My First Experience with the Delphi

I attended the Middle Years Committee Work summit last night.

There were approximately 75 people there ... mostly school staff and teachers.

People came in and sat down at round tables. As I was sitting, I observed people (obvious facilitators) seeking out a table. A friend/neighbor of mine sat at my table.

A nicely dressed lady walked by my table several times before asking to join us. My 'red flags' went up immediately and rightly so!

The meeting was started with a "welcome" and introduction of the 'committee' members — only two parents on the 'committee.'

A brief overview of what they have achieved so far was given via an overhead. Exploratory Electives were emphasized.

Then the Group Activity began. Another parent, a dad who I didn't know, joined our table at this point. The main 'facilitator' asked some silly questions to arrive at who should be the 'reporter' and 'recorder.' I didn't participate and neither did the others. But I grabbed the pencil and said I would take notes.

Each table was given a big sheet of paper in order to fill in our 'input' in four sections: Classroom, Activities, Culture, and Other.

Culture was stressed by the main facilitator as attitudes and atmosphere in the school. "What can we do to make them safe?" (The anti-bully bill was mentioned later in the evening.)

The other lady (facilitator) introduced herself as a teacher at the high school. Surprise, surprise! She was a language instructor (teaches foreign language). She obviously wasn't born in America and she mentioned she attended school in another country.

The teacher/facilitator immediately started expressing what she'd like to see in the classroom. She wanted an 'exploratory language class' so when students reached High School they'd know which foreign language they wanted to take. So, I wrote down 'exploratory foreign language classes.'

Oops! Did you know the word 'foreign' is not PC (politically correct)? The teacher said it's too negative and wanted it erased from the sentence. We all couldn't understand what word she wanted to replace foreign with. I looked at the dad and my friend and said, "I like 'foreign.' Do you like 'foreign'?" We all agreed we wanted to keep the word 'foreign.' And we moved on.......

The dad said he wanted more basics. I jumped in and said, "Yeah, more academics and less 'fluff'." My friend agreed. The teacher-facilitator tried to reword what we had just said.... it didn't work! The dad spoke up and said he liked what I said ... he said he liked MY words — "more basics and less 'fluff.'" So, that's what we wrote. The three of us agreed that we'd like to see history, geography, economics, and civics taught separately. Basically, we flipped the table on the facilitator and from that point on we controlled the 'input.' The teacher/facilitator, at some point, said we were too protective of our children because we were insistent that the 6th graders should be isolated from the 7th & 8th graders.

The next activity was reporting the 'input.' Two people from each table went up to the microphone and briefly discussed their 'inputs.' I went up with the dad, who I obviously knew—at that point—was conservative, and we stressed the back to basics and activities such as an Americanism club. I think I shocked the audience when I introduced myself as a 'homeschool parent in the District.' A lot of school staff and teachers spoke for their tables ... and they went on and on and on using all the PC buzzwords. Surprise, surprise!

It was obvious from the buzzwords that were spoken that other tables had been facilitated to a pre-determined outcome.

I exchanged phone numbers with the dad and gave away some information.

Oh, I forgot to mention ... a man at another table spoke up about STW/Career Paths ... changed the entire feel of the meeting. You could hear a pin drop. They tried to make him out as a 'whacko' but a mom behind me spoke up about her son's negative experience with career paths. You should have seen the facilitators faces at that point. I wish I had had my camera with me! More arms were going up with questions about career paths, and, at that point, they ended the meeting.

That was my first Delphi experience.

Cynthia

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While this participant effectively undermined the Delphi at her table, the input from her table will be synthesized with the input from the other tables who reached the pre-determined outcome. In that synthesis, the input from her table will be removed as it does not conform to the agenda.

What happened here is a typical Delphi meeting, the purpose of which is to ...

1) make the greater number of people believe the pre-determined outcome/s are their own, such that they will ...

a) support and advocate said outcomes to the larger community; and

b) defend said outcomes, if necessary;

2) move responsibility for the pre-determined outcomes to a non-elected group of people who...

a) are said to 'represent the community', but that

b) cannot be held accountable by the community.

If measurable opposition to the outcomes arise, those opposing will hear ...

c) "This represents what the community wants" or

d) "This is supported by the community."

What they don't say, don't want to discuss, and don't want brought to light is that the outcomes ...

e) are not the result of unfettered community input, and

f) were not achieved via the informed consent of the participants (ie, the participants were aware they were being exposed to the Delphi Technique, understood the process, and agreed to its use).

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