The Two Words That Make Me Cringe

Fidelity /fəˈdelədē/

noun

faithfulness to a person, cause, or belief, demonstrated by continuing loyalty and support

Faithfulness.

Loyalty.

Support.

That all sounds pretty fantastic. Outside of the world of education, I believe that most people would agree that fidelity is a good thing. But within our world, the word has been perverted. The preposition "with" has been tacked in front, and the phrase has taken on a whole new, and wholly different meaning.

When teachers are instructed to follow a new program "with fidelity," it means that they are to follow a manual, read a script, and abandon creativity to obtain results. It means that the district has bought into (both psychologically and financially) the promises of a new and better way of improving students' scores. And it means that if the promised results are not obtained, it cannot possibly be that the promises were empty or that the program is faulty; blame rests on the teachers for not implementing the program "with fidelity."

You know when you hear a radio ad that concludes with high-speed unintelligible disclaimers? Or when you proffer a coupon at the store and the cashier hands it back, pointing out the microscopic exclusions at the bottom? How about those 30-page-long user agreements that you agree to with the click of a button or the waivers you sign when your child jumps on a trampoline? We live in a world of fine print.

But this is different. It's arrogant and insulting. There's no need for fine print because the message is loud and clear. Education is a business, and those in charge have decided that the best way to promote their foolproof programs is to guarantee they will work, and shift blame when they don't. Their curriculum is 100% guaranteed...as long as it is used "with fidelity."

Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe these companies are truly in it for the kids. Maybe these products are going to save our schools and solve our students' problems.

But I don't think so. From what I've seen, "with fidelity" leads to disheartened and frustrated teachers. It treats students like variables in an algebra problem (If student A has problem B, then XYZ is the solution). It looks like a prescription for an illness to be taken in measured doses and at specific times each day. It requires a ton of assessment and data collection to show what teachers already know because they are professionals who CARE about their students. It looks like the Emperor's New Clothes.

The emperor demanded that the tailors dress him with fidelity. So they did.