The Birth of an Idea

It was after thirty-two years of working with kids outside of classrooms and compiling a resume of organizational management, leadership development, and problem-solving experience—from both an operations’ management perspective and as a consultant—that I began my work as a substitute teacher. It is from the melding of those experiences that I felt compelled to understand why the dedicated efforts of professional educators produce such disparate outcomes for children in our schools. I believe there must be a better way to teach children. In fact, I have come to believe, over the course of my career, there is always a better way if we open our hearts and minds to the possibility.

It is not often that a substitute teacher has an opportunity to do what regular teachers do, which is to teach. It was during a week-long sub assignment for a middle school math teacher that I experienced an epiphany. It gave birth to an idea that became an education model.

The instructions the teacher left for me as I began that assignment were prefaced by his comment that he did not expect me to cover all the subject matter in the outline. He encouraged me to do the best I could in the time I had.

 After two days of work on material having to do with prime factoring, rules of divisibility, and reducing to lowest terms, the students in three separate classes took a quiz, which the teacher had prepared in advance. It included twenty-five problems like the problems that had been included on the several worksheets on which the class had been practicing.

This teacher went to great lengths to ensure his students did not cheat. The students sat at round tables, four students per table. He had constructed interlocking boards that were somewhere between eighteen and twenty-four inches high for the purpose of dividing the table into four equal sections. Prior to every quiz or exam, the students would retrieve the boards from behind a cabinet and would set them up. As a result, it would be difficult for students to copy off each other.

Given the time we had spent on the subject matter, and the straightforward nature of the material, I had lofty expectations for students. To my surprise and disappointment, the results revealed that half of the 85 students scored below 60 percent and three-quarters of them scored  below 75. Only eight of the 85 students scored above 85 percent, and only two of those 8 students scored better than 95 percent. In other words, there were 43 Fs, 21 Ds, 13 Cs, 6 Bs, and 2 As.

The next day, prompted by my surprise at the results, I spent the entire period reviewing the same material using the practice worksheets the teacher had provided at the outset, focusing on the problems with which the students had the most difficulty. I did not return the quiz to the students and chose not to review the actual problems from it. We did the problems on the whiteboard, as a class, and I worked one-on-one with the students who needed that level of attention.

The following day, I had all three classes retake the quiz. In advance of the retake, they were told, in broad strokes, how poorly the class had done, although no one had access to their own results. I assured the students this was a risk-free venture and promised to use the highest of their two scores. My hope was that this would motivate students to do their best on what I described as a do-over opportunity while alleviating performance pressure.

The new scores showed dramatic improvement by all but a handful of students. Better than ninety percent of students earned higher scores on the second quiz with several improving by two or more letter grades. Roughly 80 percent of the students from the three classes scored 75 or higher and a full third scored 85 or higher, 10 of whom scored above 95 percent (See Chart A-1). Given the unlikelihood that the students remembered specific questions or problems, it seemed reasonable to conclude that their new scores represented a significantly higher level of subject mastery as a result of the extra time, instruction, and practice they were given.

Chart A-1

While this may not have been the most scientific of studies, the level of improvement certainly was not a result of pure chance. The operative question was: “Is it worth the extra time and a second chance to get such dramatic improvement in subject-matter mastery?” How much more effort would have been necessary to achieve an 80+ percent success rate?

If the purpose of teaching is to help all students learn every lesson well enough to not only be able to use what they have learned as prerequisite knowledge for subsequent lessons—but also be able to retain the knowledge and use it throughout their lives—my job as teacher would have been incomplete after the first exam. At that point, seventy-seven out of my 85 students would have been poorly prepared for the next lesson and the quiz results over the material in future lessons would have likely been every bit as abysmal as the lesson in this anecdote.  

It seemed clear to me it was not in the best interests of these seventy-seven students to be pushed along to the next lesson, poorly prepared. I worried, however, that my decision to delay moving the class on to the next lesson may not have been in the best interests of the eight students who scored better than 85 percent on the first quiz. I chose to believe the extra practice would not hurt them. As the results illustrate, all the students who had recorded Bs on the first quiz improved to an A on the second. More importantly, an additional 20 students reached the 85 percent threshold.

After the second quiz I was still faced with a dilemma. There were still 57 students who had been unable to earn an 85 percent grade and only 28 who could. Thus, those 57 kids were still poorly prepared for subsequent lessons and were likely to be unsuccessful. Of even greater consequence is the reality that those students, and others like them throughout the U.S., experience being unprepared for almost all next lessons, semester after semester, year after year. How is this in the best interests of our children, their teachers, and our society?

Much as I had done so many times as a leader of other operations throughout my career, and as a consultant, I began thinking about how we could devise a way to give more time to the students who needed it without an adverse impact on the students who did not.

I have no doubt that all but a few of the 57 students who had still fallen short of expectations after the first do-over quiz would have demonstrated significant improvement had they been given just a little more help, time, practice and a second do-over opportunity.

My conclusion, after this experiment, is that the problems in education are structural and process-related and that teachers are victims of a dysfunctional process every bit as much as their students. The fact that keeping to a schedule appears to be a higher priority than helping more students learn is not because teachers do not care, rather it is the way things are done.

When we get into the actual implementation plan for my model, in Chapter 6, we will devote time to the way teachers are assigned to students and to classrooms and how this dysfunctional aspect of the education process can be addressed, along with each of the other issues noted in Chapter 1. All it requires is a little creativity and freedom to differentiate.

It is my assertion, also, that the job satisfaction and fulfillment of teachers is enhanced when they are successful in helping their students succeed and that the model I will be presenting will serve the interests of students and teachers, alike.

Superintendents and principals are encouraged to consider conducting this same experiment in selected classrooms in each subject area. The only cost to the school is a little lost time, comparable to the time lost when a substitute teacher is needed.

Giving students more time to practice and learn is just one of several strategies that can be utilized to ensure that all kids learn. I refer to these strategies as the essential variables of an education process. All they require is a willingness to step outside the boundaries of conventional wisdom. The Hawkins Model© is a template that places these essential variables at the top of our priority list.

This brings us back to maintaining a focus on the mission and purpose of education. Is an education meant to be a competition to see who can learn the most, the fastest, or is its purpose to prepare all students for citizenship.

Why would we want a society in which only thirty percent of students, or less, are well prepared for the responsibilities they will face as members of a participatory democracy? The way the existing education process is structured suggests to me that many educators, at all levels, view the outcomes we get today as the best our students can do. I hope this little experiment demonstrates that we are doing nowhere near the best we can do for both students and teachers.

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Never Has My Novel, Light and Transient Causes, been Timelier than it is Today

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Light and Transient Causes, by Mel Hawkins

A novel about the future of Democracy in America.

Format: Paperback and Amazon Kindle Edition

Although published in 2013, my novel “Light and Transient Causes” has never been timelier than it is today. Many are saying the 2024 election will determine the future of democracy in America. Read a story about the consequences of electing the wrong person to be President of the United States.

              – Mel Hawkins, Author

Please check out the following book reviews:

Carol W., at Amazon.com:

“Mel: WOW! I just finished your novel, Light and Transient Causes. . . .  I could list a million of adjectives (definitely positive ones) in describing this book, as well as the emotions it put me through. . . . Without a doubt, it gave me a lot to think about, especially when listening to the news and what is going on in our country. . . . I loved it!”

– Turneeditor, at Amazon.com:

“Your novel is wonderful!” – “5.0 out of 5 stars A gripping story with believable characters. . . .

 “Light and Transient Causes is a breathtaking work. In some ways it seems like a combination of Tom Clancy and Spike Lee, but there is much, much more.“

I was struck by the portrayal of a dystopian America, by the touching portrayals of family life, and by the growth in many of the characters. One of the things that I appreciate about this novel is its depiction of the dilemmas that many of the characters face and how they often have second thoughts about their actions. . . .“. . . has great relevance . . . and may serve as a warning about things to come in the post-Trump United States.”

– Grady Harp, Hall of Fame, Top 100 Reviewer, posted at Amazon.com:

“Powerful, and tightly written. . . Hawkins’ skill at erasing time barriers and including portions of elements that are very much with us adds to the terror of this theme.”

  – Vermont Reviewer posted at Amazon.com:

“This one will become a future classic. [It} reminded me of other classics like 1984 and Animal Farm. Well written and certainly one that will make you think long after you finish reading it. . . a solid five stars.”

          

– BBB Gran, posted at Amazon.com:

“I don’t give 5 stars usually but this book deserves that and more. . . . Well written, well plotted, character development and dialog were excellent. Well done Mel Hawkins, well done!”

           

Cindi Chubbs, posted at Amazon.com:

“Excellent book with a ton of action. . . . Mel Hawkins keeps the plot tight and clean while keeping the reader entertained. Hawkins also has brilliant insights . . . .”

           

Charlie B, posted at Amazon.com:

“This is a superb book. . . . Mel Hawkins has done a splendid job in juggling all the twists, turns and complications of this very believable novel. Books like this don’t come along very often. . . .”

           

Brian, posted at Onlinebookclub.org:

“I was fascinated by the book and fearful at the same time. . . . It’s chilling in the sense that it’s all possible in the world we live in today. Awesome read!”

           

Cody Mathews, posted at Onlinebookclub.org:

“The best book I have read this year [2013]. . . . Absolutely, hands down, knock off your socks book to keep you wanting more. . . . I have read many war novels that fell short with battle scenes; this book was right on the money. . . .”

           

RMB, posted on Amazon.com:

“Spell binding. It is a captivating story that could become reality. . . .”

Education Reimagined, One Success at a Time – A Man Named Charlie.

This blog post is a companion piece to my first Podcast on Spotify. The podcast is the first in a series.

The following is the text of the podcast. It will be my intention to post the text of all future podcasts on my blog as well, in the event any listener wishes to have a hard copy of the message.

This series, or audio blog, if you will, is inspired by the belief that every one of us has the ability to make a difference in the lives of the people around us. This makes the job of teachers, staff, and administrators who work with our nation’s children among the most important jobs in all of society.

It is my belief that our nation is in desperate need of a change in the way we teach our children and that the proof is in all we see taking place around us. After this initial episode, my focus will be on a message to teachers encouraging them to embrace TheHawkinsModel© rather than be afraid of the change. It is designed to increase their ability to make a difference in the lives of their students.   

But first, let me tell you a story about a man named Charlie, a most unlikely leader who made an enormous difference in the lives of the students, faculty, and staff of the high school in which he worked.

It’s a story that shows just how powerful relationships can be.

Charlie passed away a dozen or so years ago, but he lives on in the hearts of many of the people he touched, both students and teachers. 

Every few years, I like to pull the story out, dust if off, and delight in the memory of this special man with whom I spent only a few moments of my life.

          One of the teachers who worked with him, shared Charlie’s story in a letter to the editor of the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette, a few weeks after his death. 

Otherwise, few outside of the Wayne High School community would have known about this special man, and the quiet but enormous impact he made.

Charlie was a black man working in a high school in a diverse urban school district. He did not have an impressive title, did not make a great deal of money, had no formal authority, there were no letters after his name, and he was neither a star athlete nor a celebrity. 

Charlie’s stature as a powerful positive leader came only fromthe force of his personality, his dedication to his job, his love of people, and his God-given ability to make people feel important.

He was a human being who, out of the pure generosity of a loving heart, accepted responsibility for making his little corner of the world a better place.

          I first heard about Charlie years ago when my kids were in high school, but I just assumed he was one of the kids at school. The first time I met Charlie, I was working as a substitute teacher in this high school I thought I knew so well. 

Like other teachers, I was standing next to my classroom, monitoring the hallways during the passing period. It had been a rough day, and I was reeling from difficult period with a math lab when this man came up to me. 

He was dressed in a suit and tie, and it never would have occurred to me that he was a custodian until he grabbed a broom from a cart he had left a few feet away and swept up some debris from the floor.

          “How is it going, today? Is there anything I can do for you?” He asked.  “You just call me if you need something,” he continued and then proceeded to rattle off his name and extension number. 

He shook my hand and smiled before continuing down the corridor and I watched him, trying to figure out who the heck he was. 

My eyes followed him as he spoke to the students he passed. From the smiles on their faces I can only assume he was smiling, also. Moving on, he gave another student a high five, and then stopped to pick up a couple of broken pencils that lay on the floor. 

A dozen yards farther down the hallway, a young girl had been leaning against the wall, alone. I had noticed her earlier as she had a lonely and forlorn look about her and I suspected she had been crying.  As this custodian drew closer, he drifted over to her and then stopped, smiled at her, and put his hand on her shoulder. 

          I could not hear the words that were spoken, but after a few seconds the girl offered up an embarrassed smile, followed seconds later by a laugh. Charlie lingered a moment, in quiet conversation, and then sauntered off, dishing out more high fives to students as he passed. 

When I looked back, the girl was still there, standing in the same spot, but she stood a little taller and had a smile on her face. Whatever this man had said to her must have been something she had needed to hear.

          Later in the day, in the faculty lounge, I asked a teacher about the custodian in the suit and tie.  He laughed, and said, “well, that would have been Charlie.”  He went on to say, “he’s a very special guy around here and both the kids and staff love him.” 

          I asked others about him, including my youngest daughter, now a teacher herself.  Whomever I asked, just the mention of his name would evoke a smile, and everyone proceeded to tell me pretty much the same story.

“He is everybody’s friend and always has a kind word to say,” they explained.

Charlie, God rest his charitable soul, was a beautiful human being and a positive leader. 

He  took pride in keeping things clean for the students and teachers of his school.  More importantly, he reached out to people to share his positive attitude.  He accepted responsibility for making this high school a better place and for making people feel special and important. 

He had a special ability to sense when someone—teacher, student, or substitute teacher—needed a kind word, a high five, or a warm smile. I am certain Charlie never wasted an opportunity to share his gifts. 

None of these activities could be found in the job description of a school custodian, but Charlie made them a part of his daily routine. They were a part of who he was. This man demonstrated it is not necessary to have formal authority, nor do we need someone’s permission to be a leader and to make a positive difference to the world and its people. 

All one needs is a belief that people—all people—deserve our best effort and that we can make a difference. While doing what many people would consider an unimportant and mundane job, this man changed the world around him. He did it by reaching out to people with a generous heart, simple acts of kindness, reassuring words, and a genuine desire to make each of them feel important and special.

Gifts such as this may brighten only a moment in an otherwise stressful day, but we never know how much of a difference we make when we give the best of ourselves with joy and affirmation. 

It is a lesson from which all can all learn when we ask ourselves whether what we do, matters. We can choose to believe every job, well done, adds a little beauty to the world and every smile or act of affirmation can make a difference in the life of another human being.

No doubt Charlie believed he had the most important job in the world. By having a relationship with each of them, Charlie made a difference in the lives of thousands of students and hundreds of educators, while keeping their school clean.

It was the relationships that mattered.

Given what we can learn from Charlie, imagine what teachers can do in their classroom by doing the best job of which they are capable and by making every student feel special and important. Relationships are everything in life and they are everything in teaching. God bless you, Charlie.

The existing education process, the tool on which our teachers must rely has changed only incrementally, over the last half century or more, while the world it exists to serve has changed exponentially. As a result the process has become dysfunctional and has grown obsolete. I believe the education process impedes more than supports the work of teachers and their students.

My work is motivated by my belief that the education process is focused more on conformance and compliance, when what we need is an education model designed to enable teachers to adapt to the unique needs of individual students. The problem we face is that educators have been teaching the same way for so long it is difficult to envision any other way to do what they do.

In addition, our teachers are being asked to bear the brunt of the blame for the disappointing outcomes of so many of our nation’s children. Because they have been under attack for so long, teachers have felt the need to defend themselves, their profession, and their right to collective representation.

The professional mission and purpose of my life is to introduce a new education model to replace the existing education process at work in schools throughout the U.S.

It is my assertion that if our education process, or any other process, is unable to produce the outcomes we need, no matter how hard people work or how qualified they are, the problem rests with the process and it must be reimagined and replaced.

This is what I have endeavored to do in my book, not yet published, Education Reimagined, One Success at a Time: The Hawkins Model©.

A second assertion is that it is only when we stop blaming others and accept responsibility for our problems that we begin to acquire the power to solve them.

Teachers are not the problem with education in America or the reason why so many of our children struggle; just the opposite is true. Teachers are the glue that keeps a flawed education process from devolving into chaos.

All the good things that have happened to students in our schools over the past several decades are a consequence of the dedication, commitment, and capability of our professional teachers. They are, in fact, unsung American heroes who deserve our support and admiration for the essential work they do.

make a difference, students and teacher, diverse urban school district, make people feel important, substitute teacher, positive leader, making people feel special and important, make a positive difference, relationships, education process, education model, unique needs of individual students

If You Believe All Kids Can Learn, Open your Hearts and Minds to Change!

The Hawkins Model© is constructed on several variables that are essential to a quality education. The most essential is the quality of teacher and student relationships.  My education model is constructed to facilitate the forging of such relationships and sustaining them for longer than a single school year.

Another essential variable is giving kids time to learn. Our education model changes time from a constant to a variable resource available to teachers and students in whatever quantity their success requires.

The third variable is that learning is the only thing that counts. To ensure a child learns we must get them off to a good start, which means taking the time to assess what children know when they arrive for their first day of kindergarten and what they have not yet learned. From what we learn from such assessments we will tailor an academic plan to each child’s unique needs. This determines the starting point for each student’s academic journey.

We choose to accept nothing less than a student’s best. This necessitates ending the practice of stopping a lesson; administering a test; recording whatever grade we assign based upon the number of mistakes each child makes; and then sending our students on to a next lesson, ready or not. For many kids, as a pattern of not being ready develops, it sentences them to a future in which they must deal with the challenges of life in a world they cannot fully understand.

My education model does not utilize tests to determine a grade but rather to confirm whether or not the student has mastered a given lesson or needs more help. We will modify the instruction process so that if the outcome of a test is unacceptable, we go back and reteach the lesson, giving the student the time, practice, help, and affirmation they need to learn from their mistakes. When we deem them ready, we administer a “do-over” exam and when a student achieves success we record that achievement and send the child onto the next lesson, not with a C, D, or F, but rather with an A or B and armed with the prerequisite knowledge and skills future lessons and life will require.

If the child still struggles their teachers’ job is unfinished. Consider that we do not stop teaching kids to ride a bicycle until they ride off down the street.

We interpret success as demonstrating proficiency. We celebrate each student’s academic success because it will help instill the powerful motivation that success can provide and with the development of healthy self-esteems.  

We need to disregard the expectations in the academic standards that all students have two semesters to demonstrate readiness for first grade and, instead, establish the expectation that we have twelve semesters to prepare them for middle school. All students do not begin at the same starting line. What matters is that they get to the finish line. Once a student learns, how long it took them is no longer relevant.

As students gain confidence in their ability to learn, we anticipate an acceleration of their pace in learning. We need not worry they will fall hopelessly behind, which is the case with the existing process. Students fall behind only when the education process does not permit them to finish.

Once we document a student’s success it becomes part of their record until we make a point to verify their mastery on that lesson, which we will make part of the instruction process. Once verified, state testing becomes irrelevant and an unjustifiable use of time.

We accomplish all this by changing the classroom structure from one in which there is one teachers for 25 to 35 students, to  a structure in which we have a team of three teachers for no more than 45 students.

Having a team of three teachers allows them to support one another, collaborate, and to manage a classroom with students progressing at different speeds. This also enhances the ability of teachers to forge relationships of the quality we seek.

The model keeps that classroom of teachers and 45 or fewer students together through the full primary phase of their education, which we define as what we formerly viewed as kindergarten through fifth grade. This eliminates the need to sever teacher/student relationships at the end of every school year and then require them to start over with a new teacher in the fall.

Nothing less than success is acceptable because a child’s success in learning is more important than any arbitrary schedule. We believe this process can substantially improve the probability that every child will experience success in pursuit of whatever goals they set for themselves.  Helping a student develop a pattern of success changes everything and sets them on a path to agency.

With respect to implementation, if a school has three kindergarten classrooms, each with one teacher and 30 students, which requires a total of three teachers, we will need to add three additional teachers to staff two classrooms with teams of three teachers and forty-five or fewer students.

If we assume that the average teacher salary is $65,000, three teachers will require an investment of $195,000 to serve the needs of 90 students at a single grade level. This gives us a per student cost of $2,166. Consider Indiana, as an example. In 2025 they expect to spend over $6,300 per student on vouchers to enable 95,000 students to attend  charter schools or faith-based schools. We believe the probability of student’s success, having learned in the innovative learning environment we are proposing to be significantly greater than sending students to charter schools that, currently, are not performing as well as the community public schools they were created to replace.

Our students, teachers and their communities are winners. The funds invested to add teachers goes right back into the local economy to improve our intellectual infrastructure. As they go about their lives, teachers contribute to the local, state and federal tax bases. Who knows where the money invested in vouchers will end up?

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Students Are Struggling More than Ever. Choose To Lead the Way!

By now we have all heard the news that test scores from the 2022/23 school year show a significant decline in every subject area, at every grade level, almost everywhere. However much we might like to believe otherwise we cannot change the reality of test scores until we are willing to change what we do.

Business as usual can no longer be an option or the “school choice” movement sweeping across the nation will cause the foundations of community public schools to crumble.

For superintendents of public school districts, testing The Hawkins Model© in just one of their struggling elementary schools is simple and straightforward. Nationwide, we will need to have a minimum of five public school districts testing our model. It is simply a question of who wants to lead the way and in which school a superintendent will choose to begin. There are tens of thousands of struggling elementary schools from which to choose.

In just one school you can:

  • test the model in the kindergarten, first, and second grades for up to a maximum of ninety (90) students in each grade level, or
  • test it in just the kindergarten and first grade classrooms or even,
  • test it in only two kindergarten classrooms..

Since implementation of the model requires only a reorganization of teachers, students, and classrooms and some minor modifications to the way you teach to academic standards, the authority to act is within a local school board’s purview. What does a school district or its leaders have to lose?

Some districts might be worried they will find students falling behind, but the reality is those students are falling behind, already. Under our model, kids may start out slowly, but their achievement against academic standards will begin to accelerate and by the time they are ready to move from one school year to the next, progress will be readily apparent. By the time students are ready for middle school their academic achievement will have surpassed students in every other school in their community.

Implementation is easy because teachers already know how to teach. What they must learn is how to work together on behalf of their students under a new model, how to stay focused on purpose, and how to avoid slipping back into the patterns of the past. Remember, success is as much fun for teachers as it is for students.

The model is available for free to public, publicly funded charter, and faith-based schools. In one day of training, teachers and administrators can be ready to go when school opens in the fall. It will be just teachers and their students in an environment in which the only focus is on helping each child achieve success by learning as much as they are able at their own best pace. Let me reiterate, the only revenue I hope to generate is from royalties from my book, upon publication, with a little help from each of you,

I ask the leaders of each school district to select a small group of innovative teachers and administrators and have them read the first twenty pages of my book The Hawkins Model©: Education Reimagined, One Success at a Time. It is available by clicking on the tab at the top of this page. There you will also find a tab for my bio that will explain what qualifies me to offer this model to you.If you like what you read, I can provide a PDF copy of the manuscript in just a couple of keystrokes.

Think about how you will feel when you read about the success of schools in communities throughout the U.S. and know you could have been among the first to lead the way?

Teachers are Heroes = Part 1

Quotes from my book, The Hawkins Model©: Education Reimagined, One Success at a Time,

This education model is being offered as a gift to our nation’s teachers.

The professional men and women who preside over our nation’s classrooms perform one of the most important and difficult jobs in all of society and yet are rarely given the respect and appreciation they deserve. As discouraging as that lack of appreciation may be, it is aggravated by the unwillingness of the American people to give them the compensation teaching should command.

Teaching is not easy, and certainly not a job just anyone can do. For those Americans who would dispute that assertion, I encourage citizens to sign up to work as a substitute teacher in their communities’ classrooms. From my own experience, I can assure you within the first week these men and women will have a keen appreciation of the challenges with which these dedicated professionals must deal.

You will also get a sense of the injustice teachers feel when they are blamed for the problems in our schools. The reality is teachers are victims of a flawed education process every bit as much as are their students.

This article will be the first of a series of posts on this blog, sharing quotes from my book; quotes that reflect this author’s respect and appreciation of teachers.  On the banner at the top of my landing page, you will find tabs that will also take you to “The first 20 pages” of the book, an author bio, and a synopsis.

I am soliciting volunteers to provide me with a pre-publication review of the book to aid in solicitation of a literary agent.

Thank you in advance for any help you might be able to provide. At the very least, share this message with your colleagues and friends and become an advocate for the implementation of The Hawkins Model© in the K to 2 classrooms of a handful of the tens of thousands of struggling elementary schools in which less than twenty percent of students are meeting academic expectations.

It is only through the positive advocacy for an innovative solution, on the part of teachers, their unions, and associations that will bring about changes that will transform education and restore respect for our teachers.

One last thought to consider. Many educators think “public education” is better than it has ever been. Just because something is better than it has ever been does not mean it is good enough or will work for every student. Both our nation and its children need an education model designed to adapt to a rapidly changing world and to empower teachers to teach and students to learn.

The quotes will appear in the order in which they can be found in the book.

“Our premise is, over the last half century or more, the education process at work in our nation’s classrooms has grown dysfunctional and impedes rather than supports the work of teachers and students.”  

“At the outset, I want to make my view of teachers clear. Our nation’s professional teachers are not the reason for the problems in education in the U.S. or why so many of our children struggle to achieve academic success.”

“Teachers are unsung American heroes who deserve our support and admiration for the essential work they do for our children.”  

“Our teachers are as victims of our flawed education process as are their students.

“Let it be known that teachers are the glue that holds a flawed education process together. All the good things that have happened to our students throughout the past several decades are because of the dedicated effort of these professional men and women.”

“The best way to illustrate what we must fix is to examine the challenges teachers face in their classrooms, daily, as this is the most powerful evidence of the inefficacy of the education process with which teachers and their students must deal.”

“In addition to being the most compelling evidence of the inefficacy of the American education process, what teachers see in their classrooms, provides a blueprint for transformation.”

“No one can truly understand what goes on in our nation’s classrooms unless they have done their time—having spent time in one. Those who have not spent time in the classroom do not see the dedication and commitment of teachers, nor do they see the frustration these professionals feel when they are swimming against the currents of 21st Century life.”

“Teachers know the education process is dysfunctional every time they see the cavernous disparity in the levels of academic preparedness and emotional development of students as they arrive for their first day of kindergarten.”

“Teachers know the process is inadequate when there is no meaningful strategy to acclimate their students to what, for many, can be a frightening new world at one of the most vulnerable periods in their young lives.”

“They [teachers] know they have little opportunity to give students the time and attention they need, and that developing nurturing relationships with their students, while at or near the top of their priority list, is one of too many priorities with too many students with more needs with which any one teacher can be expected to deal.”

Commentary on Indiana’s Projected Expansion of its “School Choice” Tuition Scholarship Program to $600 million by 2025

One of the concerns expressed by teachers who are skeptical of the viability of my education model is how can we afford the increase in the number of teachers needed to staff it. Today, finding significant new funding for public schools is problematic, so badly has the  faith in community public schools eroded.

Indiana provides a notable example. Because of its loss of faith in public schools, the state is making a significant investment in its “school choice” tuition voucher program. Consider this investment relative to the number of students who will benefit.

Indiana currently spends over $241 million in tuition subsidies so that 53,500 students can attend private schools. On April 27, 2023, The Indiana Capital Chronicle[1] reported the number of students participating in the program is expected to increase to 95,000 by 2025, at a cost of $600 million, or $6,315 per student.

Our question is, if a state’s faith in public schools was reclaimed, “what would be the impact of that same investment in community public schools and their students?” An investment of $241.4 million, for example, would enable Indiana to implement The Hawkins Model© in the K to 2 classrooms in over 400 elementary schools benefitting 108,000[2] students (270 “K to 2” students  X  400 schools).

By 2025, an investment of $600 million could fund the implementation of our model in the “K to 2” classrooms of 1,025 elementary schools and would benefit over a quarter of a million students across the state (270 students  X  1,025) schools) at a cost of $2,166 per student.[3]

The data suggest that Indiana is like the rest of the nation where the students from charter schools struggle as much or more than their counterparts in the community public schools those charter schools were intended to replace. We will let the readers decide for themselves how the cost-benefit ratio of a comparable investment in public schools compares to spending tthose funds to provide tuition subsidies for 95,000 students. Essentially, it is the difference between addressing the symptoms of the problems in public education instead of the root causes revolving around the deficiencies of Indiana’s and America’s education process. This process, which has become disconnected from its purpose, is used in charter, public, and faith-based schools throughout Indiana and the U.S. and leaves our students poorly prepared for the responsibilites of citizenship.

In that same article in the Indiana Capital Chronicle[4], Representative Phil Giaquinta, D – Fort Wayne, (The House Minority Leader) said “This budget is a handout for the state’s wealthiest families and individuals. Most people think that state subsidies go to the poor, but in the GOP supermajority they go to top-earners.”

We have two choices, if we stop to think about it. First, do we make the necessary investment in teachers to prepare our children for the responsibilities of citizenship, or do we spend comparable amounts to support the dependencies of young men and women who leave high school without the skills needed to fulfill their responsibilities? It truly is an either/or proposition.

Public education must do what all producers of new commercial products and services do. The people to whom we must appeal are consumers of education. We must give them something new, about which they can be excited. We must also consider that a quality education is our society’s intellectual infrastructure. We will not get to the future toward which we are striving over the rickety bridge that represents education in America. We assert that The Hawkins Model© is that new and exciting product that will transform education across the nation.

           We don’t expect Indiana, or any other state to reverse their course a full 180 degrees. But why not make a minor adjustment. Just two percent of the current allocation of $241.4 million would allow us to put The Hawkins Model© to the test in the kindergarten, first, and second grade classrooms in eight (8) struggling elementary schools in a strategic selection of communities. Would this not be a prudent path to take? If the model proves itself, in 2025 we could expand the implementation to over one thousand elementary schools across the State of Indiana.

[2] This assumes the average salary for teachers is $65,000

[3] This assumes that average salary for teachers will have increased to $70,000 by 2025

[4] Indiana Capital Chronicle (April 27, 2023

A Man Named Charlie: a Most Unlikely Leader!

If you wonder how much of a difference one individual can make, consider this story about a man named Charlie. His life offered a wonderful example of the power of relationships. He passed away ten years ago but he lives on in the hearts of many of the people he touched, both students and teachers.  Every few years, I like to pull the story out, dust if off, and delight in the memory of this special man with whom I spent only a few moments of my life.

            Charlie made an enormous difference in the lives of literally thousands of young people and hundreds of adults in the high school all three of my children attended.  One of the teachers who worked with him shared Charlie’s story in a letter to the editor of the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette, a few weeks after his death. Otherwise, few outside of the Wayne High School community would have known about this special man, and the quiet but enormous impact he made.

Charlie was a black man working in a high school that was somewhere between ten to fifteen percent black. He did not have an impressive title, did not make a great deal of money, had no formal authority, there were no letters after his name, and he was neither a star athlete nor a celebrity.  Charlie’s stature as a powerful positive leader came only from the force of his personality, his dedication to his job, his love of people, and his God-given ability to make people feel important. He was a human being who, out of the pure generosity of a loving heart, accepted responsibility for making his corner of the world a better place.

            I first heard about Charlie years ago when my kids were in high school, but it did not make a great impression on me.  I assumed Charlie was one of the kids at school.  The first time, and one of the few times I met Charlie, I was working as a substitute teacher in this high school I thought I knew so well.  Like other teachers, I was monitoring the hallways during the passing period, standing next to the door to my classroom. It had been a rough day and I was reeling from difficult period of a math lab class when this man came up to me. 

He was dressed in a sport coat, slacks and tie and it never would have occurred to me he was a custodian until he grabbed a broom from a cart he had left a few feet away and swept up some debris from the floor.

            “How is it going, today? Is there anything I can do for you?” he asked.  “You just call me if you need something,” he continued and then proceeded to rattle off his name and extension number.  He shook my hand and smiled before continuing down the corridor and I watched him, trying to figure out who in the heck he was. 

My eyes followed him as he spoke to a couple students he passed. From the smiles on their faces I can only assume he was smiling, also.  Moving on, he gave another student a high five, and then stopped to pick up a couple of broken pencils that lay on the floor. 

A dozen yards farther down the hallway, a young girl had been leaning against the wall, alone.  I had noticed her earlier as she had a lonely and forlorn look about her and I suspected she had been crying.  As this custodian drew closer, he drifted over to her and then stopped and smiled at her and put his hand on her shoulder. 

            This made me immediately suspicious because we are told, frequently and pointedly, not to touch the students, especially members of the opposite gender.  I could not hear the words that were spoken, but after a few seconds the girl offered up an embarrassed smile, followed seconds later by a laugh.  Charlie lingered a moment in quiet conversation, and then sauntered off, dishing out more high fives to students as he passed.  When I looked back the girl was still there, standing in the same spot but she stood a little taller and had a smile on her face.  Whatever this man had said to her must have been something she had needed to hear.

            Later in the day, in the faculty lounge, I asked a teacher about the custodian in the suit and tie.  He laughed, and said, “well, that would have been Charlie.”  He went on to say, “he’s a very special guy around here and both the kids and staff love him.” 

            I asked others about him, including my youngest daughter, now a teacher herself.  Whoever I asked, just the mention of his name would evoke a smile, and everyone proceeded to tell me pretty much the same story. “He is everybody’s friend and always has a kind word for you,” my daughter explained.

Charlie, God rest his charitable soul, was a beautiful human being and positive leader.  He took his job seriously and took pride in keeping the school clean for the students and teachers.  Even more importantly, he reached out to people to share his positive attitude.  He accepted responsibility for making this high school a better place and for making its people feel special and important. 

He had a special ability to sense when someone—teacher, student, or substitute teacher—needed a kind word, a high five, or a warm smile and I am certain Charlie never wasted an opportunity to share his gifts.  None of these activities could be found in the job description of a school custodian but Charlie made them a part of his daily routine. They were a part of who he was.

This man demonstrated it was not necessary to have a title, formal authority, or even someone’s permission to be a leader and to make a positive difference to the world and its people.  All one needs is a belief that people—all people—deserve our best effort and that we can make a difference. While doing what most people would consider an unimportant and mundane job, this man changed the world around him. He did it by reaching out to people with a generous heart, a simple act of kindness, reassuring words, and a genuine desire to make each of them feel special.

Gifts such as this may brighten only moment in an otherwise stressful day, but we never know how much of a difference we make when we give the best of ourselves with joy and affirmation.  It is a lesson from which all can all learn whenever we wonder if what we do matters. We can choose to believe every job, well done, adds a little beauty to the world and every smile or simple act of kindness is an affirmation to another human being.

No doubt Charlie believed he had the most important job in the world. By having a relationship with each of them, Charlie made a difference in the lives of twelve hundred students and a hundred members of a school’s faculty and staff, while giving them a clean place in which to do their important work.

It was the relationships that mattered. Given what we can learn from Charlie, imagine what teachers and administrators can do in their classroom and schools by doing the best job of which each is capable and by making every student feel special and important.

Relationships are everything in life, leadership and teaching.

God bless you, Charlie.

Providing Positive Leadership from the Top

When our oldest child was nearing high school age, my wife and I debated whether to send our Catholic daughter to the public school for the district in which we lived or to a nearby Catholic high school. The decision was made after attending an orientation program at the public high school and was influenced almost entirely by the principal who spoke to us one mid-summer evening.

This man began his presentation with the words, “I am big, and I’m black, and I’m ugly!” and in the next ten minutes he successfully sold himself and his school to us. He was far and away the best principal that any of our three children were blessed to know.

What was it about this man that distinguished him from his colleagues over the twenty-year period during which we had children in public schools?  He was a communicator. He sold us on his mission and his belief that our kids were special. During the several years that he served as principal for two of my children, it was obvious this man had a special gift.

He spent time in the halls and classrooms and talked to students and he would listen, also. At every opportunity he talked to students  about pride and about respect and they listened, black kids, white kids, and Hispanic kids. He expected much from his students both academically and how they conducted themselves and they listened. Whether it was true or not, every student in the school believed that they had a relationship with this man and that he had a special interest in them. The school was a special place, indeed.

No doubt, not everyone comes to their role as a principal in possession of a special gift but what this principal accomplished, through his positive leadership, illustrates just how much of a difference positive leadership can make. Every principal should strive to model this man. They should be evaluated on the effectiveness with which they perform to these expectations. They should be selected based on skill sets that would make that possible. They must be involved in incessant, ongoing leadership development.

One of the most import keys to effective interaction with people in the workplace, and especially students in a school setting, is for leaders to remind themselves it is not about them. Kids are quick to pick up on even a hint of arrogance or braggadocio in the adults with whom they interact. This is true for administrators throughout the school and for teachers in the classroom.  Developing empathic listening skills is essential. There is a simple truth in working with kids. Every child needs to be able to trust that there is at least one adult in the school who has their back.

Principals have no business hiding in their offices any more than managers in business organizations belong in their offices. The challenge of organizational leaders everywhere is to help people be successful and to satisfy their customers. In the business of education our customers are the students,  parents, and communities we serve, and our people are the professionals who teach those children and the other administrators and staff who support both students and faculty in that process. Any school district that allows administrative paperwork to obscure the mission and purpose of its principals will surely fall short of fulfilling its potential.

Every principal and assistant principal in the district should participate in a variety of leadership development programs to hone their skills in selling mission, vision, and values to all the players in their school community. They must know how to effectively develop the skills of their faculty through observation, consultation, and feedback; they must be able to relate to the kids through face-to-face interaction, getting to know as many of them as possible and forming genuine relationships with them; they must be able to communicate directly with parents, always selling the mission, vision and values of their organization; always doing whatever they can to pull those parents in, both physically and emotionally.  

In both learning and leadership, relationships are the difference maker and principals must strive to forge the same sustained, nurturing relationships with their teachers and staff as we ask teachers to do with their students. The quality of any product or services, whatever the venue, is a function of the quality of leadership provided by people in leadership roles throughout an organization. Similarly, the quality of leadership men and women in any organization provide is a function of the quality of the relationships they develop with people throughout both their organizations and supply chain.

Colleges of education with programs for administrators, whatever the level, should make the principles and practices of positive leadership a core component of their degree programs.  The principal referenced above went on to serve as principal of another high school, served as superintendent for two school corporations, and later served as President of Martin University, in Indianapolis, Indiana. Notwithstanding all the awards and honors bestowed on him, his greatest legacy can be found among the young lives he touched.

His name is Dr. Eugene G. White, Ed.D.

As we will see in our next post, powerful positive leadership is not limited to people at the top of an organization; they can come from anywhere!

They Must Believe We Believe in Them

The responsibilities of leaders; whether superintendents of school districts, principals and other administrators in our school buildings, and teachers in their classrooms begins with making people feel important. This starts with assuring that each of their people always knows where he or she stands. Never must people be left in doubt about how much we believe in and care about them.

Not only must the success of one’s people be a leader’s top priority, a leader must demonstrate this truth to everyone in their organization through everything they say and do. This is one of the essential responsibilities of positive leadership. Most leaders have been taught how important this message is but they are also imperfect human beings, just like the rest of us. Unless they remind themselves of this responsibility, relentlessly, it is a human tendency to get comfortable in the status quo. Many people, even the very best, are continually at risk of getting entangled in our routines and taking for granted that our people know what we think of them.

Among the most vital responsibilities of leaders is the self-discipline of not only communicating their organization/profession’s mission, vision, and values, incessantly, but also questioning whether what we ask of our people still makes sense given the changes taking place in our profession, in our environment, and in our society. Powerful, positive leaders must always keep one eye on the big picture because if they do not, who can? One of the most effective ways to provide this kind of positive leadership is to listen and observe, empathically.

Our people—teachers, most of all—may be so immersed in their daily challenges they cannot see the big picture from the windows of their classrooms. They depend on positive leadership. What leaders must look for are the “symptoms of inefficacy.” These symptoms are conveyed through the frustrations of our people when what they are being asked to do does not seem to be working. This is true in the classroom for both teachers and students.

Teachers must strive to provide the same positive leadership to their students. Students must always know where they stand but not just with respect to the grades they are getting. They must know  we believe in and care about them. The misbehavior of our students is also a “symptom of inefficacy.” The responsibility of teachers and leaders is not limited to reacting to such behavior. It is far more important that we strive to recognize, interpret, and respond to the underlying drivers of such behavior not as wrongs that have been committed, rather as needs to be addressed.

Because it is so easy to be distracted by overt behavior, other students live in hope their covert withdrawal to the darkest corners of our classrooms will go unnoticed. The risk to operations and organizations is that the wheels that do not squeak rarely receive the attention they require. They may be silent, but such withdrawals are the desperate screams of children who know of no other way to communicate how lost they feel.

Teachers who are giving up and end up leaving the profession are doing so because even their covert “symptoms of inefficacy” went unrecognized, were misinterpreted, and were not addressed.  The practice and development of one’s craft includes dealing not only with one’s own disillusionment but also rallying to the aid of colleagues who are at risk of giving up. As challenging as this may be, it is essential to the successful practice of one’s craft.

The truth with which all educators must come to accept is that their profession cannot afford to lose any more teachers any more than our society can afford to lose any more kids.

This fundamental truth will only be accepted when our people/students are confident we have their back and will assure their effort is always focused on our true mission, vision, and values as conveyed through positive leadership.