Helping

A couple of weeks ago, Eduwonkette wrote a long snarky post about job openings in the NYC and DC school chancellor's offices, challenging her readers to propose absurd titles like "Senior Finder of Efficiencies," "Senior Blackberry Correspondent" etc. It included the following:

Do all superintendents of big districts get drivers? I had no idea. But just think about the splashy, tell-all book you could write! I'm out of the running as I have no license, but you can find the job posting here. Or if you're in the market for something different, you might apply for the "Critical Response Team."

As it happens, I spent some time at the DCPS offices earlier this year, following members of the Critical Response Team around to see how they work. You can read the story I wrote about it here. In short, their job--their only job--is to help people, all day long, from the crack of dawn until late at night. Most of the people they help are teachers and parents.  They also work with administrators, vendors, members of the general public--anyone who picks up the phone or writes an email, they listen to and try to assist. As a result, they deal with literally every thorny, intractable, heartbreaking problem a struggling urban school district can encounter. They work much harder than any Ivy League graduate student, think thank analyst, or blogger I could name. They deserve appreciation, not cheap mockery at the hands of people who should, but don't, know better.