Iatrogenic? Now, there’s a word we rarely hear. It essentially is a medical term that refers to the unfortunate condition in which the remedy causes more difficulty than the condition for which it was prescribed. A bit like using leeches for bleeding to rid the body of the disease.
So, consider the most recent action of the Missouri Supreme Court, a decision that now has gained attention on both the local and national level and unveiled again our country’s stereotypical conditioning, racial bias and xenophobia in recent school board meetings. This decision will be yet another school reform effort that will prove iatrogenic.
It will join the ranks of past experiences of the idea that school reform is served by merely transferring students from one school setting to another – the Voluntary Transfer Program. Many experts, and those not so expert, will argue the gains and losses regarding that program. Regardless, it appears to have little effect upon improving learning experiences for the students it was designed to serve.
How about No Child Left Behind? Here is yet another example of a remedy that held great promise for changing the achievement gap. Thirteen years later we still have the achievement gap, and according to some research it has gotten worse rather than better.
A number of years ago, David Tyack and Larry Cuban wrote a book entitled Tinkering toward Utopia. In this book, they explore the very nature and failure of school reform. Their conclusions reflect well the notion of iatrogenic. Our remedies seem to worsen the original difficulty.
Both Normandy and Riverview Gardens school districts now face a financial disaster that will no doubt diminish resources for those students who remain in the unaccredited districts. These same districts will also encounter even greater levels of demoralization. The whole affair only serves to strengthen distorted racial conditioning about poor, African-American children and families.
Those schools receiving these students, as has already been demonstrated, will have to address community issues that are lodged in fear, confusion and stereotypical conditioning. The efforts to convey a sense of inclusiveness and appreciation for these new students will be a challenge given the narratives of academic failures, discipline behavior and dysfunctional families that have preceded their arrival.
But, it is time for a reality check. These transfers are happening, and though the court decision will be followed with continual debate and discourse over the next few weeks, students are being transferred. The question, therefore, is what will the districts both losing and gaining students do for creating a learning environment of belonging?
Yes, I said it, a place of belonging – a descriptor that rarely is found in the first sentence of a school reform strategy. However, clearly we know the results of students who don’t feel a sense of belonging, regardless of their intellectual prowess. They seek it somewhere outside of school and ultimately find it in places for which we cringe.
Will school and community leaders have the courage to create conversations to interrupt the bias and stereotypical conditioning that diminish invitation and acceptance? Will classroom teachers examine unconscious bias that may interrupt authentic, caring relationships? Will parents see that diversity in schools for their children is a strength not a deficit?
Someone once said that the culture of the school is the long shadows of the adults within the building. So what will those long shadows look like for students who stay and for those who leave?
George Washington Carver once said that learning is about relationships. My hope is that to avoid the iatrogenic nature of this reform, we focus upon relationships and the courage to shape them differently for the sake of our young people.
Tony Neal is president/CEO of Educational Equity Consultants, LLC.
