Donna Frederickson #472-60-5982 International Falls Cohort Subject: "The Quality School" by Dr. William Glasser

There were several statements in "The Quality School" by Dr. William Glasser, that motivated individual thought and group discussion. The one statement I liked, contemplated on and valued, was at the beginning of the book, and it isn't a statement of Glasser's, but one that is anonymous and was contributed to him by Shayle Uroff, "A boss drives. A leader leads. A boss relies on authority. A leader relies on cooperation. A boss says "I". A leader says "we." A boss creates fear. A leader creates confidence. A boss knows how. A leader shows how. A boss creates resentment. A leader breeds enthusiasm. A boss fixes blame. A leader fixes mistakes. A boss makes work drudgery. A leader makes work interesting." This is an excellent premise to remember, base your work on and employ, whether you are a teacher or student. Every teacher begins life's vocational journey with the goal of being the best teacher that they can be. Every teacher starts out with the hope and desire to make a difference. Every teacher begins hoping to instill quality and motivation in their students. Every teacher sets out with the premise to be fair, understanding and just. Every teacher has the ideals to increase their knowledge and distribute knowledge to others. What happens? The teacher soon becomes bogged down with the time consuming load and responsibility of teaching and the teacher may run up against that student who just isn't willing to accept the gift of education. And most of the time, that which bogs the teacher down most is not be student related, but is administrative and paperwork. Through reading this book, I felt support for some of the ways that I teach and challenged by other concepts. In Glasser's chapter on "Grades and Other Basics of a Quality School", I understand the theory that in a quality school the lead-teachers keep the schoolwork in their quality world and that when the schoolwork is out of the quality classroom, education is over. I wrestle with this, and in discussion with other teachers, I discovered that they do too. I have, in my classroom, tried to reduce the take home homework and tried to concentrate within the classroom on the teaching of the fundamentals needed to create the overall individual student packet for the Graduation Rule. The teaching of the fundamentals does require smaller assignments. Assignments are pyramidal arranged to help the student achieve their project goal. The classroom time to do the daily assignments has increased this year in my classroom since I read Glasser, and, hopefully, this has encouraged the students to get help within the classroom and discuss the lessons with another student or myself. However, if the student does not complete these smaller, daily assignments, I believe that the student will have to work on the assignment outside of the classroom, because it's part of the building process. I am afraid that if they do not do the assignment they will not understand the next process or the total concept. The overall Grad Rule project that the students had to develop was worked on at home and at school, with probably an equal amount of time spent in each format. Homework? No homework? How much homework? This is where discussion arose among the teachers in our cohort. In the secondary level, where I teach, we feel that a certain amount of homework is necessary, but how much is too much? I feel that we as teachers have a duty to be preparing students for their future and there are very few professional vocations that do not require some work outside of the office. So, why not get the student used to the idea that they may have to do some work outside of their workday, which in this case is school? Won't the students need to manage homework at college? Grading was another area of discussion among the cohort members when reflecting on the Glasser book and it caused me to evaluate my own grading process. I have two distinct areas that I grade, one, being general music classes and two, being choirs. I would say that the majority of my students achieve a grade in the "A, B or C" area. In general music if a student does not understand the concept, but has made an effort to do what he or she could, they will pass. But what about the student who doesn't want to have anything to do with the class, its subject or its work? How much distinction should we give between the grading areas? Grading is so hard and time consuming because I beleaguer over every grade. I don't like being classified and I don't like to do it to anyone else. Should grading go "pass/fail" or "concept understood or not yet"? Maybe a grade should have more than one component and they should be on the report card too. Are we, as teachers and general public, placing too much emphasis on grades? Where does logic, cooperation, friendliness, responsibility, creativity, drive, integrity, ingenuity and spirit fit into the grade? How do I go about grading a choir student? Music is creativity, emotion, expression and sound. I know I want motivation and quality in the choir rehearsals and performances and the students and I can tell when we achieve it, I just have a problem with grading it. Glasser states that grades should serve two purposes, 1. To give information to students, their parents and others who may be interested, like colleges, in how well the student is doing, and 2. To serve as a substitute for pay. I feel that we as teachers have a duty to be preparing students for their future and there are very few professional vocations that do not require some work outside of the office. So, why not get the student used to the idea that they may have to do some work outside of their workday, which in this case is school? Won't the students need to manage homework at college? Grading was another area of discussion among the cohort members in reflection of the Glasser book and it caused me to evaluate my own grading process. I have two distinct areas that I grade, one, being general music classes and two, being choirs. I would say that the majority of my students achieve a grade in the "A, B or C" area. In general music if a student does not understand the concept, but has made an effort to do what he or she could, they will pass. But what about the student who doesn't want to have anything to do with the class, its subject or its work? How much distinction should we give between the grading areas? Grading is so hard and time consuming because I beleaguer over every grade. I don't like being classified and I don't like to do it to anyone else. Should grading go "pass/fail" or "concept understood or not yet"? Maybe a grade should have more than one component and they should be on the report card too. Are we, as teachers and general public, placing too much emphasis on grades? Where does logic, cooperation, friendliness, responsibility, creativity, drive, integrity, ingenuity and spirit fit into the grade? How do I go about grading a choir student? Music is creativity, emotion, expression and sound. I know I want motivation and quality in the choir rehearsals and performances and the students and I can tell when we achieve it, I just have a problem with grading it. Glasser states that grades should serve two purposes, 1. To give information to students, their parents and others who may be interested, like colleges, in how well the student is doing, and 2. To serve as a substitute for pay. I admire Dr. Glasser's choice theory and his goals for the quality school. I have wanted to read his work and learn of his philosophy on motivation and the quality school, because I have heard a great deal about it in other education classes that I took. I was affected while reading this book to be asking myself questions as to how I am doing. Am I respecting the five basic needs of another human being? Am I increasing a student's motivation? Am I avoiding adversarial positions and relationships? Am I reducing or adding to discipline problems? Am I challenging the student to be always evaluating himself and his work? Am I instilling the will to do quality work? I will conclude with a statement of Dr. Glasser's: "The success or the failure of our lives is greatly dependent on our willingness to judge the quality of what we do and then to improve it if we find it wanting." (p. 162)

-- Anonymous, January 27, 1999