Editor’s Note: The following brief reflection is the first chapter from a book titled The Dysfunctional School: Uncomfortable Truths and Awkward Insights on School, Learning and Teaching. There are 91 such reflections in the book. Some are as short as three sentences and some as long as three pages. Over the next 52 weeks, the author Michael Reist has given Tomorrow’s Trust permission to post 52 of the 91 reflections. With some you will nod in agreement, others you may question and with some you will probably disagree. Michael Reist is a teacher of English with the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board and teaches in Caledon , Ontario.

By Michael Reist

Institutions can become dysfunctional. This means they continue to function, but do not accomplish the purposes for which they were created. Many institutions have become dysfunctional. This dysfunction can be seen when we consider the purposes for which these institutions were originally created. Churches were created to facilitate our relationship with the divine and to foster the spiritual life of the individual and the community. The family exists to nurture the fullest possible development of each member within it. The health care system exists to administer healing and promote health. Schools exist to help each child realize his or her fullest potential as a human being. From these functional definitions, we can see how many institutions have become dysfunctional. Institutions become dysfunctional when they stop serving the needs of the individuals within them. Institutions can take on a life of their own where their main objective becomes self-preservation.

One of the key indicators that an institution has become dysfunctional is the “no talk rule.” Those within the institution are not permitted, and do not permit themselves, to speak (or even think) critically about the institution. Critical thinking begins with the question “why?” Why are we doing this? Why are things arranged this way? Why do we do it this way and not that way? These kinds of questions are not allowed in a dysfunctional group.

The other indicator that an institution has become dysfunctional is the evolution of a priestly caste whose allegiance is more strongly tied to the institution than it is to the individuals the institution is meant to serve. This means the clergy within the church, parents within the family, doctors within the healthcare system and teachers and administrators within schools. Those in positions of power become incapable of self-criticism and feel threatened by it when it comes from outside. When an institution is under siege, it pulls up the drawbridge and retreats inside where all criticism is either deflected or ignored. Growth, change and evolution are almost impossible when an institution becomes incapable of radical self-criticism.

This is when alternative “base communities” (to use Paolo Freire’s phrase) spring up. The Spirit goes elsewhere-somewhere where its life is fed. In the area of religion, we have seen the emergence of various “New Age” spiritual paths. As the family has broken down, we are seeing all kinds of “blended” and “reconstituted” versions of family. In health care, we see a myriad of alternative therapies. In education, alternative schools continue to spring up and home schooling has become the fastest-growing alternative option in North America. Traditional monolithic institutions feel threatened by these alternatives. They feel a potential loss of their own power, their own monopoly. They are quick to ridicule and try to marginalize these new forms-excluding them from economic and political power.

©copyright by Michael Reist, 2007.

To order copies of The Dysfunction School contact:
Xlibris Corporation
1-888-795-4274
www.Xlibris.com
Orders@Xlibris.com
pp.114

Bookmark It

Hide Sites