It’s not too often that I find something that lets me revisit two very different posts, but here it is…

I listened to a fascinating This American Life: Ruining it for the rest of us which had a great segment (number one) on what happened in San Diego when there was an outbreak of measles that resulted from parents refusing to immunize their kids. Since TAL only lets you listen to a show for a week after it’s broadcast, you might not be able to hear it anymore, so I’ll just give you a rundown of what struck me from the show.

Naturally, the first thing I thought of was this post of mine, Hey, could you stop trying to poach off my family’s immunity?, where I opined on parents who deliberately eschew immunization for their kids (specifically the MMR vaccine). When I wrote the post I assumed that the ill-effects (getting measles, and the potential for complications) were a problem for the kids whose parents didn’t elect to immunize them. This segment featured a couple parents who were caught in the outbreak and the quarantine that followed because it struck before their kids were scheduled and had gotten their MMRs. Their choices endanger not just their children, but others who don’t make the same choices. The immunization schedule is predicated on the vast majority of folks getting shots, so that there is a “herd” immunity lowering the incidence of outbreaks, thereby giving protection to everyone, immunized or not. Here was the rub, the CDC did focus groups with some of the vaccine refuseniks after the outbreak was over and the basic finding about non-immunizers was that they don’t care about this “community” because they feel protecting their children from the chemicals in the shots is more important. Even after an outbreak that led to quarantines, neither side changed their minds about whether or not to immunize their own children, they just took the lessons they wanted to from the event. In this instance, until they are sending their own children to schools for the deaf and blind, I doubt they will change their minds.

It did get me thinking about these posts I’ve done on Assessment, and how differently many of us see assessment. I even heard a really sweet sounding TFA fellow nominating Michelle Rhee as one of 2008’s Most (Overlooked) Influential People on NPR’s Talk of the Nation. It got me thinking about the great generational divide around issues of incentive pay, tenure, and the belief in multiple choice testing for assessment. Maybe it’s not surprising that TFA’ers like Rhee, Killian Betlach, and others favor tests as assessment. Look at how they’ve come up, going to Yale (I don’t know about Killian, but it didn’t sound like Ms. Rhee was a legacy admit). Doing well on tests has paid off for them, it’s been a sign of their success. Honestly, since Ms. Rhee’s “negativity” has been limited to adults (mostly teachers). I don’t think it’s too far, even in her case, to say that she honestly wants to share the success she has enjoyed, with all those kids in D.C. I think she’s going it about it the wrong way, but in that I’m pretty sure she is sincere. I also think that given how TFAs go through “the system” straight out of college, into the classroom, they really don’t have personal experience of other professional jobs, so when they do education and teacher bashing, it’s often in ignorance of what the “real world” is like.

On the other hand, ya know that audio I pointed to at the start, This American Life: Ruining it for the rest of us? It had some points that support Rhee’s ideas about “bad apples” and in fact takes it to the next level. Apparently, having a slacker, jerk, or other “bad apples” in a work place don’t just make what they do worse, but bring down the whole team (prologue). Seriously! The success of a team is only as good as not the best or the average, but its worst member. On the other hand, the best way to counter bad apples is a particular leadership skill of making repeated inquiries and questions to solicit opinions by a team leader that makes members feel they are being listened to, defuses conflicts, and “immunizes” the rest of the team from following bad behavior. Food for thought.