Comments on: The Delights and Dangers of Cookbook Education

By: Sherri

Sherri — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 02:03:12 +0000

Hi, David-
Since I love to individualize I usually recommend books based on what someone is looking for rather than because they are in a particular field or hold a particular position. It sounds as if you might be thinking about a particular person. If you can give me an idea of what you think the person wants to be, know or do, I can make an informed choice to recommend.

Lovely to hear from you!!

By: David J. Pollay

David J. Pollay — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 03:20:58 +0000

Hi Sherri,

Thanks for a great article. I’m glad you’re in the field of education!

Would you recommend the Deal and Peterson book to principals?

Best to you,

David

By: Sherri Fisher

Sherri Fisher — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 21:34:51 +0000

Hi, Jeff-
Thanks for the thumbs up.
I agree that the accountability movement has made cookbook education more prevalent. I had a whole paragraph in the draft of this about NCLB related things but removed it to keep the focus on what works! I love the idea of leveraging our collective strengths. Research says it works for teachers and kids

By: Jeff Dustin

Jeff Dustin — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 21:10:51 +0000

I was in one of my final Master’s degree classes (sigh of relief) and we were exploring Professional Learning Communities. You raise a great point about cookbook recipe education among many. That is why restrain chefs with rote structure when they can do so much better on their own? PLCs do the job much better because they trust that a collective of educated and passionate individuals can improve education locally.

I think the answer comes from the accountability movement. You probably mentioned that and I missed your message. People want to point the finger and say, this individual messed up. It just feels safer to know who is to blame. Then all we have to do is fire that one and get another one. It is factory model education, 100 percent.

Trusting people is hard. After all, people do mess up, are prone to petty squabbles and feuds, and have fragile egos at times. Motivation sometimes lags and entropy can wreck groups and classrooms. People leave groups taking expertise and skill and maybe even worse passion and friendship. So trusting that the collective will do the job is scary.

Yet for all that I think you are right on the money. Collectively we can leverage our strengths. Thanks for a brilliant article.