Why Bureaucracy Sucks 101

So today I had a little crash course in Why Bureaucracy Sucks 101.

It all started back in March, right after ARML tryouts. Our ARML team has a 200 dollar participation fee (to help pay for bus, crappy food, etc). Some schools agree to pay this fee for their students who make the team. Last year, Dan and I (meaning our parents) each ended up paying it ourselves. This year, since we had three more people going, I asked my teacher if there was any way the school could pay our fee. He talked to our director of student activities, and the answer came back in the form of a resounding “Yes!”

Naturally, everyone was happy. All we had to do was to fill out a “student activity form” (basically a permission slip for a field trip) so that the school would pay.

This is where it starts to get weird. Skip ahead to last night after practice. After my mother dropped Gavin off at home, I heard her say “shit” to herself. Asking what was wrong, she said she had brought her checkbook to pick us up from practice, but had forgotten to tell me to ask about the check. “What check?” I inquired “The school paid our fee!”

She proceeded to tell me about a phone message she got from my math team coach about a month ago. Basically, what came across was “Well, we might not be able to pay the ARML fee, so you might have to pay it and would that be okay with you?” Apparently, my mom called back to ask about it, and never heard back from my math team coach. I had heard nothing of the new development until that night (the night the check was due). I called the parents of two of the other Oak Park ARML kids. Their parents had received no such phone call. My mom and I assumed it was a mistake and everything was fine.

So this morning, I went to my math teacher’s room during study hall and asked him if our fees had been paid. He told me “no.” Apparently, between the times they promised to pay for us and the due date for the check, our student activities director talked to our like vice principal or some shit like that. SHE said that in order for it to be payable it had to be a “student activity,” meaning the school would have to provide transport to and from practices and such. None of the teachers had time, and we already had a carpool in place, so they decided not mess with what was already in place, and therefore it did not count as a “student activity.”

So it was the job of my math team coach to call us and tell us. Except her phone call would have been easier to understand (and certainly more definite) had it been in hieroglyphics. Then, when we tried to call back, we got no return call. And none of my friends received this call. And NO ONE ever told me personally about this … not my teacher, not my coach, not the department head, no one.

I’m a little peeved at my mother for not notifying me of this phone call until 10:00 PM OF THE DUE DATE. And I’m a little upset that my math team coach did not return her call to clarify. And it ticks me off a little bit that I personally was never informed of this. But mostly, I blame bureaucracy. I’m upset that after the decision was made, and seemed set in stone to everyone including my teacher, a higher-up reversed it.

This is the problem. You can’t have people try to lead what they cannot see. Donna Stevens sits up in her office, unaware of what goes on outside her door, and tries to direct stuff like this. Sue Bridge steps out her office only during full moons, and she tries to make decisions that directly relates to student’s lives. The Board of Education never, ever is in school during the day and tries to make important decisions about how to allot funds and run the school. I have news. IT DOESN’T WORK.

There have been multiple instances where stupid decisions have been made because no one ever sees what goes on. Last year, due to their apparent “danger,” our school tried to ban flip-flop style sandals. The ban (no pun intended), flopped. Student’s responded with “flip flop Fridays.” Our student newspaper openly bashed the ban the net week. The deans were upset because they had to deal with the kids sent up to their offices for this heinous crime, when they had much better things to worry about. And Security couldn’t deal with everyone who wore those shoes. The ban stopped being enforced about 3 weeks later, and I don’t think it’s on the books anymore this year.

This year, the board proposed putting Physical Education of the GPA, starting with next year’s freshmen. Never mind what this means for the integrity of your GPA score. Never mind it shafts the kids who are inherently non athletic. Never mind that in some team sports classes, half of your grade is based on the performance of your TEAM.

A couple of months ago, my teacher showed us the book we are planning to use for our “Advanced Topics in Algebra” class next year. He had also shown the books to a member of the board. Naturally, there was some notation that he could not understand. Math is like that. However, he used it as a way to bash the books. “Look at this…no kid can understand that…no one will want to learn from this.” So my teacher had to go to a board hearing to explain why he wanted to use those books. And my teacher and I had a good laugh over what a dumbass this board member was. He was like a Spanish major who looks at a Japanese class textbook and condemns it as unreadable. He should have come to my math team practice or my calc class. He would have seen about 20 kids who could understand those books and want to learn from them.

So basically, schools cannot be run by bureaucracy. Decisions cannot be made by those who don’t see what happens on a daily basis. I don’t know if there is a better way. I don’t know how much better this way will be. But I do know one thing: schools cannot be run by bureaucracy.

JB