Episode 2 Transcript: Policy: What is it?
It is 2006 Microsoft and its executive director Steve Ballmer released The Zune. The Zune was this dope mp3 player that competed with Apples IPod. And in all honesty it was better than Ipod. It had this feature that allowed you to borrow music from your friends Zune using bluetooth and the functionality was just better. Steve Ballmer saw it as a victory over Apple. A year later Apple released the Iphone a product that crippled the MP3 Market. What is the point of this story? Find out on this weeks episode of Five Minute Fridays.
Hey, This is Blake Barber and this is Five Minute Fridays. This week’s topic is policy. When I announced this as the topic on Instagram there were several great questions ranging from what is it and Which elected officials have the most control over it? To how effective is it to conduct and apply policy research across national boundaries? Today’s focus is answering the question of what is policy? What are some criteria for good policy? And where can we start creating and supporting good policy making in education?
Policy is an expression and support to Laws. Policies are not laws but they need to be legal. Microscopically or simply put policy is a group of people creating actions for the good of the group. And when thinking about what makes good policy we must begin with Apple. You see the beginning anecdote came from Simon Sinek’s book the Infinite Game. In his book Microsoft represents what he calls finite thinking. Thinking that is only concerned about winning and losing. Apple represents infinite thinking. This type of thinking is concerned with remaining, growing, and creating. All good policy must begin with infinite thinking. Which means for this episode I will be ripping policy from the cold dead hands of degenerative politics, a perfect archetype for finite thinking, and turning your attention to a more localized places for thinking about and making policy.
When you can approach a group of people without seeing them as competition we can begin to consider criteria for good policy making which is including or making sure that all stakeholders are represented. In education this seems to rarely happen because teachers are not seen as professional so they are not considered an important stakeholder ( more to come on that this season) and students and parents of color are more often constructed as the problem than important stakeholders in policy decisions. Please listen to the podcast Nice White Parents for more on this.
Finally good policy always considers benefit and burden. Who is benefiting in this policy implementation and who is carrying the burden of that benefit. Are the people carrying that are carrying the burden capable of doing so? Does the burden need to be dispersed? Can someone who never carries the burden carry it? (I.e Tax Jeff Bezos). Does the party benefiting need to benefit? Can we create a larger pool of benefits for other parties to enjoy? All these questions need to be addressed.
Where can we engage in good policy making. We are all policy makers on a simple level. Begin with local elections. Know who you represents your district in your state’s sentate and house. Know who is on your districts board of education. Subscribe to a local newspaper, and once again engage in infinite thinking. Elections for voters must be bigger than single issue voting and seeing yourself on the winning team.
Finally, Teachers and Parents what does your Parent Teacher Organization look like. If you teach at or attend a school The PTO is a place that can allow all stakeholders can have input on the burden and benefit of policies.
Lets get to the topic. Policy. What is it? Why is it important?
Definition: What is policy but a rule (sometimes tacit, and informal, but more often formal, written, and official) that regulate how a polity must conduct itself.
Conclude with Anzadula quote, “ Change requires more than words on a page - it takes perseverance, creative ingenuity and acts of love.”
Hey, This is Five Minute Fridays and I am Blake Barber and before we jump into the episode I want to spend 10 seconds thanking people who listened to last weeks episode, gave feedback, and interacted with me on Instagram as I structured this episode.
