Schools as organisations

A recent article¹ in The Psychologist made the interesting point that schools are the first formal organisation most of us are subjected to and that our memories of school are more about the process we experienced than about the content we learned. 

The authors of the article go on to say that the impact of schools as places where we learn how organisations work, and our place in them, is largely neglected. This set me thinking, not for the first time, about how my experience of school has contaminated my view of organisations and my work as a management trainer. Having pondered this, my sad conclusion is that I have never fully recovered from the damage (hopefully, unintentional) done by my schooling. Let me give you some examples.

All the schools I attended were fiercely hierarchical and non-democratic. I never remember being consulted about anything and I was left in no doubt that it paid to be compliant and deferential to those above me. The head teacher of my secondary school was an autocrat - you stood to attention in his presence and agreed with everything he said. School prefects (a dozen handpicked sixth formers) had considerable power and the authority to inflict some unpleasant punishments - including caning (this was a long time ago!). 

Under this regime, it never occurred to me that an organisation could be run any other way and this was reinforced when I went on to do two years' National Service as soon as I left school. So, I have struggled with the idea that organisations can function effectively using a collaborative model in which the person at the top doesn't tell you what to do. I have also never shaken off my jaundiced view that organisations are basically bad for people, that they suppress innovation and creativity and reward compliance and conformity. Still, I suppose I have reasons to be grateful - after only six years, I rebelled against working in hierarchical organisations and struck out on my own, never to return.

All the schools I attended were hell-bent on keeping me busy. Bells rang every 40 minutes, signalling that it was time to gather up your books and rush to the next classroom. Every waking moment was scheduled with a rigid timetable of activities -lessons, sports, CCF, scouts, homework and all the rest of it. The underlying assumption (though this only occurred to me later) was that we couldn't be trusted to manage our own time, that life was all about imposing order on what would otherwise degenerate into chaos and anarchy. 

As a consequence, all my life I have rushed around keeping busy and been pretty well incapable of relaxing and doing nothing. For example, I slave away in my garden and it never occurs to me simply to sit in it and read a book. As a trainer, I definitely err on the side of over-structuring activities and not trusting participants to take responsibility for their own learning. I even have hang-ups with reflecting - even though, intellectually, I am totally sold on its value - because thinking about something seems too passive. I've told the joke before about my wife interrupting me whilst I was deep in thought about something laudable and I immediately pretended to be busy by shuffling papers and looking active. For me, keeping busy is an ingrained habit learned from school, where doing nothing was never an option.

All the schools I attended reinforced the idea that learning was a formal process in which you sat and got taught in a classroom. My memory of most lessons, not quite all, was that they were boring, times to endure, times to hide preferably somewhere at the back looking inconspicuous where you wouldn't get picked on and asked a question that you couldn't answer. I only 'discovered' informal, experiential learning 20 years after leaving school (yes, it took me that long to recover!). The idea that everything that happens is a learning opportunity, and that most of these things don't happen in a classroom, was a staggering revelation!

There are more things I learned from my exposure to schools as organisations - about rules, about roles and belonging, about institutional bullying, about punishments exceeding rewards. I hope you'll tell me that I'm out of date and that schools are now conscious of the impact they have on the way we view organisations and learning. Or are they still producing people like me; damaged goods?

Reference

1 "Reimaging our school system" by Anthony Montgomery and Ian Kehoe

Dr Peter Honey FRSA, FCIPD, FIMC is a chartered psychologist and founder of Peter Honey Publications. He can be contacted at peterhoney1@btinternet.com or via www.peterhoney.com