Don’t Forget the Heartbeat
Near the end of The Yankee Years by Joe Torre and Tom Verducci, Joe Torre and Yankee General Manager Brian Cashman discuss the use of statistics in building a team. Since the annual publication of resources such as The Bill James Handbook, which provides past season statistics and next-year projections, baseball teams, more and more, are being built by the numbers. Bill James currently advises the Boston Red Sox, who have won two world championships during the last six years, so Cashman’s interest is understandable. Torre has not held the same view.
The former Yankee skipper has been around a long time (he was in his late 60’s during the writing of the book), and in his experience, personnel moves have been much more subjective, drawing on the impressions of coaches, scouts, and the manager himself as much as anything else. Torre truly believes that the numbers can’t tell you everything. He says that statistics may be fine, but “don’t forget the heartbeat of the players.” In other words, don’t forget intangibles such as a player’s competitive drive and leadership qualities.
The interplay between Torre and Cashman got me thinking about education as we prepare for the new school year. As you know, we are in the midst of serious educational discussions focusing on school improvement, standards, and accountability. Many say that the future of our nation depends on reinventing our schools. A tall order, to be sure.
But the Obama administration seems determined to do just that with, among other things, promises of significant funding to states truly committed to school reform. Meanwhile, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan barnstorms across the country, threatening school districts that don’t appreciate the severity of the problem. (See my blog entry “All Hail to the King.”) In addition, rigorous national standards are being developed, not without a bit of controversy, I might add. So a foundation for change is forming. At this point, it’s anybody’s guess what will actually happen and when and with what results.
While all of this tough talk and planning goes on, most of our schools will start the year with fewer teachers, program cuts, and outdated textbooks and/or technology because of budget shortfalls. Yet the students will be expected to meet demanding curriculum standards and will be assessed (perhaps multiple times) to see if they are. The results of these tests will be the statistics that educators and policy wonks use when evaluating our schools. The results get posted in local newspapers for everyone to see in the spring. Naturally, most administrators and principals dread this time of year because poor test scores put them under a lot of pressure.
I don’t expect that this year will be any different from others, so we’ll hear about our students’ deplorable math scores. We’ll also learn that they can’t write a basic essay or they can’t analyze nonfiction texts or they can’t problem solve or they can’t think critically. And we will be told that our schools are falling further and further behind, that we must make significant changes without delay.
While the discussion continues, as new policies are considered, as more tests are given, and as new approaches are implemented, let’s not forget that our schools should be about more than results and scores. They need to become stimulating and secure—places young people want to be, for all of the best reasons. And above all else, let’s not forget the heartbeat of our students. As we go through this period of change, let’s remember that each and every one of them deserves time and space to explore her or his unique thoughts, feelings, and desires.
(See my personal blog, DaveKemper.net, for prose poems that address the heartbeat of my former students.)
—Dave
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