It Happens All the Time
I see it everywhere: in airports, on planes, in restaurants, in hospitals, around schools and in offices. The scene looks much the same wherever it happens, much like it has done for the past hour on an American Airlines flight heading to LAX. Both the captain and first officer, plus the check pilot riding in the jumpseat, have taken turns using the forward lavatory, meaning that the flight attendant must baracade the front of the plane per security requirements when a crew member is out of the cockpit. Each pilot has used the lav and then spent between 12 and 18 minutes chatting with the FA before going back into the cockpit. They laugh, they look at something on the FA's smartphone, and they are oblivious to any passengers who might want to use the lav. Then, the next crew member comes out and it all starts over--for a total of 52 minutes when the lav was off-limits.
Before concluding that this is just par for the course in air travel these days or that my post amounts to complaining about a first world-type problem, consider that something similar happens every day in schools, hospitals, hotels and restaurants. I see it everywhere. What these industries and instances have in common is that customers quickly become like a herd of cattle to be fed, taught, flown, whatever. Taking a herd approach begins a slippery slope of de-individualization that ends with dehumanization and a sense that the customer can be treated however the employee likes with no real consequences.
I will admit that it is difficult to see passengers, patrons and students as individuals when you see so many so often. When each class looks like the one before it, teachers can struggle to remember that each face is a unique student attached to a unique family with a unique story. It is definitely a chore to see the trees for the forest, but doing so matters a lot. The airline crew can treat me like just one of the herd and I'll keep coming back for more because flying someplace is a necessary part of my work. And there aren't that many airlines to pick from and only one flies nonstop between STL and LAX and they are all pretty much the same anyway. And my flight only lasts four hours.
But when administrators, teachers and staff in a school begin treating students and families like a herd, that spells big trouble. Private, independent and international schools are an expensive choice--maybe the second most expensive purchase a family will make in their lifetimes--and there are other choices. And more and more of those choices are either lower in cost or free. And faced with putting up with neglectful treatment for years (not just for four hours), most rational customers will leave.
I am not saying that it is easy being "on stage" or "on your game" all the time at work, but doing so has never been more essential to the success of a school. Think it doesn't happen at your school? Think again!