What is School For?

I first heard this question posed in Stop Stealing Dreams by Seth Godin. It's been stuck in my head ever since.

When I joined a San Diego charter school in fall 2018 as their new data officer, I thought it might be an opportunity to help fix education. I quit a couple months later, bought a used car, and drove Uber instead. I simply couldn't stand the hopeless misalignments I encountered in that school.

There were enormous gaps in student abilities within the same classroom. Some of the high schoolers didn't speak english or know how to divide numbers. The one teacher who effectively grouped students by their math abilities was fired. I did daycare supervision at lunch, stepped in last-minute to teach a couple electives, and ground my teeth through 3-hour monologue "meetings" run by the principal.

The last straw: change that pie chart to a bar chart for the upcoming school board meeting. It will make our college retention rates look better!

Excuse me? Is the purpose of this school and all its staff to "look good" for the board? As opposed to helping these Title I kiddos thrive?

(I was reminded of the powerpoint I made for the Caixabank director in Barcelona the year before. "Andy, make some slides on where I can find a bagel in Boston when I visit next week?" The boss there didn't let others beat him in pingpong. You had to redo your serve if it was too fast for him. This didn't go both ways.)

So I saw a 5-year journey ahead. Maybe I could grind it out, eventually attain a leadership role in that community, and maybe use my influence and position to gradually shift the school's posture towards maybe helping the students more effectively. But it was a long shot.

I seek 10x systematic impact. Call me a hypocrite, but I couldn't devote my 20s to this one random school and a maybe. This was not easy to explain. But I chose to search for a better entry point, even though I had no idea what it might look like and it's taken me 7 years of roving to finally have a faint glimmer.

When I said goodbye, one of my students in the entrepreneurship class literally burst into tears. After the first few weeks of confusing me for a fellow high schooler, the students had formed strong bonds: "but Mr. Trattner you're our favorite." 😭

That particular school was fairly new, and perhaps competent people in the community have since corrected its mismanagement. I doubt it.

Every smart or successful person I've ever met cares deeply about education. They want others to have similar opportunities they had, to work hard and succeed in life. But although many opine on the problems and relevant questions, very few can articulate an answer as well as Alpha School.