Making Time for Collegiality

I was at a meeting recently and heard a colleague relating an experience she found intriguing. Several people from her district had attended a national conference, and she had been a member of the group. The conference was designed to attract teams of educators who work together in schools and school districts.

"There we were, teams from across the country at this expensive out-of-state conference," she began, "but I noticed that even though the speakers were good, we all were more concerned with wanting to talk to one another. And as I looked around the room the same phenomenon was being repeated: Each team that had come together was more interested in talking among themselves than in hearing the speakers. People actually skipped the conference dinner to go to restaurants and eat with others from their schools." As she talked, the others who were sitting next to me nodded their heads in agreement. Clearly, they understood and sympathized with her point.

What is happening here? Why are we so hungry to talk with the people who work down the hall or in the next building? What does it say about the daily working conditions of educators that we must go out of town to find the time to have casual conversations? Why does meeting without an agenda only come after an airplane ride? What does this professional and organizational climate mean for teacher growth? What does it...