Not-So-Super Superintendents
Ohanian, Susan
Not-So-Super Superintendents by Susan Ohanian Every school policy and plan, no matter who thinks it up, ultimately ends up in the hands of the local administrators. Superintendents control the...
...This is, after all, Orlando...
...The company’s products are mentioned under Books, Magazines & Periodicals, Curricular Materials, Reference Books, Teaching Aids & Materials, and Textbooks...
...He informs his audience that he knows a lot about difficult studentslike Big Brenda, with her 44W bosoms, and another kid with “his fly down and his underpants in his back pocket...
...As a longtime teacher, I am struck by how much higher the stakes are at AASA conventions than at the meetings designed for teachers...
...They just grab their stickers and rush on to the next booth with the same question, “Got any stickers...
...And it doesn’t help any that he has a plane to catch...
...It didn’t faze him that my master’s degree was in medieval literature or that I’d never had a course in how to teach reading...
...Somebody has to choose this stuff, you say...
...Applause...
...For the 122nd convention, in San Francisco, the cast of characters changed slightly, but the message remained clear: If YOU want to get school administrators into the convention hall, you’d better have a sports figure...
...I get so caught up in the stainless steel recessed handles for lockers (in 16 designer colors), circuit-training obstacle courses, and toilet paper dispensers promising 50 percent savings on tissue consumption, that it takes me quite a while to realize there are almost no books in the place...
...He says that when he bought the Yankees, they were such a sorry lot “the team picture looked like a poster for birth control...
...Some day I will return here and give you a new chemistry building...
...For $70 you can get a one-day pass into the AASA exhibition hall, a stunning sight for a first-time visitor...
...Then he got down to important matters: deciding where I should be placed on the salary scale...
...Nothing is more important to me than education...
...An examination of the “Job Bulletin” section of the AASA newspaper, Leadership News, raises certain questions about just what districts expect from their superintendents...
...1 and winning as No...
...Each committee member and spouse walks on stage hand-inhand, the woman of the pair carrying a bouquet of flowers...
...Superintendents came to hear Steinbrenner the celebrity, not one of their own...
...Price tag: $49.95...
...First-time convention attendees are asked to stand and are entreated to strive for the 25-year attendance pin...
...There’s also The Caring Administrator Positive Resource Guide, containing samples of such essentials as notices for teacher appreciation day, acknowledgement of a faculty member’s marriage, and so forth...
...The audience clearly loves this beefy despot who can stand there and brag, “I do it my way”-a man who has fired 16 managers...
...But unfortunately, the convention format takes its toll on him too...
...He opens with a joke about Wade Boggs’s sex life that falls flat...
...For card-canying AASA members, the convention fee is $280, for nonmembers it’s $380...
...Noting that “with the roles of society changing, educators have found it necessary to establish programs that satisfy the need for lifetime activities which provide enjoyment, relaxation, fulfillment, and meaning,” the NRA proposes that schools should institute “shooting sports education programs...
...I wondered if it was only coincidental that the convention was held during National Frozen Food Month...
...With a little imagination,” states the guide, the teacher “can link some aspect of shooting with almost every subject taught in our nation’s schools...
...When I phoned AASA headquarters for help in finding accommodations, a very pleasant person asked me if I wanted an inexpensive, moderate, or quality room...
...I finally found out what was behind the sticker frenzy: Conventioneers who fill a certain card with stickers win the right to participate in a drawing for a free trip to the next convention-not of much direct use since the district pays the administrator’s way, but of great use to spouses, who attend AASA conventions in large numbers...
...Let’s keep it here and take care of our young...
...The 17,000-plus administrators gathered here seem to be having a whole lot of fun looking at synthetic turf, choral risers, pre-portioned school lunches, cast vinyl multipurpose sport flooring, wrestling-mat holders, and electronic scoreboards...
...When I expressed surprise, she let down her hair and said, “You should hear these guys...
...in 1990, Roger Staubach...
...License to sell The AASA convention is a cheerful place...
...As a result, his presentation is minimal, and he doesn’t even stay for the ensuing panel discussion organized around it...
...Applause...
...America’s school superintendents sop this up...
...Applause...
...Scanning these listings reminded me of an interview I once had with a district superintendent for a job teaching remedial reading to inner-city seventh graders...
...Clemens tells lots of ethnic jokes and speaks in various dialects to portray uplifting conversations he’s had with everyone from superintendents to crippled children in hospital wards...
...When Steinbrenner adds, “You are the chosen few,” they applaud again...
...Then George Steinbrenner looks directly at this audience of several thousand and says, “I love teaching...
...convention hall, you’d better have a sports figure...
...They give him a standing ovation...
...After the rodent pair dances a jig and does a spiel hyping the educational benefits of Disney World, the AASA president delivers a message I hear repeated throughout my five days: “We’ve had sions ordinarily focus on pre-portioned school lunchtoo much criticism...
...Watching these people in action at their annual convention gives you a pretty good idea why we’re still losing that war...
...After she acknowledges her introduction as a noted educational leader, Love says, “I can’t be every place at once, so I have developed videos which are available to school districts...
...People whose big decies love listening to this paunchy peacock drop the names of his industrialist friends-the fellows who, he tells us, share his $120 lunches at Twenty-one...
...On the other hand, Cliffs Notes is here...
...In other words, they are the ground commanders in the war for better schools...
...Despite superintendents’ pivotal roles, I came across only one ad that asked for “thorough knowledge of curriculum/instruction, current research, and human growth development...
...there are just three companies selling textbooks...
...The owner of the New York Yankees goes on to brag about his fines for being a loudmouth-“more than all my players put together-$425,000...
...Courses in how to choose an intercom system...
...Navy Recruiting Command booklets by people rushing from booth to booth exclaiming, ::Got any stickers...
...Steinbrenner tells his AASA audience that he recently advised officials at his alma mater, Williams College, “Honor the student like me-the C-, D+ student...
...Play ball And then comes the star attraction: introduced as a business man, a fierce competitor, a man who dearly loves our great country and supports our political system, a vice-president of the Olympic Committee, the 1977 baseball Executive of the Year, and “great lover of young people”4eorge Steinbrenner...
...And just think-at that next convention, the lucky winner could fill another card with stickers...
...The executive committee of the AASA is introduced...
...To help justify that, the AASA calls the fee tuition...
...American Air Filter draws the biggest crowd every day with a carnival-style barker who demonstrates the old find-the-peanut-underthe-shell con game...
...Now that’s not surprising, since superintendents don’t choose schoolbooksthat’s usually done by teacher committeesbut one look around the exhibition hall makes it clear that basketball salesmen think superintendents care a lot about basketballs...
...And yes, the National Rifle Association is here, too...
...Guns and rodents But even so, the most popular booth here is not the one giving out the most stickers...
...Applause...
...Clemens starts off his speech by saying “how downright awesome” it feels “to have the opportunity to address the CEOs of America’s schools...
...Inside the exhibition hall, I’m pushed away from my examination of hardwood floors and U.S...
...Judging by the “Exhibitor’s Directory,” AASA must believe ClzjJs Notes does it all...
...Do you think they’d stay in a place as nice as the Radisson if it was coming out of their own pockets...
...After failing to have any positive effect on the disastrous state of the Chicago system, Ruth Love was let go from her job as superintendent of schools there...
...In 1989, George Steinbrenner...
...All in all, a pretty shoddy appearance-but maybe Sizer was the only one here who gave the AASA meeting the time it was really worth...
...But should school districts be paying that somebody $80,000 a year-to select basketballs...
...2. And the superintendents vigorously applaud his message of keeping our foreign aid at home instead of sending it to other nations, “some of whom bum our flags...
...To help justify that, the AASA calls the fee tuition...
...For those conventioneers unable to attend, Love’s lecture is also available on tape cassettes...
...The line between information and promotion, hazy enough in the AASA program of events, where many of the speakers billed as “Distinguished Lecturers” promote their commercial videos and training programs from the lectern, is completely obliterated in the exhibition hall, where many of the featured speakers set up booths, selling their services as consultants...
...I guess I wasn’t really surprised to see the first general session kicked off by the Magic Kingdom’s royal couple, Mickey and Minnie Mouse...
...They believe him, not noticing that later in his remarks he admits that he ranks breathing No...
...People who buy the tape get to hear an audio of Ruth Love’s video...
...But does any of this explain why a teacher must obtain a special license to be an administrator...
...Immediately following Steinbrenner on the program is the announcement of the Superintendent of the Year...
...Not that the prices mean much to the attendees-they ’re on the expense account all the way...
...We’re running out of the deluxe-$150 and up...
...Has anybody ever questioned why a school district needs to send its leader to Florida one year and San Francisco the next to look at toilet paper dispensers...
...But she is a staple on AASA programs...
...Boy, do superintendents like being referred to as CEOs...
...I figure that, even counting the drive to and from the airport, he must not have been in Orlando for much more than an hour...
...And they don’t care that a consultant named Zacharie J. Clemens is a featured speaker...
...Such remarks play to a receptive house...
...There are also five days of speeches...
...The audience rises to sing “The Star Spangled Banner,” to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, and to hear an invocation...
...We have the greatest public education system in the world...
...At the main annual meeting for reading teachers, educational consultant Lee Canter hawks his assertive discipline teacher guides for $7.95...
...There’s something wrong about giving it to other nations...
...The qualifications listed most often in job ads are “administrative experience” and “doctorate preferred...
...Applause...
...For card-canying AASA members, the convention fee is $280, for nonmembers it’s $380...
...Not that the prices mean much to the attendees-they ’re on the expense account all the way...
...In 1989, George Steinbrenner...
...He imitates the pronunciation of a person with a serious speech defect and of a child with severe cerebral palsy...
...When Steinbrenner delivers the tasteless, racist remark that “Sanchez was so lazy he thought manual labor was the president of his country,” the crowd of educators roars its delight...
...Afterwards, members of the AASA audience rush forward to tell Clemens how moved they were by his performance, especially that cerebral palsy kid...
...They phone up and say, ‘I don’t want to be stuck in some dump like the Radisson...
...The 121st convention of the American Association of School Administrators (AASA) in Orlando, Florida, had it all: appearances by Mickey Mouse and Shamu, racist jokes by one keynote speaker, and imitations of a cerebral palsy victim by another...
...The superintendent satisfied himself as to my qualifications by my affirmative reply to his question, “Would you be willing to teach colored kiddos...
...later we’re treated to the Singing Superintendents joining their voices in “Climb Every Mountain...
...But AASA conventions are not just display booths and food extravaganzas...
...Then I realize the buses are yellow, so I look around some more...
...Are there graduate courses in trench drain specifications...
...Superintendents control the district’s purse strings and oversee its hiring and firing...
...Lab classes providing training on selecting basketballs, file cabinets, and venetian blinds...
...Of the more than 250 exhibitors showing their wares, 53 are selling athletic equipment, bleachers, and gymnasium maintenance products...
...Using a high, squeaky, mincing tone, he quotes a first grader: “Sex education-first, you gotta avoid intersections, and second you gotta buy condominiums...
...And it doesn’t seem to hurt a superintendent’s standing as an AASA featured speaker and consultant to have been run out of town...
...After all, Sizer really is working full-time to fix America’s schools...
...Although the master of ceremonies insists that “the suspense builds” to learn the name of the distinguished winner, hundreds of superintendents jam the aisles trying to get to the exit...
...Eating certainly is at the forefront of convention activities, with “food functions” sponsored by everyone from the American Desk Manufacturing Company to Control Data Corporation to the Kansas Association of School Administrators to the Women’s Caucus...
...When I replied, “As cheap as possible,” she sighed...
...Research assistance provided by Mary Clayton Coleman...
...He was, after all, speaking to a group that knows how tough it is to get rid of just one troublesome teacher...
...Not-So-Super Superintendents by Susan Ohanian Every school policy and plan, no matter who thinks it up, ultimately ends up in the hands of the local administrators...
...Huge video screens dominate the front of the hall, so you can watch the real thing on stage or the largerthanlife video representations...
...When I phoned AASA headquarters for help in finding accommodations, a very pleasant person asked me if I wanted an inexpensive, moderate, or Susan Ohanian taught in the public schools for nearly 20 years and is currently writing a book about teaching...
...But at the AASA convention, Canter’s selling his video package, Assertive Discipline for Bus Drivers-for $349...
...The next general session speaker, Theodore Sizer, author of Horace’s Compromise and chairman of the Coalition of Essential Schools, does not pack the celebrity draw of George Steinbrenner or attempt the pull-at-the-heartstrings of Zacharie Clemens...
...It’s not even the one giving away Coca-Cola...
...Laughing, she said, “Who do they think they’re kidding...
...There’s an entertainment prelude to each general session...
...Applause...
...The most important people in this nation today are not politicians or industrialists,” Steinbrenner then intones, “they are educators...
...That’s good...
...in 1990, Roger Staubach...
...In general, they don’t seem to care about the wares the booth’s displaying...
...When I walk into a room filled with buses and bleachers, 1 figure I’m in the wrong place and start to leave...
...To this end, the NRA offers an across-the-curriculum guide for integrating shooting sports into the education process...
...Her presentation at Orlando is definitely hard sell...
Vol. 22 • September 1990 • No. 8
