Focus on TUSD - March 2008

Superintendent's Column
Crisis Equals Opportunity? Continuing Progress Towards Creating a More Perfect School District
As I was preparing to write my article for the March edition of Focus I began to think of the variety of comments I've heard over the past four years regarding the Tucson Unified School District. It appears that many think we are in a state of continual crisis. Some of the comments I have heard are cynical and negative, expressing a pessimism that things will never get better; that it is just the way it is in TUSD. Others, however, see things differently. While they are concerned with the challenges that have risen and continue to confront us, they also see that we respond with appropriate action and that we continue to seek out new and creative solutions to areas of concern.

That mind set that I have encountered with many employees, parents and taxpayers reminded me of what I was told to be an old Chinese proverb, the one you've all seen that goes "crisis equals opportunity" or put in mathematical terms, "crisis = danger + opportunity." So, rather than misquote, or better yet, wanting to identify the Chinese sage it was attributed to, I searched the Internet. Much to my surprise I found the following information in an article written by a Chinese language expert:

"Those who purvey the doctrine that the Chinese word for "crisis" is composed of elements meaning "danger" and "opportunity" are engaging in a type of muddled thinking that is a danger to society, for it lulls people into welcoming crises as unstable situations from which they can benefit. Adopting a feel-good attitude toward adversity may not be the most rational, realistic approach to its solution.

"Finally, to those who would persist in disseminating the potentially perilous, fundamentally fallacious theory that "crisis" = "danger" + "opportunity," please don't blame it on Chinese!"

Victor H. Mair
Professor of Chinese Language and Literature
Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations
University of Pennsylvania
With contributions from Denis Mair and Zhang Liqing.

That bit of information made me sit up and take notice! So this is a misinterpretation of Chinese writing! Regardless of the true composition of the Chinese written character, many people seem to be using this "proverb" as a rallying cry to individuals or organizations in distress. Why is that, I wondered?

Like every generation before us, we feel that we must contend with an unprecedented level of distress and transformation. Our nation is certainly enveloped in a cry for change. We see it in our involvement in the Middle East, our calls for election reform and in the wide-ranging promises of our presidential candidates. Arizona knows abundant wealth, but we are currently wrestling with an economy of famine. We are also at the forefront of the immigration issue, which has our national Congress gridlocked. In our city we are looking at a housing and development industry that has significantly declined in less than a year. The city and county governments are looking at cutting budgets and, consequently, services. And then there is TUSD, challenged with increased state and national requirements and little, sometimes no, additional funding. The community served by the District did not approve a 2004 Override Election for small class sizes and the expansion of an integrated arts and academics program!

In this era of change at all levels, isn't it the healthier side of human nature to try and find opportunities amidst failures? There is a joke about the man who stands in a barn full of nothing but manure and says with happy optimism, "With all this manure there's got to be a pony around here somewhere!" I have colleagues who operate from that perspective, and I would surely choose to find my way out of the barn in their company rather than with those who would merely stand and dwell on the mass of manure.

I believe there are opportunities to be had, to be investigated and to be pursued. The superintendent of the year for 2007, Rudy Crew of Miami-Dade County, Fla., remarked at his recent award ceremony that his award did not indicate that he had never made mistakes, it was because he was willing to try enough things to achieve success that mistakes were something he expected -- and expected to overcome.

Presidential candidate, Sen. Barack Obama, in his recent speech on race, used a phrase from the Preamble to the United States Constitution which reads, "... in order to form a more perfect union..." to make the point that perfection is a moving target. That is what we strive for in TUSD -- the continuous development of a more perfect school district. Our mission is to keep working toward the goals we value.That journey leads us through successes and through crises, and here I disagree with Professor Mair. I believe looking for opportunities all the time, even in a crisis, even in danger, is a healthy reaction.

We have many challenging opportunities to investigate, which can bring us to better ways to serve student learning. We realize that our city's changing demographics coupled with the recent phenomenon of school choice have profoundly impacted us. We are confronted with economic parameters that touch every aspect of the District. The state's mandates with respect to English Language Learners and the state and federal mandates with regard to testing and accountability pose challenges of no small proportion. Our children and our tremendous staff of dedicated employees deserve much more, but we seem to be caught in cycles of giving them less.

We now have a management report full of both commendations and recommendations to work with, and, very significantly, a new superintendent coming on board in July. Dr. Elizabeth Celania-Fagan will bring us the opportunity to take a fresh approach to the road ahead. She will help us to renew interest and enthusiasm in the community for looking at ways to support its main school district.

OK, Professor Mair. I won't blame the Chinese . . . but, after we discover and capitalize on those opportunities, they are welcome to share in the credit if they wish.

--Roger F. Pfeuffer
Superintendent

Photos in the March issue by Jes Ruvalcaba of Communications & Media Relations, unless otherwise noted.

The deadline to submit material for the April Focus is Friday, April 11. The Focus will be published Monday, April 21. Email submissions to Chyrl Hill Lander or Sharon Dunham in the Communications & Media Relations Department or use the online Tip Sheet.