Page 253 - Harnessing the Management Secrets of Disney in Your Company

234 The Disney Way

Downtown School provide a world-class educational experience? Apparently
a lot of people think so. Nearly 900 students are on the waiting list for admis-
sion to the Downtown School. During the first two years of its operation,
2,038 educators, school board members, and business people visited the
school. The visitor log includes representatives from 22 states and 10 coun-
tries. “Only through innovators like you will the rest of us begin to change,”
commented one visiting elementary school principal. An educator from
Kyrgyzstan remarked, “Even without the ability to communicate verbally,
because we do not share a common language, we did understand the phi-
losophy and design of the school by actually seeing the classes and children.”
Sounds pretty world-class to us.

Dare
For most principals, swimming against the vast current of traditional education
in American would result in being swallowed up by the undertow. Jan Drees
simply changed the tide, a monumental act of courage for which the parents of
her students should be eternally grateful. The educational system in the United
States has been failing our children for the past quarter century or more. But
it’s like the elephant in the room—everybody talks about it, but nobody does
anything about it. Jan and the Des Moines Business Alliance decided it was high
time to remove the elephant. As a team, they decided to “blow up” the tradi-
tional model of education and start from scratch at the Downtown School.
Was this a risk? Nearly every principal in America would answer “Yes” to
that question. But, if our schools are in such bad shape, shouldn’t everyone
rally around such a project? On January 13, 2006, ABC news correspondent
John Stossel hosted a “20/20” television special entitled, “Stupid in America:
How We Cheat Our Kids.” As John remarked, “If you’re like most American
parents, you might think, ‘These things don’t happen at my kid’s school.’ A
recent Gallup Poll survey showed that 76 percent of Americans were com-
pletely or somewhat satisfied with their kids’ public school.”
Not only were Jan and the Des Moines Business Alliance bucking the
conventional wisdom of the majority of U.S. parents, but they also were up
against a huge and powerful tidal wave in the form of the teacher’s union and
school district administrators. In most school districts, the K-12 public edu-
cational system is a monopoly; parents have no choice as to the school their
children may attend. Add to this problem the contractual headaches induced
by the omniscient teacher’s union, and you have the perfect formula for