Speaking of David Whitman's schools, I recently had the chance to visit a charter school of the kind he describes in Sweating the Small Stuff, and it was sobering. Of course it wasn't my first visit to a "paternalistic" school, but most of those have involved the guided tour - the kind where you wonder if the students and teachers really act that way when nobody is watching. In this case, I knew the founder/principal, so I had a true behind-the-scenes look, unfiltered and unvarnished. And it was eye-opening.
It was amazing how many problems my friend encountered in the hour I was there - we must have been interrupted 20 times by students needing discipline, teachers needing guidance about discipline, others needing observation while they worked with a struggling student, etc. It was a whirlwind, and it was tiring just to watch. It gave me a deeper appreciation for the special talent, constant hard work, and unwavering attention to detail that it takes to run one of these schools.
But it was also disheartening, for my friend confessed her fear that the "model" of such hard work and long hours won't be sustainable - that principals and teachers who exert that kind of energy day after day will inevitably burn out. From my vantage point, it was hard to disagree.
