Putting one’s best foot forward
We should always be ready and not only get our act together when there is an impending appraisal or review
“CAN you believe it,” my old friend Dilla’s voice rang stridently through the phone.
“They actually said no” she continued before I could respond. “And after all these years” Some unintelligible sounds came across the line interspersed with a few disapproving ‘humphs’ as Dilla went on with her tirade. Through her patchy explanation scattered with several “Are you listening”. I finally managed to piece the situation together.
Apparently Dilla had bumped into a couple of former colleagues who were still teaching and whom she had not seen for years. “We used to be pretty close friends”, she told me later. “Gossiped through the same staff meetings, complained about the same canteen food, trained the same drama and debate teams, admired the same. well anyway, I thought it would be quite nice to have tea with them, you know. Catch up on all that’s been happening in school. I was so sure there would be loads of stuff they wanted to tell me, what with the new principal and all but would you believe it, they said no, another time, please. There are going to be important people coming over next week to assess the school and we are all terribly busy getting things in order. In fact, we just came to buy some material to continue our “keceriaan” (festive) work in the Form Five block. And then this Friday after recess, it’s a school-wide gotong-royong.”
“Well,” sighed Dilla. “I guess they really don’t have the time. You know what it’s like whenever there are people coming to visit or look over the school or something. You’ve been there, too.”
Making a good impression
I certainly knew what she meant. I remembered how it used to be like whenever there was news that the school was going to have “visitors” from the education offices or other departments.
There would be school wide announcements for teachers and students to ensure their classrooms were clean, student displays spruced up and no broken furniture left lying along corridors. Waste-paper baskets would be promptly emptied and the fascinating graffiti of human anatomy that had decorated the wall leading to the boys’ washrooms, since January, would be hastily painted over.
Sad looking notice boards with droopy yellowing photographs and announcements of decades old sports events, would be replaced with brand new, still-warm printouts of current co-curriculum activities. A whole-school clean-up would likely be organised, the intensity of which would depend on the “importance” of the visitors and the measure of influence they had in determining school rankings.
I remember times when lessons were cancelled and replaced with “gotong-royong” in order to get the school presentable for these impending visits.
“After all, getting students to tidy up their learning environment is still education,” school administrators would remark if someone made a comment about “missed lessons”. A fair enough justification especially when accompanied by words like “holistic” and “student ownership.”
Questions like, “But why only now?” “Why not emphasise the importance of a conducive physical learning environment, every day?” hang in the air but no one says it out because to a large extent we are all in it together.
We are all in varying degrees familiar with untidy, rubbish strewn classrooms, broken window panes and display boards that hang forlornly empty all throughout the year. Most of us have entered or taught in such surroundings and we know the excuses or reasons given for the situation. There may have been times when we have used them ourselves and when these reasons were to a measure, justified. “It’s no use, putting display boards up, they get vandalised the next day,” ; “Why have a reading corner in the classroom when no one is interested in reading?”; “I’ve got no time to think about improving the school’s physical environment, I need to finish my syllabus.”
Putting on a show
This is not helped by the lackadaisical attitude of some school leaders and administrators who either fail to do regular monitoring or are not unduly concerned about the environment their students learn in.
And yet, when the need arises, such as when the school or it’s leaders are due to come under scrutiny for potential promotion, appraisal or assessment ranking, remarkable changes can happen. Almost overnight, “corridors of knowledge” are created. Motivational sayings spring up in the most unlikely corners of the school. Classrooms that looked forgotten by time, are transformed into promising centres of knowledge.
And school administrators who had never been unduly concerned about holes in ceilings and walls, vandalised boards, rubbish-strewn assembly areas, or broken furniture, suddenly seem energised into action when they find out that the school is going to come under inspection by external parties.
Which if seen from another point of view, may not be a terribly bad thing really. So what if we want to put our best foot forward when there are people coming to observe us - even if it’s not a real foot. Who’s to say what’s real and what’s not? After all, we mostly do the same thing when we want our guests to have a good impression of our homes. We bring out our best tablecloths, serve food on special occasion plates, and make sure everything is neat and in order. We want to make sure people think well of us.
I remember working in a school years ago where the principal wanted to create an orchid garden in keeping with the school’s emblem and history. Young orchid plants were purchased or collected and there was a special ceremony to launch the garden officiated at by the District Education Officer. There was a lot of all-round congratulations, speeches were made, and one of the students recited an ‘orchid’ themed sajak (poem).
Sadly, without proper care and follow-up, many plants died, and soon only a few straggly orchid stumps remained. So I was really surprised when one Monday morning I passed the garden and found it in full wondrous bloom with beautiful orchids of different colours. I was wondering what “miracle fertiliser could have been responsible for this burst of beauty” until I realised that bunches of orchid flowers had been cleverly twined around each dried up orchid stump to look like they were actually blooming. “What to do lah,” the teacher who had been commissioned to do the “instant orchid garden” said later. “One whole team from KPM (the Education Ministry) are coming to check the school this week. Sometimes we have no choice. Have to put on a show - kena drama sikit.”
I recall how teachers, timetables were temporarily changed and classrooms swapped when there was news of a school inspection. When this involved evaluation of teaching, it was not uncommon for the day’s lesson to be repeated or ‘rehearsed’ lessons with a varied range of teaching resources and extraordinarily interesting learning activities.
The sad part of all of it is, that once the “guests” leave, once there is no one left to observe, appraise or review, things often slip back to the bleak and mundane way they were before.
So ok, even in the best of schools, there is always a fair bit of drama and performance when we know we are being watched. We post pictures or share snippets of our school’s achievements and even exaggerate a little at times.
Yes, we are proud of our little successes and we rightfully should be. We should be proud of the things we want to showcase. And yet there is a need to go beyond showcasing in order to impress the viewers. We need to ensure that such best practices are consistent and natural to the school’s character.
That they become so embedded and ingrained that the next time anyone wants to come and observe, watch, evaluate, or appraise, we could just say, Yes, why not, anytime. We are always ready.
We need to ensure that such best practices are consistent ... That they become so embedded that the next time anyone wants to come and observe, we could just say, yes, why not, anytime. We are always ready.