Page 254 - Harnessing the Management Secrets of Disney in Your Company

Dream, Believe, Dare, Do 235

non-innovative teaching. In Stossel’s “20/20” report, Joel Klein, Chancellor
of the New York City public school system reported, “It’s just about impossible
to fire a bad teacher. The new union contract offers some relief, but it’s still
about 200 pages of bureaucracy. We tolerate mediocrity because people get
paid the same, whether they’re outstanding, average, or way below average.”
Stossel proceeded, “Klein said he employs dozens of teachers who he’s afraid
to let near the kids, so he has them sit in what are called ‘rubber rooms.’ This
year, he will spend $20 million dollars to ‘warehouse’ teachers in five ‘rub-
ber rooms.’ It’s an alternative to firing them. In the last four years, only two
teachers out of 80,000 were fired for incompetence.”
It has been over 10 years since the creation of the Downtown School,
and by all accounts, it has been an overwhelming success. Just imagine what
would have happened if the Downtown School philosophy had failed. All of
the naysayers would have rallied together to dish out the blame, and the name
“Jan Drees” would have topped off the list. Was this the same type of career
“dare” Walt took when he decided to make Snow White? The naysayers in
Walt’s day said that no one would sit through a 90-minute cartoon. Boy, were
they wrong!
We believe that the courage exhibited by Jan Drees in challenging
the traditional education system was the same kind of courage that Walt
exhibited over half a century ago. It took more than 60 years for other film
companies to begin producing animated feature films. Hopefully, it won’t be
another 60 years before the rest of our nation’s school districts dare to follow
the Downtown School’s example of “blowing up” the old system and creat-
ing a world-class educational opportunity for all students. They need only
to remember: “If you do what you have always done, you will get what you
always have gotten: stupid in America.”

Do
As we have previously noted, the three-year research and planning process
to identify the best-of-the-best educational processes was vital to the overall
success of the Downtown School. To us, the most impressive aspect of the
Downtown School was the project approach to discovery learning, one that
has made this school the envy of all those who feel constricted by their own
antiquated systems. Jan explains, “All students are expected to successfully
complete research projects which include selecting a topic, gathering infor-
mation from books, site visits, and interviews. Each student is expected to