Penn State Scandal Has Roots in Practices and Characteristics Common Among Educators

In reading the reports on the scandal at Penn State, two things are obvious to me. First of all there was a closed culture that protected itself. Secondly, most everyone followed procedure for the most part. 

Both of these attributes are endemic among many educators. Gallup did a study of attitudes of educators. They concluded that many educators considered questioning from outside of education a threat. This leads to a relatively closed culture. Over the past 40 years or so, the most common phrases educators say to me are “You are right” and “If you quote me I will deny it.”

Secondly, education is notoriously procedure oriented. When kids do not learn something, a common retort is “We covered that material.” They might have covered it, but the kids did not learn it. When there is a problem, they create a new procedure piled on the myriad of procedures that already exist. Have you ever read the regulations schools are supposed to follow? No school does. No school can.

In the case of Penn State, both attributes were in play. The school “circled the wagons,” so to speak. Secondly, they generally followed procedure. No one went above and beyond his or her job title to halt the criminal acts. I have said for years that in education, form follows procedure and the results are irrelevant. Form should follow function. Unfortunately, the officials at Penn State did not act to achieve results. They acted to protect the school and pass the responsibility up the bureaucracy.