Based on a little googling this appears to be a true story, which the author\/CEO admits to having modified slightly from the actual events. I got it from one of my nieces, who is a teacher.<\/p>\n
BLUEBERRY STORY : A Businessman Learns a Lesson
\nby Jamie Robert Vollmer<\/p>\n
“If I ran my business the way you people operate your schools, I\u00a0wouldn’t be in business very long!” I stood before an auditorium filled with\u00a0outraged teachers who were becoming angrier by the minute. My speech\u00a0had entirely consumed their precious 90 minutes of in-service. Their\u00a0initial icy glares had turned to restless agitation. You could cut the\u00a0hostility with a knife.<\/p>\n
I represented a group of business people dedicated to improving public\u00a0schools. I was an executive at an\u00a0ice cream company\u00a0that became famous\u00a0in the middle 1980s when\u00a0People Magazine\u00a0chose our blueberry as the\u00a0“Best Ice Cream in America.”<\/p>\n
I was convinced of two things. First, public schools needed to change;\u00a0they were archaic selecting and sorting mechanisms designed for the\u00a0industrial age and out of step with the needs of our emerging\u00a0“knowledge society.” Second, educators were a major part of the problem: they\u00a0resisted change, hunkered down in their feathered nests, protected by\u00a0tenure and shielded by a bureaucratic monopoly.<\/p>\n
They needed to look to business. We knew how to produce quality. Zero\u00a0defects! TQM! Continuous improvement! In retrospect, the speech was\u00a0perfectly balanced — equal parts ignorance and arrogance.<\/p>\n
As soon as I finished, a woman’s hand shot up. She appeared polite,\u00a0pleasant — she was, in fact, a razor-edged, veteran, high school\u00a0English teacher\u00a0who had been waiting to unload.<\/p>\n
She began quietly, “We are told, sir, that you manage a company that\u00a0makes good ice cream.” I smugly replied , “Best ice cream in America, Ma’am.”<\/p>\n
“How nice,” she said. “Is it rich and smooth?”\u00a0 “Sixteen percent\u00a0butterfat,” I crowed.<\/p>\n
“Premium ingredients?” she inquired. “Super-premium! Nothing but\u00a0triple A.” I was on a roll. I never saw the next line coming.<\/p>\n
“Mr. Vollmer,” she said, leaning forward with a wicked eyebrow raised\u00a0to the sky, “when you are standing on your receiving dock and you see an\u00a0inferior shipment of blueberries arrive, what do you do?”<\/p>\n
In the silence of that room, I could hear the trap snap. I was dead\u00a0meat, but I wasn’t going to lie. “I send them back.”<\/p>\n
“That’s right!” she barked, “and we can never send back our\u00a0blueberries. We take them big, small, rich, poor, gifted, exceptional, abused,\u00a0frightened, confident, homeless, rude, and brilliant.\u00a0We take them all: GT, ADHD, ADD, SLD, EI, MMR, OHI, TBI, DD, Autistic,\u00a0junior\u00a0rheumatoid\u00a0arthritis, English as their second language, etc.<\/p>\n
We take them all! Everyone!<\/p>\n
And that, Mr. Vollmer, is why it’s not a business. It’s school!”<\/p>\n
In an explosion, all 290 teachers, principals, bus drivers, aides,\u00a0custodians and secretaries jumped to their feet and yelled, “Yeah!\u00a0Blueberries! Blueberries!”<\/p>\n
And so began my long transformation. Since then, I have visited\u00a0hundreds of schools. I have learned that a school is not a business. Schools are\u00a0unable to control the quality of their raw material, they are dependent upon\u00a0the vagaries of politics for a reliable revenue stream, and they are\u00a0constantly mauled by a howling horde of disparate, competing customer\u00a0groups that\u00a0would send the best CEO screaming into the night.<\/p>\n
None of this negates the need for change. We must change what, when,\u00a0and how we teach to give all children maximum opportunity to thrive in a\u00a0postindustrial society. But educators cannot do this alone; these\u00a0changes can occur only with the understanding, trust, permission and active\u00a0support of the surrounding community.<\/p>\n
For the most important thing I have learned is that schools reflect\u00a0the attitudes, beliefs and health of the communities they serve, and\u00a0therefore, to improve public education means more than changing our schools, it\u00a0means changing America.<\/p>\n
Please forward THE BLUEBERRY STORY to teachers, parents, politicians\u00a0and everyone interested in education.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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