I was telling one of my leadership mentees that I have recently been approached by a school to do a comprehensive audit of their Writing Across the Curriculum program and that they had asked me to keep it confidential. My suspicion is that there are three possible reasons.
Firstly, the school may be concerned about what I call the "rat trap principle", to wit, we only put out traps for rats if we have them or think that we do. Thus, the news of an inquiry into the school's writing program would suggest that there is something about which to be concerned. Accordingly, our students are currently not being well-served which means they are being failed which means that the writing program is a disaster, and parents have been lied to, and fees need to be returned and damages paid. Heads must roll.
Better to keep things quiet.
Behind door number two is that the belief that such an investigation will produce a report. reports must be published, sun-light and disinfectant and so on. If the report is not published, then something is being hidden, If the report is published, then we must ask if it has been altered or if it is a whitewash. Either way, what has been hidden?
Better to keep things quiet.
Thirdly is the hammer and nail hypothesis, or that if you are a hammer all you see is nails. In this scenario, the teachers might see themselves as nails about to be hammered and so they resist or object or flee or at the very least, fail to comply. Why would the school lift up rocks if they are not looking for slugs and slime underneath? Obviouly, a school would want to avoid such disharmony.
Better to keep things quiet.
We'll see how things go, but first, I have to go and take a look.
**Please leave your commants and queries below.**
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