I read this story when the Bush Administration had enacted the No Child Left Behind Policy in the early 2000's. I feel this story is more relevant today than it was in the early days of No Child Left Behind. A very successful owner of a top wholesale grocery plant, was invited to address a large group of educators on how to set high expectations to produce high quality outcomes. The businessman started out by sharing how his company trained and held their supervisors accountable to make sure the employees understood the company's commitment to excellence. He used the example of how each truck that pulled up to one of their loading docks to unload products to be sorted and shipped to their customers were closely inspected to make sure the products met the high standards of excellence that the company prided it's reputation on. The wealthy businessman went on to share that the same business principles should be applied to our educational system if we wanted to see high quality outcomes of excellence for every student. He reminded the educators that his success came from having high expectations and accountability measures put in place at his plant. The businessman shared how he was highly visible and walked the plant often to make sure that his expectation for high quality outcomes was observable in the products being loaded onto the trucks that would be delivering them to their customers. He stressed to the educators that their end product should meet the same high standards that his company was able to obtain through their business model of high accountability and holding their employees to the highest of standards. He closed his presentation by challenging the educators to hold themselves to the same standard of excellence, and that they too would be able to have high quality outcomes. When the prideful businessman finished, a hand was raised from the back of the auditorium. In the silence, a quiet voice asked the businessman what happened when a truck pulled up to one of his docks and the fruit on the truck was damaged, how would he handle the situation? The businessman being a bit annoyed, stated very clearly... "I would deny delivery! And I would refuse to accept a product that didn't meet our level of excellence." The quiet voice responded, "Sir, the difference in your approach to excellence is different than our approach to students... we don't deny damaged fruit, we embrace the children that come through our doors." The quiet voice received a standing ovation. A teacher of compassion taught the businessman that not every student who comes through our doors look the same, nor do we deny them access. Something to ponder as the business world has entered our Educational System with a business model versus a student focussed model.
A Wealthy Businessman Takes Teachers to Task Over the End Product....
Last edited by Jim Sporleder
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