Brenda Jean Patrick

Brenda Jean Patrick has been called “a Force of Nature,” primarily for her longstanding and highly vocal insistence within the educational community that students and parents are, in fact, customers that the educational system must serve. She believes customer service is civility and civility needs to make a return to our daily expectations!

Patrick first received public attention during her tenure as a master consultant with the Region 10 Education Service Center, where she was the first consultant to bring the concept of customer care to the school districts in Texas.  Patrick’s pioneering work within the staff development community has been recognized throughout the United States as pivotal in the heightened awareness among school administrators that they must strengthen the lines of communication with parents, businesses and the community in order to increase student achievement in all areas of academic endeavor. [1]

Patrick has continued her work as an independent consultant (though preferring to call herself “The Customer Care Teacher”) and has designed a customer care program for education using customer service strategies and techniques that have proven beneficial to highly successful companies in industries serving large numbers of customers. “It has taken years,” Patrick says, “but school districts are realizing the importance of customer care as part of their everyday operations.”  [2]
 
Patrick has served as Board Member for Friends of Texas Public Schools as well as Advisory Board Member for the Texas Educational Support Staff Association. [3] While serving in these capacities, she became convinced that much of educational training had become sterile and lifeless in a misguided effort not to be offensive.  Her “Force of Nature” style proved refreshing and effective among teachers and administrators throughout Texas.

“A new perspective about our work can be the spark of energy we need to be the educational leaders that are required in today’s society,” Patrick says.  “Think of Leo Buscoglia’s statement: ‘Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.’ “

This philosophy was one Patrick carried throughout her presentation of the Teacher Expectations and Student Achievement (TESA) program, a training curriculum for teachers of all subjects at all grade levels. TESA is designed to help teachers become aware of classroom behaviors that convey expectations to students. During the training, teachers discuss 15 teaching behaviors that affect student achievement. They practice them in their classrooms and receive feedback from fellow teachers attending the series of workshops.

Patrick believes teacher and student performance can be enhanced dramatically through mentoring, which enables individuals to find their own power and choose their own paths to success.  She is convinced that enlightened mentoring—rather than pedantic instruction--can lead to life-changing points of view.

Once, when speaking to 15 graduates from Pathways, the alternative high school in Denison, TX, Patrick told the graduates of a conversation with her father, who offered her a different answer to the old question, “If everybody else is jumping off a cliff, are you going to jump, too?” The answer that parents traditionally expect—and hope to hear—is no.  That is not the advice Patrick’s father gave her. “Go to the edge of the cliff, look over, and see if there’s anything worth jumping off for.  Then you make your decision,” he told her. [4]

Patrick attended Texas A&M University, Commerce, Texas, where she received her Bachelor of Science in 1981 in Elementary Education with a History minor. In 1984, Patrick received her Masters of Science, Professional Supervisor Certificate and her Mid-Management Administrator Certificate.

For her work, Patrick has been recognized with many awards.  These include the 2007 Texas Educational Support Staff Association (TESA) Administrator of the Year, Texas History Teacher of the Year (presented by the Daughters of the Republic of Texas) and inclusion in Who's Who in American Education and Who's Who in the Southwest.

"Achieving begins with believing,” Patrick once told the Royse City (TX) High School seniors as a part of a two-day presentation on success.  “A major part of your life starts as soon as you cross that stage: You have to make the decision to be successful.” Patrick, an outspoken advocate for education, teachers, and students, does not believe that clinging to the status quo is the answer to America’s educational dilemmas.  She believes in excellence and finds that many times that must be sought outside the box.
“Leadership is not about whether you like someone or whether they please you. Leadership is inspiring someone to complete their job and life with a sense of accomplishment as well as enjoying both job and life”. [5]

Patrick is an 7th generation Texan, born in Dallas, to Gene E. and Peggy Rose Patrick. She is a descendent of Robert Morris, who financed the American Revolution and is one of only two people to sign the three significant founding documents of the United States--the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the U.S. Constitution.

She has a son and a granddaughter.

Article written by John Scott, Marketing and Management Consultant
 [1] Mexia Daily News (February 23, 2007)
 [2] Copperas Cove (TX) Leader-Press (December 2, 2005)
 [3]  Friends of Texas Public Schools website (www.fotps.org/board)
 [4] Sherman Herald Democrat, “Pathways graduates ‘fly into’ adult world” (May, 2003)
 [5] An interview with Brenda Jean Patrick,The Texas Secretary

• E-mail: bjp@brendajeanpatrick.com
• Phone: 214.693.2411