Teaching- The Art of Selling Cars

Week 1:  Blog 1

As I was reading Chapter's 1 & 2 of the book Curriculum 21:  Essential Education for a Changing World Edited by Heidi Hayes Jacobs for my graduate class, I wrote quite a few notes about assessment.  One note I wrote that got me thinking was, "Assessment drives instruction and content."  Being the literal person I am, and being a lover of figurative language, I thought more about the note I had written, and it made me develop a metaphor with cars and education.  My thoughts that follow are all about the metaphor sparked by this weeks reading.  It still could use some developing, but I think I'm on to something.

Teaching-  The Art of Selling Cars

Imagine going to buy a car.  The process starts before you even know you are going to buy with the quirky television commercials, incessant flyers, and radio advertisements claiming that there is no better deal to be had than by that company.  Anyone who went to business school knows that part of the 4 P's of Sale Price, Product, Place, Promotion (we'll return to this later) is advertising.  Advertising is an annoying but necessary tactic for the dealerships to promote product.  Anyway, the day comes when you have squeezed every mile out of that "hooptie" you've had since high school, and are finally going to commit to buying a new/used car.  Cash in hand, you approach the dealership, carefully avoiding hitting the 100,000 dollar cars parked when the dreaded sales people dressed in their fancy suits, and uppity attitudes start to circle you like vultures.  Your adrenaline is at the max, and you palms sweat because you know that whatever price you pay will put you in debt for the next 3 years or so.  Finding that just right car, for the just right price is a hard job to face.  Now the feeling of buying a car can be a trying time because the salesmen are intimidating, and the day requires patience, energy, persistence, and at time disappointment.  This feeling of buying a car is for some students the feeling they get going to school.

Salesman--    As a salesman you are committed (in dealerships by commission) to selling cars quickly and for the highest price possible.  As a teacher you are committed (by a labor of love, and contract) to sell curriculum in order to better the lives of children.  A teachers job is to make someone believe that education is worth the price to pay.  That through effort and hard work, you can be whatever you want.  The same principals our nation is infamous for. Teachers can come off as intimidating, and pompous to some families.  As Jacobs says, "Intellects are scoffed at in the United States."  Many who do not support a public education, or teachers, are intimidated by their intellect, and themselves probably didn't have the best salesteacher.  Teaching and selling are two hard jobs that correlate perfectly.

I have been teaching for 2 1/2 years now, and already I have many examples of how teaching is like selling.  Most recently,  I had a student who was impossible to motivate.  After many IEP meetings, one on one conferences between myself and other support staff, he just wasn't buying his education. He was in Project Pride, Special Education, and even in a morning and afternoon check in program.  As for curriculum variation and modification, I know he couldn't have been bored.  I tried traditional methods, plays, slideshows, typing, podcasts, garage band projects, voicethreads, etc.  What this student was lacking was hope for a "good" product.  He was convinced that his life would be nothing but what his parents had.  When I asked what job he wanted to do he replied, "nothing".  An obvious question to follow was, "How are you going to support yourself?"  to which he said, "My grandparents are going to give me $100 a month to support me."  For this student, education was an impossible sell and it was not because I was a bad salesman.  These cases are few and far between, and as depressing as it is, I know that as a teacher, I did what I could to sell his education.  The role of parents as described below, is an essential component to the public education system.

Another good example of how teaching is like selling, is the book Teach Like A Pirate.  In this book, Dave Burgess tells how to engage students in their learning.  Many hooks he gives are all about presentation, and essentially advertising the product of curriculum.  Why students would want to put in the effort/pay the price when maybe they have no promise of a good product a "good" life.  The advertising must come from home and school both.

Buyer--  The buyer is the student.   Students must choose what they are going to buy into.  In the metaphor students do not have cash to buy a car, but their potential and efforts are used to learn new information in order to gain a better life for themselves.

Advertisement-- The advertisement or lack thereof for students getting an education is for the most part parents.  It is impossible for a teacher to sell an education car without the positive support of parents.  The supports of parents are so helpful to the learning of a child.

• Basic Needs Of Children (To Support Maslow's Base In The Hierarchy of Human Needs)
• Parent Home Communication   (Parent Teacher Conferences/ Answering the Phone)
• Hope For A Prosperous Independent Life   (Without Welfare or Parental Support)
• Positive Daily Communication   (Especially About Their Ability, The School & The Teacher)

Cash-- The cash in this scenario is potential and willingness to learn.  In order to acquire education, students need to have some want, interest, and ability.  If these components are not there, then no "car" can be bought.

The Car-- The just right car is a couple things in this metaphor.  First of all, the most obvious is that it represents the product that is trying to be sold.  It is what students put in effort for which is the promise of a "good life".   A life that supports an independent citizen.

The just right car is also the knowledge acquired shown with assessments which drives students lives after the student leaves the teacher's class.  The car is the content which students are willing to put the time and effort into.  Finding the content that sparks such interest should be the goal of classes curriculum.

The just right car can also be curriculum.  Sometimes the car is hard to sell because it's a piece of junk (let's face it, some curriculum can be boring and harder to sell).  Sometimes learning can be a cadillac.  For example, everyone wants to know how to make a rocket out of a film canister and alkaseltzer tablet.  Learning and teaching about CO2 is not going to be hard to sell with a lesson like that.


THE FOUR P's of SALES

PLACE-  The school and home must both be learning environments for the student to be successful.  The school must have high expectations, and be safe.  The home environment must support homework and practice of school topics, as well as be safe.

PROMOTION-  Promoting comes in the act of selling lessons.  It also comes into play for parents to positively promote schools and teachers.

PRICE-  The price is how much effort a student puts into their education.  The price directly correlates to the quality of the product.

PRODUCT-  The product is not only the assessments and information learned, but also the "good" life which is promised to those who are willing to put in the effort.