Optometrists, Dentists and ... School Culture and Empowerment?

Most people experience anxiety whenever they are administered routine diagnostic tests by their physician. The fear of having results point toward cancer is a significant contributing factor in the nervousness of patients. How many of us exhibit similar levels of anxiety when visiting their optometrist or dentist? And, what does all this have to do with school culture and empowerment?

Typically, we imagine the most dire prognosis discovered by an optometrist is the need for stronger glasses or, with a dentists, perhaps a new cavity. However, an eye exam from an optometrist can yield information that can hint at diabetes, autoimmune disorders, hypertension, high cholesterol as well as cancer ("Ocular melanoma can develop in the cells that make pigmentation in the eye. Your eye exam can also help detect skin cancer." www.yoursightmatters.com) A dental exam similarly can produce findings pointing toward types of cancer ("A dentist may find some oral cavity and oropharyngeal cancers or pre-cancers during a routine exam." www.cancer.org)

It's not my intention to offer a lecture on health, although it is a good idea to regularly schedule appointments with your dentist and optometrist. Instead, I want to call attention to these medical professions that are often overlooked in the detection and fight against cancer - and draw an analogy with members of a school staff that are likewise discounted when constructing or maintaining the culture of a school (a negative culture can seem like an organizational cancer). 

Terry Deal has written extensively on the subject of organizational culture (most notably his landmark text, Corporate Culture: The Rites and Rituals of Corporate Life). His work is a rich and timeless resource that I can reliably turn to when confronted with an issue of impact regarding the climate of a school. In particular, his book, Managing the Hidden Organization: Strategies for Empowering Your Behind-the-Scenes Employee, offers considerable points of interest in how members of the support staff can be cultivated as key factors in the shape and direction of the school environment. Ignoring or discounting the importance and potential of staff members who are not perceived, by virtue of their status designated by a chart of the school's hierarchy, as contributors to the culture of the school, ensures that the future of the organization will be limited. 

Members of what is commonly referred to as the support staff (kitchen workers, custodians, para-professionals, secretaries, bus drivers...) often have a school-wide set of responsibilities that provide them a view of, or interactions with, potentially all children. As a result, that vantage point supplies valuable insight to the operation of the school. Bus drivers are usually the first and last school staff member to see children each day. Kitchen workers come face-to-face with nearly all children during every meal, extending them an opportunity to see children, in a less formal and guarded setting that can expose the needs and feelings of children. The same can be said of secretaries and monitors and the many other roles that comprise the "Behind-the-Scenes" staff - essential to the function of a school, but too often neglected in terms of their opinions on the school culture.

By tapping the reservoir of all school employees and providing proportionate representation in matters of professional development activities and school decision-making councils,... the school can be enriched through the empowerment of all support staff members.