"Misdirected focus on paperwork, on procedures, and on bureaucracy frustrates teachers and fails to give children the education they need"
About this Quote
The line draws a sharp boundary between process and purpose. Schools exist to cultivate learning, yet systems often drift toward measuring, documenting, and supervising the work rather than enabling it. When energy is siphoned into forms, checklists, and procedural compliance, teachers lose time and morale, and students lose the attention, feedback, and human presence that nourish understanding. It is not paperwork itself that is the villain; records, safety protocols, and accountability can protect children and support equity. The problem is misdirected focus: when the process becomes the point, outcomes suffer.
Christopher Bond, a former governor and U.S. senator, voiced a frustration shared across political lines. Policymakers promise improvement through standards, audits, and reporting regimes; administrators expand compliance structures to satisfy mandates; classroom educators then carry the weight. The result is Goodharts law at work: when a measure becomes a target, it can distort behavior. Teachers teach to the test, craft lessons to satisfy rubrics, and spend planning periods proving they did what they already did, rather than adjusting instruction for the real children in front of them.
The deeper warning concerns trust. Teaching is a relational craft built on judgment, improvisation, and care. Excessive bureaucracy assumes mistrust and tries to engineer quality through control. That approach flattens professional autonomy, fuels burnout, and, crucially, crowds out the messy, time-consuming work of formative practice: diagnosing misconceptions, offering timely feedback, adapting materials, and building classroom culture. Children do not experience policies; they experience adults with time and attention for them.
A better alignment keeps necessary safeguards while directing resources toward the classroom. Streamlined reporting, fewer redundant mandates, and smarter data systems are part of it, but the heart is clarity of aim: prioritize learning, give teachers discretion within clear goals, and judge success by student growth rather than the volume of documentation. When focus shifts back to teaching, the bureaucracy serves the mission, not the other way around.
Christopher Bond, a former governor and U.S. senator, voiced a frustration shared across political lines. Policymakers promise improvement through standards, audits, and reporting regimes; administrators expand compliance structures to satisfy mandates; classroom educators then carry the weight. The result is Goodharts law at work: when a measure becomes a target, it can distort behavior. Teachers teach to the test, craft lessons to satisfy rubrics, and spend planning periods proving they did what they already did, rather than adjusting instruction for the real children in front of them.
The deeper warning concerns trust. Teaching is a relational craft built on judgment, improvisation, and care. Excessive bureaucracy assumes mistrust and tries to engineer quality through control. That approach flattens professional autonomy, fuels burnout, and, crucially, crowds out the messy, time-consuming work of formative practice: diagnosing misconceptions, offering timely feedback, adapting materials, and building classroom culture. Children do not experience policies; they experience adults with time and attention for them.
A better alignment keeps necessary safeguards while directing resources toward the classroom. Streamlined reporting, fewer redundant mandates, and smarter data systems are part of it, but the heart is clarity of aim: prioritize learning, give teachers discretion within clear goals, and judge success by student growth rather than the volume of documentation. When focus shifts back to teaching, the bureaucracy serves the mission, not the other way around.
Quote Details
| Topic | Teaching |
|---|
More Quotes by Christopher
Add to List
