{"id":771,"date":"2012-04-26T02:22:41","date_gmt":"2012-04-26T02:22:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/learnedleadership.org\/?p=771"},"modified":"2012-04-26T02:22:41","modified_gmt":"2012-04-26T02:22:41","slug":"the-complaint-box-versus-the-ballot-box","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/learnedleadership.org\/divi\/the-complaint-box-versus-the-ballot-box\/","title":{"rendered":"The Complaint Box Versus The Ballot Box"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m excited to introduce our \u00a0first guest blogger at Learn[ed]Leadership. \u00a0Patrick Love is a upper school counselor at Brent International School in the Philippines. \u00a0In addition to college guidance and counseling services, Patrick has a real passion on the role of school counselors as leaders, and has been embodying that through designing a school wide social and emotional counseling \u00a0program and championing data driven change. \u00a0Outside of school Patrick is a talented and accomplished travel \u00a0photographer who’s been published in various national and international publications (view his work at patricklovephotography.com<\/a>).<\/em><\/p>\n

The Complaint Box Versus The Ballot Box<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>By Patrick Love<\/p>\n

Teaching our students to solve problems and find solutions is one of the overarching goals of education.\u00a0 However, most individuals and schools out there have room to improve in this category.\u00a0 What can leaders in education do to improve their problem solving skills?\u00a0 Surprisingly, the answer may lie with our students.<\/p>\n

Solving problems and working towards school improvement is always a challenge. \u00a0As a school counselor, I believe that advocating for others is a key part of my job.\u00a0 Much of what I do tries to forward the academic, social and emotional development and well being of my students. \u00a0Simply put, I want my school to be a great place for students to learn and develop. Of course, I am not alone in this, I work as part of an amazing team.\u00a0 We have found that almost anything can be fixed or improved upon.\u00a0 However, success often hinges upon whether the people working together are willing to join together to work on the issue at hand.\u00a0 This should be no surprise, but it might be surprising just how many people out there do not start with this in mind.<\/p>\n

When someone comes to a teacher, counselor or principal with a problem, it usually takes on one of two flavors.\u00a0 The first one I call the complaint box<\/em> method.\u00a0 Like someone dropping a note into a complaint box at a restaurant that says, \u201cI didn\u2019t like the food.\u201d\u00a0 This is helpful in that it informs others about what they did not like, but usually it leaves out all the information that is necessary for working towards a solution.\u00a0 These people have usually tried to find a solution on their own, and in failing to do so, want to pass the problem on to someone else.\u00a0 It also limits the range of possible solutions, because the complainer has not offered to be a part of the solution.\u00a0 I call the second method the ballot box<\/em> method.\u00a0 Someone who votes has agreed to be a part of the governing process.\u00a0 They know that they will have to work hard towards certain goals, and even agree to pay money (taxes) to support solutions to problems.\u00a0 Those who use this method understand that they are interacting with another problem solver.\u00a0 They must be constructive and solution oriented.\u00a0 Secondly, they understand that they are probably a part of the solution, and they are willing to collaborate.\u00a0 People who do this invest themselves in the organization and the relationships that make it.\u00a0 They can problem solve on their own, but they also trust their team, and work well with them.<\/p>\n

As we work on teaching students to be problem solvers and solution finders, and as we work to improve ourselves, I believe that leaders would do well to take a closer look at the work of Zoe Weil, co-founder and president of the Institute for Humane Education (www.HumaneEducation.org<\/a>).\u00a0 In her TEDx talk, The World Becomes What You Teach<\/em>, she outlines an educational system that teaches students how to focus on the legitimate needs that people have, and the resources and community systems that are necessary to fulfill those needs.\u00a0 She teaches students to put their academic learning into the service of creating new ways to meet basic human needs.\u00a0 \u00a0She stresses that the best solutions are the ones that are as humane, sustainable, peaceful and just as possible.\u00a0 Instead of having students on debate teams, who are trained to take complex issues, turn them into either\/or statements and argue only one side, Weil proposes that we have solutionary <\/em>teams.\u00a0 Solutionary teams would compete against other teams to create the most viable, cost effective, innovative solutions for issues ranging from difficulties at school, in the work place and even on global levels.\u00a0 To see just how realistic and successful their solutions could be, students compete with others to find the best solution, the teams would then join with others and work to implement the best solutions.\u00a0 What she is suggesting is that students actually practice filling up ballot boxes, instead of filling up complaint boxes.<\/p>\n

Educational leaders are finding this idea to be both exciting and hopeful.\u00a0 Many of us want to work in schools with curriculums that build real-world skills and abilities, and benefit the community.\u00a0 A great deal of workplace satisfaction and fulfillment is found when we experience students developing and showcasing their amazing abilities, and positively impacting the world around them.\u00a0 That is all great for educators, students and the community, but what will be the outcome when our students are in the workforce?\u00a0 Students who graduate from a school that supports this type of curriculum, will probably go on to do the things that our current students are already doing.\u00a0 Weil believes that the only difference would be that these students would perceive themselves as solutionaries<\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0 They would know that it was their responsibility to ensure that the systems within their profession were productive and sustainable.\u00a0 Here is where we can learn with<\/em> our students, and at the same time learn from <\/em>our students.\u00a0 Educational leaders who teach solutionaries<\/em>, not just with lessons, but by embodying it in the workplace, will not only create a more positive school environment and experience students in more satisfying ways, they will also create more dynamic and entrepreneurial students.\u00a0 In the end, democracy wins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m excited to introduce our \u00a0first guest blogger at Learn[ed]Leadership. \u00a0Patrick Love is a upper school counselor at Brent International School in the Philippines. \u00a0In addition to college guidance and counseling services, Patrick has a real passion on the role of school counselors as leaders, and has been embodying that through designing a school wide […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":837,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,9],"tags":[38,64,68,118,161,187,188],"class_list":["post-771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-guest-blog","tag-ballot-box","tag-complaint-box","tag-counseling","tag-guest-blog","tag-love","tag-patrick","tag-patrick-love"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5BJbv-cr","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/learnedleadership.org\/divi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/learnedleadership.org\/divi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/learnedleadership.org\/divi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/learnedleadership.org\/divi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/learnedleadership.org\/divi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/learnedleadership.org\/divi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/learnedleadership.org\/divi\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/learnedleadership.org\/divi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/learnedleadership.org\/divi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/learnedleadership.org\/divi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}