.3 School as Bureaucracy

What many people do not realize is that school are a necessary bureaucracy, and students need to learn how to deal with them. Unfortunately, bureaucracy can not be escaped in the world, and therefore dealing with it is an essential skill. Even though life can be incredibly painful if it is dictated by bureaucracy.

This is not to say that it is a bad thing -- I think that bureaucracy is necessary thing. When you live in a society you need systems of management. It often becomes very clumsy and impersonal, and has to be dealt with very carefully. All of you coming to odu know that it is a bureaucratic environment, and if you do not know how to deal with that in a sophisticated way, you will quickly be overwhelmed. Take the course add/drop deadline for example. It would appear that that date is set in stone and can not be negotiated. But I can tell you there are dozens of back doors to get around drop/add dates. You just need to know where to knock. And you have to have a reasonable alternative.

Unfortunately, bureaucracies do not publicize their back doors. Probably they are afraid that people will use them -- but what else are they for? We need to teach people where those doors are, and how to use them responsibly so we can all operate successfully and comfortably.

Along with that comes the idea of fitting in -- students need to be taught how to fit in. By this I don't only mean learning how to use bureaucracy, but also how to adjust to the environment socially and culturally as well. We want students to operate fully in society, and we need to teach them everything they require to do that.

What many people do not realize is that school are a terrible bureaucracy, and students need to learn how to deal with them. Unfortunately, bureaucracy can not be escaped in the world, and therefore dealing with it is an essential skill. Life can be incredibly painful if it is dictated by bureaucracy.

This is not to say that it is a bad thing -- I think that it is a necessary thing. When you live in a society you need systems of management. It is just very clumsy and impersonal, and has to be dealt with very carefully. All of you coming to odu know that it is a bureaucratic environment, and if you do not know how to deal with that in a sophisticated way, you will quickly be overwhelmed. Take the course add/drop deadline for example. It would appear that that date is set in stone and can not be negotiated. But I can tell you there are dozens of back doors to get around drop/add Dates. You just need to know where to knock.

Unfortunately, bureaucracies do not publicize their back doors. I do not know why, but they don-- t. They seem to fear that people will use them -- but what else are they for? We need to teach people where those doors are and how to use them responsibly so they can operate successfully in society.

Along with that comes the idea of fitting in -- students need to be taught how to fit in. By this i don't only mean learning how to use bureaucracy, but also how to adjust to their environment socially and culturally as well. We want students to operate fully in society, and we need to teach them everything they require to do that.

	Why do students need to be taught to fit in?	Answer Here
	Mrs. Smith teaches senior English to a class full of students that have always been labeled by the school system as "difficult" or "different" in some way or another. One student in particular, Jason, seems to be out to break every rule that was ever made in the school system. How can Mrs. Smith use the school as a "necessary bureaucracy" to try and make Jason benefit from school rather than make life miserable for himself as well as the rest of his class?	Answer Here