The Scarlet Letter in New Orleans

I received an email from an educator in New Orleans who read my post about the proposal by a management consultant to require low-performing charter schools to  post their grades on the wall and on their clothing. The informant said  that the proposal to the Algiers Charter Schools Association was not merely theoretical. It was already imposed at the McDonogh #32 charter school. He or she sent me two photographs: One showed the school’s letterhead, declaring it has a grade of F, the other showed a public banner with the school’s F grade and its goals for improvement boldly displayed.

I think most educators would consider this practice of public shaming to be a barbaric remnant of another century, not even the 20th century.

What next? Dunce caps for the children? Public dunking for the teachers? Enforced silence for all? No breakfast or lunch until the scores go up? Or will the educators–teachers and administrators–have the school grade tattooed on their foreheads?

To think this came from a management consultant firm. I wonder where they have been successful in the past. Which corporations have they “turned around” with their strategy of public humiliation? Or is it reserved only for educators and schools?

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