that each student cohort is different. When I followed teacher bloggers during my teaching years (2004-2014) it really seemed as if other teachers working at the same grade level around the country faced similar issues as I did working with the same cohort.
Unfortunately, networking across districts, even across states, has been discouraged over the years. I remember the open harassment by admins of teacher bloggers in the late ‘00s/early ‘10s who dared to speak out about problems they saw. Unless they had significant tenure or were well-recognized as authorities, many of them faced censure and/or dismissal.
I hope that doesn’t happen with the new wave of teacher bloggers on Substack, but…protect yourselves.
Haha agreed! If I’ve gotten to the point where I’m writing Substack articles in my “free time” then I have clearly planted my flag too! Let’s do this. Let’s keep giving the straight talk about what actually works (the name of my Substack: The Real Classroom: What Actually Works.) If not us, then who? Nice to meet you Matt. I’m Jennifer.
Thanks for the kind words, and you're not being dramatic. It used to feel more hypothetical, but as I get older in the job, I'm starting to ask out loud, "No, seriously, if not us, then who?" Leadership? They're too wrapped up in compliance to worry about the kids' day-to-day or what happens in classrooms. The community or legislators with all their budget cutting and voting for people who hate public education? Nah - it's time for lines to be drawn in the sand, flags to be planted, and for us to say, "this far, but no further."
The distinction between expertise and knowledge is not an idea I have come across much, so thank you for shedding some light on this. I agree that the hierarchical structure of schools definitely seems to echo its industrial past but I suppose it also resembles many other organisational systems like healthcare or the armed forces, with a clear 'rank' lineage. I visited a Steiner School recently where the management is very much an equal landscape; there is no headteacher / line manager / employer – all staff are paid exactly the same and make decisions together on an equal playing field.
Additionally, the idea of 'expert transfer' reminds me a lot of the Finnish notion of teacher collegiality; expertise will often be shared between teachers, with many frequently opting to co-teach two classes together. Your other points about how expertise can spread more effectively similarly reminds me a lot of my recent visit to a Finnish school. I'd be curious to hear if you think there any lessons to be learned from alternative educational settings like these that are relevant to your discussion, or do you think these ideas would prove problematic to implement in mainstream schools? Many thanks again for your work on this topic
I think you had mentioned the Finnish model in an earlier comment, and it was on my mind while I was writing this. I would love to go observe them and see how they handle situations that cause our entire trains to derail.
I’m open to any system from anywhere if it can be shown to be better than what we have and can scale. I find that a lot of times, things that check the box for #1 can’t check the box for #2 (without turning teachers into martyrs).
Funny you mention hierarchies in other organizations and mention the military. My son is in the Army, and I asked him about expertise transfer/mentoring/best practices, and (as many times before) the org system he explained to me made me sad for what we could be. Experts are kept in their areas to pass along as much of their knowledge to as many people as possible; ideas with the potential to upgrade or replace established methods are lab-tested, and they get a three-day weekend at least every other month. Don’t even get me started on the time they have after deployment.
Certainly, the Army’s not perfect, but it always just makes me wonder - if they do what they do in the name of efficiency, national security, and keeping soldiers alive…isn’t what we do more important, and should it be treated with (at least) equal care and organization?
Thanks for getting back on this. A hundred percent - I am keen to continue learning about the application of the Finnish approach but whether it can be transferred elsewhere and check multiple boxes, as you say, is definitely a question worth thinking about. Education systems are so inextricably tied to their surrounding socioeconomic situation, and given Finland's population is significantly smaller the UK and the US for that matter, that's just one problem out of many with simply lifting the model from one country to another.
A fascinating comparison that I can really resonate with, being in the Army Reserve myself. The difference seems to be that the Army treats expertise transfer as mission critical and deliberately builds systems around it. Schools often depend on goodwill and informal conversations instead. It's hard not to wonder how much knowledge and experience we lose as a result.
“Don't get me wrong—most organizations need a hierarchy, but a school is not a factory, and the world is no longer in the Industrial Age. Schools are—or should be—places that learn.” You stated everything perfectly, and school should focus on the modern world.
It’s like the people in charge keep telling teachers to make the square blocks fit into the round holes.
I teach high school history and one of my first lessons about the Industrial Revolution is a comparison between the daily life of a worker in the 19th century factory system with the daily routine of our high school. While not exactly the same - it's doubtful my students will develop "White Lung" from microscopic shards of cotton fibers for example - my students are very surprised as we complete a Venn Diagram comparing the two of how much of American public education remains anchored to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. "The goal was to create workers, not thinkers." commented one freshman this past year. I agreed. We've exceeded the structural limits of our antiqued educational system. That is the biggest reason why change and innovation feel almost impossible. It's the equivalent of trying to access the internet through a Turning Machine or ENIAC. The revolution in education that needs to happen can't take place within a system that's over a century old.
To your point about the transfer of expertise. We began a peer to peer observation model in my school this past year. Workshopped it and did trial runs within our own departments then across departments. It was well received by the staff. Teachers were asking to visit other classes and have time to share and discuss the visits. Then admin did two things that killed the progress: 1) brought in central admin to join in on the observations and 2) tied it to specific categories in the Danielson model. The buy in from the staff cratered. The experiment faded by the early spring with no mention of its future. The sharing of knowledge, practice and skills from teacher to teacher only works when teachers don't have the worry that its evaluative. The moment the admin showed up in those rooms the lessons became less free and far more performative. For expertise flow to happen admin needs to stay in their lane and trust the teachers, which seems to be a big ask of administration these days.
Wow. That totally sucks, and you’re right about things going smoothly when admin trusts teachers and just stays in their lane. I am curious - is there enough of an open relationship with leadership that this can be candidly addressed?
I’ve found this past year, at least for my sanity, that if I boil things down to “and this is how admin interaction screws it up…” (put nicer than that) and use their language, it’s about the only way I can make a crack in the “we’re never wrong” armor. Like when I pointed out that, with our current SEL model, three out of four periods lose roughly a week’s worth of instructional time. I’m still pushing that one, but I have the numbers and am talking in terms of “instructional time.” Not sure that it will be enough, but like I said, it helps me from feeling like I’m in an alternate reality.
All of what you say is so true. But we no longer have time for the sorts of conversations needed to pass on these kinds of insights. It's the reflection, formal and informal, that is so terribly missing now
I was thinking about that as I wrote it - when I started, 16 years ago, we had time, we had pretty casual meetings where we built things, worked together, and bonded. Now…everyone’s looking at their watch; no one can be bothered, and the cynics and pessimists rule the comments and discussion.
I have clear ideas on what happened with our schools, but man - I never would’ve said it then- but those were simpler, easier times.
Banger article. This is my first time ever leaving a comment on substack, that's how much I liked it
I am honored, sir!
Thanks for writing such a thorough treatise on this issue of expertise....so much good stuff in here, but this line rings so true, "None of this is revolutionary. Most teachers already know it. I knew it too. I mean, I’m annoyed at how fucking simple it is." The simplicity of just trusting the professionals and curating the time and place for the open classrooms, protected mentorship, resource libraries (digital) school visits, and conference support SHOULD BE OBVIOUS. The amazing thing is that teachers will seek this out naturally....like a thirsty traveler longing for water. We know who the great teachers are and need time to soak up their expertise. I love that you addressed the "ego", but honestly isn't it great that someone would want to know a secret or two of "mine" that would help them do what's best for kids too? Bravo on this article...I took four pages of notes and can't wait to share with my teacher friends.
This is a great article and every word of it is true. Been teaching 30 years, and the hardest part is that much of the reason for my success and expertise in the classroom is that I don’t follow stupid trends like essential questions and all that nonsense. I recently decided to start a Substack in the hopes of sharing some of my non-revolutionary methods (which often seem revolutionary or to some even counter productive) to the younger generation of teachers. If you and I don’t start, the consultants and “experts” who have never taught will always win and our knowledge will be lost forever. I know I’m being dramatic, but it’s partly true. What I do works. I know it does because my 7th graders are proof of it. It’s not brain surgery, but it is intentional and takes work. Thanks for your article. I love your straight forward style.
Maybe if politicians should stop trying to dictate curriculum, reading material, etc. because they think they are experts on everything…..
Our state politicians, for the most part, are examples of what you get when you don't place value on public education. I'm so tired of old white men acting as if they sprang from God's forehead, like Athena, knowing everything, totally self-made, and are experts, as you said, in everything.
But what they really want is to turn over all of our public goods to that magical for profit free market. I was living in Ohio when wealthy industrialist David Brennan funded the effort to legalize charter schools. He proceeded to set up White Hat Management so he could profit off of charter schools. It was a complete flop. When the boards of schools pushed White Hat out because of disastrous performance Brennan claimed that White Hat owned all of the school’s equipment — chairs, desks, computers, etc. He won the lawsuit.
https://janresseger.wordpress.com/2018/10/18/17760/
This jaw dropping account should have been a huge story but the mainstream “liberal” media has completely bought the anti-public school propaganda and are cheerleaders for charter schools. I have noticed that many of the journalists who push that narrative are graduates of private schools and believe they got a much better education than us public school graduates.
Absolutely the case. I documented the heck out of everything I did and, well, it got tossed when I retired. At this point I’ve been away long enough that it’s probably not particularly relevant.
What gets me is that the consultants, the so-called experts, and a lot of admin do not realize that each student cohort is different. When I followed teacher bloggers during my teaching years (2004-2014) it really seemed as if other teachers working at the same grade level around the country faced similar issues as I did working with the same cohort.
Unfortunately, networking across districts, even across states, has been discouraged over the years. I remember the open harassment by admins of teacher bloggers in the late ‘00s/early ‘10s who dared to speak out about problems they saw. Unless they had significant tenure or were well-recognized as authorities, many of them faced censure and/or dismissal.
I hope that doesn’t happen with the new wave of teacher bloggers on Substack, but…protect yourselves.
>>I hope that doesn’t happen with the new wave of teacher bloggers on Substack, but…protect yourselves.<<
I would LOVE to have a discussion with my district and the Board of Education about what the First Amendment means in open court. :)
Haha agreed! If I’ve gotten to the point where I’m writing Substack articles in my “free time” then I have clearly planted my flag too! Let’s do this. Let’s keep giving the straight talk about what actually works (the name of my Substack: The Real Classroom: What Actually Works.) If not us, then who? Nice to meet you Matt. I’m Jennifer.
Thanks for the kind words, and you're not being dramatic. It used to feel more hypothetical, but as I get older in the job, I'm starting to ask out loud, "No, seriously, if not us, then who?" Leadership? They're too wrapped up in compliance to worry about the kids' day-to-day or what happens in classrooms. The community or legislators with all their budget cutting and voting for people who hate public education? Nah - it's time for lines to be drawn in the sand, flags to be planted, and for us to say, "this far, but no further."
Now THAT'S dramatic. :)