Some time ago, a LinkedIn article compared the similarity between Learning and Change as well as link between the business side and the educational side of the school.<\/p>\n
I commented that learning and change are indeed congruent, as both involve processes.\u00a0 Educators are great at processes, and change management is all about transition, which is a process.<\/p>\n
The difficulty is that the business side of a school involves a system, and the educational side is also a system.<\/p>\n
While the elements in the educational side work well together, many times, the elements on the business side of the school do not function well as a system, and sometimes, consequently, to the detriment of the school.<\/p>\n
If you’ve been reading these “Tetrahedronics” articles, you’ve seen examples of systems.\u00a0 If one element of the system is missing, the system is incomplete, and does not function properly.\u00a0 Just as your body is a system of systems, your school is a living entity, where each element of a system has an effect on every other element of that system, and every system has an effect on the other connected systems.<\/p>\n
For example, if your body’s digestive system isn’t doing well, it may have a significant effect on all the other systems of your body.<\/p>\n
The same theory applies to systems at work in schools.<\/p>\n
Even though Catholic schools celebrated Catholic Schools Week at the end of January, many still wonder why, in some areas of the country, enrollment is declining, schools are merging, and eventually closing.\u00a0 School leaders may think that children are leaving and going to public schools, but today’s parents are looking into all educational options, such as charter schools and homeschooling too.\u00a0 Many parents have college degrees today, and, in the eyes of the State, that makes them qualified to educate their children.\u00a0 Even the Catechism of the Catholic Church acknowledges parents as the first and primary educators of their children, so one could even argue that homeschooling is fulfilling their role as defined by the Catholic church.<\/p>\n
I believe there are five reasons why, despite concerted efforts at enrollment, marketing and development activities, schools are still struggling to survive.\u00a0 Educational leaders usually point to two – difficult economic conditions and shifting demographics.\u00a0 But those are only two, and a complete system has five – which is why correcting the concern is a difficult process…especially if you’ve not identified the other 3.<\/p>\n
One of these additional 3 concerns deals with mindsets of the 5 individuals\/groups involved in a faith-based school: the pastor, the principal (and\/or the board), the business manager (and\/or the finance council), the parents, and the advancement director.<\/p>\n
The remaining two concerns are an awareness of systems thinking, and an awareness of linear\/process thinking.\u00a0 Let’s focus on those last two this week, since our schools are great at linear thinking, which can evolve into process thinking.<\/p>\n
In any goal-oriented endeavor, the goal is defined, then objectives break the down the goal into smaller components, then strategies are developed to achieve the objectives, and processes are employed to make progress toward reaching the goal.\u00a0 Behavioral change is necessary, which is why it’s been said that if you focus on the goal, you will never change; but it if you focus on the change, you will achieve the goal.<\/p>\n
This is precisely why individuals get frustrated, or coaches who speak to always focusing on the goal, can create frustration in their teams when the team doesn’t reach the goal. \u00a0 Just think of your New Year’s resolution that went away before the end of January.\u00a0 If you gave up, you probably didn’t see you reaching your goal fast enough, or, as is popular today, didn’t move the needle far enough to keep you motivated.<\/p>\n
Focusing on the process to get there, however, after the goal has been determined, allows one to pay attention to the steps that are necessary to reach the goal.\u00a0 The vision, remember, isn’t “out there.”\u00a0 It’s all around you.\u00a0 The vision is indeed important – but what’s right in front of you is the path.<\/p>\n
While our schools are all about linear and process thinking, the difficulty is that we don’t have an awareness of where that process can lead, and then we become frustrated when it doesn’t lead to where we want it to lead.\u00a0 A great tongue-in-cheek example of linear thinking is the iconic series of television commercials highlighting the drawbacks of cable TV.\u00a0 One begins, “When your cable goes out, you take karate lessons.\u00a0 When you take karate lessons, you want to show that you’re tough.\u00a0 When you want to show that you’re tough, you wear an eye patch.\u00a0 When you wear an eyepatch, people think you’re tough.\u00a0 When people think you’re tough, you can end up in a ditch.\u00a0 Don’t end up in a ditch.”<\/p>\n
Right now, our educational process moves children through preschool (which, by the way, is a great oxymoron, since learning takes place there.\u00a0 Therefore, it should be called Pre-K), kindergarten and continues through grade 12.\u00a0 Then it can go to higher education or a job, then from higher education to a job, or from higher education to graduate education and then to a job.<\/p>\n
Note that for about 21 years of schooling, classes, teachers, schools and assignments are changing all the time.\u00a0 Then the student lands a job – where they may do the … same … thing … each … and … every … day.\u00a0 21 years of schooling and constant changes results in a job where you focus on doing one thing.\u00a0 This actually provided a great comeback to the quintessential student question:\u00a0 “Why do we have to do this?\u00a0 This is boring.”<\/p>\n
“That’s because your job will be boring.”<\/p>\n
But no great teacher would ever tell their student that.<\/p>\n
Technology is, of course, further changing the educational environment.\u00a0 An online calculus class may have 10th graders through graduates and adults that have returned to school in it.\u00a0 Thanks to the pandemic, a number of schools now have a “Chrome from Home” program.\u00a0 Every student has ChromeBook and on days of inclement weather or other concerns, they have a “remote” day.\u00a0 Teachers post assignments, and students “work from home,” which means there are no more “snow days.”<\/p>\n
Imagine these kids being told by an employer that they don’t have the option to work from home.\u00a0 We don’t have to imagine telling some employees today that they can’t work from home anymore and must return to the office.\u00a0 That’s when they start looking for a new role at a new company.<\/p>\n
These Millennials, and now Zoomers (the digital generation, or Generation Z who are 20 and under this year), are significantly different from any generation that has come before them.\u00a0 Baby Boomers would comply, but would complain about it, and Generation X would see if there was something they could do to make the situation easier for them.<\/p>\n
Millennials, however, have no qualms about looking for another job where policies make sense for the current age, even looking at starting their own “side hustle” or even bootstrap their own business rather than fulfilling the expectation of “this is the way things are done around here,” especially if “the way we’ve always done it” no longer makes sense to them.<\/p>\n
And Zoomers won’t be focusing on their “job;” they’ll be focusing on how they generate revenue (which is why I like to call the The Revenue Generation in our new “gig” economy).\u00a0 That might include an online business, driving for Doordash, and investing in the stock market or cryptocurrencies, just like those folks in days gone by who liked to bet on the ponies.<\/p>\n
Not seeing where process thinking leads can be a huge problem, and here’s the big one that no one has seemed to realize yet regarding Catholic school closures (which can also apply to a Church-supported Christian school).\u00a0 If anyone has<\/em> realized it, it’s not a widely publicized topic of discussion.<\/p>\n The closing of a Catholic school creates a “hole” in the life of the parish.<\/p>\n There is a time of grieving, but the focus is always on the children, as there are other Catholic schools they can attend and new friendships can be established.\u00a0 Kids, after all, are resilient.\u00a0 All that is absolutely true.<\/p>\n But let’s look at the parish.<\/p>\n The parish where the school was located now has a building that isn’t being used.\u00a0 If parents with toddlers are in the area, and they’re looking at educational options for their children, they’re looking near where the functioning school is located.\u00a0 There’s a good chance that those young parents will worship at the site where their children will attend school, and, even though they may live in the area established as a particular parish, they will join the parish where their children attend school.\u00a0 Territorial parish boundaries mean nothing today.<\/p>\n The parish with the closed school will see their population age, and while young families may move in to the area, they’ll be involved with the parish that hosts the school.\u00a0 As the population of the parish ages, the congregation will shrink, and eventually, the parish will either be merged or suppressed, and the church site could close.<\/p>\n And then all the older folks will grieve the loss of their parish where their kids were baptized, they were married, and received their first communion.\u00a0 They’ll complain – to the Bishop and perhaps even to the Pope.<\/p>\n And that’s precisely what’s happening right now.<\/p>\n The church I was baptized in was merged into a parish some time ago with 4 worship sites.\u00a0 It was announced a few years ago that this worship site, where my mom and dad were married, where I was baptized, and where my grandparents and aunts were buried from, will be torn down to create a parking lot.\u00a0 The small chapel where my wife and I were married has been razed and is also a parking lot.<\/p>\n As for the parish I was raised in, it, along with 3 other local parishes, all had Catholic schools at one time, and two of them had high schools.\u00a0 All the schools are now closed, and the four parishes are now merged into one parish with 4 worship sites.\u00a0 Three years ago, two more parishes were merged into it, and along with one of them came a Catholic school!\u00a0 The exciting news was that the new parish could be able to support a Catholic school, right?<\/p>\n Nope.\u00a0 It closed too.\u00a0 Today, that school building has also been razed, and the local public school district is building their new elementary school on that property.<\/p>\n What’s the message of linear thinking here?\u00a0 The closure of a Catholic school may be the precursor to closure of a parish.<\/p>\n Want your church to grow?\u00a0 Here’s a radical idea – start a Catholic school from the ground up.\u00a0 Start with a pre-school, and build the community of parents so that they’ll continue to move forward to the next grade.\u00a0 Let them be trailblazers.\u00a0 Let them help form the vision.<\/p>\n Because as Scripture tells us, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.”\u00a0 (Proverbs 29:18)<\/p>\n \u00a9 Michael V. 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