Above and Beyond

The changing duties of the modern educator

First Love

I am not a teacher but if I were to guess, I’d say folks choose this profession because they literally love of something associated within the discipline.  And when I say love, I mean passionate love.  Not just a passing fancy but a real connection to something so deep and innate that it often cannot be verbalized to someone who is not an educator.  I say this because I believe that even to be a mediocre teacher an extraordinary level of dedication and drive is required.  Teachers pack more time, energy and effort into nine months than most people can generate in twelve.  There has to be a reason for this seemingly counterintuitive behavior and the only thing I can figure is that it is based on love.  What else drives people to such extremes other than survival itself? 

The Path

http://www.mlive.com

For many, the call to become a teacher leads one to college to be trained on the basics of a subject and teaching methodology.  This is a noble pursuit and colleges are quite capable of delivering entry level teachers to the workforce.  These neophytes are equipped to manage classrooms, deliver curriculum, educate and inspire which is what you would expect of a teacher.  What teacher colleges probably don’t teach very thoroughly is how to handle the wide variety of issues that walk through the doors of the school each and every day by the students themselves. It would be impossible to do so but there is no doubt that teaching is only one part of the job and unfortunately, that is the only part for which you earn a degree.  

Higher Calling

Ideally, a majority of a teacher's time should be spent on delivering services to students.  Whether it be content or skills, the time needed to effectively transfer concepts and ideas cannot be compromised or the teaching and learning will be compromised.  Schools, with their varied delivery models, logistics, diverse student needs and everything else that goes along with it are complicated machines.  Coordinating all these variables to ensure a viable education is nothing less than a high wire act.  Now, add to that the school’s duty to protect the students and educators.  Given the environment for many districts, the time and effort dedicated to this chore has consumed resources to the point of tipping the emphasis away from education itself. 

What to do?

When CSI set about devising a comprehensive approach to school safety and security, the authors took great care to consider the role of teachers, administrators and other school staff in the solution.  Knowing teachers are life long learners, (by law and by passion) the program leveraged this attribute by incorporating a significant educational component to those charged with care and protection of our nation’s children.  Sensible Solutions, the name of the program, delivers significant classroom and on-line training for educators which is designed to enable them to make meaningful contributions to the safety and security of their schools.  This is an often overlooked component of a security program and goes well beyond physical security and reactive measures yet it necessarily merges with and strengthens all components.    

What we found out

In implementing this program, we learned that the educators who go through the training come away with a tangible sense of empowerment.  They receive relevant information that gives them a new perspective on the science of violence, prevention, investigations, law enforcement, use of force, threat assessment and action planning.   They learn skills and gain an understanding of things they could never learn during their teacher training yet these tools are invaluable to ensuring an emphasis toward delivering services and not toward reacting to violence and other disruptions.  

Hungry to learn

As times change, and increasingly complex and potentially volatile issues enter schools, ensuring that learning remains the focus is critical.  A proper reaction to the paradigm shift is necessary to ensure that students get educated.  We observed that teachers are very eager to learn these skills and have the knowledge and programs in place to help students overcome violent propensities as well protect those around them.  Not surprisingly, they are passionate about protecting as well as educating their students.

A Most Dangerous Game

Guest blogger and Personal Protection Expert Sam Rosenberg explains the rules of the Knockout Game and how you can win it.

The Set-Up

By now, you've likely heard of a phenomenon called the Knockout Game. The rules are quite simple.  A single member of a gang of juveniles blind-sides an unsuspecting passer-by with a sucker punch, the goal being to knock the victim unconscious in a single blow. Typically, these attacks occur from behind, or as the victim is distracted by other members of the gang.  No target seems to be off limits.  Pregnant women, children and the elderly have been included among the victims.  This most dangerous game has resulted in serious injury and more than one death.

To police and most people, knockout game attacks are random and unpredictable.  Yet, as with all human violence, it is neither random nor illogical—even if this logic is pathological.  To understand, predict, and prevent this manifestation of violence requires an understanding of predatory logic in general.

Human Predators

www.humanevents.com

Human predators are opportunists, who fundamentally prey on the conscience and goodness of decent people. They live in a world devoid of decency.  A world ruled, rather, by a perversion of the notion of respect.  To the predator, aggression and dominance equals respect, and respect is everything.

The predator’s notions of right and wrong are also corrupted: “if I can get away with it then it is ‘right’, if I can’t then it is ‘wrong’.  Further, the conscience that governs decent people is absent or thoroughly corrupted in predators.

Predator’s Weakness

Those who seek respect through aggression are in fact some of the biggest cowards, with the weakest psychology.  They never achieve respect, only fear. And when they run into someone who isn't afraid they collapse like a house of cards. This is why even the most desperate predator is careful in how they select their prey.   Because they know – deep down – that they can only succeed if the target is unable or unwilling to fight back.  They are fundamentally cowards lacking the confidence and resilience to challenge someone who could fight back.  For them to succeed, the attack MUST be one sided.

The Prey’s Strength

Imagine, if you will, encountering a wolf while walking in the woods.  It locks eyes in a hard stare.  The hair on its back stands up; it bars its teeth, and begins to snarl.  If the wolf attacks, would you be justified in saying afterwards “but I never saw it coming”?  The warning indicators of predatory humans are not quite as obvious…or are they?

Now, imagine you are walking down the street and you see a person or group that causes you to feel fear.  Are you not being warned?  Are your instincts not telling you to avoid that situation, just as it would tell you to back away from that wolf?

Trusting your hardwiring for survival

Fear is good.  It is a messenger that wakes you up and is not something you need to overcome in your life. It is simply an impulse to be understood.  But most people try, at all costs, to override this impulse, or they mistakenly believe that experiencing fear somehow means that they lack courage.  But intuition allows you to know, without knowing why, and when safety is at stake, intuition communicates through fear.

Denial, however, is the exact opposite.  Denial is seeing the facts, yet choosing to disregard them.  Denial could flat-out get you killed, and it will always leave you vulnerable.

Situational awareness 

Attention is the active embracing of your primal instincts.  It is something that must be cultivated.  It must be practiced, and done so consciously.  Pay attention to your environment and trust your instincts no matter what the person looks like, and no matter how your logical mind desires to interfere or make excuses.

Recognize that all violence is situational.  When you allow yourself to be preoccupied, particularly with technology, you shunt your senses to such a degree that your mind cannot do its job, and you create a situation of vulnerability, even if you wouldn't otherwise have been perceived as vulnerable by a predator.

Winning the game

As predators are inherently cowards, you don’t have to be bigger, stronger, faster, better to deter them, you just have to be willing and able.  Willingness comes from ability.  Train the body, the mind follows. To recap in 4 simple rules:

1. Accept, first and foremost, that there are predators out there who will prey mercilessly on those whom they perceive as vulnerable.
2. Your first objective is to cultivate situational awareness, and to trust your intuitive threat recognition software.
3. If you perceive threat, move.  Get off the “X”, as we say in protection terms.  Take decisive action to avoid the situation and remove yourself as a target of opportunity.
4. Training is invaluable as it tunes your awareness and makes you a less inviting target, but remember that there are no silver bullet techniques if you don’t follow rules 1 through 3 above.

Sam Rosenberg is an internationally recognized expert on personal and institutional security.  A former Marine officer and close protection specialist, he is the director of global protective services for CSI.  His Pittsburgh based company INPAX | Academy of Personal Protection, provides comprehensive training and consulting services for individuals, families, corporations, and schools nationwide.  Read Sam’s full article on the knockout game here.

Vulnerability Analysis

It is cheaper to mitigate threats ahead of time than to pay for a disaster after the fact.

Who will protect this business? 

The task of shrinking risk to a level we can live with falls upon the shoulders of many different people.  Some, who own businesses, must do what it takes based upon their knowledge and understanding of what needs to be protected. Others are hired to do nothing but make businesses safe and secure.  Either way, this is no easy task given the many areas of vulnerability that could be addressed.  Couple that with keeping business operations unburdened by extra security measures and you find yourself in a challenging situation.

Despite the challenge, it is always recommended that you invest in protecting your business by whatever means are available.  And given the variety of assets that need protected – from people to trade secrets – it sometimes takes an expert to get the job done.  Even though it is your business or your purview, obtaining an outside perspective can be healthy and wise.

Protect the front door, the back door or both?  

One of the challenges in protecting a business is first identifying what needs protected.  It may not be as obvious at you think.  This is especially true if your focus is on running the business and making money.  In the big scheme of things, you know your competitive advantage needs to be protected.  This is also true for your physical property and your people.  But what may not be obvious is that all three interact to some degree.  What that means is that any valid security solution will need to encompass and integrate all aspects of your operation.  This is where a vulnerability analysis comes in handy.

A good starting point.  

In general, a vulnerability analysis is a top to bottom, front to back review of your physical plant and your associated safety and security program.  In addition to the physical make up of the property, the analysis looks at elements like technology, behaviors, patterns and adherence to procedures. With established programs, the analysis is able to review current standards and practices for practicality and effectiveness. For businesses without plans in place, it is a good starting point because it starts from scratch and finishes with a complete picture of where you are and where you need to go.  

The right approach with fringe benefits.  

Certainly, a vulnerability analysis of your business can lead to a safer and more secure environment.  Safe and secure is desirable for obvious reasons. What might be overlooked is that with these attributes, you are likely to see better performance from your staff.  This has also been shown to be true for learning environments.   So investing in protecting your business unburdens your employees from distracting concerns and frees them up to focus on the job for which they were hired.  

Commitment needed up front.

Contracting with a safety and security expert to evaluate your business is a wise investment.   And if you do take this step to protect your business, here are a few things to keep in mind:  

• Be prepared to be challenged by the findings.    Sometimes overlooking the obvious is embarrassing but good leaders know they are not perfect and that professionals are out there to help, not hinder. 

• Commit to making the recommended changes.  If you cannot get to them all right away, start somewhere and build on it. It’s okay to take it one step at a time, just keep moving forward.  

• If you budget for a vulnerability analysis, make sure you have funding left over to cover upgrades.  While you don’t know what will be discovered during the review, some changes may be critical and need to be installed quickly.  

• Use the analysis to create a new awareness of safety and security. Many changes are dependent upon human compliance.  You may have to enforce changes initially to mold the culture but eventually it will become habit for your employees.

• Safety and Security is an ongoing endeavor.  Use the vulnerability analysis to make a plan.  Review it regularly and involve other employees in the process.  Finally, track your progress toward meeting your safety and security goals.  If you don’t measure, it won’t happen.