I now sit and have sat on a number of boards. By "board" I mean a group of folks who hold some measure of respect in a given community and who are charged with the oversight of some program, some fund, some process, some enterprise. Many boards are elected, most are appointed. I include in the notion of boards groups such as church committees, councils, elders, deacons and sessions. I also include Little League, Boy Scouts, County Fairs, Red Cross, charitable foundations, beauty queen pageants, river authorities, art councils, and corporate boards.
If you think about it, school boards, city councils, legislatures and congress are also boards. These are elected boards, asked to oversee something in which they have no real measure of expertise, but are purported to have good hearts, wisdom, and a vision. Sometimes these elected boards form sub-boards by appointment of the elected board. Sub-boards, or sub-committees, or standing committees, or whatever title is assigned, begin to develop a feeling of self importance, perchance expertise, in the domain of the sub-whatever. And they do gain additional insight and experience, but lack real expertise. The Worship Committee members at church who have served over time begin to understand why the worship service is conducted the way it is, why the flow evolved, why the components are included. But, they also understand that they simply have a historical view, they are not the experts. That would be the pastor who has additional degrees, training and experience in the Order of Worship. But, I digress.
Historically, boards, councils, lay committees listened to and relied on professional expertise. Not now. Expertise appears to mean little.
We are in the middle of a communication revolution. Not only can those who make decisions, or develop and create a message have a much wider audience, but the audience can respond. In fact, the audience can talk to each other. I watch CNN and at first was really irritated when they began their "Question of the Day" whereby they invite views to email, tweet, or Facebook responses to CNN on whatever issue is brewing out there. They dutifully report many of the responses. My first thought was, "Who cares what Jack in North Carolina thinks about this heavy topic?" I was wrong. What Jack thinks is important to Jack and to everyone else who listens or responds to Jack. So, CNN produces and broadcasts and viewers interact. That hasn't happened before. The same thing is going on in so called reality TV where viewers cast votes. Amazing. So much for a panel of experts with long resumes and years of experience. Joe Blow gets to decide which couple goes home.
I know it is happening, and I wonder how much impact it is having on public education? I have ranted before about lay people intervening in the decision making process and overturning rules, processes and procedures that wisdom, training and experience dictate. It appears we cannot maintain that position any longer. How do we jump into a Facebook furor over dress code and say, "this is why we do what we do." How can we say to our constituencies that competition for pay and programs is a bad thing when everyone seems to think it is good thing? How can we argue against standardized testing when "everyone" thinks the scores matter? How do we communicate that the implementation of new research regarding the teaching of math informs us that our methodology in the classroom is different than when our parents went to school? Does expertise exist or is it merely based on the number of tweets, posts, and texts?
That seems to be the case with our legislature and Congress. That seems to be the case with our local school board. That seems to be the case with almost every issue I can think of. I tweet. I blog. I text. Am I guilty of the very crime I propose to end? Has leadership and expertise become tweet counting?
Or, should we just punt and take the combined social attitude over our accumulated expertise? Is it an either/or question?
Will Rogers defined leadership as the ability to get the herd moving roughly West. I love that notion. Is it obsolete? Is leadership now figuring out which way the herd is going and then racing full speed to get ahed of the thundering hooves? Am I the only one left who person-cotts reality TV in favor of reading a good book?
Help me. I'll count the posts.
Monday, September 26, 2011
Sunday, September 18, 2011
How Morph #1
If you are still with me and have been tempted to sign up for the School of Morph, then a valid question would be, "How the heck do we get there from here?" Ah, the "How Morph" question. A series of simultaneous events must happen in a way that coincides with a series of professional realizations to get the ball rolling. So, there are two sets of responses, one based on the current education institution and those of us within and without pushing and pulling, and the other grounded in political and economic reality. Education first I always say, so this post will address the professional realization piece, and "How Morph #2" will address the political/economic realm.
Though I believe many in public education sense the coming morph, they have yet to congeal around a picture of what is coming and how to help make it happen. By the phrase "in public education" I mean teachers, aides, administrators, superintendents, school boards and professors of education as well as the wide array of vendors, consultants and others who make their living off public education dollars but are not actually employed by a public school. As a matter of disclosure, I include myself in this group of "in public education," not as a vendor, but as a practitioner.
The current model of public education is not working and is on the verge of implosion. That realization led me to "Why Morph?" As more and more of us in this profession take a deep breath and review our practices and policies and procedures from aloft and with good hearts devoted to the mission of educating the youth of this country as an essential process of preserving and improving our future on this planet, then more and more of us must stand up and say, what we are doing is not working. It is working for some, but not for nearly enough. That is realization #1 and it is critical. If we believe that what we are doing is working, is good for kids and is good for this country, then we will never morph, and we will simply accelerate down the road we currently travel. That is the path set by folks who are not in this profession. I find that thought frightful.
I started this post on the first day for Texas school children to return to school. That was a really appropriate time to discuss realization #2: Schools must operate year round. The incredible stress of starting up each year is unbearable. The amount of time spent in classrooms putting up the bulletin boards that were just taken down in June is absolutely ridiculous. Developing schedules, assigning classrooms, conducting the mandatory faculty meetings, attending the mandatory staff development, leveling classes and printing student handbooks and forms for parents to fill out would all be moot if we simply never shut down. Add to that what happens in classrooms across this state, (and I suspect most others), after the administration of the high stakes standardized tests and one wonders why we even require kids to attend class after the tests. Field trips, assemblies, carnivals, etc., etc., dot the lesson plan landscape as teachers and administrators intuitively know that once the bubble sheets are shipped, school is over for the year. That can be as early as March or as late as May, but school is out when the scantrons are in. We keep running buses and we keep taking roll, but little instruction is actually happening. For schools to be effective and for teachers to be taken seriously, school must be an option for kids year round. We must stop the incredible waste of resources at both the end and beginning of each school year. Until teachers begin to lobby for that it won't happen, and as long as we are a "profession" that is only on call August to May, or September to June, we are part-timers and also-rans. No one who gets ten to twelve weeks a year vacation plus 2 weeks at Christmas, a spring break and at least 5 other random days per year is ever going to be seen as a real professional, much less listened to when the salary moaning begins. Teachers must work year round and schools should be open year round.
(Businesses close to remodel and then have a grand re-opening. If we remodel we do it on the fly during the school year whether we are talking new curriculum, newly purchased gizmos or software, or whether we are talking facilities. If summers were used for nothing else other than to further the professional practice of teachers with kids not present, we would be light-years ahead. Good Lord, our communities did not spend millions of dollars on facilities to sit idle ¼ of the year! Custodians do not need that much time to wax the floors and get cobwebs off the light fixtures.)
If you say, “We can’t afford that,” then I say, “Read part 2, coming soon to a blog near you.” If you say, “I don’t want to work year round,” then I say, “Re-evaluate your vision of teaching as a profession.”
Realization #3 is already out there, but it hasn't really sunk in. The most critical variable in any student's successful learning, demographics and DNA included, is the teacher. One of the most powerful subtexts in the whole high-stakes testing movement is the realization that who teaches the kids makes a difference. Hence the tests: let's find the good ones and fire the rest and use a test to separate the cream from the skim milk. The kid makes a difference too, but who teaches the kid makes a big difference. Parents know that on "meet the teacher night" and on "back to school night." Parents with efficacy make sure their kids get the “right” teacher. Schools go through incredible policy gymnastics to proclaim that classes are balanced by gender, ethnicity and heterogeneous performance history to justify spreading the kids out among the available pros. All the insiders really know the best teachers get both the toughest kids to teach and the kids of the most politically connected parents. The charter school movement appeals to parents in part because they have some choice in who the teacher is. Private schools, for those who can pay, settle the selection process once and for all. You too can buy your teacher, not to mention your child's peers. (It has always been amusing to me that every teacher I ever fired for incompetence either ended up making more money doing something else, or got hired by a private school. Go figure.) The teacher, the pro, makes a difference. Until teachers own up to this revelation, the chances of further realizations are slim.
Own up to realization #3 and you are ready for realization #4: teacher preparation and practice is critical to the future success not only of the teacher but of the students. How many reports do we have to see regarding the rapid exodus of young teachers from the profession before we say, you know, we are probably not setting them up for success. Duh. And, the preparation issue is not necessarily content area mastery! There is a reason doctors spend years in paid apprenticeships as do plumbers, welders, electricians, etc. One must learn one's craft. If the craft is teaching, then content knowledge at the university level is just about as critical to successful teaching as college level biology courses are to surgeons: nice to have, but not nearly enough. Teachers must be taught by other teachers. (I know. I can hear the universities grumbling already. But frankly, I have more degrees and graduate hours than I am willing to claim, and if I sit through one more lecture on why it is important to vary instructional strategies and differentiate instruction I am likely to commit mayhem.) We need to ensure that prospective teachers get the university content prep necessary to teach subject matter, then pay them for a one to three year internship wherein they learn to teach kids the subject matter, not just teach the subject matter. And this cannot be done by dropping the future teacher in an isolated classroom, or asking them to student teach for 6 weeks. This must be done in the ongoing company of real professional teachers.
Hence, realization #5: teachers must collaborate and should not be allowed to isolate. Neither an ill-prepared college grad nor an exhausted 20 year pro is likely to work well in a room alone with 20+ little humans. The structure for success is all wrong. No one else works alone, much less practices a high-stakes profession alone. Doctors don’t, engineers don’t, lawyers don’t. Teachers do. And when they get together, their clients and patients are not present and the temptation is simply to play, “Ain’t it awful.” To make real collaboration happen, schedules must be radically changed, the way we build schools must be changed, and the way we picture the school day must be changed. That will take community and parent involvement, professional support from teachers and administrators, and, surprisingly less money! We just have to paint the picture of what a group of pros can accomplish with a group of kids, working together for the purpose of learning, and working year-round. (OK, I guess that requires another post!)
So, how do we morph?
First, a large number of us (though research on meaningful change points to a critical mass of 10 to 20%) must say that what we are doing is not working, schools must operate year-round, teachers really do make the difference in a kid’s learning, we must change the way we prepare and support teachers, and teachers must work collaboratively rather than in small rectangular rooms all alone with kids. If the profession took this stand, modeled it, piloted it, demonstrated it, and showed that not only does it work better, it costs less while retaining the best, then we will get the parent, community, board and legislative support to do it.
We must create a model. A model morph: A vivid picture of a school serving a diverse group of kids who are achieving high academic success in a new setting with new behaviors on the part of the adults in the building.
Looks like I have more posting to do after Part 2 of “How Morph”, but you can start thinking about it right now! Break down the walls!
Though I believe many in public education sense the coming morph, they have yet to congeal around a picture of what is coming and how to help make it happen. By the phrase "in public education" I mean teachers, aides, administrators, superintendents, school boards and professors of education as well as the wide array of vendors, consultants and others who make their living off public education dollars but are not actually employed by a public school. As a matter of disclosure, I include myself in this group of "in public education," not as a vendor, but as a practitioner.
The current model of public education is not working and is on the verge of implosion. That realization led me to "Why Morph?" As more and more of us in this profession take a deep breath and review our practices and policies and procedures from aloft and with good hearts devoted to the mission of educating the youth of this country as an essential process of preserving and improving our future on this planet, then more and more of us must stand up and say, what we are doing is not working. It is working for some, but not for nearly enough. That is realization #1 and it is critical. If we believe that what we are doing is working, is good for kids and is good for this country, then we will never morph, and we will simply accelerate down the road we currently travel. That is the path set by folks who are not in this profession. I find that thought frightful.
I started this post on the first day for Texas school children to return to school. That was a really appropriate time to discuss realization #2: Schools must operate year round. The incredible stress of starting up each year is unbearable. The amount of time spent in classrooms putting up the bulletin boards that were just taken down in June is absolutely ridiculous. Developing schedules, assigning classrooms, conducting the mandatory faculty meetings, attending the mandatory staff development, leveling classes and printing student handbooks and forms for parents to fill out would all be moot if we simply never shut down. Add to that what happens in classrooms across this state, (and I suspect most others), after the administration of the high stakes standardized tests and one wonders why we even require kids to attend class after the tests. Field trips, assemblies, carnivals, etc., etc., dot the lesson plan landscape as teachers and administrators intuitively know that once the bubble sheets are shipped, school is over for the year. That can be as early as March or as late as May, but school is out when the scantrons are in. We keep running buses and we keep taking roll, but little instruction is actually happening. For schools to be effective and for teachers to be taken seriously, school must be an option for kids year round. We must stop the incredible waste of resources at both the end and beginning of each school year. Until teachers begin to lobby for that it won't happen, and as long as we are a "profession" that is only on call August to May, or September to June, we are part-timers and also-rans. No one who gets ten to twelve weeks a year vacation plus 2 weeks at Christmas, a spring break and at least 5 other random days per year is ever going to be seen as a real professional, much less listened to when the salary moaning begins. Teachers must work year round and schools should be open year round.
(Businesses close to remodel and then have a grand re-opening. If we remodel we do it on the fly during the school year whether we are talking new curriculum, newly purchased gizmos or software, or whether we are talking facilities. If summers were used for nothing else other than to further the professional practice of teachers with kids not present, we would be light-years ahead. Good Lord, our communities did not spend millions of dollars on facilities to sit idle ¼ of the year! Custodians do not need that much time to wax the floors and get cobwebs off the light fixtures.)
If you say, “We can’t afford that,” then I say, “Read part 2, coming soon to a blog near you.” If you say, “I don’t want to work year round,” then I say, “Re-evaluate your vision of teaching as a profession.”
Realization #3 is already out there, but it hasn't really sunk in. The most critical variable in any student's successful learning, demographics and DNA included, is the teacher. One of the most powerful subtexts in the whole high-stakes testing movement is the realization that who teaches the kids makes a difference. Hence the tests: let's find the good ones and fire the rest and use a test to separate the cream from the skim milk. The kid makes a difference too, but who teaches the kid makes a big difference. Parents know that on "meet the teacher night" and on "back to school night." Parents with efficacy make sure their kids get the “right” teacher. Schools go through incredible policy gymnastics to proclaim that classes are balanced by gender, ethnicity and heterogeneous performance history to justify spreading the kids out among the available pros. All the insiders really know the best teachers get both the toughest kids to teach and the kids of the most politically connected parents. The charter school movement appeals to parents in part because they have some choice in who the teacher is. Private schools, for those who can pay, settle the selection process once and for all. You too can buy your teacher, not to mention your child's peers. (It has always been amusing to me that every teacher I ever fired for incompetence either ended up making more money doing something else, or got hired by a private school. Go figure.) The teacher, the pro, makes a difference. Until teachers own up to this revelation, the chances of further realizations are slim.
Own up to realization #3 and you are ready for realization #4: teacher preparation and practice is critical to the future success not only of the teacher but of the students. How many reports do we have to see regarding the rapid exodus of young teachers from the profession before we say, you know, we are probably not setting them up for success. Duh. And, the preparation issue is not necessarily content area mastery! There is a reason doctors spend years in paid apprenticeships as do plumbers, welders, electricians, etc. One must learn one's craft. If the craft is teaching, then content knowledge at the university level is just about as critical to successful teaching as college level biology courses are to surgeons: nice to have, but not nearly enough. Teachers must be taught by other teachers. (I know. I can hear the universities grumbling already. But frankly, I have more degrees and graduate hours than I am willing to claim, and if I sit through one more lecture on why it is important to vary instructional strategies and differentiate instruction I am likely to commit mayhem.) We need to ensure that prospective teachers get the university content prep necessary to teach subject matter, then pay them for a one to three year internship wherein they learn to teach kids the subject matter, not just teach the subject matter. And this cannot be done by dropping the future teacher in an isolated classroom, or asking them to student teach for 6 weeks. This must be done in the ongoing company of real professional teachers.
Hence, realization #5: teachers must collaborate and should not be allowed to isolate. Neither an ill-prepared college grad nor an exhausted 20 year pro is likely to work well in a room alone with 20+ little humans. The structure for success is all wrong. No one else works alone, much less practices a high-stakes profession alone. Doctors don’t, engineers don’t, lawyers don’t. Teachers do. And when they get together, their clients and patients are not present and the temptation is simply to play, “Ain’t it awful.” To make real collaboration happen, schedules must be radically changed, the way we build schools must be changed, and the way we picture the school day must be changed. That will take community and parent involvement, professional support from teachers and administrators, and, surprisingly less money! We just have to paint the picture of what a group of pros can accomplish with a group of kids, working together for the purpose of learning, and working year-round. (OK, I guess that requires another post!)
So, how do we morph?
First, a large number of us (though research on meaningful change points to a critical mass of 10 to 20%) must say that what we are doing is not working, schools must operate year-round, teachers really do make the difference in a kid’s learning, we must change the way we prepare and support teachers, and teachers must work collaboratively rather than in small rectangular rooms all alone with kids. If the profession took this stand, modeled it, piloted it, demonstrated it, and showed that not only does it work better, it costs less while retaining the best, then we will get the parent, community, board and legislative support to do it.
We must create a model. A model morph: A vivid picture of a school serving a diverse group of kids who are achieving high academic success in a new setting with new behaviors on the part of the adults in the building.
Looks like I have more posting to do after Part 2 of “How Morph”, but you can start thinking about it right now! Break down the walls!
Thursday, September 15, 2011
TOYs for Tots
OK, so a Texas teacher association gathered all the regional teachers of the year (TOYs) together at a posh hotel in Austin for a focus group session on how to improve education. You can read the full report here: http://www.atpefoundation.org/images/2011RTOYFullReport.pdf. They developed four recommendations in the areas of accountability, professionalism, rebranding, and community. Interesting.
I agree with much of what they said. Everyone should be held accountable. Professional development should be focused and be campus-based, teacher influenced, relevant and useful. Accountability for quality performance must be systemic. Our profession is in trouble and in need of "rebranding." We all need to work on this together, administrators, teachers, community, legislators.
But, sadly, my sense is that they missed the big picture. They could not see outside the walls of their classrooms. There are comments about teaching to the test, inadequate administrator evaluations, failure to weed out the incompetents.
Where do school administrators come from? Do you think current administrators go to incompetent, non-motivated teachers and suggest that they consider becoming a principal? Nope. I was a teacher of the year before I became an administrator. I was president of my local teacher association. I lobbied hard to increase teacher input into decision-making. I was wrong.
Had someone asked me back then how the school finance system worked, I could not tell them. Had they asked me how the curriculum standards were set, I could not tell them. Had they asked me how the accountability system really worked at both the state and federal levels, I could not tell them. Had they asked me how administrators were evaluated, I could not tell them. Had they asked me how the local budget and tax rate were developed and set, I could not tell them. Had they asked me how, based on all the above we were doing as a school, as a district and as a state, I could not tell them.
One of the key provisions of professionalism is to know your profession. Not just your practice, your profession. Not just your subject and grade level, but your profession. I get it that teachers do not want to attend all day, big group workshops on a topic suggested by an administrator. I get it that they want incompetent teachers rooted out. I get it that we are all in this together. And, I get it that teachers, good teachers, are entrepreneurial and want to be left alone in their rooms to do their jobs without interference from administrators.
Most amazing to me is the notion that weak teachers are not weeded out. The only reason administrators do not weed them out faster is that teacher associations have fought to legislate provisions so that it is very difficult to fire a teacher. Can fire an administrator at the drop of a hat, but not teachers. And, ours is the only organization going where criticism of the boss does not result in termination, it is lauded as a professional right and duty!
I return to the notion that our biggest challenge is the isolation of the profession. Teachers rarely see other teachers teach. The impression they have of the quality of the work done by their peers comes from lounge gossip. I was amazed when I left the classroom and saw other teachers teach and observed what went on in classrooms.
Teachers can bond with a common enemy. It is easy to make that enemy an administrator. It is easy to say we are here for the kids, and let's get the incompetent administrators out of here. (And, incompetent administrators ought to be fired, but not based on test scores!)
Woe is me. The Texas Teachers of the Year are playing the same old tune. Let's have some vision, folks! Why not talk about politics since that is now driving all instructional and institutional decision making? Why not attack standardized testing rather than teaching to the test? Why not promote a different kind of accountability? Why not promote a different kind of professional development beyond make-it and take-it labs. Why not take a day and spend it observing your peers?
I expected more than TOYS for Tots.
And yes, I'm back.
I agree with much of what they said. Everyone should be held accountable. Professional development should be focused and be campus-based, teacher influenced, relevant and useful. Accountability for quality performance must be systemic. Our profession is in trouble and in need of "rebranding." We all need to work on this together, administrators, teachers, community, legislators.
But, sadly, my sense is that they missed the big picture. They could not see outside the walls of their classrooms. There are comments about teaching to the test, inadequate administrator evaluations, failure to weed out the incompetents.
Where do school administrators come from? Do you think current administrators go to incompetent, non-motivated teachers and suggest that they consider becoming a principal? Nope. I was a teacher of the year before I became an administrator. I was president of my local teacher association. I lobbied hard to increase teacher input into decision-making. I was wrong.
Had someone asked me back then how the school finance system worked, I could not tell them. Had they asked me how the curriculum standards were set, I could not tell them. Had they asked me how the accountability system really worked at both the state and federal levels, I could not tell them. Had they asked me how administrators were evaluated, I could not tell them. Had they asked me how the local budget and tax rate were developed and set, I could not tell them. Had they asked me how, based on all the above we were doing as a school, as a district and as a state, I could not tell them.
One of the key provisions of professionalism is to know your profession. Not just your practice, your profession. Not just your subject and grade level, but your profession. I get it that teachers do not want to attend all day, big group workshops on a topic suggested by an administrator. I get it that they want incompetent teachers rooted out. I get it that we are all in this together. And, I get it that teachers, good teachers, are entrepreneurial and want to be left alone in their rooms to do their jobs without interference from administrators.
Most amazing to me is the notion that weak teachers are not weeded out. The only reason administrators do not weed them out faster is that teacher associations have fought to legislate provisions so that it is very difficult to fire a teacher. Can fire an administrator at the drop of a hat, but not teachers. And, ours is the only organization going where criticism of the boss does not result in termination, it is lauded as a professional right and duty!
I return to the notion that our biggest challenge is the isolation of the profession. Teachers rarely see other teachers teach. The impression they have of the quality of the work done by their peers comes from lounge gossip. I was amazed when I left the classroom and saw other teachers teach and observed what went on in classrooms.
Teachers can bond with a common enemy. It is easy to make that enemy an administrator. It is easy to say we are here for the kids, and let's get the incompetent administrators out of here. (And, incompetent administrators ought to be fired, but not based on test scores!)
Woe is me. The Texas Teachers of the Year are playing the same old tune. Let's have some vision, folks! Why not talk about politics since that is now driving all instructional and institutional decision making? Why not attack standardized testing rather than teaching to the test? Why not promote a different kind of accountability? Why not promote a different kind of professional development beyond make-it and take-it labs. Why not take a day and spend it observing your peers?
I expected more than TOYS for Tots.
And yes, I'm back.
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Re-Booted
I awoke last week in fear and took down all the postings. Took me hours. I awoke this morning, 9/11/2011 and realized now is not the time to act from fear. Now is the time to act with courage. I'm back. I re-posted everything I took down, though you will notice that all previous posts are dated today. Open them and you will see the date I originally wrote them, and all your wonderful comments.
Today is a day to mourn and remember, and try to recapture the united spirit we felt 10 years ago.
Yes, even liberals can say, "God, please bless America."
(I did not re-post the poetry. OK, I'm not a poet.)
Thank you for your kind comments and emails. More, thank you for sticking with me.
I'm back!
Today is a day to mourn and remember, and try to recapture the united spirit we felt 10 years ago.
Yes, even liberals can say, "God, please bless America."
(I did not re-post the poetry. OK, I'm not a poet.)
Thank you for your kind comments and emails. More, thank you for sticking with me.
I'm back!
Mrs. Minowpee
TUESDAY, AUGUST 30, 2011
I was so blessed in my youth. My disabled grandmother lived with my family, and one of my most wonderful memories of early childhood was sitting in her lap in her wheelchair while she read to me. I sat with my back to her chest, her arms around me holding a book so that she could look over my head and read. I could see the book too. She read children's books to me, but she also read big books, what some elementary folks call chapter books. I loved the bonding, the experience, the sound of her voice as she read and read. She had grown up in a time when radio became common and most folks gathered around the large tube-filled RCA to listen to news, commentary, variety shows, drama and comedy performed by actors whose skill was the spoken word, emphasis, mood, enunciation and characterization, all broadcast for free. That influence was clear in my grandmother's reading. Books became alive; I could picture each character, each scene as she changed the pitch of her voice and the tempo of her reading to fit the text.
I do not remember exactly when it happened, but I clearly remember that it happened. Gran was reading Through the Looking Glass to me and I was enthralled by the travails of poor Alice. I could see the text. I could hear her voice. Suddenly, as though a light went on, I knew where she was in the text. I could follow the words and knew what they were and what she was going to say. I do not know how, but I was suddenly reading. I was so excited! It was an "a hah!" moment like I had never experienced. I was reading!
After that, I could not get enough to read. I was voracious. Children's books flew by, then Peter Pan, then Gulliver's Travels, then on to all of the Robert Louis Stevenson books. I continued to sit in Gran's lap, but we took turns reading now. It was wonderful.
Then, I entered kindergarten. My excitement about school ended before lunch the first day. We were going to learn the alphabet, and colors, and numbers. OK, I needed help with numbers, but not colors. I did not know the alphabet, though I clearly remember large letters on skinny poster board displayed around the upper walls of the room. Our first week was the letter "A". I really did not get "A". I got the sound and really understood the letter as a mere bit of a word, sometimes a word all by itself, but out of context it made no sense to me. "B" was worse. By the 3rd week of school I was becoming a behavior problem. I wanted to read, I did not want to memorize symbols that were mere pieces of reading. I wanted words. I wanted context. I wanted to visit other places, know other people, have vicarious adventures. I did not want to learn "C." or D, or E. And somehow the rumor that Here Tip Run was around the corner was not enough to keep me out of the corner.
Gran tried to save me. She taught me the song that many already knew and we sang in class. The alphabet song. I bet you know it. But, you probably understood it better than I did. I was pretty good in the song until we got to Mrs. Minowpee. Mrs. Ella Minowpee. I got all the way through "K" then got hung up on Ella Minowpee. Q was OK, but rare, S and the rest were OK. But Ella Minowpee always threw me.
To this day I do not really know my alphabet. I can sing the song and fake it, but dearest friends and family know that if you hand me a phone book to look up a number, I am again singing the dirge to Mrs. Minowpee trying to make sense of all this. Once I became a teacher and had reasons to file stuff, I never could organize things alphabetically. I could spell "alphabet" and I could use it in a sentence, but I never mastered it. My files were organized by concept or due date.
So here is what I know about kids because of Mrs. Ella Minowpee. Each one learns differently. Some in bursts. Some very slowly. Some are already ready for more, and others have not caught up with yesterday. I was such a child, and maybe you were too. I got in trouble because I wanted to read and did not want to waste my time memorizing what appeared to me to be nonsense. I stand my ground. At my ripe old age, a successful career as an educator all but behind me, and I still stubbornly have refused to learn the alphabet, though I remain both fond of and curious about Mrs. Minowpee and the fact that generations of children have sung her name knowing virtually nothing about her.
Teach kids both where they are and where they could go. Adult de-construction of knowledge is not always necessarily the correct learning sequence. To know that, all you have to do is ask the kid. If they are curious about Ella Minowpee, then be prepared to either introduce her or demystify her so you and the kid can go on. Psychometricians and standardized test manufacturers don't get that, do they? They operate in a world where every 6 year old must know Ella Minowpee before they get to see real words, in real sentences, in real contexts and actually read.
Perhaps we should finally organize a memorial service for Mrs. Minowpee, and all the other little knowledge bits that are somehow irrelevant but required as subsets to real learning. If so, I will be there to eulogize and say "Amen."
POSTED BY EILEEN GOOD AT 9:41 PM
6 COMMENTS:
Anonymous said...
It is 5 in the morning and I am laughing! A rarity at this hour! Wonderful insight! I do not teach elementary students, its middle school for me. Today, we are making an Alphabet Book (middle school and an Alphabet Book sounds maybe a bit juvenile, trust me its not)! Maybe Ella Minowpee will be visiting. I hope so, we will create and include her in our book!! Really, what you did was to make me think about some of the questions my kids ask or wonder about or that cause them to disconnect. It is time for me to reevaluate and look into their questions and make sure I make to proper introductions or demystifications! Thanks! I am ready for Ella, bring her on!
AUGUST 31, 2011 4:20 AM
Anonymous said...
Ella is famous. She even has a book written about her.
http://www.amazon.com/Ella-Minnow-Pea-Novel-Letters/dp/0385722435/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1314790822&sr=8-1
Thanks for the laugh.
AUGUST 31, 2011 6:42 AM
Mrs. G. said...
Einstein kept the multiplication tables taped to his wall. He was too busy doing interesting math to memorize them. By today's standards, he'd still be in third grade trying to pass a timed math fact test.
AUGUST 31, 2011 8:00 AM
Anonymous said...
I find it amazing that we are still spending very much time on alphabetizing when most of us look up our references on the computer. Type in the search box and it finds it for you ... do we really use 'guide words' all that much?
Granted, it can be helpful to know how to use an index in a book ... but other than that ... tell me when you use the skill ....
AUGUST 31, 2011 11:40 AM
Anonymous said...
Ok...did the alphabet book with my math class and used Ella to introduce it....what a hoot! Kids laughed the entire day while working...my room was filled with song! As awful as the state of education can be....these are the moments that make you forget all funding, testing, accountability issues! These moments are why I love teaching!
SEPTEMBER 1, 2011 6:44 PM
Anonymous said...
a lift for educators everywhere ...
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/03/opinion/blow-an-ode-to-teachers.html?smid=fb-share
I was so blessed in my youth. My disabled grandmother lived with my family, and one of my most wonderful memories of early childhood was sitting in her lap in her wheelchair while she read to me. I sat with my back to her chest, her arms around me holding a book so that she could look over my head and read. I could see the book too. She read children's books to me, but she also read big books, what some elementary folks call chapter books. I loved the bonding, the experience, the sound of her voice as she read and read. She had grown up in a time when radio became common and most folks gathered around the large tube-filled RCA to listen to news, commentary, variety shows, drama and comedy performed by actors whose skill was the spoken word, emphasis, mood, enunciation and characterization, all broadcast for free. That influence was clear in my grandmother's reading. Books became alive; I could picture each character, each scene as she changed the pitch of her voice and the tempo of her reading to fit the text.
I do not remember exactly when it happened, but I clearly remember that it happened. Gran was reading Through the Looking Glass to me and I was enthralled by the travails of poor Alice. I could see the text. I could hear her voice. Suddenly, as though a light went on, I knew where she was in the text. I could follow the words and knew what they were and what she was going to say. I do not know how, but I was suddenly reading. I was so excited! It was an "a hah!" moment like I had never experienced. I was reading!
After that, I could not get enough to read. I was voracious. Children's books flew by, then Peter Pan, then Gulliver's Travels, then on to all of the Robert Louis Stevenson books. I continued to sit in Gran's lap, but we took turns reading now. It was wonderful.
Then, I entered kindergarten. My excitement about school ended before lunch the first day. We were going to learn the alphabet, and colors, and numbers. OK, I needed help with numbers, but not colors. I did not know the alphabet, though I clearly remember large letters on skinny poster board displayed around the upper walls of the room. Our first week was the letter "A". I really did not get "A". I got the sound and really understood the letter as a mere bit of a word, sometimes a word all by itself, but out of context it made no sense to me. "B" was worse. By the 3rd week of school I was becoming a behavior problem. I wanted to read, I did not want to memorize symbols that were mere pieces of reading. I wanted words. I wanted context. I wanted to visit other places, know other people, have vicarious adventures. I did not want to learn "C." or D, or E. And somehow the rumor that Here Tip Run was around the corner was not enough to keep me out of the corner.
Gran tried to save me. She taught me the song that many already knew and we sang in class. The alphabet song. I bet you know it. But, you probably understood it better than I did. I was pretty good in the song until we got to Mrs. Minowpee. Mrs. Ella Minowpee. I got all the way through "K" then got hung up on Ella Minowpee. Q was OK, but rare, S and the rest were OK. But Ella Minowpee always threw me.
To this day I do not really know my alphabet. I can sing the song and fake it, but dearest friends and family know that if you hand me a phone book to look up a number, I am again singing the dirge to Mrs. Minowpee trying to make sense of all this. Once I became a teacher and had reasons to file stuff, I never could organize things alphabetically. I could spell "alphabet" and I could use it in a sentence, but I never mastered it. My files were organized by concept or due date.
So here is what I know about kids because of Mrs. Ella Minowpee. Each one learns differently. Some in bursts. Some very slowly. Some are already ready for more, and others have not caught up with yesterday. I was such a child, and maybe you were too. I got in trouble because I wanted to read and did not want to waste my time memorizing what appeared to me to be nonsense. I stand my ground. At my ripe old age, a successful career as an educator all but behind me, and I still stubbornly have refused to learn the alphabet, though I remain both fond of and curious about Mrs. Minowpee and the fact that generations of children have sung her name knowing virtually nothing about her.
Teach kids both where they are and where they could go. Adult de-construction of knowledge is not always necessarily the correct learning sequence. To know that, all you have to do is ask the kid. If they are curious about Ella Minowpee, then be prepared to either introduce her or demystify her so you and the kid can go on. Psychometricians and standardized test manufacturers don't get that, do they? They operate in a world where every 6 year old must know Ella Minowpee before they get to see real words, in real sentences, in real contexts and actually read.
Perhaps we should finally organize a memorial service for Mrs. Minowpee, and all the other little knowledge bits that are somehow irrelevant but required as subsets to real learning. If so, I will be there to eulogize and say "Amen."
POSTED BY EILEEN GOOD AT 9:41 PM
6 COMMENTS:
Anonymous said...
It is 5 in the morning and I am laughing! A rarity at this hour! Wonderful insight! I do not teach elementary students, its middle school for me. Today, we are making an Alphabet Book (middle school and an Alphabet Book sounds maybe a bit juvenile, trust me its not)! Maybe Ella Minowpee will be visiting. I hope so, we will create and include her in our book!! Really, what you did was to make me think about some of the questions my kids ask or wonder about or that cause them to disconnect. It is time for me to reevaluate and look into their questions and make sure I make to proper introductions or demystifications! Thanks! I am ready for Ella, bring her on!
AUGUST 31, 2011 4:20 AM
Anonymous said...
Ella is famous. She even has a book written about her.
http://www.amazon.com/Ella-Minnow-Pea-Novel-Letters/dp/0385722435/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1314790822&sr=8-1
Thanks for the laugh.
AUGUST 31, 2011 6:42 AM
Mrs. G. said...
Einstein kept the multiplication tables taped to his wall. He was too busy doing interesting math to memorize them. By today's standards, he'd still be in third grade trying to pass a timed math fact test.
AUGUST 31, 2011 8:00 AM
Anonymous said...
I find it amazing that we are still spending very much time on alphabetizing when most of us look up our references on the computer. Type in the search box and it finds it for you ... do we really use 'guide words' all that much?
Granted, it can be helpful to know how to use an index in a book ... but other than that ... tell me when you use the skill ....
AUGUST 31, 2011 11:40 AM
Anonymous said...
Ok...did the alphabet book with my math class and used Ella to introduce it....what a hoot! Kids laughed the entire day while working...my room was filled with song! As awful as the state of education can be....these are the moments that make you forget all funding, testing, accountability issues! These moments are why I love teaching!
SEPTEMBER 1, 2011 6:44 PM
Anonymous said...
a lift for educators everywhere ...
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/03/opinion/blow-an-ode-to-teachers.html?smid=fb-share
Coffee Cup Half Full
MONDAY, AUGUST 29, 2011
I awoke at 5:45 this morning to the sound of school buses headed out on their routes. You know, despite all that is wrong with the current educational reforms, despite all the voucher, charter, accountability, funding, high stakes testing, etc., etc., issues in public schools, amazing things continue to happen each and every day. Buses head out to pick up kids, teachers and aides stand dutifully welcoming kids and parents to our facilities. Bells ring, teachers teach, lunches are served, extra-curricular activities draw crowds, and a myriad of good hearted, hard working people are doing their darndest every day to make a positive change in the future of our children. I get angry that we do not provide the political environment and necessary resources to support us in doing what we know is right for kids. But, we continue to do it anyway.
Bless you all for serving our kids, our nation, and our future! Keep it up!
POSTED BY EILEEN GOOD AT 9:44 AM
2 COMMENTS:
Anonymous said...
Even if the current political climate does not promote teachers, teaching and in general public education, when I get up every day head out for another day in the trenches, I do because I believe it is where I am needed. I believe in the 145 faces I see each day, and I believe that each and every one of them is important and special. If I did not believe that, this might not be the job for me. Never have I been interested in being an administrator, thank goodness for those of you that do. To me, teaching is the best job ever! I fight each and every day to be given that pleasure and believe it is not about the test, but rather about the child.
AUGUST 29, 2011 7:29 PM
Mrs. G. said...
Yes, good things continue to happen in schools and always will, although it may become less frequent. I fear the true impact of the current climate is yet to come. My daughter is twelve and has been teaching her stuffed animals since she was two. I'm talking whole classes with sticker charts, take-home folders, etc. I always thought she'd be a teacher, but now she's completely against it. She sees the layoffs, pension changes, class size increases, etc. "Who needs the hassle?" she says. I am certain she's not the only prospective teacher coming to that conclusion.
I awoke at 5:45 this morning to the sound of school buses headed out on their routes. You know, despite all that is wrong with the current educational reforms, despite all the voucher, charter, accountability, funding, high stakes testing, etc., etc., issues in public schools, amazing things continue to happen each and every day. Buses head out to pick up kids, teachers and aides stand dutifully welcoming kids and parents to our facilities. Bells ring, teachers teach, lunches are served, extra-curricular activities draw crowds, and a myriad of good hearted, hard working people are doing their darndest every day to make a positive change in the future of our children. I get angry that we do not provide the political environment and necessary resources to support us in doing what we know is right for kids. But, we continue to do it anyway.
Bless you all for serving our kids, our nation, and our future! Keep it up!
POSTED BY EILEEN GOOD AT 9:44 AM
2 COMMENTS:
Anonymous said...
Even if the current political climate does not promote teachers, teaching and in general public education, when I get up every day head out for another day in the trenches, I do because I believe it is where I am needed. I believe in the 145 faces I see each day, and I believe that each and every one of them is important and special. If I did not believe that, this might not be the job for me. Never have I been interested in being an administrator, thank goodness for those of you that do. To me, teaching is the best job ever! I fight each and every day to be given that pleasure and believe it is not about the test, but rather about the child.
AUGUST 29, 2011 7:29 PM
Mrs. G. said...
Yes, good things continue to happen in schools and always will, although it may become less frequent. I fear the true impact of the current climate is yet to come. My daughter is twelve and has been teaching her stuffed animals since she was two. I'm talking whole classes with sticker charts, take-home folders, etc. I always thought she'd be a teacher, but now she's completely against it. She sees the layoffs, pension changes, class size increases, etc. "Who needs the hassle?" she says. I am certain she's not the only prospective teacher coming to that conclusion.
Correlates of Defective Schools
SUNDAY, AUGUST 28, 2011
It rained this week in drought-ridden Texas, and that is good! We called it a 6 inch rain - one drop every 6 inches. Didn't make national news because New York is threatened by Hurricane Irene. I guess even the pundits can be myopic. I do pray for those in harm's way, but Texas sure could have used some rain. Enough intro.
I remember working in the central office of a large school system and dreading every time the supe went to a conference or read a book. No doubt we would be implementing some new theme, some new program, or loading our guns with some new silver bullet. I went to a few myself, and one of the themes in those days resides with us today. How do we become an effective school, that is, a school that generates great student learning and outcomes, however we measure those outcomes, regardless of the characteristics of the students in the school? An ineffective school is, by definition, a school that simply replicates expectations. Rich kids do well; poor kids do poorly, etc. I sense that legislators everywhere read the book and drank the Kool-Aid of effective schools, because as I review those correlates, or characteristics, of effective schools it appears to me that we have taken good sound reasoning and run amuck. Time to revisit those correlates and the way they have been implemented to nurture defective schools:
“Instructional leadership” has become instructional management. Principals are hired now and expected now to comply with a wide array of mandates. To innovate implies that the principal may know something the legislature or parents or community does not know, and we cannot have that at all. There are so many compliance measures that principals spend most of their time just making sure that we are doing what we are supposed to be doing. Lawyers, as the bane of education, have been replaced by auditors. Mess up and you get to post it on your website and send a letter home. Leaders do the right thing, and managers do things right. The list of things that must be done right is so long, no one can master it, and that fits with the model of making public schools look badly.
“Monitoring academic progress” has become high stakes testing. Frankly, my dear, we do not give a damn if your kid actually learns something as long as he or she scores well on the standardized test. There were days in this profession when educators developed tests and assessments to determine if kids were learning. Teachers took the data, and sometimes principals, and used them for the purpose of improving instruction. Now, all those tests are used to see if we are on track to do well on the high stakes standardized test. And, the high stakes standardized test is used to punish staff and schools. There is no pretense that those data will be used to improve instruction as we do not even receive the scores until school is out.
“Positive school climate” has been replaced by high stakes accountability. There remain efforts by many schools to promote positive climate, encourage adults to assume responsibility for all the kids, all the time, everywhere, but more often than not, upset kids and parents simply bolt from the school, or show up at a school board meeting to complain. The more accountable the staff for test outcomes, the less likely they are to be sympathetic to individual needs.
"High expectations for student success" has been replaced with high standards for student success. I did two entire pieces on the difference in standards and expectations (Promoting Failure#1 and #2), and I won't repeat them here. Simply put, raise expectations and students do better. Raise standards and more fail. Texas' outcomes this spring prove that hypothesis to be true.
“Parental involvement” has been replaced with, "Lay people know more about education than professional educators." Everyone I meet has a theory about how to improve schools, and educators are beat up using the felonious data of high stakes tests and ever rising standards. Clearly, teachers do not know as much as principals, who do not know as much as superintendents, who do not know as much as school boards and parents, who do not know as much as Texas Legislators, who do not know as much as the federal government, who does not know as much about schools as Bill Gates. The degrees, the experience, and the hours of professional development mean nothing. To be an educational expert you either need to make a billion dollars or receive a majority vote.
So, these then, with apologies to Larry and Ron, are the new Correlates of Defective Schools:
• Instructional Management
• High Stakes Student Testing
• High Stakes Staff Accountability
• High Standards, frequently raised
• Non Educators Get to Make all the Rules
Have a great school year, and good luck!
POSTED BY EILEEN GOOD AT 4:47 PM
2 COMMENTS:
Eileen Good said...
You may think I forgot "Clear Instructional Focus." Nope. It is now "Clear Focus on Test Scores." Buy the curriculum, read what has been handed to you and teach it!
AUGUST 28, 2011 4:58 PM
Anonymous said...
Don't ask questions, don't think outside the box and don't allow students to tell you what they need.....so right Ms. Good read it and teach it!
It rained this week in drought-ridden Texas, and that is good! We called it a 6 inch rain - one drop every 6 inches. Didn't make national news because New York is threatened by Hurricane Irene. I guess even the pundits can be myopic. I do pray for those in harm's way, but Texas sure could have used some rain. Enough intro.
I remember working in the central office of a large school system and dreading every time the supe went to a conference or read a book. No doubt we would be implementing some new theme, some new program, or loading our guns with some new silver bullet. I went to a few myself, and one of the themes in those days resides with us today. How do we become an effective school, that is, a school that generates great student learning and outcomes, however we measure those outcomes, regardless of the characteristics of the students in the school? An ineffective school is, by definition, a school that simply replicates expectations. Rich kids do well; poor kids do poorly, etc. I sense that legislators everywhere read the book and drank the Kool-Aid of effective schools, because as I review those correlates, or characteristics, of effective schools it appears to me that we have taken good sound reasoning and run amuck. Time to revisit those correlates and the way they have been implemented to nurture defective schools:
“Instructional leadership” has become instructional management. Principals are hired now and expected now to comply with a wide array of mandates. To innovate implies that the principal may know something the legislature or parents or community does not know, and we cannot have that at all. There are so many compliance measures that principals spend most of their time just making sure that we are doing what we are supposed to be doing. Lawyers, as the bane of education, have been replaced by auditors. Mess up and you get to post it on your website and send a letter home. Leaders do the right thing, and managers do things right. The list of things that must be done right is so long, no one can master it, and that fits with the model of making public schools look badly.
“Monitoring academic progress” has become high stakes testing. Frankly, my dear, we do not give a damn if your kid actually learns something as long as he or she scores well on the standardized test. There were days in this profession when educators developed tests and assessments to determine if kids were learning. Teachers took the data, and sometimes principals, and used them for the purpose of improving instruction. Now, all those tests are used to see if we are on track to do well on the high stakes standardized test. And, the high stakes standardized test is used to punish staff and schools. There is no pretense that those data will be used to improve instruction as we do not even receive the scores until school is out.
“Positive school climate” has been replaced by high stakes accountability. There remain efforts by many schools to promote positive climate, encourage adults to assume responsibility for all the kids, all the time, everywhere, but more often than not, upset kids and parents simply bolt from the school, or show up at a school board meeting to complain. The more accountable the staff for test outcomes, the less likely they are to be sympathetic to individual needs.
"High expectations for student success" has been replaced with high standards for student success. I did two entire pieces on the difference in standards and expectations (Promoting Failure#1 and #2), and I won't repeat them here. Simply put, raise expectations and students do better. Raise standards and more fail. Texas' outcomes this spring prove that hypothesis to be true.
“Parental involvement” has been replaced with, "Lay people know more about education than professional educators." Everyone I meet has a theory about how to improve schools, and educators are beat up using the felonious data of high stakes tests and ever rising standards. Clearly, teachers do not know as much as principals, who do not know as much as superintendents, who do not know as much as school boards and parents, who do not know as much as Texas Legislators, who do not know as much as the federal government, who does not know as much about schools as Bill Gates. The degrees, the experience, and the hours of professional development mean nothing. To be an educational expert you either need to make a billion dollars or receive a majority vote.
So, these then, with apologies to Larry and Ron, are the new Correlates of Defective Schools:
• Instructional Management
• High Stakes Student Testing
• High Stakes Staff Accountability
• High Standards, frequently raised
• Non Educators Get to Make all the Rules
Have a great school year, and good luck!
POSTED BY EILEEN GOOD AT 4:47 PM
2 COMMENTS:
Eileen Good said...
You may think I forgot "Clear Instructional Focus." Nope. It is now "Clear Focus on Test Scores." Buy the curriculum, read what has been handed to you and teach it!
AUGUST 28, 2011 4:58 PM
Anonymous said...
Don't ask questions, don't think outside the box and don't allow students to tell you what they need.....so right Ms. Good read it and teach it!
What Morph?
SATURDAY, AUGUST 20, 2011
Dearest readers, if you made it through "Why Morph?" you may be thinking, "So, we need to change. But change what?" Ah, the "What Morph?" question. Glad you asked!
There are things we cannot change, at least not at this point in our science. We cannot change the DNA or IQ or ethnicity of our kids. Some kids do a great job of choosing their parents, others not so much. And, we cannot change the DNA or IQ or ethnicity of the parents either. We continue to see high outcomes as measured by standardized tests in the zip codes with the same DNA, IQ and ethnicities of most of us in the school system, and we continue to see low outcomes in the zip codes where kids did a terrible job of picking their parents. We do not get to choose, design, place an order for, or import the children of America; and the parents in each community send us the very best kids they have. We take what we get, each child precious and flawed, each parent or guardian precious and flawed, and each and every one of us in the system precious and flawed. We cannot change that. (Well, OK, I do know folks who have migrated to the posh zip codes for safety, wealth and easy pick'ns of high performing kids. But most of us deal on a daily basis with kids whose best time in the day is at school.) We can change how we respond to all of the above. And not with another silver bullet program.
Apparently, we cannot change the notion on the part of most folks that schools should be run like a business and teachers and principals should be judged on the quality of the product, i.e., standardized test scores. We know better, and we keep trying, but, it just doesn't fit public education.
So, we can start changing the things we have some control of and we can do it each and every day via our attitudes and expectations, and our ability to get to the polls and vote.
(Before I begin seriously suggesting transformational changes, I would like to toss out just a few for fun. Would one of the billionaires who currently throws money at schools to implement their educational theories please throw some money into two simple research topics. The first one I would test is the answer to the question, "Can schools make kids fat?" My hypothesis is that schools are unable to impact the body mass index of students based on the meals we serve. The second one is, is there a homogeneous, wealthy school system of all Anglo kids who are poor performers on standardized tests? My hypothesis is no such school exists. The results of these two topics alone could transform what we do in lunch rooms and classrooms across the country.)
#1. First thing I'd change is to end compulsory attendance. Yep. The research that shows charter schools and private schools outperforming public schools is basically a wash, and where it appears that those schools do actually outperform public schools is not because parents have choice, but because parents know that if the kids mess up or perform poorly, he or she gets his or her little butt kicked out of the school where they had to audition to get in. Instant parent support! OK, let's give public schools the same tool. If this country really believes in public education, and really believes that every single child should get a high school diploma and be prepared to enter college, then let's set up a system where parents, business, law enforcement, community leaders, and billionaires have some skin in the game other than their annual tax bill. Eliminate compulsory attendance. Kids who actually show up are there because their parents want them there or they want to be there and all will profoundly recognize that public education is a gift, an honor, a privilege. (OK, we know that a great many young children miss school because of their parents, not because the kid wants to miss school. So, when we wipe compulsory attendance off the books, we add perks for going to school beyond the intrinsic value of getting an education. Want welfare? Kids must be in school. Want a driver's license? Kids must be in school. Want a tax exemption for dependent children? Kids must be in school. But, the school no longer has to take them in and keep them.) We eliminate the drop-out rate as a statistic used to beat up schools. We fund schools based on enrollment, not attendance. We do all that and we will dramatically change the culture of the school, the parents, the kids, and the country. Now, rather than public school bashing, parents will be eager to support and enforce the efforts of their kids. Private sector motivators do not work well in school, but clearly a host of folks think they work well outside of school. So, let attending school be the motivator not the punishment!
#2. Second thing I'd change is the structure of the school day. We organize schools in the way adults have deconstructed knowledge, not in the ways kids actually learn. No one outside of school faces 90 minutes of English Language Arts followed by 30 minutes of exercise. Reality comes at us in a rush, and in any given hour I need math skills, reading comprehension, history, physical ability, a solid sense of the sciences, problem solving abilities, conflict resolution skills, information processing skills, and probably most of all, interpersonal people skills. Life is a lab and a field trip all rolled into one, not a sojourn once each nine weeks. Students regardless of age should float from large group to small group to individual instruction based on the student's needs and interests.
#3. Third thing I'd change is the school year. Until teachers work a regular work year they will continue to be attacked. OK, let's make teaching a "real" job with real salaries and real benefits and work year round.
#4. Fourth thing I'd change is the staffing plan of schools. Our mental image of kids in a rectangular room on a hallway with one certified adult in the room in no way matches the reality and the future we are theoretically preparing our kids to enter. Professionals collaborate, they do not isolate. Groups of kids should be served by groups of adults who have time structured in their day to meet and review how the kids are doing and which adult should spend additional time with which kid based on the attributes of the adult and the progress of the kids. We should include paraprofessionals in this discourse as well. In fact it will take fewer teachers to teach kids in this manner if the teachers are diagnosing and prescribing while other teachers and aides are delivering the prescription. This means abolishing the teacher pupil ratio altogether because groups of adults will serve groups of kids. How many adults with what level of training and education will be dependent upon the attributes of the kids, not a one-size fits all formula implemented via the wisdom of legislators. We will have to maintain quality professional development, but it will become focused when a group of teachers realize a group of kids are not making progress and seek those who can assist them in their efforts. This will work. The medical profession and universities and plumbers and electricians, etc., have been doing it for years.
#5. I'd stop grouping kids by age. Ludicrous, especially when they are young. If we re-structure the school day and the staffing as proposed above we can accelerate the instruction of those who are ready, and supplement the instruction of those who are not. Obviously, this will require the elimination of the horrific standardized high stakes test by grade and subject. We could still give tests, but the data will be used for diagnostic planning, not to flail failures. Out with the 8th grade math standardized high stakes test and in with a math test that is in fact norm-referenced and will give teachers an idea about which kid is really ready to move on to algebra, statistics, probability, etc., and which kid still needs work with number sense and basic operations. Kids could graduate from high school whenever they master the curriculum goals needed to demonstrate that they have done so. Some kids may get a high school diploma when they are 10 years old and choose to hang around until they are 18 to get post-diploma hours. That should be OK.
#6. I'd bump all extra-curricular activities to the private sector or to a county-wide parks and recreation program. It's headed there anyway. College scouts are spending more time looking at "select" team participants than high school athletes anyway. Co-curricular activities in the areas of the arts should increase. School returns to its fundamental mission and operates much more economically.
There is more, much more. But I shall stop here for fear of moving from a post to a treatise. Just imagine, a school where children and young adults want to attend, where parents want their kids to be successful, where the adults are motivated to conspire together to support student success, and where all will eventually get a high school diploma with emphasis in the areas they select, all for less taxpayer money and greater educator support!
Way too cool to be easy to achieve. Way too rational to be implemented. Perhaps way too threatening to the herd of sacred cows. No bull!
I still think it is possible.
How we get from where we are to where we could be merits at least one more installment in this series.
Until then, bless all of you in public education as youngsters from across this great land prepare to begin yet another school year. Help them to the best of your potential!
POSTED BY EILEEN GOOD AT 11:48 AM
1 COMMENTS:
Anonymous said...
I want to work at that school!
Dearest readers, if you made it through "Why Morph?" you may be thinking, "So, we need to change. But change what?" Ah, the "What Morph?" question. Glad you asked!
There are things we cannot change, at least not at this point in our science. We cannot change the DNA or IQ or ethnicity of our kids. Some kids do a great job of choosing their parents, others not so much. And, we cannot change the DNA or IQ or ethnicity of the parents either. We continue to see high outcomes as measured by standardized tests in the zip codes with the same DNA, IQ and ethnicities of most of us in the school system, and we continue to see low outcomes in the zip codes where kids did a terrible job of picking their parents. We do not get to choose, design, place an order for, or import the children of America; and the parents in each community send us the very best kids they have. We take what we get, each child precious and flawed, each parent or guardian precious and flawed, and each and every one of us in the system precious and flawed. We cannot change that. (Well, OK, I do know folks who have migrated to the posh zip codes for safety, wealth and easy pick'ns of high performing kids. But most of us deal on a daily basis with kids whose best time in the day is at school.) We can change how we respond to all of the above. And not with another silver bullet program.
Apparently, we cannot change the notion on the part of most folks that schools should be run like a business and teachers and principals should be judged on the quality of the product, i.e., standardized test scores. We know better, and we keep trying, but, it just doesn't fit public education.
So, we can start changing the things we have some control of and we can do it each and every day via our attitudes and expectations, and our ability to get to the polls and vote.
(Before I begin seriously suggesting transformational changes, I would like to toss out just a few for fun. Would one of the billionaires who currently throws money at schools to implement their educational theories please throw some money into two simple research topics. The first one I would test is the answer to the question, "Can schools make kids fat?" My hypothesis is that schools are unable to impact the body mass index of students based on the meals we serve. The second one is, is there a homogeneous, wealthy school system of all Anglo kids who are poor performers on standardized tests? My hypothesis is no such school exists. The results of these two topics alone could transform what we do in lunch rooms and classrooms across the country.)
#1. First thing I'd change is to end compulsory attendance. Yep. The research that shows charter schools and private schools outperforming public schools is basically a wash, and where it appears that those schools do actually outperform public schools is not because parents have choice, but because parents know that if the kids mess up or perform poorly, he or she gets his or her little butt kicked out of the school where they had to audition to get in. Instant parent support! OK, let's give public schools the same tool. If this country really believes in public education, and really believes that every single child should get a high school diploma and be prepared to enter college, then let's set up a system where parents, business, law enforcement, community leaders, and billionaires have some skin in the game other than their annual tax bill. Eliminate compulsory attendance. Kids who actually show up are there because their parents want them there or they want to be there and all will profoundly recognize that public education is a gift, an honor, a privilege. (OK, we know that a great many young children miss school because of their parents, not because the kid wants to miss school. So, when we wipe compulsory attendance off the books, we add perks for going to school beyond the intrinsic value of getting an education. Want welfare? Kids must be in school. Want a driver's license? Kids must be in school. Want a tax exemption for dependent children? Kids must be in school. But, the school no longer has to take them in and keep them.) We eliminate the drop-out rate as a statistic used to beat up schools. We fund schools based on enrollment, not attendance. We do all that and we will dramatically change the culture of the school, the parents, the kids, and the country. Now, rather than public school bashing, parents will be eager to support and enforce the efforts of their kids. Private sector motivators do not work well in school, but clearly a host of folks think they work well outside of school. So, let attending school be the motivator not the punishment!
#2. Second thing I'd change is the structure of the school day. We organize schools in the way adults have deconstructed knowledge, not in the ways kids actually learn. No one outside of school faces 90 minutes of English Language Arts followed by 30 minutes of exercise. Reality comes at us in a rush, and in any given hour I need math skills, reading comprehension, history, physical ability, a solid sense of the sciences, problem solving abilities, conflict resolution skills, information processing skills, and probably most of all, interpersonal people skills. Life is a lab and a field trip all rolled into one, not a sojourn once each nine weeks. Students regardless of age should float from large group to small group to individual instruction based on the student's needs and interests.
#3. Third thing I'd change is the school year. Until teachers work a regular work year they will continue to be attacked. OK, let's make teaching a "real" job with real salaries and real benefits and work year round.
#4. Fourth thing I'd change is the staffing plan of schools. Our mental image of kids in a rectangular room on a hallway with one certified adult in the room in no way matches the reality and the future we are theoretically preparing our kids to enter. Professionals collaborate, they do not isolate. Groups of kids should be served by groups of adults who have time structured in their day to meet and review how the kids are doing and which adult should spend additional time with which kid based on the attributes of the adult and the progress of the kids. We should include paraprofessionals in this discourse as well. In fact it will take fewer teachers to teach kids in this manner if the teachers are diagnosing and prescribing while other teachers and aides are delivering the prescription. This means abolishing the teacher pupil ratio altogether because groups of adults will serve groups of kids. How many adults with what level of training and education will be dependent upon the attributes of the kids, not a one-size fits all formula implemented via the wisdom of legislators. We will have to maintain quality professional development, but it will become focused when a group of teachers realize a group of kids are not making progress and seek those who can assist them in their efforts. This will work. The medical profession and universities and plumbers and electricians, etc., have been doing it for years.
#5. I'd stop grouping kids by age. Ludicrous, especially when they are young. If we re-structure the school day and the staffing as proposed above we can accelerate the instruction of those who are ready, and supplement the instruction of those who are not. Obviously, this will require the elimination of the horrific standardized high stakes test by grade and subject. We could still give tests, but the data will be used for diagnostic planning, not to flail failures. Out with the 8th grade math standardized high stakes test and in with a math test that is in fact norm-referenced and will give teachers an idea about which kid is really ready to move on to algebra, statistics, probability, etc., and which kid still needs work with number sense and basic operations. Kids could graduate from high school whenever they master the curriculum goals needed to demonstrate that they have done so. Some kids may get a high school diploma when they are 10 years old and choose to hang around until they are 18 to get post-diploma hours. That should be OK.
#6. I'd bump all extra-curricular activities to the private sector or to a county-wide parks and recreation program. It's headed there anyway. College scouts are spending more time looking at "select" team participants than high school athletes anyway. Co-curricular activities in the areas of the arts should increase. School returns to its fundamental mission and operates much more economically.
There is more, much more. But I shall stop here for fear of moving from a post to a treatise. Just imagine, a school where children and young adults want to attend, where parents want their kids to be successful, where the adults are motivated to conspire together to support student success, and where all will eventually get a high school diploma with emphasis in the areas they select, all for less taxpayer money and greater educator support!
Way too cool to be easy to achieve. Way too rational to be implemented. Perhaps way too threatening to the herd of sacred cows. No bull!
I still think it is possible.
How we get from where we are to where we could be merits at least one more installment in this series.
Until then, bless all of you in public education as youngsters from across this great land prepare to begin yet another school year. Help them to the best of your potential!
POSTED BY EILEEN GOOD AT 11:48 AM
1 COMMENTS:
Anonymous said...
I want to work at that school!
Rolling Stones, Drugs and Standardized Tests
SATURDAY, AUGUST 13, 2011
Hello, faithful readers. As one of you recently noted it may appear I have hit a dry spell. Far from true. Nearly ready to share is a sequel to "Why Morph?" However, I have been otherwise pre-occupied with a personal in-depth study of standardized tests that upon sharing will make this whimsical title perchance make more sense. Further, I am inspired today at our continued foolhardiness by both the announcement of Texas' own Governor Perry to pursue the presidency, and the straw poll victory of Michele Bachmann in Iowa. Both events would leave a lesser broad weakened and devastated. I, however, am more inspired than ever to wage verbal war on the side of thinkers everywhere against a large army of anti-intellectuals sipping tea. But, back to my story, shared not to illicit sympathy, but to shed additional light on the current prescriptions to cure the ills of public education.
While out of town on a family trip on the last Wednesday of July I suddenly experienced excruciating pain. A rapid trip to the emergency room inclusive of an X-ray, blood work, urinalysis, height, weight, blood pressure, pulse and CT scan revealed I was passing, painfully I will add, a kidney stone from kidney to bladder. There it was on the scan. White against mostly blacks and grays. I was drugged while the stone rolled on, and once passed, relieved, soar and amazed. I agreed with the female radiology technician: As a mother of 4 I would prefer to bear another child than pass another stone. The CT scan was sophisticated, and I left with a DVD copy which I could play at home on my computer. Amazing. Clear as a bell. I trust airport scanners are not nearly so clear.
Once home I went to see an Urologist. He reviewed the scan, the ER procedures, the blood work, and the various lab tests and data collected on my ER sojourn, and pronounced me fit to proceed with life. Hurray! I had sophisticated standardized tests including lab work, X-rays, and CT Scans all confirming all was well with me. I was deemed "acceptable", (but my sharp tongue and ready wit prohibited the medical profession from awarding me the label "exemplary." "May I see your license?" the intake nurse asked. "Driver's or fishing?” I responded. "Madam, this is no time to get smart with me!" intake nurse said. "I fear I cannot help it. When perhaps, my dear, would be a better time?" I asked.) I apparently met the federal AYP.
Imagine my surprise when on the first Saturday in August I was once again stricken with the same pain, the same trip to the ER, the same standardized tests and the same conclusions, the same prescriptions. More amazing was the pronouncement that I had no more stones and this was it. Thank God, and pass the pee strainer and pain killers!
Alas, the second Tuesday in August we began Act 3 of the same play. Identical. Pain, ER, scans, tests, same diagnoses, same conclusions, and the same comforting remarks from humans hiding behind standardized data that frankly they were amazed that I had 3 such incidents in the span of mere days. Nothing in the hard data from the blood work, lab work, or scans of my very insides led them to believe anything was contraire. And yet, here I was, trip 3 to the ER. That is life. That is biology.
So the simple question is, in which of the following measures of human beings would you be willing to put the most faith? A CT Scan or a 10 year-old's pencil and paper bubble sheet standardized test score? Lab reports on blood analysis or a 16 year-old's pencil and paper bubble sheet standardized test score? A medical doctor's review of all the medical data, or a grading summary from a standardized test company?
And, no medical doctor worth his or her salt will stand behind the medical data as a source of judgment regarding the health of a person beyond a day or two from the instant the data was collected. Else wise, why do they keep having us come back for more tests? If they take my blood pressure in March, shouldn't that be good at least until April? How in the world, how for the love of God, are we willing to give pencil and paper standardized tests that pass judgment on children, teachers, schools and school districts that last for at least one and up to three years? Which do you believe changes faster, our biology or our minds? Can we learn faster than we metabolize? Of course! I learned a tremendous amount in the hours before the pain pills kicked in. (I was much more pliable afterward, though. Further indication that actively engaged students learn better than those who merely comply or are doped-up.)
Standardized tests used as a projected judgment of children and schools are the most inhuman thing humans have concocted to inflict on the youth and schools of this country. For most, given the high stakes of the test, they are not even valid on the day the data is collected. Perhaps informative, perhaps diagnostic, but not valid. Ask your MD.
Until we stop high stakes standardized testing I can't get no satisfaction. (Sorry, Mick.) And pass the strainer and the drugs.
POSTED BY EILEEN GOOD AT 10:39 PM
1 COMMENTS:
Mrs. G. said...
I hope you're feeling better. Interesting comparison. Tests are informative, not definitive. I'm not sure why that's so hard for some to understand.
Hello, faithful readers. As one of you recently noted it may appear I have hit a dry spell. Far from true. Nearly ready to share is a sequel to "Why Morph?" However, I have been otherwise pre-occupied with a personal in-depth study of standardized tests that upon sharing will make this whimsical title perchance make more sense. Further, I am inspired today at our continued foolhardiness by both the announcement of Texas' own Governor Perry to pursue the presidency, and the straw poll victory of Michele Bachmann in Iowa. Both events would leave a lesser broad weakened and devastated. I, however, am more inspired than ever to wage verbal war on the side of thinkers everywhere against a large army of anti-intellectuals sipping tea. But, back to my story, shared not to illicit sympathy, but to shed additional light on the current prescriptions to cure the ills of public education.
While out of town on a family trip on the last Wednesday of July I suddenly experienced excruciating pain. A rapid trip to the emergency room inclusive of an X-ray, blood work, urinalysis, height, weight, blood pressure, pulse and CT scan revealed I was passing, painfully I will add, a kidney stone from kidney to bladder. There it was on the scan. White against mostly blacks and grays. I was drugged while the stone rolled on, and once passed, relieved, soar and amazed. I agreed with the female radiology technician: As a mother of 4 I would prefer to bear another child than pass another stone. The CT scan was sophisticated, and I left with a DVD copy which I could play at home on my computer. Amazing. Clear as a bell. I trust airport scanners are not nearly so clear.
Once home I went to see an Urologist. He reviewed the scan, the ER procedures, the blood work, and the various lab tests and data collected on my ER sojourn, and pronounced me fit to proceed with life. Hurray! I had sophisticated standardized tests including lab work, X-rays, and CT Scans all confirming all was well with me. I was deemed "acceptable", (but my sharp tongue and ready wit prohibited the medical profession from awarding me the label "exemplary." "May I see your license?" the intake nurse asked. "Driver's or fishing?” I responded. "Madam, this is no time to get smart with me!" intake nurse said. "I fear I cannot help it. When perhaps, my dear, would be a better time?" I asked.) I apparently met the federal AYP.
Imagine my surprise when on the first Saturday in August I was once again stricken with the same pain, the same trip to the ER, the same standardized tests and the same conclusions, the same prescriptions. More amazing was the pronouncement that I had no more stones and this was it. Thank God, and pass the pee strainer and pain killers!
Alas, the second Tuesday in August we began Act 3 of the same play. Identical. Pain, ER, scans, tests, same diagnoses, same conclusions, and the same comforting remarks from humans hiding behind standardized data that frankly they were amazed that I had 3 such incidents in the span of mere days. Nothing in the hard data from the blood work, lab work, or scans of my very insides led them to believe anything was contraire. And yet, here I was, trip 3 to the ER. That is life. That is biology.
So the simple question is, in which of the following measures of human beings would you be willing to put the most faith? A CT Scan or a 10 year-old's pencil and paper bubble sheet standardized test score? Lab reports on blood analysis or a 16 year-old's pencil and paper bubble sheet standardized test score? A medical doctor's review of all the medical data, or a grading summary from a standardized test company?
And, no medical doctor worth his or her salt will stand behind the medical data as a source of judgment regarding the health of a person beyond a day or two from the instant the data was collected. Else wise, why do they keep having us come back for more tests? If they take my blood pressure in March, shouldn't that be good at least until April? How in the world, how for the love of God, are we willing to give pencil and paper standardized tests that pass judgment on children, teachers, schools and school districts that last for at least one and up to three years? Which do you believe changes faster, our biology or our minds? Can we learn faster than we metabolize? Of course! I learned a tremendous amount in the hours before the pain pills kicked in. (I was much more pliable afterward, though. Further indication that actively engaged students learn better than those who merely comply or are doped-up.)
Standardized tests used as a projected judgment of children and schools are the most inhuman thing humans have concocted to inflict on the youth and schools of this country. For most, given the high stakes of the test, they are not even valid on the day the data is collected. Perhaps informative, perhaps diagnostic, but not valid. Ask your MD.
Until we stop high stakes standardized testing I can't get no satisfaction. (Sorry, Mick.) And pass the strainer and the drugs.
POSTED BY EILEEN GOOD AT 10:39 PM
1 COMMENTS:
Mrs. G. said...
I hope you're feeling better. Interesting comparison. Tests are informative, not definitive. I'm not sure why that's so hard for some to understand.
Cowboys and Aliens
MONDAY, AUGUST 8, 201
Saw the movie Sunday. (Spoiler alert!) Amazing how a very diverse group of humans came together in a crisis. Very unlike the reactionary entrenched in DC and Austin. Nearby school district has "Cowboys" as a mascot and surely they must feel that Austin and Washington have been taken over by aliens. It's rational coalition time for the common good!
Saw the movie Sunday. (Spoiler alert!) Amazing how a very diverse group of humans came together in a crisis. Very unlike the reactionary entrenched in DC and Austin. Nearby school district has "Cowboys" as a mascot and surely they must feel that Austin and Washington have been taken over by aliens. It's rational coalition time for the common good!
Kwai Me a River
MONDAY, AUGUST 8, 2011
I loved the movie Bridge on the River Kwai when I first saw it as a young woman in 1957 on the big screen. Great epic about war and pride. (Still can get the whistling theme song stuck in my head!) Alec Guinness as Colonel Nicholson stubbornly insisted on building this great railroad bridge over the Kwai River in Cambodia with his fellow Allied troops interred in a Japanese POW camp. His pride and drive forced confrontations with the POW commandant, but Nicholson thought he had won because he built the bridge his way.
The scene at the end when the Allies attack the bridge and Nicholson realizes that his prideful stubbornness has in fact helped the enemy and hurt his cause is very powerful. "What have I done?" he asks, as he dies and blows up the bridge.
I keep waiting for the Tea Party to have the same "Ah-Ha" moment. They have stubbornly refused to negotiate rational resolution to a self-imposed crisis resulting in S and P lowering our ratings. No foreign country could have imposed such damage on us without a military response, and S and P is candid that the rating was lowered because of a lack of confidence in Congress to resolve the so-called crisis. (Can you tell that I am not worried about our debt? I am worried about jobs creation, but not about the debt. A mix of spending restraint, more folks working, and new taxes will resolve our problems. Not to mention the fact that those same conservatives were oh so quiet when President Bush went from surplus to an $11.9 trillion debt in 8 years. This is his debt, not Obama's!) If they remain so stubbornly fixated, we will implode. Perhaps then they will have their, "What have I done?" moment.
Until then, Kwai me a river.
POSTED BY EILEEN GOOD AT 4:36 PM
1 COMMENTS:
Anonymous said...
Thank-you. What a picture you created of our current politics using a more than 50 year old movie. I hope more people read your postings!
I loved the movie Bridge on the River Kwai when I first saw it as a young woman in 1957 on the big screen. Great epic about war and pride. (Still can get the whistling theme song stuck in my head!) Alec Guinness as Colonel Nicholson stubbornly insisted on building this great railroad bridge over the Kwai River in Cambodia with his fellow Allied troops interred in a Japanese POW camp. His pride and drive forced confrontations with the POW commandant, but Nicholson thought he had won because he built the bridge his way.
The scene at the end when the Allies attack the bridge and Nicholson realizes that his prideful stubbornness has in fact helped the enemy and hurt his cause is very powerful. "What have I done?" he asks, as he dies and blows up the bridge.
I keep waiting for the Tea Party to have the same "Ah-Ha" moment. They have stubbornly refused to negotiate rational resolution to a self-imposed crisis resulting in S and P lowering our ratings. No foreign country could have imposed such damage on us without a military response, and S and P is candid that the rating was lowered because of a lack of confidence in Congress to resolve the so-called crisis. (Can you tell that I am not worried about our debt? I am worried about jobs creation, but not about the debt. A mix of spending restraint, more folks working, and new taxes will resolve our problems. Not to mention the fact that those same conservatives were oh so quiet when President Bush went from surplus to an $11.9 trillion debt in 8 years. This is his debt, not Obama's!) If they remain so stubbornly fixated, we will implode. Perhaps then they will have their, "What have I done?" moment.
Until then, Kwai me a river.
POSTED BY EILEEN GOOD AT 4:36 PM
1 COMMENTS:
Anonymous said...
Thank-you. What a picture you created of our current politics using a more than 50 year old movie. I hope more people read your postings!
Why Morph?
SUNDAY, JULY 17, 2011
There is no static state. Public schools are very different today than they were in the last century, and have tended to be very different each decade since for a variety of reasons and as the result of a variety of factors both internal and external. External forces under the rubric of reform and driven by money and accountability have been slowly re-shaping not only the day-to-day operation of our schools, but the actual focus and mission of the institution. Internal forces driven by the complex mix of parental wants, employee wants and generational and cultural differences in the childhood experience have moved the operation and mission of our schools in another direction. The institution is literally being ripped apart by forces from without pulling or mandating one way and by forces from within pulling and demanding in another way, and the tensile torque on schools escalates with each new push for reform from outside and each newly identified pull from inside. Prior to totally ripping the institution into pieces, (and, my friends, we are close to that, I think, as is evidenced by the growth in the number of charter schools, high stakes tests, voucher programs, increased need for technology, increased outcome standards, cheating, childhood obesity, union busting, etc., all with less and less funding), I believe it is time to shift the national and state discussion away from promoting one reform or another and/or defending or attacking one current practice or another, and have a very candid discourse about why we even bother spending the billions we spend to send the youth of our country into brick and mortar structures for about 180 days each year. If we can agree on the "why" perhaps we can agree on the "how."
Schools have always had multiple missions, though they have now changed in some subtle and some brutal ways. Schools have always been asked to occupy the time and provide custodial care of the youth of our communities during the adult work day and when they are not needed to provide familial labor. We still follow an agrarian calendar born in the days when 75% of our population was rural and our economy was based on agriculture. We are now down to about 3% of our population devoted to agriculture and we follow the same calendar. And, the nature of the custodial care of our kids has morphed during this time from simply providing safe shelter under adult supervision to the monumental task of checking inoculations, teeth, eyes, ears, spines, learning disabilities, emotional disabilities, and body mass index all in a setting that is disabled-friendly. We are further charged with actually improving the health and well-being of the children who come to us, a very different mission from maintaining the health and well-being of the children at the levels exhibited when they arrive. Apparently since it happens nowhere else, we must provide 30 minutes of physical exercise each day while serving food that would have starved Tom Hanks while a Castaway.
Schools have always been asked to teach kids stuff. The stuff used to be commonly understood as reading, writing and arithmetic, but that too has dramatically changed. We now teach the classic three "R's" plus a wide range of social sciences including history, promotion of the free enterprise system, health, all the sciences, all the fine arts, all the psycho-motor arts, all the skilled craft non-college bound preparation courses, and courses targeted at preventing dating violence, promoting bus safety, fighting drug and tobacco use, and discouraging pre-marital sex. We have moved from subtle acculturation into a commonly understand "American" culture, to efforts to communicate the value, history and heritage of all cultures. We have moved from an assumed understanding of gender roles to the promotion of gender equity. We have moved from teacher determined curriculum to school determined, school district determined, state determined and are on the verge of nationally determined curriculum. We still teach stuff, but the stuff we teach grows both wider and deeper each year.
Schools have always been staffed by teachers to teach kids the stuff. Women, for the most part, assumed this honorable role as a main career choice. The very best and brightest women entered teaching or nursing if they were able to pursue learning beyond high school. That has changed and all career fields are open to women (Say "Amen," "Hallelujah" and pass the plate!), but there remains the notion that those who can, "do" and those who cannot, "teach." Frankly, that is poppycock and balderdash. Teaching remains an incredibly challenging career. If you want to strike fear in the heart of Bill Gates, give him the Texas 3rd grade curriculum standards and a room of 20 3rd graders for a week, and let him know we will test his success, not his students, at the end of that week. Bring Depends. This career still attracts many of the best and brightest, but it appears to me it is also attracting more of the part-timers, the "June, July and Augusters". The road toward getting a professional license to teach is also fraught with an amazing array of IEDs from fingerprinting, background checks, collegiate hours clocked by subject and renewal every five years. It has never been so difficult to become a teacher and the practice of teaching has never been so difficult.
Schools have always monitored the success of their children. First by teacher made tests and a paddle or ruler. Now, with standardized tests and in a principal's office. Each community used to know who the "good" kids were and who the "bad" kids were and expected the good to do well, and the bad to drop out. We no longer look to dropping out of school as a solution, it is now a problem. As the rigor of the testing has increased the number of students unable to pass and thereby get a diploma increases, and schools and teachers are held accountable for their failures, unlike any other profession.
Schools have always provided learning tools to support teachers and kids. Books, blackboards, chalk, pencils the size of small trees and paper produced with bark chips used to be enough. It took 30 years for the overhead projector to make its way from bowling alleys to classrooms, but the pace after the personal computer arrived in the late 1970's and early '80's has been phenomenal. And expensive! Equipping kids with the devices and connectivity they will need to enter our colleges or economy has issued in an entirely new set of school employees: the IT departments. I remember hearing that technology would be labor-saving, and that may be true in the private sector. In public schools, it has added to the labor intensity of the work just to keep all the needed tools up and going. Districts are now required to post information on websites and provide email addresses for employees. No staffing plan in the 1970's allowed for people who could accomplish these feats. Add to that a rash of accountability standards, and few districts can afford to go without new departments of "Human Resources" and "Information Officers" just to keep the rules straight, the district out of court, and to seek ways to put a positive spin on whatever the new story is degrading public schools and crying for improvement. The technology revolution has in fact made schooling much more expensive. And, we still buy textbooks and still put up marker boards with pens in every classroom and some libraries still have encyclopedias.
In the 1980's I had the distinct professional privilege and honor to work with Larry Lezotte. Lezotte taught me a lot. One of my favorite lessons was the concept of "organized abandonment". Legislators, communities and school people do not practice this in public schools. We are still doing very much what we have been doing since the turn of the previous century, and we have added so much more! I don't know about you, but when I buy a new couch, I give the old one away. Not schools. We get the new stuff and keep the old and we are choking to death.
We must change what it is we expect of public schools. We must change it first and foremost for our kids and for the future of our nation. We must change it for the adults who choose this future-oriented profession lest we have no one left who will volunteer. If Legislators keep expecting more while taking nothing away except the funds, and parents keep expecting that we teach home economics and give 4 full credits for football and Ag, we will die trying to do both in an environment that publishes the success of the school on high stakes tests in the local paper. Schools are not now and have never been the panacea for all that ails us. They are not to blame, and they should be lauded. Schools have not failed, communities and legislators have failed. Those good folks on the payroll of your local school system will show up again in August to teach kids to the very best of their own professional potential, and they will do it in a setting with higher standards, higher expectations, more stuff to teach, more accountability and fewer dollars.
So, let's morph before we self-destruct!
Why do we have schools? It seems to me that a common core of cultural beliefs and standards must be shared and learned for forthcoming generations. We can argue all day about what should be included and what should be excluded, but basic human rights, basic human dignities and basic democratic principles should be taught, albeit in a dictatorial setting. We should not promote one religion or any religion over another as part of this process, but should impart that any belief system that answers eternal questions will be honored and respected.
We should teach the knowledge and skills necessary for the next generation, not the knowledge and skills used by previous generations. If we continue to offer courses that train our kids to memorize information rather than process information we are doing them and ourselves a huge disservice. Every student who exits a public high school with a diploma should have a core set of knowledge and experience, but must have a huge toolbox of information processing skills and a deep appreciation of the arts, sciences, languages, communication, problem solving and creative thinking skills.
The strategies we use to teach the identified knowledge and skills must be based in the latest and greatest tools and research. Kids must be challenged and must master the tools needed to answer those challenges.
We must re-think the non-curricular programs we offer. Does it in fact make sense for any reason other than historical or sentimental to offer Agricultural Science anywhere other than rural settings? Does it make sense to have a bevy of secondary teachers on board to coach competitive sports? Does it make sense to offer home economics, sewing, and cosmetology when we need nurses, welders, electricians, computer technicians and robotic repair specialists?
And we must re-think the basic organization of the school. Does it make sense to assume that today's children will learn best in groups of 20 to 30, gathered in a room for an hour or so with a college degreed, professionally certified educator? Does it make sense to continue building schools that are no more than a series of rectangular rooms along a hall? Does it make sense to devote an inordinate amount of space to a library that holds fewer volumes than a Kindle? Does it make sense to build large sporting arenas? Does it make sense to simply keep kids off the street for 180 days from 8:00 to 3:30 to serve merely as custodial care givers, weight reducers, meal providers, and test preparation specialists? We must ask these questions. The answers do not lie in our old yearbooks or the sacred text of any one religion. They lie in crystal balls and our vision of the future.
If students who exit from our schools are to be prepared for advanced academic work at universities or to enter our economy at a highly skilled level, then we are doing them an injustice. If that is what we want, then parents must be ready willing and able to communicate to their children that academic rigor means more than private leagues of volleyball and basketball, means more than cheerleading tryouts, and means more than the incredibly remote chance of an athletic scholarship. It means book time, study time, reading, writing, thinking, exploring, challenging, processing tons of information, etc., etc.
Simply put, schools cannot accomplish the incredibly varied and complex missions they are currently assigned while they are held so accountable for outcomes in only one major area, and are provided fewer and fewer resources. Can’t be done. We must change what we expect of schools and schools themselves and the good folks in them must change as well. Or, millions of children will be loose on the streets for most of their childhoods because their schools have been closed, or millions of children will attend schools that are labeled failures.
(I am frequently both amused and terrified by the notion of closing schools and replacing the adults with other adults to teach the same kids, the same stuff in the same communities. If there is a group of adults with a panacea and they are keeping it a secret until the public school fails, why don't they simply tell us? I think I know the answer, and it is posted as "Schools of Choice.")
In other words, we must morph or die.
What we morph to merits another post.
POSTED BY EILEEN GOOD AT 8:49 AM
2 COMMENTS:
Anonymous said...
Change is necessary! How do we motivate many of the old timers to understand, step to the plate, and embrace the change?
JULY 17, 2011 4:33 PM
Eileen Good said...
Not just the old timers, Dearest Anonymous. I'm an old-timer! Any one of us who does the same thing more than one year with different students could be stuck!
There is no static state. Public schools are very different today than they were in the last century, and have tended to be very different each decade since for a variety of reasons and as the result of a variety of factors both internal and external. External forces under the rubric of reform and driven by money and accountability have been slowly re-shaping not only the day-to-day operation of our schools, but the actual focus and mission of the institution. Internal forces driven by the complex mix of parental wants, employee wants and generational and cultural differences in the childhood experience have moved the operation and mission of our schools in another direction. The institution is literally being ripped apart by forces from without pulling or mandating one way and by forces from within pulling and demanding in another way, and the tensile torque on schools escalates with each new push for reform from outside and each newly identified pull from inside. Prior to totally ripping the institution into pieces, (and, my friends, we are close to that, I think, as is evidenced by the growth in the number of charter schools, high stakes tests, voucher programs, increased need for technology, increased outcome standards, cheating, childhood obesity, union busting, etc., all with less and less funding), I believe it is time to shift the national and state discussion away from promoting one reform or another and/or defending or attacking one current practice or another, and have a very candid discourse about why we even bother spending the billions we spend to send the youth of our country into brick and mortar structures for about 180 days each year. If we can agree on the "why" perhaps we can agree on the "how."
Schools have always had multiple missions, though they have now changed in some subtle and some brutal ways. Schools have always been asked to occupy the time and provide custodial care of the youth of our communities during the adult work day and when they are not needed to provide familial labor. We still follow an agrarian calendar born in the days when 75% of our population was rural and our economy was based on agriculture. We are now down to about 3% of our population devoted to agriculture and we follow the same calendar. And, the nature of the custodial care of our kids has morphed during this time from simply providing safe shelter under adult supervision to the monumental task of checking inoculations, teeth, eyes, ears, spines, learning disabilities, emotional disabilities, and body mass index all in a setting that is disabled-friendly. We are further charged with actually improving the health and well-being of the children who come to us, a very different mission from maintaining the health and well-being of the children at the levels exhibited when they arrive. Apparently since it happens nowhere else, we must provide 30 minutes of physical exercise each day while serving food that would have starved Tom Hanks while a Castaway.
Schools have always been asked to teach kids stuff. The stuff used to be commonly understood as reading, writing and arithmetic, but that too has dramatically changed. We now teach the classic three "R's" plus a wide range of social sciences including history, promotion of the free enterprise system, health, all the sciences, all the fine arts, all the psycho-motor arts, all the skilled craft non-college bound preparation courses, and courses targeted at preventing dating violence, promoting bus safety, fighting drug and tobacco use, and discouraging pre-marital sex. We have moved from subtle acculturation into a commonly understand "American" culture, to efforts to communicate the value, history and heritage of all cultures. We have moved from an assumed understanding of gender roles to the promotion of gender equity. We have moved from teacher determined curriculum to school determined, school district determined, state determined and are on the verge of nationally determined curriculum. We still teach stuff, but the stuff we teach grows both wider and deeper each year.
Schools have always been staffed by teachers to teach kids the stuff. Women, for the most part, assumed this honorable role as a main career choice. The very best and brightest women entered teaching or nursing if they were able to pursue learning beyond high school. That has changed and all career fields are open to women (Say "Amen," "Hallelujah" and pass the plate!), but there remains the notion that those who can, "do" and those who cannot, "teach." Frankly, that is poppycock and balderdash. Teaching remains an incredibly challenging career. If you want to strike fear in the heart of Bill Gates, give him the Texas 3rd grade curriculum standards and a room of 20 3rd graders for a week, and let him know we will test his success, not his students, at the end of that week. Bring Depends. This career still attracts many of the best and brightest, but it appears to me it is also attracting more of the part-timers, the "June, July and Augusters". The road toward getting a professional license to teach is also fraught with an amazing array of IEDs from fingerprinting, background checks, collegiate hours clocked by subject and renewal every five years. It has never been so difficult to become a teacher and the practice of teaching has never been so difficult.
Schools have always monitored the success of their children. First by teacher made tests and a paddle or ruler. Now, with standardized tests and in a principal's office. Each community used to know who the "good" kids were and who the "bad" kids were and expected the good to do well, and the bad to drop out. We no longer look to dropping out of school as a solution, it is now a problem. As the rigor of the testing has increased the number of students unable to pass and thereby get a diploma increases, and schools and teachers are held accountable for their failures, unlike any other profession.
Schools have always provided learning tools to support teachers and kids. Books, blackboards, chalk, pencils the size of small trees and paper produced with bark chips used to be enough. It took 30 years for the overhead projector to make its way from bowling alleys to classrooms, but the pace after the personal computer arrived in the late 1970's and early '80's has been phenomenal. And expensive! Equipping kids with the devices and connectivity they will need to enter our colleges or economy has issued in an entirely new set of school employees: the IT departments. I remember hearing that technology would be labor-saving, and that may be true in the private sector. In public schools, it has added to the labor intensity of the work just to keep all the needed tools up and going. Districts are now required to post information on websites and provide email addresses for employees. No staffing plan in the 1970's allowed for people who could accomplish these feats. Add to that a rash of accountability standards, and few districts can afford to go without new departments of "Human Resources" and "Information Officers" just to keep the rules straight, the district out of court, and to seek ways to put a positive spin on whatever the new story is degrading public schools and crying for improvement. The technology revolution has in fact made schooling much more expensive. And, we still buy textbooks and still put up marker boards with pens in every classroom and some libraries still have encyclopedias.
In the 1980's I had the distinct professional privilege and honor to work with Larry Lezotte. Lezotte taught me a lot. One of my favorite lessons was the concept of "organized abandonment". Legislators, communities and school people do not practice this in public schools. We are still doing very much what we have been doing since the turn of the previous century, and we have added so much more! I don't know about you, but when I buy a new couch, I give the old one away. Not schools. We get the new stuff and keep the old and we are choking to death.
We must change what it is we expect of public schools. We must change it first and foremost for our kids and for the future of our nation. We must change it for the adults who choose this future-oriented profession lest we have no one left who will volunteer. If Legislators keep expecting more while taking nothing away except the funds, and parents keep expecting that we teach home economics and give 4 full credits for football and Ag, we will die trying to do both in an environment that publishes the success of the school on high stakes tests in the local paper. Schools are not now and have never been the panacea for all that ails us. They are not to blame, and they should be lauded. Schools have not failed, communities and legislators have failed. Those good folks on the payroll of your local school system will show up again in August to teach kids to the very best of their own professional potential, and they will do it in a setting with higher standards, higher expectations, more stuff to teach, more accountability and fewer dollars.
So, let's morph before we self-destruct!
Why do we have schools? It seems to me that a common core of cultural beliefs and standards must be shared and learned for forthcoming generations. We can argue all day about what should be included and what should be excluded, but basic human rights, basic human dignities and basic democratic principles should be taught, albeit in a dictatorial setting. We should not promote one religion or any religion over another as part of this process, but should impart that any belief system that answers eternal questions will be honored and respected.
We should teach the knowledge and skills necessary for the next generation, not the knowledge and skills used by previous generations. If we continue to offer courses that train our kids to memorize information rather than process information we are doing them and ourselves a huge disservice. Every student who exits a public high school with a diploma should have a core set of knowledge and experience, but must have a huge toolbox of information processing skills and a deep appreciation of the arts, sciences, languages, communication, problem solving and creative thinking skills.
The strategies we use to teach the identified knowledge and skills must be based in the latest and greatest tools and research. Kids must be challenged and must master the tools needed to answer those challenges.
We must re-think the non-curricular programs we offer. Does it in fact make sense for any reason other than historical or sentimental to offer Agricultural Science anywhere other than rural settings? Does it make sense to have a bevy of secondary teachers on board to coach competitive sports? Does it make sense to offer home economics, sewing, and cosmetology when we need nurses, welders, electricians, computer technicians and robotic repair specialists?
And we must re-think the basic organization of the school. Does it make sense to assume that today's children will learn best in groups of 20 to 30, gathered in a room for an hour or so with a college degreed, professionally certified educator? Does it make sense to continue building schools that are no more than a series of rectangular rooms along a hall? Does it make sense to devote an inordinate amount of space to a library that holds fewer volumes than a Kindle? Does it make sense to build large sporting arenas? Does it make sense to simply keep kids off the street for 180 days from 8:00 to 3:30 to serve merely as custodial care givers, weight reducers, meal providers, and test preparation specialists? We must ask these questions. The answers do not lie in our old yearbooks or the sacred text of any one religion. They lie in crystal balls and our vision of the future.
If students who exit from our schools are to be prepared for advanced academic work at universities or to enter our economy at a highly skilled level, then we are doing them an injustice. If that is what we want, then parents must be ready willing and able to communicate to their children that academic rigor means more than private leagues of volleyball and basketball, means more than cheerleading tryouts, and means more than the incredibly remote chance of an athletic scholarship. It means book time, study time, reading, writing, thinking, exploring, challenging, processing tons of information, etc., etc.
Simply put, schools cannot accomplish the incredibly varied and complex missions they are currently assigned while they are held so accountable for outcomes in only one major area, and are provided fewer and fewer resources. Can’t be done. We must change what we expect of schools and schools themselves and the good folks in them must change as well. Or, millions of children will be loose on the streets for most of their childhoods because their schools have been closed, or millions of children will attend schools that are labeled failures.
(I am frequently both amused and terrified by the notion of closing schools and replacing the adults with other adults to teach the same kids, the same stuff in the same communities. If there is a group of adults with a panacea and they are keeping it a secret until the public school fails, why don't they simply tell us? I think I know the answer, and it is posted as "Schools of Choice.")
In other words, we must morph or die.
What we morph to merits another post.
POSTED BY EILEEN GOOD AT 8:49 AM
2 COMMENTS:
Anonymous said...
Change is necessary! How do we motivate many of the old timers to understand, step to the plate, and embrace the change?
JULY 17, 2011 4:33 PM
Eileen Good said...
Not just the old timers, Dearest Anonymous. I'm an old-timer! Any one of us who does the same thing more than one year with different students could be stuck!
Surprise, Surprise
TUESDAY, JULY 5, 2011
Headlines today, the Anthony debacle aside, focus on a report that investigators in Atlanta found professional educators guilty of cheating on the state standardized test. Seems that about 80% of the 54 schools they looked at engaged in some effort on the part of the adults in the school to help students in the school score better on a state test.
Teachers abhor cheating. Teachers abhor standardized, high-stakes tests. Which do you abhor more? If your job was on the line based on the performance of kids, what would you do? Moral dilemma.
I do not think what the teachers and principals did was right. I do not think administering a multiple choice high stakes standardized test on any given day to a bunch of 10 to 18 year-olds, the results of which are labels used to judge the kids, the staff, the school and school district is right either. The imposed culture destroys schools and what they value most. If we ever needed evidence that high-stakes tests destroy the good people who gravitate to public schools to help kids learn, then look at Atlanta, or Houston, or Baltimore, or anywhere where teachers really want their kids to do well and are scared to death they won't.
That's likely not what the pundits will say. They will add this to the burning fire of school reform, more evidence of the downfall of public schools. This will serve as motivation to hire more auditors, more test manufacturers, implement more security procedures - make the high stakes testing more high stakes - rather than looking at the real problem: high stakes testing in a culture that can end careers, close neighborhood schools, and drain everything out of the educational experience save test taking skills is immoral. Pathetic.
But, I am not surprised. Someone needs to tell the Emperor he is naked rather than punishing the kid who points it out and the adults who stand by him or her. If one works in an immorally imposed climate, is there really such a thing as immoral behavior?
If so, don't be surprised when you see it.
POSTED BY EILEEN GOOD AT 6:47 PM
1 COMMENTS:
Anonymous said...
Stress on students, stress on teachers, stress on schools, stress on districts.....who and what does all of this testing benefit? Morality forces touch decisions, obviously so does accountability!
Headlines today, the Anthony debacle aside, focus on a report that investigators in Atlanta found professional educators guilty of cheating on the state standardized test. Seems that about 80% of the 54 schools they looked at engaged in some effort on the part of the adults in the school to help students in the school score better on a state test.
Teachers abhor cheating. Teachers abhor standardized, high-stakes tests. Which do you abhor more? If your job was on the line based on the performance of kids, what would you do? Moral dilemma.
I do not think what the teachers and principals did was right. I do not think administering a multiple choice high stakes standardized test on any given day to a bunch of 10 to 18 year-olds, the results of which are labels used to judge the kids, the staff, the school and school district is right either. The imposed culture destroys schools and what they value most. If we ever needed evidence that high-stakes tests destroy the good people who gravitate to public schools to help kids learn, then look at Atlanta, or Houston, or Baltimore, or anywhere where teachers really want their kids to do well and are scared to death they won't.
That's likely not what the pundits will say. They will add this to the burning fire of school reform, more evidence of the downfall of public schools. This will serve as motivation to hire more auditors, more test manufacturers, implement more security procedures - make the high stakes testing more high stakes - rather than looking at the real problem: high stakes testing in a culture that can end careers, close neighborhood schools, and drain everything out of the educational experience save test taking skills is immoral. Pathetic.
But, I am not surprised. Someone needs to tell the Emperor he is naked rather than punishing the kid who points it out and the adults who stand by him or her. If one works in an immorally imposed climate, is there really such a thing as immoral behavior?
If so, don't be surprised when you see it.
POSTED BY EILEEN GOOD AT 6:47 PM
1 COMMENTS:
Anonymous said...
Stress on students, stress on teachers, stress on schools, stress on districts.....who and what does all of this testing benefit? Morality forces touch decisions, obviously so does accountability!
Happy Independence Day!
MONDAY, JULY 4, 2011
July 4, 1776 a group of white males signed the Declaration of Independence announcing to the world, and especially King George, that when faced with tyranny we would fight to be free. The tyranny they despised was essentially that they did not have a voice. They didn't. Taxation without representation, housing of British militia, etc., etc., drove them to the point that they came together and said; we will not let you make rules for us if you do not listen to us. So, here's your sign: We're willing to fight for self governance.
Once we won the fight, we had to figure out what self-governance looked like. There were 13 state governments in operation, each with their own currency, rules of commerce, militias, etc. The British left and things were pretty chaotic. The Declaration of Independence set the stage for self-governance, but the Constitution established, described and set in motion our federal government. Without a federal government we would remain a series of independent colonial-like states. The federal government was established from the beginning to have priority over the states in terms of commerce, taxation, military, etc. We became a nation of states, unified by a federal government. The United States. That is what we celebrate today.
And what a liberal notion this was! Prior to the USA there were but a handful of nations in the history of the planet who had toyed with the notion that governments could be run by the citizens. Most were run by royalty who ascended to the throne by birthright or war. Others were run simply by whoever was the most powerful military force in the land. Not here. The people choose their leaders. You were not born to rule, nor were people allowed to form armies to wage war to rule. Citizens rule. Every vote counted. Our revolutions occur in the ballot box, literally or digitally.
We have come a long way baby. That initial federal government did not recognize people with high skin pigmentation as even being fully human. That federal government did not allow women to own property or vote. That federal government did not have programs for the poor, support for education, interstate road construction, monitoring food, water, commerce, environment, or civil rights. Initially, the people who ruled were white males who owned property. Not now.
Powers not assigned to the United States were left to the states, and for the most part the states botched it and the United States had to step in. Remarkably, it was a Republican President who stood his ground and said Black Americans were people, not property, that the federal government took priority over state government, and that commerce was not as important as civil liberties. Those stands led us to our bloodiest of wars when we fought among ourselves. I am a Southerner, but as an American I celebrate that the North won because I believe that Republican President Lincoln's stands on these issues are the moral stands. He set slaves free; he allowed them to become citizens.
If you have been following me you know that I take the same stands today. Neither birthright nor zip code should determine quality of life. Economic might should not rule anymore than military might. People with wealth have the responsibility to promote the economic safety and well-being of people without wealth. This is not the land of rich and the home of the untaxed. It is the land of the free and the home of the brave. It takes a wise, brave American to vote in ways that benefit all our citizens, even if it taxes me. It takes the mentality of a two-year old to only vote in ways that are self-serving and self-preserving.
I celebrate our independence from foreign rule. I celebrate our responsibility to vote. I celebrate our civil rights and our personal freedoms. I celebrate the notion that every child born here is an American and will have the opportunity to get an education, will not starve, will not be subject to abuse, will get medical care, and will someday be able to choose his or her life's work. We can even celebrate the fourth with a fifth. Heck, we are so free we can even form political cults that publicly criticize our own freedoms, our own federal system of government, and campaign to have them undone. (Don't you find it at least kind of funny that Palin and Bachman couldn't run for office unless liberal Americans promoted female rights to own property and vote?)
And, a little old lady can blog about America and not have storm troopers at her door.
Happy Independence Day!
July 4, 1776 a group of white males signed the Declaration of Independence announcing to the world, and especially King George, that when faced with tyranny we would fight to be free. The tyranny they despised was essentially that they did not have a voice. They didn't. Taxation without representation, housing of British militia, etc., etc., drove them to the point that they came together and said; we will not let you make rules for us if you do not listen to us. So, here's your sign: We're willing to fight for self governance.
Once we won the fight, we had to figure out what self-governance looked like. There were 13 state governments in operation, each with their own currency, rules of commerce, militias, etc. The British left and things were pretty chaotic. The Declaration of Independence set the stage for self-governance, but the Constitution established, described and set in motion our federal government. Without a federal government we would remain a series of independent colonial-like states. The federal government was established from the beginning to have priority over the states in terms of commerce, taxation, military, etc. We became a nation of states, unified by a federal government. The United States. That is what we celebrate today.
And what a liberal notion this was! Prior to the USA there were but a handful of nations in the history of the planet who had toyed with the notion that governments could be run by the citizens. Most were run by royalty who ascended to the throne by birthright or war. Others were run simply by whoever was the most powerful military force in the land. Not here. The people choose their leaders. You were not born to rule, nor were people allowed to form armies to wage war to rule. Citizens rule. Every vote counted. Our revolutions occur in the ballot box, literally or digitally.
We have come a long way baby. That initial federal government did not recognize people with high skin pigmentation as even being fully human. That federal government did not allow women to own property or vote. That federal government did not have programs for the poor, support for education, interstate road construction, monitoring food, water, commerce, environment, or civil rights. Initially, the people who ruled were white males who owned property. Not now.
Powers not assigned to the United States were left to the states, and for the most part the states botched it and the United States had to step in. Remarkably, it was a Republican President who stood his ground and said Black Americans were people, not property, that the federal government took priority over state government, and that commerce was not as important as civil liberties. Those stands led us to our bloodiest of wars when we fought among ourselves. I am a Southerner, but as an American I celebrate that the North won because I believe that Republican President Lincoln's stands on these issues are the moral stands. He set slaves free; he allowed them to become citizens.
If you have been following me you know that I take the same stands today. Neither birthright nor zip code should determine quality of life. Economic might should not rule anymore than military might. People with wealth have the responsibility to promote the economic safety and well-being of people without wealth. This is not the land of rich and the home of the untaxed. It is the land of the free and the home of the brave. It takes a wise, brave American to vote in ways that benefit all our citizens, even if it taxes me. It takes the mentality of a two-year old to only vote in ways that are self-serving and self-preserving.
I celebrate our independence from foreign rule. I celebrate our responsibility to vote. I celebrate our civil rights and our personal freedoms. I celebrate the notion that every child born here is an American and will have the opportunity to get an education, will not starve, will not be subject to abuse, will get medical care, and will someday be able to choose his or her life's work. We can even celebrate the fourth with a fifth. Heck, we are so free we can even form political cults that publicly criticize our own freedoms, our own federal system of government, and campaign to have them undone. (Don't you find it at least kind of funny that Palin and Bachman couldn't run for office unless liberal Americans promoted female rights to own property and vote?)
And, a little old lady can blog about America and not have storm troopers at her door.
Happy Independence Day!
Supe and Crackers
FRIDAY, JUNE 24, 2011
I think about public school superintendents in the summer. Kids are out, teachers are summering, principals are scheduling, but supes are in the pressure cooker from now until September. These folks are rare and slightly bizarre. There are slightly more than 1000 supes in the entire state of Texas - less than the number of doctors in Houston alone. I know a lot of supes, and there is no good stereotype. Part educator, part politician, part CEO, part manager - and, as far as I'm concerned - part crazy. Supes may control the agenda but they do not control the action. The authority to act comes from the Board. Folks elected by lay people who are lay people who set district policy, control the purse strings and hire and fire the supe. Scary.
The median sized district in Texas is just under 900 kids. Wow. Picture each of those school boards and the superintendents they hire in the lower 1/2 of the state. Most board members in this group do not have a college degree, an associate’s degree and many do not have high school diplomas. The big systems get all the play, and when the legislature passes bills they picture places like Houston, Dallas, Austin or San Antonio. They ought to picture the 500 systems with fewer than 900 kids! In each of those systems the supe has at least a master’s degree and has passed a certification test. But those supes report to a board of lay people.
So, it's summer. Supes are scrambling to put together a budget for next year. The board expects as much. They do not know their property values, they do not know what state funding will look like, and they do not know what their enrollment will be. They have to guess. It is crystal ball work. If they guess enrollment low, property values low and state revenue low they will be accused of padding the budget. If they guess high they will be considered morons because they will have a deficit budget and in conservative Texas, that is a romper room no-no.
Boards do not want to make anyone mad. Supes don't either, but must say "no" if they are to propose a balanced budget. Can we have more coaches, more band directors, more salary increases, more, more, more? No. Unless you have a political contingency that shows up at the Board Meeting and campaigns for funding for their sacred cow, then the Board will direct the supe to fund it. The superintendent job description is to be the bad guy, or girl as the case may be.
Yep, it's the supe and crackers who make decisions for most school districts in Texas. A pro supe and a lay board. Most employees hate the supe because they have been told "no." Most boards abide the supe only as long as they can make the system highly successful for a lot less money. Supes must make the board look good. Most supes drink.
Pray for your supe. And pass the crackers.
POSTED BY EILEEN GOOD AT 8:30 PM
1 COMMENTS:
Anonymous said...
I pray for my supe, but also for anyone involved in education in TX. Legislators also get my prayers that they might some day realize the importance of funding education, revisit testing and the accountability attached to it, and believe in the power of public education for all.
I think about public school superintendents in the summer. Kids are out, teachers are summering, principals are scheduling, but supes are in the pressure cooker from now until September. These folks are rare and slightly bizarre. There are slightly more than 1000 supes in the entire state of Texas - less than the number of doctors in Houston alone. I know a lot of supes, and there is no good stereotype. Part educator, part politician, part CEO, part manager - and, as far as I'm concerned - part crazy. Supes may control the agenda but they do not control the action. The authority to act comes from the Board. Folks elected by lay people who are lay people who set district policy, control the purse strings and hire and fire the supe. Scary.
The median sized district in Texas is just under 900 kids. Wow. Picture each of those school boards and the superintendents they hire in the lower 1/2 of the state. Most board members in this group do not have a college degree, an associate’s degree and many do not have high school diplomas. The big systems get all the play, and when the legislature passes bills they picture places like Houston, Dallas, Austin or San Antonio. They ought to picture the 500 systems with fewer than 900 kids! In each of those systems the supe has at least a master’s degree and has passed a certification test. But those supes report to a board of lay people.
So, it's summer. Supes are scrambling to put together a budget for next year. The board expects as much. They do not know their property values, they do not know what state funding will look like, and they do not know what their enrollment will be. They have to guess. It is crystal ball work. If they guess enrollment low, property values low and state revenue low they will be accused of padding the budget. If they guess high they will be considered morons because they will have a deficit budget and in conservative Texas, that is a romper room no-no.
Boards do not want to make anyone mad. Supes don't either, but must say "no" if they are to propose a balanced budget. Can we have more coaches, more band directors, more salary increases, more, more, more? No. Unless you have a political contingency that shows up at the Board Meeting and campaigns for funding for their sacred cow, then the Board will direct the supe to fund it. The superintendent job description is to be the bad guy, or girl as the case may be.
Yep, it's the supe and crackers who make decisions for most school districts in Texas. A pro supe and a lay board. Most employees hate the supe because they have been told "no." Most boards abide the supe only as long as they can make the system highly successful for a lot less money. Supes must make the board look good. Most supes drink.
Pray for your supe. And pass the crackers.
POSTED BY EILEEN GOOD AT 8:30 PM
1 COMMENTS:
Anonymous said...
I pray for my supe, but also for anyone involved in education in TX. Legislators also get my prayers that they might some day realize the importance of funding education, revisit testing and the accountability attached to it, and believe in the power of public education for all.
Budget Battle Book
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 29, 2011
The Texas Legislature finally adjourned today. What a dismal session and special session this was. No, I have not read all the bills that made it to the governor's desk, but I know enough to observe the following conundrums:
• Texas has a large fund balance designed to handle emergencies and funding shortfalls. But we will not use it in this emergency or this shortfall.
• Texas supports required sonograms for women but opposes TSA groping at airports.
• Texas supports the death penalty but opposes abortion.
• Texas supports funding wealthy public school systems but opposes funding poor school systems.
• Texas supports local school systems using their fund balances but opposes the state using its fund balance.
• Texas supports local school systems raising taxes but opposes the state raising taxes.
• Texas supports local school systems almost as much as they support charter schools.
• Texas is willing to make it easier to fire teachers and administrators than it is to fund public schools.
• Texas is willing to implement higher standards and more rigorous testing while cutting the funds to implement improved instruction.
Guess that about sums it up. Suck it up, public ed, you are supporting the Perry bid for the presidency and the wealthy Tea Party members. Sadly, every school system in the state will do exactly that - teach kids better with less.
POSTED BY EILEEN GOOD AT 4:50 PM
2 COMMENTS:
Eileen Good said...
OK, the anti-groping bill did not pass, but they wanted it to!
JUNE 29, 2011 4:55 PM
Anonymous said...
and Texas isn't the 'only' state where it's happening ... what a mess ...
The Texas Legislature finally adjourned today. What a dismal session and special session this was. No, I have not read all the bills that made it to the governor's desk, but I know enough to observe the following conundrums:
• Texas has a large fund balance designed to handle emergencies and funding shortfalls. But we will not use it in this emergency or this shortfall.
• Texas supports required sonograms for women but opposes TSA groping at airports.
• Texas supports the death penalty but opposes abortion.
• Texas supports funding wealthy public school systems but opposes funding poor school systems.
• Texas supports local school systems using their fund balances but opposes the state using its fund balance.
• Texas supports local school systems raising taxes but opposes the state raising taxes.
• Texas supports local school systems almost as much as they support charter schools.
• Texas is willing to make it easier to fire teachers and administrators than it is to fund public schools.
• Texas is willing to implement higher standards and more rigorous testing while cutting the funds to implement improved instruction.
Guess that about sums it up. Suck it up, public ed, you are supporting the Perry bid for the presidency and the wealthy Tea Party members. Sadly, every school system in the state will do exactly that - teach kids better with less.
POSTED BY EILEEN GOOD AT 4:50 PM
2 COMMENTS:
Eileen Good said...
OK, the anti-groping bill did not pass, but they wanted it to!
JUNE 29, 2011 4:55 PM
Anonymous said...
and Texas isn't the 'only' state where it's happening ... what a mess ...
Father's Day
SATURDAY, JUNE 18, 2011
Father's Day
OK, maybe I have a little of the bah-humbug coursing through my veins today, but seems to me that men want to engage in behavior that leads to fatherhood, and tend to be surprised and scared when they discover they will become one. Can't have a father's day without a mother. Women are the prerequisites to fatherhood. Perhaps it is nice that children are able to thank their progenitor for hanging around, being supportive, etc. Important modeling especially for male children. But, women tend to do all the organization and work to celebrate this day. Mother's Day, on the other hand, is the day more folks go out to eat than any other day.
Regardless, Happy Father's Day to all the Dads out there. Lucky you. There was a woman somewhere who was willing to bear your children. Thank her.
POSTED BY EILEEN GOOD AT 8:28 AM
3 COMMENTS:
Anonymous said...
Father's are an important role model for male and female. I was blessed with a father that raised me to believe I could do and be anything I wanted, even if I was a girl! He passed away years ago, but it is he who I thank every day for raising me as he did. Thanks Dad!
JUNE 18, 2011 12:39 PM
Anonymous said...
My Dear Eileen, yes it does take a man and a woman to create a child but as a parent of two adopted children it takes so much more than that to be a "father".
JUNE 20, 2011 6:09 AM
Eileen Good said...
OK. I get it. I miss my father terribly, and tend to become morose on this day. Yes, I valued him. Yes, fatherhood is so much more than biology. Thank you for the feedback.
Father's Day
OK, maybe I have a little of the bah-humbug coursing through my veins today, but seems to me that men want to engage in behavior that leads to fatherhood, and tend to be surprised and scared when they discover they will become one. Can't have a father's day without a mother. Women are the prerequisites to fatherhood. Perhaps it is nice that children are able to thank their progenitor for hanging around, being supportive, etc. Important modeling especially for male children. But, women tend to do all the organization and work to celebrate this day. Mother's Day, on the other hand, is the day more folks go out to eat than any other day.
Regardless, Happy Father's Day to all the Dads out there. Lucky you. There was a woman somewhere who was willing to bear your children. Thank her.
POSTED BY EILEEN GOOD AT 8:28 AM
3 COMMENTS:
Anonymous said...
Father's are an important role model for male and female. I was blessed with a father that raised me to believe I could do and be anything I wanted, even if I was a girl! He passed away years ago, but it is he who I thank every day for raising me as he did. Thanks Dad!
JUNE 18, 2011 12:39 PM
Anonymous said...
My Dear Eileen, yes it does take a man and a woman to create a child but as a parent of two adopted children it takes so much more than that to be a "father".
JUNE 20, 2011 6:09 AM
Eileen Good said...
OK. I get it. I miss my father terribly, and tend to become morose on this day. Yes, I valued him. Yes, fatherhood is so much more than biology. Thank you for the feedback.
Eye of the Needle
THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2011
Though I am tempted to start an old George Carlin oxymoron routine beginning with Jumbo Shrimp, I shall simply state that the current connection between some who profess to be Christians and a conservative political philosophy leaves me absolutely dumbfounded. (Many will argue that I was lost dumb, so now to be found dumb is no surprise.) I am a Christian. I am a liberal. I find that my spiritual beliefs are the bedrock of my political beliefs. That is not true of all Christians or of all liberals, but it is true for me.
Jesus taught in parables. Not being a deity I can only muster metaphors. Let's talk about the Good Samaritan. Was he affluent? Seems to have been. Did he work to secure his wealth for the future? Seems not. Did he promote competition or cooperation? Did he seek to avoid those of different faiths or beliefs? Did he assume that those who are hurt, damaged, and helpless somehow deserve to be so? Nope. As a human, he came to the rescue of someone in need. I think if Jesus told the same story today it would have to be the good Republican who saved an undocumented worker wounded on the side of the road. Rather, I see those of that ilk working to punish, ban and deport those wounded on the side of the road. What would Good Samaritan policies look like? Who is our brother? Every human in the USA is either a first or multiple generation immigrant. Let us help the wounded folks, whether the wounds are from muggings, unemployment, lack of education, lack of health care, or whatever. My faith dictates that I serve the wounded and help the less fortunate. My politics are aligned.
How about the rich young ruler who wanted to follow Jesus? Simple response: Give up your wealth for a more noble purpose and follow me. I spoke of this notion in Broken Bonds, but for me it is more spiritual than I discussed there. If I have and you do not, and I want to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, then I should give. Give 'till it hurts. I feel a lot of anger when affluent people propose to cut support systems for the poor and needy so that those who pay the most taxes pay less. I cannot find a scriptural base to support the accumulation of wealth for some when there are those who suffer, who need, who want and go hungry. My politics are aligned.
How about the poor widow woman who dropped two meager coins in the coffer while the wealthy contributed huge sums. Jesus was pretty clear on that one, too. Contributions from abundance mean little; a contribution from poverty means everything. And we cannot raise the tax rate on the wealthiest Americans? My politics are aligned.
Sadly, it appears to me that those who have much are struggling to enact policies to garner more while those who have little are losing more. I believe teaching the children of poverty is a moral and spiritual act. I believe that waging war on that effort is sinful. In this world the accumulation of wealth appears to be our objective. I believe those who have such wealth and are not working to help those who do not are not being moral. Love your neighbor as you love yourself is the second great commandment, and everyone is my neighbor. Come on, wealthy Christians, get on board lest you cannot pass through the eye of the needle and become walking oxymorons.
Though I am tempted to start an old George Carlin oxymoron routine beginning with Jumbo Shrimp, I shall simply state that the current connection between some who profess to be Christians and a conservative political philosophy leaves me absolutely dumbfounded. (Many will argue that I was lost dumb, so now to be found dumb is no surprise.) I am a Christian. I am a liberal. I find that my spiritual beliefs are the bedrock of my political beliefs. That is not true of all Christians or of all liberals, but it is true for me.
Jesus taught in parables. Not being a deity I can only muster metaphors. Let's talk about the Good Samaritan. Was he affluent? Seems to have been. Did he work to secure his wealth for the future? Seems not. Did he promote competition or cooperation? Did he seek to avoid those of different faiths or beliefs? Did he assume that those who are hurt, damaged, and helpless somehow deserve to be so? Nope. As a human, he came to the rescue of someone in need. I think if Jesus told the same story today it would have to be the good Republican who saved an undocumented worker wounded on the side of the road. Rather, I see those of that ilk working to punish, ban and deport those wounded on the side of the road. What would Good Samaritan policies look like? Who is our brother? Every human in the USA is either a first or multiple generation immigrant. Let us help the wounded folks, whether the wounds are from muggings, unemployment, lack of education, lack of health care, or whatever. My faith dictates that I serve the wounded and help the less fortunate. My politics are aligned.
How about the rich young ruler who wanted to follow Jesus? Simple response: Give up your wealth for a more noble purpose and follow me. I spoke of this notion in Broken Bonds, but for me it is more spiritual than I discussed there. If I have and you do not, and I want to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, then I should give. Give 'till it hurts. I feel a lot of anger when affluent people propose to cut support systems for the poor and needy so that those who pay the most taxes pay less. I cannot find a scriptural base to support the accumulation of wealth for some when there are those who suffer, who need, who want and go hungry. My politics are aligned.
How about the poor widow woman who dropped two meager coins in the coffer while the wealthy contributed huge sums. Jesus was pretty clear on that one, too. Contributions from abundance mean little; a contribution from poverty means everything. And we cannot raise the tax rate on the wealthiest Americans? My politics are aligned.
Sadly, it appears to me that those who have much are struggling to enact policies to garner more while those who have little are losing more. I believe teaching the children of poverty is a moral and spiritual act. I believe that waging war on that effort is sinful. In this world the accumulation of wealth appears to be our objective. I believe those who have such wealth and are not working to help those who do not are not being moral. Love your neighbor as you love yourself is the second great commandment, and everyone is my neighbor. Come on, wealthy Christians, get on board lest you cannot pass through the eye of the needle and become walking oxymorons.
Instructional Therapy
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 15, 2011
School is out for the summer, but the Texas Legislature is still "in." Most school folks on teacher schedules are really catching their breath by now, though they have a way to go before they are re-charged enough for the next school year. I felt that as a teacher. I would be physically and emotionally drained at the end of the year, or just before a major holiday. Wonder why? Here's a guess:
Teaching resembles therapy. The goal of therapy is to help a person work through issues, overcome problems, develop new patterns, heal, improve, grow and move-on. Not much different from teaching, except the format is mostly "group" therapy with the teacher as therapist and the kids as patients. Not only do teachers attempt to accomplish all the goals of therapy, they attempt to embed learning. Therapy in a group of 22 would be tough. Instructional therapy in a group of 22 or larger would be even tougher, yet somehow, teachers do it.
Many kids come to us OK. Many do not. The wounded, angry, hungry, hurt kids need the most learning and the most therapy. Successful teachers are able to do one of two things (or both): tend to the emotional needs of the kids and bond with them, and/or help kids learn to put their feelings aside to focus and learn. I don't know many therapists, but the few I know would have a tough time if their group was subject to some kind of content-based standardized assessment to determine the quality of the therapy and the therapist.
Every therapist I know has their own therapist. They need one. After attending to the needs of their patients and the incredible focus and control it takes to help wounded folks heal, a therapist is drained or bottled-up. Teachers are the same, but if they have therapists, they keep it a secret. For some strange archaic reason it is not OK for teachers to have stress, be drained or be bottled up after attending to kids all day. Teachers teach kids to their own highest potential, not the kids' potential. Stress them out and the teaching potential has diminished.
External standards increase the stress on teachers. That becomes contagious with their already fragile charges. The design of such a system should be subject to charges of child abuse.
Meanwhile, lucky teachers are basking on a beach, climbing mountains, touring the world during their summers to re-charge. Others, like me, may be sipping an adult beverage on a deck in a back yard somewhere feeling the stress float away.
So, here's a toast to teachers everywhere: May your summer be restful, fulfilling, rejuvenating and inspiring, and may you return this coming fall motivated to provide the best instructional therapy you are able. Bottoms up!
POSTED BY EILEEN GOOD AT 6:58 PM
2 COMMENTS:
Anonymous said...
I'll drink to that! Thanks!
JUNE 15, 2011 10:57 PM
Anonymous said...
Cheers!
School is out for the summer, but the Texas Legislature is still "in." Most school folks on teacher schedules are really catching their breath by now, though they have a way to go before they are re-charged enough for the next school year. I felt that as a teacher. I would be physically and emotionally drained at the end of the year, or just before a major holiday. Wonder why? Here's a guess:
Teaching resembles therapy. The goal of therapy is to help a person work through issues, overcome problems, develop new patterns, heal, improve, grow and move-on. Not much different from teaching, except the format is mostly "group" therapy with the teacher as therapist and the kids as patients. Not only do teachers attempt to accomplish all the goals of therapy, they attempt to embed learning. Therapy in a group of 22 would be tough. Instructional therapy in a group of 22 or larger would be even tougher, yet somehow, teachers do it.
Many kids come to us OK. Many do not. The wounded, angry, hungry, hurt kids need the most learning and the most therapy. Successful teachers are able to do one of two things (or both): tend to the emotional needs of the kids and bond with them, and/or help kids learn to put their feelings aside to focus and learn. I don't know many therapists, but the few I know would have a tough time if their group was subject to some kind of content-based standardized assessment to determine the quality of the therapy and the therapist.
Every therapist I know has their own therapist. They need one. After attending to the needs of their patients and the incredible focus and control it takes to help wounded folks heal, a therapist is drained or bottled-up. Teachers are the same, but if they have therapists, they keep it a secret. For some strange archaic reason it is not OK for teachers to have stress, be drained or be bottled up after attending to kids all day. Teachers teach kids to their own highest potential, not the kids' potential. Stress them out and the teaching potential has diminished.
External standards increase the stress on teachers. That becomes contagious with their already fragile charges. The design of such a system should be subject to charges of child abuse.
Meanwhile, lucky teachers are basking on a beach, climbing mountains, touring the world during their summers to re-charge. Others, like me, may be sipping an adult beverage on a deck in a back yard somewhere feeling the stress float away.
So, here's a toast to teachers everywhere: May your summer be restful, fulfilling, rejuvenating and inspiring, and may you return this coming fall motivated to provide the best instructional therapy you are able. Bottoms up!
POSTED BY EILEEN GOOD AT 6:58 PM
2 COMMENTS:
Anonymous said...
I'll drink to that! Thanks!
JUNE 15, 2011 10:57 PM
Anonymous said...
Cheers!
Cut and Paste
THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2011
This has been an amazing year for Texas public schools. The year began as always with football practice (2-a-days) in August, volleyball practice, cheerleader camps, elementary teachers sneaking into classrooms early for bulletin boards, principals frantically hiring and finalizing handbooks and staff development days, superintendents and school boards working on budgets, etc., etc. All the back-to-school sales sent parents scurrying to stores for school clothes and school supplies and negotiating with their offspring about what to wear the first day. Parents of elementary kids want desperately to know who will teach their child, and secondary kids desperately want to know their schedules and who among their friends will they see during the day. The August frenzy devolves to the September routine.
November changed everything. In an amazing show of force Texas voters returned Rick Perry to the re-modeled Governor's Mansion, and sent a slew of newly elected very conservative Republicans to the state legislature. These newly elected politicos promised to reduce state government, cut spending, balance the budget and took what appears to be a blood oath to not raise taxes or revenues or even use vast state reserves to fund public services.
These newbies, and some oldies who wanted to ride the surge, got sworn-in in January, but were sworn at by the end of the week. Seems that to maintain campaign promises and be faithful to their literal political bible, Texas government began the process of self-denial, self-reduction, and self-destruction. Large on the chopping block were any public programs that helped folks who could not afford to help themselves. The war on poverty quickly became the war on the poor. State mental health, childhood health care, Medicare and caid, Children's protective services, and public education stood in line to take massive funding cuts as our leaders fought to balance a budget with revenue predictions well below previous levels. The Great Recession caught up with Texas Government via downturns in sales and property tax revenues, and to balance a budget with that downturn sacrificed programs that help the have-nots, such decisions being made by the newly elected "haves."
School Districts wavered between denial, panic and swift brutal action. Some immediately announced personnel cuts; teachers are most of the budget so teachers were most of the cuts. Weekly calls came out from various groups representing teachers, administrators, parents, school boards to rally in Austin to show support and save public ed. funding. Thousands drove to our most liberal city with their mostly liberal message and wasted their time. Behind closed doors, deals and budgets were cut.
The Legislature adjourned by law on May 31, the cusp of June. Our Governor so wants to be President that he appears like the lovestruck teenage boy, pining for the girl of his dreams and willing to promise her anything just to get attention from national media and conservative think-tanks (Is that an oxymoron?). Our Lt. Gov. so wants to be a US Senator. Our new Tea Party reps so want to be heroes to the hometowns that elected them. This group leans so far to the right their left legs are longer. They waited until the very last minute to fund public ed., or to underfund public ed. In the final hour of the final day of the regular session, a moderate Democrat filibuster defeated the plan and the Governor was forced to call a Special Session. We are now 2 weeks into that session and votes are forthcoming on a compromise plan.
And they have crafted a fascinating plan: Rich districts will be cut, poor districts will be cut. Rich districts will be cut to levels above where poor districts are right now. Poor districts will be cut even lower than they are right now. The second year of the two year budget is even worse. Clearly the newbie Legislators believe in reducing government expenditure in areas other than where they live. Even in the realm of public service the current state leadership believes that those governmental entities who have more should get more. Amazing. Zip code determines quality of education.
As children skip out the door for summer vacation and as teachers pack up classrooms and take down bulletin boards, administrators every where in the state are in for a long, tough summer as they attempt to do impossible tasks: maintain programs for kids with fewer staff and keep the kid per adult ratio reasonable. How do you do that?
You could milk sacred cows, but that will result in termination of the dairy farmers who make such attempts. Athletics could be eliminated. Career courses preparing kids for jobs from the previous century could go away (Ag, Home Ec., Hair Styling, etc.). These programmatic changes could save most school systems almost 10% of their budgets.
You could simply ignore all the state and federal mandates and reduce the administrative and clerical staff that currently exist only to comply with mandates. When auditors and lawyers write the rules to determine the efficacy of education, districts must hire folks who can develop, report and document the kinds of data that auditors and lawyers like. Clearly, there is an entire group of Americans who enter public education for the sole purpose of stealing these big bucks and wasting them. (That was written with a scarcastic sneer.) (The state, in my opinion, is the most fraudulent spender of public ed. dollars by simply sending millions to Pearson, the standardized test generating company!) But, since public schools have become the compliance whores of conservative micro-management and accountability, they take the money and perform the deeds required. Again, any school administrator advocating such steps would simply disappear, buried by the myriad laws and red tape of current school compliance mandates.
So what will school administrators decide to do regarding running their schools next year with assuredly less money? After all, the Legislature will pass a plan and go home. Soon thereafter, buses will run and bells will ring and kids will show up. I have three sets of generic guesses:
1. Play it safe: cut programs that do not have large constituencies or vocal supporters. Let class size trickle up, reduce teaching staff by attrition or RIF, reduce admin ranks, reduce paraprofessional ranks and keep on trucking.
2. Play it lean and mean: cut teachers by RIF, cut fine arts, and let class sizes get big.
3. Play it focused: Protect all core academic area teachers including fine arts. Let extra and co-curricular programs shrink to large teacher/pupil ratios due to less staff, reduce admin where feasible, cut all budgetary frills, travel and supply accounts.
No matter how they play it, they will be worse off and the opportunities for kids will be less. The glue that holds schools together is coming unstuck with deep cuts. Time for new paste. Cut and paste, that is.
This has been an amazing year for Texas public schools. The year began as always with football practice (2-a-days) in August, volleyball practice, cheerleader camps, elementary teachers sneaking into classrooms early for bulletin boards, principals frantically hiring and finalizing handbooks and staff development days, superintendents and school boards working on budgets, etc., etc. All the back-to-school sales sent parents scurrying to stores for school clothes and school supplies and negotiating with their offspring about what to wear the first day. Parents of elementary kids want desperately to know who will teach their child, and secondary kids desperately want to know their schedules and who among their friends will they see during the day. The August frenzy devolves to the September routine.
November changed everything. In an amazing show of force Texas voters returned Rick Perry to the re-modeled Governor's Mansion, and sent a slew of newly elected very conservative Republicans to the state legislature. These newly elected politicos promised to reduce state government, cut spending, balance the budget and took what appears to be a blood oath to not raise taxes or revenues or even use vast state reserves to fund public services.
These newbies, and some oldies who wanted to ride the surge, got sworn-in in January, but were sworn at by the end of the week. Seems that to maintain campaign promises and be faithful to their literal political bible, Texas government began the process of self-denial, self-reduction, and self-destruction. Large on the chopping block were any public programs that helped folks who could not afford to help themselves. The war on poverty quickly became the war on the poor. State mental health, childhood health care, Medicare and caid, Children's protective services, and public education stood in line to take massive funding cuts as our leaders fought to balance a budget with revenue predictions well below previous levels. The Great Recession caught up with Texas Government via downturns in sales and property tax revenues, and to balance a budget with that downturn sacrificed programs that help the have-nots, such decisions being made by the newly elected "haves."
School Districts wavered between denial, panic and swift brutal action. Some immediately announced personnel cuts; teachers are most of the budget so teachers were most of the cuts. Weekly calls came out from various groups representing teachers, administrators, parents, school boards to rally in Austin to show support and save public ed. funding. Thousands drove to our most liberal city with their mostly liberal message and wasted their time. Behind closed doors, deals and budgets were cut.
The Legislature adjourned by law on May 31, the cusp of June. Our Governor so wants to be President that he appears like the lovestruck teenage boy, pining for the girl of his dreams and willing to promise her anything just to get attention from national media and conservative think-tanks (Is that an oxymoron?). Our Lt. Gov. so wants to be a US Senator. Our new Tea Party reps so want to be heroes to the hometowns that elected them. This group leans so far to the right their left legs are longer. They waited until the very last minute to fund public ed., or to underfund public ed. In the final hour of the final day of the regular session, a moderate Democrat filibuster defeated the plan and the Governor was forced to call a Special Session. We are now 2 weeks into that session and votes are forthcoming on a compromise plan.
And they have crafted a fascinating plan: Rich districts will be cut, poor districts will be cut. Rich districts will be cut to levels above where poor districts are right now. Poor districts will be cut even lower than they are right now. The second year of the two year budget is even worse. Clearly the newbie Legislators believe in reducing government expenditure in areas other than where they live. Even in the realm of public service the current state leadership believes that those governmental entities who have more should get more. Amazing. Zip code determines quality of education.
As children skip out the door for summer vacation and as teachers pack up classrooms and take down bulletin boards, administrators every where in the state are in for a long, tough summer as they attempt to do impossible tasks: maintain programs for kids with fewer staff and keep the kid per adult ratio reasonable. How do you do that?
You could milk sacred cows, but that will result in termination of the dairy farmers who make such attempts. Athletics could be eliminated. Career courses preparing kids for jobs from the previous century could go away (Ag, Home Ec., Hair Styling, etc.). These programmatic changes could save most school systems almost 10% of their budgets.
You could simply ignore all the state and federal mandates and reduce the administrative and clerical staff that currently exist only to comply with mandates. When auditors and lawyers write the rules to determine the efficacy of education, districts must hire folks who can develop, report and document the kinds of data that auditors and lawyers like. Clearly, there is an entire group of Americans who enter public education for the sole purpose of stealing these big bucks and wasting them. (That was written with a scarcastic sneer.) (The state, in my opinion, is the most fraudulent spender of public ed. dollars by simply sending millions to Pearson, the standardized test generating company!) But, since public schools have become the compliance whores of conservative micro-management and accountability, they take the money and perform the deeds required. Again, any school administrator advocating such steps would simply disappear, buried by the myriad laws and red tape of current school compliance mandates.
So what will school administrators decide to do regarding running their schools next year with assuredly less money? After all, the Legislature will pass a plan and go home. Soon thereafter, buses will run and bells will ring and kids will show up. I have three sets of generic guesses:
1. Play it safe: cut programs that do not have large constituencies or vocal supporters. Let class size trickle up, reduce teaching staff by attrition or RIF, reduce admin ranks, reduce paraprofessional ranks and keep on trucking.
2. Play it lean and mean: cut teachers by RIF, cut fine arts, and let class sizes get big.
3. Play it focused: Protect all core academic area teachers including fine arts. Let extra and co-curricular programs shrink to large teacher/pupil ratios due to less staff, reduce admin where feasible, cut all budgetary frills, travel and supply accounts.
No matter how they play it, they will be worse off and the opportunities for kids will be less. The glue that holds schools together is coming unstuck with deep cuts. Time for new paste. Cut and paste, that is.
Philosophic Cannibalism
TUESDAY, MAY 17, 2011
Where I attend church there is a time in the service when the pastor calls on the congregation to lift up the names of folks who are in need of prayer, and throughout the sanctuary names of loved ones who are ill, grieving or approaching precipitous events are called out and we all say, "Lord, hear our prayers." It is important, it is moving, and it binds us together. A young high school girl called out, "Our government" and we responded as ritual dictates. And then I got mad.
My dear fellow Americans; what are we doing? This spring I have watched the news with reports of possible government shutdowns, rallying around budget cuts and deficit reductions, dramatic cuts to public education, efforts to increase charter schools and vouchers, and I realize either I am crazy or a lot of you are.
We are citizens of an incredible nation, a country rife with freedom and opportunity, a country of values, a country that has stood for truth, justice and a commonly understood, "American Way". (Apologies to Kal-El.) We do not tolerate discrimination by DNA. We do not tolerate abuse of power. We do not tolerate massacre of the underdog. And, we do not tolerate bullies. So how in the world have we reached the point where a newly elected group in D.C. and Austin are empowered to shut us down in the name of us, or cripple us with massive cuts in funding, and celebrate while they do it?
We are our government.
Do you remember 9/11? How about the shooting of Representative Giffords, or President Reagan, or President Kennedy? Remember that feeling that our duly elected people and our hallowed institutions had been attacked? Remember those feelings? That's because our government represents us, it does what we ask it to do. It provides services, it solves problems, it ensures our safety, it monitors our commerce, and on and on. This is not the government of a third world nation. This is the government of a 1st world nation. And it appears to me that it has become popular to attack our own government. How in the world have we reached a state wherein some of us perceive our government as our enemy?
I am a patriotic junkie. In light of full disclosure, I will say that folks who do not stand during the Pledge of Allegiance or take off hats and caps during the National Anthem irk me deeply, though I fully recognize their right to do or not do those gratuitous displays of respect. I feel the same about the folks clamoring for government shutdowns and drastic spending cuts.
Perhaps you believe it is important to do this because of our national debt and the amount of money our government spends. OK, that is a reasonable concern in my book, as long as we are reasonable in the ways we address that concern. I sense we have lost reasonableness.
Our national debt on the day the current President of the United States of America was sworn into office was $11.9 trillion dollars. Today, our debt is $14.9 trillion dollars. Our debt under the current President has grown by $3 trillion. Our previous President inherited a surplus, and in 8 years spent it and racked up almost $12 trillion in debt, and there was no outcry. So why now?
There are those among us who evidently fervently believe that our government is the enemy of the American people. They run for and are elected to office. Once there, they propose policies that would cripple our government and the services it provides, and dramatically reduce those who are government employees including teachers, firemen and law enforcement, military, health and safety inspectors, etc. They argue for this with trust in this mystical hand called the "market" which we know is a functioning motivator for suppliers and demanders. But it is immoral. There is demand for drugs, sex, and rock and roll, only one of which is healthy for us, but all of which will be supplied by the invisible hand of the market. You like the market, then you must have loved the crash of 2008 where unfettered marketers profited immensely while working folks bit the bullet. Most amazing to me, is that the very folks who promote the market stand as social conservatives, arguing against women's right to choose, arguing for prayer in schools, etc. The cognitive dissonance necessary to hold both positions simultaneously blows my mind.
If a foreign national ran on platform to shut down our government and dismantle our institutions, the Department of Home Land Security would be all over them. How then have we elected our own home grown destroyers?
I love America. I believe in America, our institutions, our philosophy, and our commitment to educate every child regardless of income, disability, etc. ad nausea. I remain amazed by the prevailing philosophy that works to do otherwise in the name of tax reduction and the market. From where I sit, that is philosophic cannibalism. Period.
Where I attend church there is a time in the service when the pastor calls on the congregation to lift up the names of folks who are in need of prayer, and throughout the sanctuary names of loved ones who are ill, grieving or approaching precipitous events are called out and we all say, "Lord, hear our prayers." It is important, it is moving, and it binds us together. A young high school girl called out, "Our government" and we responded as ritual dictates. And then I got mad.
My dear fellow Americans; what are we doing? This spring I have watched the news with reports of possible government shutdowns, rallying around budget cuts and deficit reductions, dramatic cuts to public education, efforts to increase charter schools and vouchers, and I realize either I am crazy or a lot of you are.
We are citizens of an incredible nation, a country rife with freedom and opportunity, a country of values, a country that has stood for truth, justice and a commonly understood, "American Way". (Apologies to Kal-El.) We do not tolerate discrimination by DNA. We do not tolerate abuse of power. We do not tolerate massacre of the underdog. And, we do not tolerate bullies. So how in the world have we reached the point where a newly elected group in D.C. and Austin are empowered to shut us down in the name of us, or cripple us with massive cuts in funding, and celebrate while they do it?
We are our government.
Do you remember 9/11? How about the shooting of Representative Giffords, or President Reagan, or President Kennedy? Remember that feeling that our duly elected people and our hallowed institutions had been attacked? Remember those feelings? That's because our government represents us, it does what we ask it to do. It provides services, it solves problems, it ensures our safety, it monitors our commerce, and on and on. This is not the government of a third world nation. This is the government of a 1st world nation. And it appears to me that it has become popular to attack our own government. How in the world have we reached a state wherein some of us perceive our government as our enemy?
I am a patriotic junkie. In light of full disclosure, I will say that folks who do not stand during the Pledge of Allegiance or take off hats and caps during the National Anthem irk me deeply, though I fully recognize their right to do or not do those gratuitous displays of respect. I feel the same about the folks clamoring for government shutdowns and drastic spending cuts.
Perhaps you believe it is important to do this because of our national debt and the amount of money our government spends. OK, that is a reasonable concern in my book, as long as we are reasonable in the ways we address that concern. I sense we have lost reasonableness.
Our national debt on the day the current President of the United States of America was sworn into office was $11.9 trillion dollars. Today, our debt is $14.9 trillion dollars. Our debt under the current President has grown by $3 trillion. Our previous President inherited a surplus, and in 8 years spent it and racked up almost $12 trillion in debt, and there was no outcry. So why now?
There are those among us who evidently fervently believe that our government is the enemy of the American people. They run for and are elected to office. Once there, they propose policies that would cripple our government and the services it provides, and dramatically reduce those who are government employees including teachers, firemen and law enforcement, military, health and safety inspectors, etc. They argue for this with trust in this mystical hand called the "market" which we know is a functioning motivator for suppliers and demanders. But it is immoral. There is demand for drugs, sex, and rock and roll, only one of which is healthy for us, but all of which will be supplied by the invisible hand of the market. You like the market, then you must have loved the crash of 2008 where unfettered marketers profited immensely while working folks bit the bullet. Most amazing to me, is that the very folks who promote the market stand as social conservatives, arguing against women's right to choose, arguing for prayer in schools, etc. The cognitive dissonance necessary to hold both positions simultaneously blows my mind.
If a foreign national ran on platform to shut down our government and dismantle our institutions, the Department of Home Land Security would be all over them. How then have we elected our own home grown destroyers?
I love America. I believe in America, our institutions, our philosophy, and our commitment to educate every child regardless of income, disability, etc. ad nausea. I remain amazed by the prevailing philosophy that works to do otherwise in the name of tax reduction and the market. From where I sit, that is philosophic cannibalism. Period.
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