The+Blueberry+Story

//“If I ran my business the way you people operate your schools, I wouldn’t// //be in business very long!”// //I stood before an auditorium filled with outraged teachers becoming angrier// //by the minute. My speech had entirely consumed their precious 90 minutes// //of in-service. Their initial, icy glares had turned to restless agitation. You// //could cut the hostility with a knife.// //I represented a group of business people dedicated to improving public// //schools. I was an executive at an ice cream company that became famous in// //the middle 1980s when// //People Magazine// //chose our blueberry flavour as the// //“Best Ice Cream in America.”// //I was convinced of two things. First, that public schools needed to change,// //they were archaic, selecting and sorting mechanisms designed for the// //industrial age and out of step with the needs of our emerging “knowledge// //society.”// //Second, I was convinced that educators were a major part of the problem;// //they resisted change hunkered down in their feathered nests, protected by// //tenure and shielded by a bureaucratic monopoly. They needed to look to// //business. We knew how to produce quality. Zero defects! Continuous// //improvement! In retrospect, the speech was perfectly balanced: equal parts// //ignorance and arrogance.// //As soon as I had finished, a woman’s hand shot up. She appeared to be// //polite and pleasant – but in fact, she was a razor-edged, veteran, high// //school English teacher who had been waiting to unload.// //She began quietly, “We are told, sir, that you manage a company that makes// //good ice cream.”// //I smugly replied, “Best ice cream in America, ma’am”.// //“How nice,” she replied. Is it rich and smooth?”// //“Sixteen per cent butter fat,” I crowed.// //“Premium ingredients?” she inquired.// //“Super premium. Nothing but triple A”. I was on a roll. I never saw the// //next line coming.// //“Mr. Vollmer”, she said, leaning forward with a wicked eyebrow raised to// //the sky, “when you are standing on your receiving dock and you see an// //inferior shipment of blueberries arrive, what do you do?”// //In the silence of that room, I could hear the trap snap. I was dead meat, but// //I wasn’t going to lie. “I send them back.”// //“That’s right!” she barked, “and we can never send back our blueberries.// //We take them big, small, rich, poor, gifted, exceptional, abused, frightened,// //confident, homeless, rude and brilliant. We take then with ADHS, junior// //rheumatoid arthritis and English as their second language. We take them// //all! Every one! And that, Mr Vollmer, is why it’s not business. It’s a// //school!”// //In an explosion, all 290 teachers, principals, bus drivers, aides, custodians// //and secretaries jumped to their feet and yelled, “Yeah! Blueberries!// //Blueberries!”//
 * The Blueberry Story**

//And so began my long transformation. Since then, I have visited hundreds// //of schools. I have learned that a school is not a business. Schools are// //unable to control the quality of their raw material, they are dependent upon// //the vagaries of politics for they are a liable revenue stream and they are// //constantly mauled by a howling horde of disparate competing groups that// //would send the best CEO screaming into the night.// //None of this negates the need for change. We must change what, when and// //how we teach to give all children a maximum opportunity to thrive in postindustrial// //society. But educators cannot do this alone, these changes can// //occur only with the understanding, trust, permission and active support of// //the surrounding community.// //The most important thing I have learned is that schools reflect the attitudes,// //beliefs and health of the communities they serve. Therefore to improve public// //education means more than changing our schools, it means changing our// //society.// //(To which we can only add that public schools also take all the “apples” and// //“raspberries” and “peaches.)"//

Reprinted in The Public School Boards’ Association of Alberta. (March, 2003) from the Catholic New Times.