Why do a Listening Tour?

Speaker:  You have to talk to the people that do it, that knows the most about it. And I think that’s a mistake that we make time after time: We impose our will sometimes on people that haven’t had a say, and we wonder why we get pushback.

It’s like a parent raising a child. When I was a kid and my mother would just say “I just need you to do this” and my question would be “Well, why?” Well sometimes that worked, sometimes it didn’t, and I understand that some things are are absolutes and non-negotiable, but if you’re really talking about how you can make a difference in a teacher’s classroom, why would you not include the teacher?

If you want to talk about how you can make differences in math why would you not include the math teacher? Why would you not ask the math student? Even if you don’t do what I suggested, it’s nice to be heard and to know that it was considered and thought about.

People want to be heard–students, parents, community members alike and so for those that are making decisions that are the ultimate decision, it would serve us better if you really had a panel of people, and not just doing it to go through the motion to say you did it, but actually take the time and work through it.

It’s not a quick thing, it’s not an overnight thing; we didn’t get here overnight, and we won’t come out of this overnight, but we certainly won’t come out of it not working together not hearing from one another.