The silent, reasonable majority must be heard

The loudest voices don’t always represent the majority. It’s essential for school leaders to listen to everyone, including those who aren’t so easily heard.

In today’s political climate, extremism often seems like the norm. On cable news, ideologues shout their talking points. On social media, enraged citizens (and bots) issue a steady stream of snarky put-downs and alternative facts. And on days when Democrats and Republicans hold their primary elections, only the most partisan of voters tend to show up at their polling places. Most people stay home, allowing their least reasonable neighbors to cast the majority of the ballots.

That’s often how things work in school systems, too. When they have to make important decisions, most superintendents — at least, the ones I know — try to bracket off their personal beliefs and preferences in order to weigh the issues fairly and make the best choices they can. But they have to do so in the face of intense pressure from their most aggressive and opinionated constituents. Let’s just say that it’s rarely the more thoughtful and fair-minded parents and community members who launch Twitter storms, light up the phones, and march into the district office to make demands on the superintendent.