TOMMIE SAYLOR: Education is not a business

“Life is a game, boy.  Life is a game that one plays according to the rules.”

J.D. Salinger, from his book, “Catcher in the Rye”

By Tommie Saylor

Kennedy High School Principal

The field of education is not a business.

Often we hear about this businessman, or that company, dabbling in the field of education. They discuss how with the right “business model,” they will be able to “fix” all that ails our troubling education system and save our children from the inept buffoons who currently hold office in educational leadership positions. 

But what these well-intended yet naïve business gurus often don’t figure out until a catastrophic collapse of their “new” educational model inevitably occurs (as is currently being experience by many charter schools, and private academies across our nation), is that business and educating students have nothing in common.  What may make business sense, often does not make good educational sense, and vice versa. 

In the business world, it’s all about the bottom line, the profit margin, about separating people from their hard earned dollar and placing that dollar in the company’s pocket.  If we were to apply the core beliefs of the business world into the classroom, then those students with learning disabilities, or from single-parent homes, that underperform or just simply lack motivation, would be out the door.  There is no profit in those who don’t produce, and in the business world, there is no such thing as “developing” talent or servicing the employee for the sake of the individual; there is only productivity, or next up.

In the world of education, it’s all about the individual, about nurturing talents, the weaving of dreams, sparking young minds and building a well-educated, tax paying populous.  As such, educators are accustomed to going without, with personal sacrifice if it means helping a student, with the practice of tolerance and forgiveness, with turning a student’s misbehavior into an opportunity of learning a “lifelong lesson.”  For educators, purposeful pursuit of a goal is more important than the acquisition of the goal, simply, effort counts.  Finally, educators are just as concerned about “feeding” the heart and soul as we are about “feeding” the mind, about developing well-adjusted, loving, logical, and self-aware students who graduate with a healthy hunger for “taking on” the world.

In the business world, one is measured by how much wealth they are able to accumulate.  The big house, the fancy car, the fat wallet, the exotic suit, these are the “badges of honor,” the symbols of success. 

In the world of education, one is measured by how many burdens you are able to carry.  We are the “Catchers in the Rye.” We make a living saving children from going over the edge, and though we often save more than we lose, it’s the losses that haunt us late at night.  Educators don’t measure their careers by the number of children they have saved, nor by the amount of money they can earn, or by their years of service, but by the number of loses they are able to withstand before it’s too much to bear and they must leave the profession or lose their minds forever.

Simply, where educators make investments into humanity, business professionals draw dividends.  It is this clear distinction that separates us and baffles the business-minded professionals from ever understanding why sacrifice without return, is how we do business.  As such, placing the education of children in the hands of business professionals is kind of like going to a plumber for vascular surgery. it just doesn’t work out.

What starts here, changes the world. Making Kennedy the school of choice. Excellence by design.