In the 80\u2019s, Jamie Vollmer, a businessman and attorney, became famous when <\/span>People<\/span><\/i> magazine named his company\u2019s blueberry ice cream the \u201cBest Ice Cream in America.\u201d He wasn\u2019t just a successful businessman, he was also an education advocate.<\/span><\/p>\n Mr. Vollmer contended that schools were stuck in the past and needed to change. And he heaped much of the problem on teachers, who he claimed were resistant to the needed changes.<\/span><\/p>\n His solution? Look to the business world! They knew how to produce quality.<\/span><\/p>\n So certain was he that this was the answer to schools\u2019 problems, Vollmer served as a representative for a group of like-minded business people and took his message on the road, speaking to large crowds of teachers.<\/span><\/p>\n It was after one of these speeches extolling the virtues of school-as-business that Vollmer had a revelation\u2014and realized he was wrong!<\/span><\/p>\n Vollmer himself describes this particular speech as \u201cequal parts ignorance and arrogance.\u201d As he finished, a teacher in the outraged audience\u2014a <\/span>veteran<\/span><\/i> teacher\u2014raised her hand with a seemingly innocent series of questions. <\/span><\/p>\n She asked about his ice cream. Is it rich and smooth? Does it use premium ingredients?<\/span><\/p>\n Vollmer\u2019s proud replies: \u201c16% butterfat.\u201d And of course, \u201csuper-premium ingredients, nothing but triple A.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n He didn\u2019t realize he\u2019d stepped into a trap until the teacher\u2019s next question. She wanted to know what the protocol was for when Vollmer received an inferior shipment of blueberries. What did he do with this less-than-premium ingredient?<\/span><\/p>\n Vollmer was forced to admit that he sends them back. The teacher\u2019s response to that deserves to be immortalized:<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThat’s right! And we can never send back our blueberries. We take them big, small, rich, poor, gifted, exceptional, abused, frightened, confident, homeless, rude, and brilliant. We take them with ADHD, junior rheumatoid arthritis, and English as their second language. We take them all! Every one! And that, Mr. Vollmer, is why it’s not a business. It’s a school!”<\/span><\/p>\n Wow. This teacher was a rock star! She spoke up for her profession\u2014and she made Vollmer see the light.<\/span><\/p>\n I really love this story. More than 30 years later, teachers are still facing many of the same criticisms from those who think they know better. The education profession continues to take a beating\u2014and provides few accolades for the talents and devotion of good teachers.<\/span><\/p>\n Teachers who are doing the best possible job, even with less-than-premium \u201cingredients.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Me? I\u2019m super-proud that in this country, we are committed to educating ALL children. We take them, no matter their background or challenges, and we TEACH them. And all the while, teachers are working to reinvent education to even better serve and meet the needs of every student.<\/span><\/p>\n Schools are not businesses selling packaged goods. Schools and their teachers INFLUENCE, IMPACT, and MODEL the knowledge and behaviors that our kids will need as they enter the real world and work to make it a better place.<\/span><\/p>\n And though it makes for a compelling analogy, students are not \u201cbad blueberries.\u201d Sure, some have their issues, their deficiencies, their troubled backgrounds. But that\u2019s where you come in, where you can make a difference.<\/span><\/p>\n These kids walk into the classroom looking for hope and help, for a chance to thrive, to prove that they are not a \u201csubpar ingredient.\u201d In return, teachers need to show tenacity, perseverance, and just a little of the spunk the teacher who faced off with Vollmer did.<\/span><\/p>\n Because that? Is a recipe for success.<\/p>\n Question: Teachers receive a lot of well-meaning advice from non-educators about how schools can improve their performance. What\u2019s the best you\u2019ve ever heard? The worst?<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Why Running a School Like a Business Doesn\u2019t Work In the 80\u2019s, Jamie Vollmer, a businessman and attorney, became famous when People magazine named his company\u2019s blueberry ice cream the \u201cBest Ice Cream in America.\u201d He wasn\u2019t just a successful businessman, he was also an education advocate. Mr. Vollmer contended that schools were stuck in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":19284,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reinventing-education"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/strobeleducation.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/strobeleducation.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/strobeleducation.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strobeleducation.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strobeleducation.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/strobeleducation.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strobeleducation.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/strobeleducation.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strobeleducation.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strobeleducation.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}