I agree with the person who wrote about some schools setting perfection as a standard. This is basically the zero tolerance option on steroids. No tolerance for bad behavior is one thing, how the behavior is dealt with is another. Expelling a child, and leaving him to parents who may have their own demons, is not a good solution. I can think of a child who was not allowed to attend school for several weeks, because their mother packed a butter knife in their lunch. The mother did not like the jelly soaking into the bread while it was stored until lunch, and so she packed the butter knife with a small container of jelly, sot he child should pour it out and spread it at lunch. To me this does not sound like an issue which should need to go to the school board.

Idea 2

As to the idea of setting high standards, that is something that leaders need to give and receive. There is nothing more distressing than a government official or company manager who does not listen to a citizen, or employee who expresses a standard they think should apply to the government, or company.

A person in a leadership role often makes the mistake of thinking that they must reject ideas which smack of an underling taking charge. What I have found to be the case is that most employees truly want their company to be better, when they take the risk of correcting a superior, or take the risk of suggesting a policy improvement.

Setting high standards goes both ways, you must be willing to give and to receive.

Mark John Hunter
Alpena

As your newsletters often point out, change, real life- transforming change, often, and most successfully, happens one person, and one day at a time. A true, up-hill, successful journey.

Thank you, again. John

I remember working with an educator who said to a mother that her daughter would only be able to work as a domestic. The daughter was only eighteen and she was not intellectually challenge. The woman was a totally stupid educator. I could not leave her presence too soon, even soon was not fast enough.

Our schools often fail because teachers are quick to judge a student. Most teachers are only interested in working with A and B students who are also docile in their behavior.