I was so excited last week to watch Geoffrey Canada speak at Capella University. I viewed the speech via live stream and let me tell you, it was very worth the watch even with my 2 kiddos crawling all over me. Mr. Canada did not disappoint and even well exceeded my expectations. My excitement has continued on into this week and has energized me to no end!
When I started this venture of putting my thoughts on education out into the blogosphere, I erroneously lumped Mr. Canada in with a group of folks that I believe are doing much for education, but just not much to change it. I had heard of Canada, but hadn't done my research. I will admit that I was very wrong about him, but I do actually love being wrong as it means I have learned something......and I love learning!
So, why should we blame Canada as the title suggests? Let's blame him for making the education debate uncomfortable. Let's blame him for disrupting the status quo. Let's blame him for making our elected officials squirm in their seats. Let's blame him for making the teaching profession, including administrators and other school leaders, worry that they might have to work harder, or at least think differently about the work they do. And mostly, let's blame Canada for forcing us to think about the children we are educating rather than our silly adult agendas.
The differences between how I think about the changes our country needs to make in our public education system and Canada's philosophy on the matter are very few. One big difference however, is Canada's goal is to meet whatever the demands are head-on and not stop until the children of Harlem are succeeding. He is for a longer school day and drilling language and math so kids will be insanely successful (not just mediocre) on state tests. He is for hiring teachers who are willing to work day and night for their students and on Saturdays and in the summer. I am not against any of this, I just believe that not only do we need to work harder to meet the demands the government places on our children, we need to change how we are making those demands.
In other words, as you well know if you have read my previous posts, I say, stop the drilling, and start investing our time in discovering how to make learning so exciting for as many kids as possible that kids will love to go to school, teachers will love teaching regardless of demands, principals can lead instead of worrying about test scores, parents can be involved, and the community will view public schools as tremendous places of learning and viable options for all children to attend. I believe this difference in Mr. Canada's beliefs about education and mine is most likely cultural and has everything to do with how we were raised and in what era. However, I do believe in Geoffrey Canada and what he is doing and since he has a big voice and I do not, then I hope with everything in me that more people will start standing behind him and listening to his plan for how to make great change. Our children and our country deserve it!
Canada suggests that we can't say that where a child is raised or what is going on around that child can be an excuse for children not being successful. Gangs, poor parenting and lack of parental involvement, socioeconomic status, no food on the table, whatever the excuse teachers need to teach-and teach well-and whatever services that children need need to be given to them so they can learn. I am with this 100%, however, what if we just made a slight adjustment to this philosophy and added in reasons on top of inspiring teachers and providing proper healthcare, and threw in a curriculum focused on useful, lifelong learning mechanisms based in reality? If we are going to compete globally, we have to change how we are teaching our children and that is the bottom line. If we do not step up to this tremendous challenge, I am afraid our country will be in dire straits (even more so than it is!). It's never comfortable to change, especially when something has been the same for so long. But, if we are going to dig ourselves out of this education deficit we have created in the United States, we really should look to Canada!
***I hope that each of you reading today who are not familiar with Geoffrey Canada, will Google him and read about what amazing things he is doing to shake up public education. Also please take a look at the Harlem Children's Zone and pick up the book Whatever it Takes by Paul Tough.
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Community and Bullying
Since we are in the season of Christmas and so many other holidays, I thought I would take a minute to reflect on community. I love how during the holidays people tend to perk up a bit, laugh more. There are parties and celebrations of all kinds and it seems that we come together for the most part. One of my favorite Christmas stories, especially now that my children love it, is How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss. The moral of the story is so pertinent to me what with the Grinch discovering the true meaning of Christmas (being together) and that it does not involve gifts. Even more poignant is the idea the book portrays about community. The Who's stand strong as one united front against this overwhelming bully, the Grinch. As a result of this act of unity, no one seems to be bothered in Whoville when they awake Christmas morning and each of them have been robbed clean of food, decorations, and (gasp!) presents! They join hands and sing and celebrate anyway, knowing that the most important thing they have was not taken away--each other.
We don't do community like they used to or like they do in so many other countries. We ship our kids off here and there and boot them off to college or out of the house when they turn 18 and hope they don't return to inhabit our basements. We separate ourselves from one another by living with spaces sometimes several acres wide in between our houses (with no real purpose for that open land) or put up fences to keep people and animals away. Don't get me wrong, I understand there are wonderful people out there who will lend a hand when needed or volunteer as a career or when they have time. Community gardens have sprung up all over the place, which I believe is a step in the right direction for cooperative living. However, overall, I believe we are modeling to our children, and oftentimes outright saying, that we don't need anyone but ourselves.
Competition between adults over whose kid is the best athlete, best artist, has the best grades, the prettiest/cutest, etc, is mind blowing to me. We all are guilty of this type of bashing in one way, shape or form. We do it subtly and obviously and not too many people seem ashamed of the behavior. Is it a wonder that bullying is such a big problem in schools currently? John Dewey had the right idea when shaping the Laboratory School at the University of Chicago when he determined that children need to learn in communities in order to discover how to behave socially, depend on one another to survive, and how to connect with one another. When we are so separate, then it is truly every man for himself. When you don't depend on each other for survival then we are in direct competition with one another. Humans like to be in community with one another. It's natural for us. But since we are driven by selfishness and competition, and let's not forget fear of those who might be different than we are, then we become so focused on appearances, skills or lack thereof, and other things that don't really matter. Instead of figuring out where everyone can fit in, we immediately start ousting those who clearly aren't the same.
It is no wonder that when our extremely impressionable youth walk into a school building, they immediately start judging and competing in unhealthy ways. They pick on one another to no end. They hide behind social media outlets, texting, and other forms of technology to ruin each other's lives. Sound dramatic? You walk into any school, any level, and listen for a day, and tell me I am being dramatic then. We are starting to blame teachers and schools for not doing enough to stop bullying, but I contend it's the fault of the village--and PARENTS!
If you agree that hearing how children are killing themselves, running away, or becoming helplessly depressed over being bullied so heinously for any number of reasons ranging from how he/she looks, to dealing with the fact that he/she is gay, to dating someone of another race, to not being in the right socioeconomic class, each and every day of their lives is a travesty, then please think about your actions and the opinions you express around children. We all are guilty of bullying to some extent regardless of how big or small. Most of us have been bullied for one reason or another. Think about this over the holidays and how you, as a member of a much larger community, can help. Can you give time to mentor a young person? Can you work to establish a community garden or other cooperative neighborhood program? Can you volunteer to watch the neighbor's dog over the break? Can you develop a neighborhood cleanup initiative? Imagine if we all did our part to service our communities in an effort to grow closer together. What an impact that would have on our younger generations. If we all depended on one another and were less selfish, wouldn't it be easier to see the value in our neighbors versus the things we don't think we like about them? I challenge you to think about this and think about how our children's lives could be so different if they had more examples of kindness, love and community around them. I am willing to bet, we would see this bullying epidemic fade away. Allow your heart grow three sizes and be a positive influence against bullying this coming year!
We don't do community like they used to or like they do in so many other countries. We ship our kids off here and there and boot them off to college or out of the house when they turn 18 and hope they don't return to inhabit our basements. We separate ourselves from one another by living with spaces sometimes several acres wide in between our houses (with no real purpose for that open land) or put up fences to keep people and animals away. Don't get me wrong, I understand there are wonderful people out there who will lend a hand when needed or volunteer as a career or when they have time. Community gardens have sprung up all over the place, which I believe is a step in the right direction for cooperative living. However, overall, I believe we are modeling to our children, and oftentimes outright saying, that we don't need anyone but ourselves.
Competition between adults over whose kid is the best athlete, best artist, has the best grades, the prettiest/cutest, etc, is mind blowing to me. We all are guilty of this type of bashing in one way, shape or form. We do it subtly and obviously and not too many people seem ashamed of the behavior. Is it a wonder that bullying is such a big problem in schools currently? John Dewey had the right idea when shaping the Laboratory School at the University of Chicago when he determined that children need to learn in communities in order to discover how to behave socially, depend on one another to survive, and how to connect with one another. When we are so separate, then it is truly every man for himself. When you don't depend on each other for survival then we are in direct competition with one another. Humans like to be in community with one another. It's natural for us. But since we are driven by selfishness and competition, and let's not forget fear of those who might be different than we are, then we become so focused on appearances, skills or lack thereof, and other things that don't really matter. Instead of figuring out where everyone can fit in, we immediately start ousting those who clearly aren't the same.
It is no wonder that when our extremely impressionable youth walk into a school building, they immediately start judging and competing in unhealthy ways. They pick on one another to no end. They hide behind social media outlets, texting, and other forms of technology to ruin each other's lives. Sound dramatic? You walk into any school, any level, and listen for a day, and tell me I am being dramatic then. We are starting to blame teachers and schools for not doing enough to stop bullying, but I contend it's the fault of the village--and PARENTS!
If you agree that hearing how children are killing themselves, running away, or becoming helplessly depressed over being bullied so heinously for any number of reasons ranging from how he/she looks, to dealing with the fact that he/she is gay, to dating someone of another race, to not being in the right socioeconomic class, each and every day of their lives is a travesty, then please think about your actions and the opinions you express around children. We all are guilty of bullying to some extent regardless of how big or small. Most of us have been bullied for one reason or another. Think about this over the holidays and how you, as a member of a much larger community, can help. Can you give time to mentor a young person? Can you work to establish a community garden or other cooperative neighborhood program? Can you volunteer to watch the neighbor's dog over the break? Can you develop a neighborhood cleanup initiative? Imagine if we all did our part to service our communities in an effort to grow closer together. What an impact that would have on our younger generations. If we all depended on one another and were less selfish, wouldn't it be easier to see the value in our neighbors versus the things we don't think we like about them? I challenge you to think about this and think about how our children's lives could be so different if they had more examples of kindness, love and community around them. I am willing to bet, we would see this bullying epidemic fade away. Allow your heart grow three sizes and be a positive influence against bullying this coming year!
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Occupy This!
There are clearly a lot of angry and outspoken people in the U.S. right now. With the Occupy movement surging ahead, troops being released out of Iraq this month, unemployment on the rise, the upcoming elections, and a host of other issues, our country has a lot on its plate. One issue however that seems to get plenty of attention, but rarely any sound solutions for its never-ending problems, is our public education system.
When the Occupy movement first started up, and even now that it seems to actually have some sort of message (at least in some cities) my first question was: "If this many folks sat outside of public schools and demanded better education for our youth, how much of an impact could that have?" The answer I came up with: "A LOT!" You see, many children in our country, the same economically unstable people that our dear Occupiers are fighting for, are not getting the education they need. No, it's not because they need new Common Core standards and it's not because they need more engaged, hard working teachers, and it's not because they need more programs, and it's not even because they need more money in the schools. While some of those things are great, the point is constantly being missed. What they need is people to fight for them by demanding that this cycle of poverty they live in come to an end.
These kids don't give two cents about school when they wake up in the morning because there are too many other factors weighing against them. This is not news; this is what has been put out there to the public for years and years. The problem is, our government officials, school administrators and other stakeholders are scared. No one wants to talk about the root of the problem because they don't want to appear racist or elitist. Until someone is willing to discuss how our welfare system needs a revolutionary change; how pooling poor people into project housing, locked behind gates is only hurting people by forcing children to mostly view negative things on a regular basis; how not giving kids an opportunity to see the world at work and instead sitting them in a closed-in classroom all day forcing math and language arts down their throats and ignoring everything else is defeating the purpose of education, until then, we will continue to get what we have gotten!
So where is the action? Where are the 99% when it comes to helping children succeed? Aren't children, especially socioeconomically challenged children part of the 99% of people in this country who are being "taken advantage of?" The type of revolution this country needs is within the education system, not on Wall Street. Sure, we need less corporate greed and it's not fair that Bill Gates has more access to the President than I do, and sure it sucks that when I was a teaching, my salary was meager and some guy who barely works and plays golf all day makes a million bucks a year, and blah, blah, blah. However, how can any of this be remedied if we keep processing kids through the system, ignoring the root causes of the problem, and never giving them any skills to move beyond Cayce Homes or any number of other government assisted housing in the U.S.? Couldn't it be argued that creating more quality educated people who are compassionate, giving, and hard working help solve the problems we are currently up against?
At the risk of being redundant in relation to my previous posts, I offer you this thought: If our children walked into school each day to be greeted by community leaders, hopped on buses to go and witness a day in the life of a person at work, had college recruiters in and out of their schools, and learned by doing, wouldn't this make a difference? Wouldn't more children be more excited to come to school each day? Wouldn't teachers be more excited to teach?
Occupiers, if you want to Occupy something, go walk through a local school and look around. Look at the behavior of the students in the hallways and how they treat their teachers. Witness the look on an urban teacher or administrator's face at this time of year before TCAP preparation starts. Look at the facilities. See how confused everyone in the whole building is because no one really knows what to do. Then, start demanding action for a better way of teaching and learning that doesn't include rote memorization or teaching to a test that will ultimately have zero bearing on that child's life as a whole. Demand children be treated as humans. Demand that our inner-city kids be given skills that will give them zero excuse to "get a check" each month and instead go into the work force, to create jobs, to be somebody, and ultimately survive and thrive in our economy instead of being viewed as a pariah feeding off the system.
Albert Einstein once said, "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." If that is true, then why do we keep doing it in education? There is an opportunity right now to demand change. I am doing whatever I can with whatever power I have (which is currently limited) to work toward change. I invite you to think about your time spent in school and what you think worked and what did not. Also, if you have children, will one day have children, or if you have a job, own a business, or are even a part of this country to any degree, ask yourself how education affects your life? If you cannot answer that question, give me a ring, I will be more than happy to enlighten you. When you reach the conclusion that education affects all of us every day, Occupiers, community members, PEOPLE, stand up for change in public education and start fighting a battle that can easily be won if the village that is our country can demand it effectively!
When the Occupy movement first started up, and even now that it seems to actually have some sort of message (at least in some cities) my first question was: "If this many folks sat outside of public schools and demanded better education for our youth, how much of an impact could that have?" The answer I came up with: "A LOT!" You see, many children in our country, the same economically unstable people that our dear Occupiers are fighting for, are not getting the education they need. No, it's not because they need new Common Core standards and it's not because they need more engaged, hard working teachers, and it's not because they need more programs, and it's not even because they need more money in the schools. While some of those things are great, the point is constantly being missed. What they need is people to fight for them by demanding that this cycle of poverty they live in come to an end.
These kids don't give two cents about school when they wake up in the morning because there are too many other factors weighing against them. This is not news; this is what has been put out there to the public for years and years. The problem is, our government officials, school administrators and other stakeholders are scared. No one wants to talk about the root of the problem because they don't want to appear racist or elitist. Until someone is willing to discuss how our welfare system needs a revolutionary change; how pooling poor people into project housing, locked behind gates is only hurting people by forcing children to mostly view negative things on a regular basis; how not giving kids an opportunity to see the world at work and instead sitting them in a closed-in classroom all day forcing math and language arts down their throats and ignoring everything else is defeating the purpose of education, until then, we will continue to get what we have gotten!
So where is the action? Where are the 99% when it comes to helping children succeed? Aren't children, especially socioeconomically challenged children part of the 99% of people in this country who are being "taken advantage of?" The type of revolution this country needs is within the education system, not on Wall Street. Sure, we need less corporate greed and it's not fair that Bill Gates has more access to the President than I do, and sure it sucks that when I was a teaching, my salary was meager and some guy who barely works and plays golf all day makes a million bucks a year, and blah, blah, blah. However, how can any of this be remedied if we keep processing kids through the system, ignoring the root causes of the problem, and never giving them any skills to move beyond Cayce Homes or any number of other government assisted housing in the U.S.? Couldn't it be argued that creating more quality educated people who are compassionate, giving, and hard working help solve the problems we are currently up against?
At the risk of being redundant in relation to my previous posts, I offer you this thought: If our children walked into school each day to be greeted by community leaders, hopped on buses to go and witness a day in the life of a person at work, had college recruiters in and out of their schools, and learned by doing, wouldn't this make a difference? Wouldn't more children be more excited to come to school each day? Wouldn't teachers be more excited to teach?
Occupiers, if you want to Occupy something, go walk through a local school and look around. Look at the behavior of the students in the hallways and how they treat their teachers. Witness the look on an urban teacher or administrator's face at this time of year before TCAP preparation starts. Look at the facilities. See how confused everyone in the whole building is because no one really knows what to do. Then, start demanding action for a better way of teaching and learning that doesn't include rote memorization or teaching to a test that will ultimately have zero bearing on that child's life as a whole. Demand children be treated as humans. Demand that our inner-city kids be given skills that will give them zero excuse to "get a check" each month and instead go into the work force, to create jobs, to be somebody, and ultimately survive and thrive in our economy instead of being viewed as a pariah feeding off the system.
Albert Einstein once said, "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." If that is true, then why do we keep doing it in education? There is an opportunity right now to demand change. I am doing whatever I can with whatever power I have (which is currently limited) to work toward change. I invite you to think about your time spent in school and what you think worked and what did not. Also, if you have children, will one day have children, or if you have a job, own a business, or are even a part of this country to any degree, ask yourself how education affects your life? If you cannot answer that question, give me a ring, I will be more than happy to enlighten you. When you reach the conclusion that education affects all of us every day, Occupiers, community members, PEOPLE, stand up for change in public education and start fighting a battle that can easily be won if the village that is our country can demand it effectively!
Monday, November 14, 2011
And You are Confused Because......?
It's amazing to me that with all of the research that exists, school districts, researchers themselves, teachers, and like are still shocked that there is a disparity in test scores and graduation rates exhibited between low-income African Americans and other students of other races and income levels (primarily White, Latino, and Asian). If you have never driven through a project such as Cayce Homes in Nashville, I would invite you to do so. Cayce is considered the poorest, most violent neighborhood in Nashville (according to many reports), and as a result there are tons of fabulous programs such as the Martha O'Bryan Center and a host of school-based programs that are working to help the low-income children of East Nashville succeed. However, something is not clicking and in my humble opinion, it is because we are not capitalizing on the time we have with these children when they are inside the school walls. I have mentioned this idea in a former blog post, but let me provide some more detail.
Here is a scenario of a former student of mine (school and name will not be disclosed): Get up at 5:00am to get brothers and sisters and herself ready for school. Get herself to school in time to eat breakfast. Go through class all day. Go to basketball practice. Go home and make sure brothers and sisters are taken care of, fed (if there's food), bathed (if there's water), and perhaps homework is done in time for bed. Saturdays, takes a bus to a local pizza place to work, Sundays, walks to work the football game if it is a home game. Summers are spent between the pizza place and any other small job she can pick up. Where does the money go? To Mama for "groceries" and "bills" even though they are on food stamps and recipients of welfare.
Does this sound like that typical story you hear from anyone teaching in the inner city? Well, let me now tell you about the thoughts and attitudes as they were explained to me and observed by me from this same child:
Get up at 5:00am to get herself and her brothers and sisters off to school because she doesn't want them to be home when Mama gets home from who knows wherever. When she gets to school she knows she has to make good grades because somewhere along the way she discovered that she needed to "get out" of her neighborhood. She plays basketball because she's good and it might lead to a scholarship. However, in the middle of the school year she decides she is tired of taking care of everyone and she is tired of working so hard to make it and she starts slacking. She quits one of her jobs, she starts getting in trouble with her teachers, and her attitude shift is even brought to basketball practice. All she hears is how she will never make it if she keeps up this behavior and people start writing her off. She threatens a teacher one day and gets suspended. She gives me (her coach at the time) the silent treatment for weeks because I refuse to let her slip and pick her up for weekend practice and games and take her home and talk to her constantly about her future. She didn't want to hear any of it because "what is it going to matter anyway?"
Another student I had was the complete opposite. She threatened me on an almost daily basis if I even said "good morning" to her. Calling her house was no help as the mother always told me she had nothing to say to me and her daughter was going to do whatever she wanted and she couldn't control her. This young lady came to class everyday, seemingly to socialize and cause a raucous. I would attempt to hold her after class to discuss how we could work better together and how to help her learn the material. The one day she stayed behind, she said a few choice words and stormed out. I found out a couple of years ago when I went to visit some former students that this young lady had died that year from overdosing on crack. Apparently she was snorting it off of her knees so often that she burned holes through them to the bone.
I offer you these two stories, one of a girl who had a tremendous head on her shoulders for most of her life and the other who was a stereotypical product of her environment, to make a point that neither young lady could see far enough into her respective future to realize that they both could do more than continue to exist within the cycle of poverty they were brought up in. Although the young lady from the first anecdote is working at the pizza place (still) and "trying to get into college" as she told me on a recent trip to visit her, things are looking quite grim. I say that because research tells me that the longer she stays out of college, the less likely it will be that she ever attends at all.
Using these two scenarios, which are neither special cases for inner city kids, can you see a little more clearly why "low-income blacks" succeed at a lesser rate than their peers of other backgrounds? (If not, I have a slew of other stories I would be more than happy to share.) When I was in school, I woke up in my gated community and saw the two heart doctors across the street, the coach at my high school, the business owner, and other professionals, get into their Volvo's and SUV's, and head off to work. I woke up to both parents in the kitchen, my mom making breakfast and packing our lunches and helping us get ready for school or cram last minute for a test. I did not wake up in a room with five siblings and the smell of smoke and alcohol and no food in the fridge only to walk outside to litter, a man on the corner selling drugs, or police lights. Had I lived as so many of these children live, I probably would not be sitting here writing down this information. Would you be where you are?
What is the solution? I argue it is to show these kids that there is life outside of the projects, Section 8 apartments and other government housing. Show them that they matter. I didn't say tell them, I said show them. That's where the problem lies. Kids need to see it. It's quite obvious that most children mimic their environments they are most exposed to. So why not expose kids from poverty to the best they can be? Get these kids out of their desks and quit the droning on about equations, and get them into a university math building, give them a project, and let them work hands-on with students of the university. Quit making them write paragraphs on what they did last summer and take them downtown to see all of the people going to work. Have them interview those people to discover what they do and why, and have them write about those things. Let them research people who look like them who are currently making a difference in their communities. Invite those people into the classroom to talk to them. Help them find internships that will give them insight and experience. And don't tell me it's too expensive or too hard. It's not, we have billions of dollars to spend on education, so let's make a change in how we do things and make education meaningful and purposeful. And, if you say it's too hard to change how we do it now, well then, you will get what you give and our country will continue to decline. If we can uplift impoverished communities through effective reform of our education system that word "disparity" will soon be replaced by the word "equity."
Here is a scenario of a former student of mine (school and name will not be disclosed): Get up at 5:00am to get brothers and sisters and herself ready for school. Get herself to school in time to eat breakfast. Go through class all day. Go to basketball practice. Go home and make sure brothers and sisters are taken care of, fed (if there's food), bathed (if there's water), and perhaps homework is done in time for bed. Saturdays, takes a bus to a local pizza place to work, Sundays, walks to work the football game if it is a home game. Summers are spent between the pizza place and any other small job she can pick up. Where does the money go? To Mama for "groceries" and "bills" even though they are on food stamps and recipients of welfare.
Does this sound like that typical story you hear from anyone teaching in the inner city? Well, let me now tell you about the thoughts and attitudes as they were explained to me and observed by me from this same child:
Get up at 5:00am to get herself and her brothers and sisters off to school because she doesn't want them to be home when Mama gets home from who knows wherever. When she gets to school she knows she has to make good grades because somewhere along the way she discovered that she needed to "get out" of her neighborhood. She plays basketball because she's good and it might lead to a scholarship. However, in the middle of the school year she decides she is tired of taking care of everyone and she is tired of working so hard to make it and she starts slacking. She quits one of her jobs, she starts getting in trouble with her teachers, and her attitude shift is even brought to basketball practice. All she hears is how she will never make it if she keeps up this behavior and people start writing her off. She threatens a teacher one day and gets suspended. She gives me (her coach at the time) the silent treatment for weeks because I refuse to let her slip and pick her up for weekend practice and games and take her home and talk to her constantly about her future. She didn't want to hear any of it because "what is it going to matter anyway?"
Another student I had was the complete opposite. She threatened me on an almost daily basis if I even said "good morning" to her. Calling her house was no help as the mother always told me she had nothing to say to me and her daughter was going to do whatever she wanted and she couldn't control her. This young lady came to class everyday, seemingly to socialize and cause a raucous. I would attempt to hold her after class to discuss how we could work better together and how to help her learn the material. The one day she stayed behind, she said a few choice words and stormed out. I found out a couple of years ago when I went to visit some former students that this young lady had died that year from overdosing on crack. Apparently she was snorting it off of her knees so often that she burned holes through them to the bone.
I offer you these two stories, one of a girl who had a tremendous head on her shoulders for most of her life and the other who was a stereotypical product of her environment, to make a point that neither young lady could see far enough into her respective future to realize that they both could do more than continue to exist within the cycle of poverty they were brought up in. Although the young lady from the first anecdote is working at the pizza place (still) and "trying to get into college" as she told me on a recent trip to visit her, things are looking quite grim. I say that because research tells me that the longer she stays out of college, the less likely it will be that she ever attends at all.
Using these two scenarios, which are neither special cases for inner city kids, can you see a little more clearly why "low-income blacks" succeed at a lesser rate than their peers of other backgrounds? (If not, I have a slew of other stories I would be more than happy to share.) When I was in school, I woke up in my gated community and saw the two heart doctors across the street, the coach at my high school, the business owner, and other professionals, get into their Volvo's and SUV's, and head off to work. I woke up to both parents in the kitchen, my mom making breakfast and packing our lunches and helping us get ready for school or cram last minute for a test. I did not wake up in a room with five siblings and the smell of smoke and alcohol and no food in the fridge only to walk outside to litter, a man on the corner selling drugs, or police lights. Had I lived as so many of these children live, I probably would not be sitting here writing down this information. Would you be where you are?
What is the solution? I argue it is to show these kids that there is life outside of the projects, Section 8 apartments and other government housing. Show them that they matter. I didn't say tell them, I said show them. That's where the problem lies. Kids need to see it. It's quite obvious that most children mimic their environments they are most exposed to. So why not expose kids from poverty to the best they can be? Get these kids out of their desks and quit the droning on about equations, and get them into a university math building, give them a project, and let them work hands-on with students of the university. Quit making them write paragraphs on what they did last summer and take them downtown to see all of the people going to work. Have them interview those people to discover what they do and why, and have them write about those things. Let them research people who look like them who are currently making a difference in their communities. Invite those people into the classroom to talk to them. Help them find internships that will give them insight and experience. And don't tell me it's too expensive or too hard. It's not, we have billions of dollars to spend on education, so let's make a change in how we do things and make education meaningful and purposeful. And, if you say it's too hard to change how we do it now, well then, you will get what you give and our country will continue to decline. If we can uplift impoverished communities through effective reform of our education system that word "disparity" will soon be replaced by the word "equity."
Thursday, August 18, 2011
It's Not That Simple
So Arne Duncan and I are at odds. I only wish he knew it because I would love to give him an ear full! With ACT releasing their reports that only about 25% of graduating seniors are prepared for college, Mr. Duncan decides that means it's time to "raise academic standards." I have heard this same desire and watched standards change and become more unattainable over the past 6 years. Why in the world does this seem to be the only answer to the problem? Furthermore, how is this anyone's idea in the first place? So when kids are clearly not graduating and failing and scoring terribly low on college entrance exams, then we make it tougher on them? Are we assuming that we are dealing with hundreds of thousands of academic savants who simply aren't being challenged? Come on people.
If Mr. Duncan and many of the other folks who are making the big decisions for education really looked at their client base, they would understand that tweaking the standards and making them tougher is not the answer. It is much more difficult than that. This country was founded on the principal that "all men are created equal." This does not mean that all men are the same but that all men (women and children) should have equal rights and opportunities in our country. We have developed into a country that is considered a melting pot of cultures, languages, skin colors, religions, etc. We have intelligent people researching and telling us that everyone's brain works differently and we each learn based on one or more of the Multiple Intelligences. We have children and adults who are gifted, learning disabled, genius, mentally and physically challenged, poor, rich, middle class, those with parents who would do anything for them, and those who could care less. Each of these differences within our melting pot chalk up to the fact that we cannot be so robotic when it comes to academic standards. While the Common Core seems like a good idea as it is just a "recommendation" of what students should know, at the end of the day, those 45 states that have adopted it will eventually hold schools accountable to these standards and expect all children, or at least 93% or so, to meet those standards in a very robotic way and all will be judged by the state standardized test.
If our federal, state, and local governments along with individual school boards would just let teachers do what they know how to do, perhaps that would be the saving grace for our children and the future of this country. Teachers and administrators need to be held accountable, but not micromanaged to the point where they no longer have any autonomy to just teach. So how do we put this all together? How do we give schools the freedom to teach in a creative way and utilize teacher talents as they should be used without smothering them with expectations that are far from attainable? Well, that my friends is the hard part. Once again, I am working to take on this task. It is one I believe is vitally important. When the day comes that I can spend the majority of my time working on this very issue, which I hope is very soon, then I believe I can develop an answer. I only wish those people who are making our big decisions would do the same. Our children are different. We are all different. We can't expect all children to understand and learn the same information in the same way or be able to answer standardized questions and expect standardized answers and call that being ready for college or the real world. Children must be challenged and prepared, but there is not just one way to go about this. Let's all open our eyes to what's going on and start asking the right questions and answering the tough ones. It's not that simple, but it can be done!
If Mr. Duncan and many of the other folks who are making the big decisions for education really looked at their client base, they would understand that tweaking the standards and making them tougher is not the answer. It is much more difficult than that. This country was founded on the principal that "all men are created equal." This does not mean that all men are the same but that all men (women and children) should have equal rights and opportunities in our country. We have developed into a country that is considered a melting pot of cultures, languages, skin colors, religions, etc. We have intelligent people researching and telling us that everyone's brain works differently and we each learn based on one or more of the Multiple Intelligences. We have children and adults who are gifted, learning disabled, genius, mentally and physically challenged, poor, rich, middle class, those with parents who would do anything for them, and those who could care less. Each of these differences within our melting pot chalk up to the fact that we cannot be so robotic when it comes to academic standards. While the Common Core seems like a good idea as it is just a "recommendation" of what students should know, at the end of the day, those 45 states that have adopted it will eventually hold schools accountable to these standards and expect all children, or at least 93% or so, to meet those standards in a very robotic way and all will be judged by the state standardized test.
If our federal, state, and local governments along with individual school boards would just let teachers do what they know how to do, perhaps that would be the saving grace for our children and the future of this country. Teachers and administrators need to be held accountable, but not micromanaged to the point where they no longer have any autonomy to just teach. So how do we put this all together? How do we give schools the freedom to teach in a creative way and utilize teacher talents as they should be used without smothering them with expectations that are far from attainable? Well, that my friends is the hard part. Once again, I am working to take on this task. It is one I believe is vitally important. When the day comes that I can spend the majority of my time working on this very issue, which I hope is very soon, then I believe I can develop an answer. I only wish those people who are making our big decisions would do the same. Our children are different. We are all different. We can't expect all children to understand and learn the same information in the same way or be able to answer standardized questions and expect standardized answers and call that being ready for college or the real world. Children must be challenged and prepared, but there is not just one way to go about this. Let's all open our eyes to what's going on and start asking the right questions and answering the tough ones. It's not that simple, but it can be done!
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Getting Our Hands Dirty
"I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand." Chinese Proverb
Why are we not teaching this way? I love this proverb because it's so very true. Raise your hand if you can remember anything from any class where you sat and listened to a teacher drone on about what you are supposed to be learning? Now raise your hand if you remember cutting open that dead frog, worm, rat, pig heart, etc.? I am willing to bet that the larger (much larger) majority of you raised your hands for the latter.
There is an awesome piece of research entitled Agricultural Education in an Elementary School: An Ethnographic Study of a School Garden. In the article it states "If there is any hope for reinvigorating our system of science education I believe it will be found not by increased teacher accountability, not with more rigorous scientific curricula, but rather through our sense of wonder...at the heart of scientific inquiry is good old-fashioned slack-jawed wonder." (Thorp, 356). The researchers basically spent time wondering how a school garden could enhance learning and what they walked away understanding is that school gardens work because kids are literally and figuratively getting their hands dirty. Science, social studies, reading, language arts, math, the arts of all genres, P.E., even computers can be taught through a school garden attached curriculum.
How does this work?
How about this: When I come to school in the morning, I go into a cafeteria that is serving fresh blackberries that I picked yesterday after my math class spent time using measurements to determine how far apart and how deep the blackberry bushes had to be planted to thrive. We were also assigned to bring in blackberry recipes that used fractions and we were adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing those fractions and other numbers as we worked to decide how much of a recipe we needed to make to feed a particular number of people. I also am going to eat eggs fresh out of the hen house and in science we learned the reproductive process of the Avian species and the incubation period of the egg. I will also be eating bread from wheat we grew while learning about Ancient Mesopotamia. We also blogged about what we learned in an effort to enhance our critical thinking skills, writing skills, and further advancing our computer skills and utilizing important technology skills. We took a field trip to the local grain mill and saw our wheat transform right before our eyes. We made the bread using measurements and fractions as well.
I could continue on with this scenario, but hopefully you get where I am going. Not only have I learned in a hands on way, but I learned responsibility as I worked to keep the garden thriving so I could eat. My sustainability now depends on my actions in sustaining the garden. When all is said and done I am proud and have experienced success in a way that I never have before! In addition to all of this I had people from the local community come in a out of school helping our teachers teach us. We learned from a local farmer how to build and plant our garden and from the local gardening club the best way to maintain our garden. We had a attorney come in to teach us about agricultural law and how that relates to things we are studying in social studies. We had a local chef donate her time to help us create awesome menus for the food that we were preparing and how to determine how much we needed to feed our crowd of students (math in action!).
Is this a lot of work? Yes. Is it worth it to create more thriving schools? Absolutely! Teachers and administrators can't to this on their own. The community has resources and need to have a better understanding of what goes on in our schools. Local businesses have a stake in education because the people we graduate will one day be their workers, colleagues, and competition. If we can get kids out of their seats, get more of the community involved, and help teachers and administrators become more proactive, we can save our public education system. It's time to get our hands dirty!
Why are we not teaching this way? I love this proverb because it's so very true. Raise your hand if you can remember anything from any class where you sat and listened to a teacher drone on about what you are supposed to be learning? Now raise your hand if you remember cutting open that dead frog, worm, rat, pig heart, etc.? I am willing to bet that the larger (much larger) majority of you raised your hands for the latter.
There is an awesome piece of research entitled Agricultural Education in an Elementary School: An Ethnographic Study of a School Garden. In the article it states "If there is any hope for reinvigorating our system of science education I believe it will be found not by increased teacher accountability, not with more rigorous scientific curricula, but rather through our sense of wonder...at the heart of scientific inquiry is good old-fashioned slack-jawed wonder." (Thorp, 356). The researchers basically spent time wondering how a school garden could enhance learning and what they walked away understanding is that school gardens work because kids are literally and figuratively getting their hands dirty. Science, social studies, reading, language arts, math, the arts of all genres, P.E., even computers can be taught through a school garden attached curriculum.
How does this work?
How about this: When I come to school in the morning, I go into a cafeteria that is serving fresh blackberries that I picked yesterday after my math class spent time using measurements to determine how far apart and how deep the blackberry bushes had to be planted to thrive. We were also assigned to bring in blackberry recipes that used fractions and we were adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing those fractions and other numbers as we worked to decide how much of a recipe we needed to make to feed a particular number of people. I also am going to eat eggs fresh out of the hen house and in science we learned the reproductive process of the Avian species and the incubation period of the egg. I will also be eating bread from wheat we grew while learning about Ancient Mesopotamia. We also blogged about what we learned in an effort to enhance our critical thinking skills, writing skills, and further advancing our computer skills and utilizing important technology skills. We took a field trip to the local grain mill and saw our wheat transform right before our eyes. We made the bread using measurements and fractions as well.
I could continue on with this scenario, but hopefully you get where I am going. Not only have I learned in a hands on way, but I learned responsibility as I worked to keep the garden thriving so I could eat. My sustainability now depends on my actions in sustaining the garden. When all is said and done I am proud and have experienced success in a way that I never have before! In addition to all of this I had people from the local community come in a out of school helping our teachers teach us. We learned from a local farmer how to build and plant our garden and from the local gardening club the best way to maintain our garden. We had a attorney come in to teach us about agricultural law and how that relates to things we are studying in social studies. We had a local chef donate her time to help us create awesome menus for the food that we were preparing and how to determine how much we needed to feed our crowd of students (math in action!).
Is this a lot of work? Yes. Is it worth it to create more thriving schools? Absolutely! Teachers and administrators can't to this on their own. The community has resources and need to have a better understanding of what goes on in our schools. Local businesses have a stake in education because the people we graduate will one day be their workers, colleagues, and competition. If we can get kids out of their seats, get more of the community involved, and help teachers and administrators become more proactive, we can save our public education system. It's time to get our hands dirty!
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Clarification
Due to a few comments I have heard concerning my blog posts, I would like to offer a brief clarification. I DO support charter school movement. I believe that it is an extremely beneficial and purposeful attempt at solving our education crisis. My only issue with charter schools is that they do not benefit all children, only those who have parents willing to step in and take ownership for their child's education. In my opinion, it is unfair to leave out kids whose parents perhaps either don't know how to navigate the system, work too much, or just simply do not care. I know that charter schools do not purposely do this, but the fact of the matter is, that's the reality. As a result, it is my goal to help address the needs of those who aren't lucky enough to make it through the charter school selection lottery or who have parents who otherwise do not value charter schools or simply do not get it.
More power to charter schools that are creating a solution. However, I believe it's my job to ensure that those who aren't fortunate enough to gain access to charter school education aren't left behind.
More power to charter schools that are creating a solution. However, I believe it's my job to ensure that those who aren't fortunate enough to gain access to charter school education aren't left behind.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Developing the Community
Over the past few weeks I have spoken with several people in their 50s and 60s who either started out teaching or have been teaching since their 20s. The common thread within each of these conversations is that the teaching profession has not changed all that much since they started. Yes, the standards have become more complex and testing has become more regulated, but attitudes of children, primarily in poorer pockets of the country have been essentially the same: education simply isn't purposeful. Now of course this is all talk and no data, but once again I offer this, teachers have a vantage point that others do not, whether it is written down or not. I would rather listen to those on the front lines to get the facts as they are the ones in the middle of the situation all day every day.
Children from poorer communities, regardless of skin color, tend to not understand the importance of education, not because they are stupid, but because they do not get to view education in action on a daily basis from people who they look up to and are surrounded with. Yes, they see teachers and administrators and perhaps a few folks who volunteer at their school (if they are lucky) who clearly are educated, but these are people telling them what to do all day every day. Teachers are the "enemy" for various reasons and as a result, kids are seemingly less likely to listen to the "you can do anything you want in life" and "you have every opportunity that anyone else does" rhetoric that teachers (at least the "good" ones) feed them all day every day.
When I first started teaching I thought this was ridiculous. I mean who would choose to live in government housing or a broken down trailer when they could gain an education, get a good job, and make life easier? After six years in this business and six years of reflecting, it all makes sense to me now. The question I posed to my students this past school year as I was incensed by their collective apathy one day was this: "So what is the answer? What is your plan when you don't do the work and can't pass the class and fail? What if you don't graduate because you spent so much time goofing off and didn't learn anything?" The answer from one of my 7th graders was: "Sell drugs," and he was serious. If it were my first year of teaching I would have hit the ceiling. Unfortunately, that comment made perfect sense to me. Why would you want to sit through school for years and years and then graduate and sit through school for another two to four years and then another however many if you want an advanced degree when you can sell nugs, blow, and phat rocks (marijuana, cocaine, and crack cocaine).......with cash in hand in an instant? Isn't it easier to accept government assistance and live in a house for free or a reduced cost with your client base close at hand and plenty of money for cool clothes and a nice ride?
There is a saying, "It takes a village to raise a child," and currently the immediate village is not providing the model of success that is necessary to eradicate the cycle of poverty that is seemingly never ending. As a result, I believe we need to "train up" the village in an effort to shift the mindset from "education doesn't matter" to "where am I going to college?" In order to do that, schools must involve the community that surrounds the low-income neighborhoods. Local businesses, farmers, and other professionals and community members must unite to help rebuild the neighborhoods that surround the failing schools in an effort to provide models of success and give children the tools necessary to solve the problems of drugs, violence, and dilapidation. Once the younger generations are developed, then the mindset will change and education and success will be the focus versus those things that bring the community down.
It is my goal to unite those in the community to go in to schools to not only volunteer here and there, but to actually assist teachers in showing kids that education equals power and freedom and attachment to the government (unless it's absolutely necessary for survival) and participating in illegal activities will never coincide with freedom. Children need to see why they are learning what they are learning and understand that it's purposeful and can be used for the rest of their lives. I hope that others in our communities will see this too and help guide the children in our country towards success. If we all work together toward this common goal, then I believe we can truly make change. No test or closing down of schools or getting rid of entire teaching staffs is going to solve the problem. It's going to take a village.
Children from poorer communities, regardless of skin color, tend to not understand the importance of education, not because they are stupid, but because they do not get to view education in action on a daily basis from people who they look up to and are surrounded with. Yes, they see teachers and administrators and perhaps a few folks who volunteer at their school (if they are lucky) who clearly are educated, but these are people telling them what to do all day every day. Teachers are the "enemy" for various reasons and as a result, kids are seemingly less likely to listen to the "you can do anything you want in life" and "you have every opportunity that anyone else does" rhetoric that teachers (at least the "good" ones) feed them all day every day.
When I first started teaching I thought this was ridiculous. I mean who would choose to live in government housing or a broken down trailer when they could gain an education, get a good job, and make life easier? After six years in this business and six years of reflecting, it all makes sense to me now. The question I posed to my students this past school year as I was incensed by their collective apathy one day was this: "So what is the answer? What is your plan when you don't do the work and can't pass the class and fail? What if you don't graduate because you spent so much time goofing off and didn't learn anything?" The answer from one of my 7th graders was: "Sell drugs," and he was serious. If it were my first year of teaching I would have hit the ceiling. Unfortunately, that comment made perfect sense to me. Why would you want to sit through school for years and years and then graduate and sit through school for another two to four years and then another however many if you want an advanced degree when you can sell nugs, blow, and phat rocks (marijuana, cocaine, and crack cocaine).......with cash in hand in an instant? Isn't it easier to accept government assistance and live in a house for free or a reduced cost with your client base close at hand and plenty of money for cool clothes and a nice ride?
There is a saying, "It takes a village to raise a child," and currently the immediate village is not providing the model of success that is necessary to eradicate the cycle of poverty that is seemingly never ending. As a result, I believe we need to "train up" the village in an effort to shift the mindset from "education doesn't matter" to "where am I going to college?" In order to do that, schools must involve the community that surrounds the low-income neighborhoods. Local businesses, farmers, and other professionals and community members must unite to help rebuild the neighborhoods that surround the failing schools in an effort to provide models of success and give children the tools necessary to solve the problems of drugs, violence, and dilapidation. Once the younger generations are developed, then the mindset will change and education and success will be the focus versus those things that bring the community down.
It is my goal to unite those in the community to go in to schools to not only volunteer here and there, but to actually assist teachers in showing kids that education equals power and freedom and attachment to the government (unless it's absolutely necessary for survival) and participating in illegal activities will never coincide with freedom. Children need to see why they are learning what they are learning and understand that it's purposeful and can be used for the rest of their lives. I hope that others in our communities will see this too and help guide the children in our country towards success. If we all work together toward this common goal, then I believe we can truly make change. No test or closing down of schools or getting rid of entire teaching staffs is going to solve the problem. It's going to take a village.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
"Waiting" for Whom??
So I watched Waiting for Superman. I am vastly familiar with Michelle Rhee, Geoffrey Canada, Wendy Kopp (who does not appear in the documentary), the KIPP guys, etc., etc. As I watched this film and have, over the past several years, listened to the messages that the film and these individuals are repeating over and over and over again is one idea: we need better teachers. Hmmmmm......really?
Now, let me say that yes, great teachers are key in any educational institution. You cannot have a school filled with 30-year tenured veterans who hate their jobs and are just showing up to collect a check and health insurance until they can hopefully retire in a couple years. You cannot have a school filled with people fresh out of college who aren't willing to stay in one place longer than two days before they run for the hills. You need dedicated people in this field. People who are unwavering and unshakable and who are willing to fight this education battle each and every day. However, all of these "superhero" folks in the education debate are solving the whole public education catastrophe about as quickly as NCLB has. Yes, there are some terrific ideas such as the charter school movement that has helped so many young people in under served communities gain better opportunities and a focus toward attending college and become career oriented. The idea of the charter school is pure in it's intent: let's take kids and parents who "care" and put them in an environment with a rigorous curriculum, make parents come to conferences, and give kids the tools to attend college while hiring teachers who won't be tied to unions and tenure. Most charter models make the school day longer and teachers are required to be there from 7am-5pm and most come earlier and leave much later and are required to give out personal phone numbers and emails in order to be "on call" to their students at virtually any time of day or night. But what about everyone else? What about the majority of the other students in the inner-city who get left out because they didn't win the charter school enrollment lottery?
To another issue, when Michelle Rhee came on the scene, she took to firing "bad" teachers and shutting down "bad" schools. She created the DC Impact evaluation system that put tons of pressure on teachers to perform at a much higher level and hold schools more accountable for poor performance. Even though, since Rhee was ousted from her role as DC Schools Director, DC Impact has been facing scrutiny for unfair mechanisms within its evaluation formula, other school systems, such as Memphis City Schools have picked it up to help inform their teacher evaluation process.
My point is that while charter schools, harder hitting evaluation systems, and threats of shut downs for failing schools make sense on paper, none are completely solving the problem. The problem lies within the community that surrounds the schools. Waiting for Superman implies that schools are failing the neighborhoods that surround the schools. I argue that not many other people outside of teachers and schools are being looked to as saviors of these poor and failing communities. The pressure is all on teachers and other school officials to save these kids. People look at teachers as almost other-than-human. Can we really pay teachers $35,000 a year, give them insufficient resources, insufficient training and professional development, and then turn around and ask them to save the world? Most teachers I know are doing the best they can with what they have with both the resources they have and people they teach.
In order to attempt to round out this post, I offer this: we have to change our way of thinking and reform the entire public education system, the one that exists now. Unless charter schools are going to be looked to as the new way of doing things and eventually all current public schools, primarily those in the inner-city, are going to be transformed into charter schools (which I am not certain is the right way to go about solving the problem), then something has got to give. We must start with the root of the problem: the communities that surround these failing schools. Schools need to open their doors to parents and other community members by not just offering job skills classes, medical assistance, housing advice, etc., but to show parents and other stakeholders that what is going on in the schools in their communities is important. What better way to help these young folks who attend our schools feel a sense of importance in our world, where they otherwise often do not, than have people who live around them be supportive of the work they are doing behind the school walls? Better yet, let's take our kids into the communities to focus on helping solve the problems that exist within them. Let's grow food in the school yards and have community dinners. If "public education" has such a negative connotation, then let's change that notion. No better way to do that than do whatever it takes to help people become more informed of the importance of education and that it does in fact almost always lead to a better life situation than welfare and poverty. Education, more specifically public education and public school teachers and administrators should not be seen as the problem with our country. The public education system needs to be viewed as a purposeful and beneficial right for all people of the United States: a way to gain knowledge, personal freedom, a viable career, and create so many other opportunities. I am working to develop a plan of action to do just this. I want to blow the roof off of the current system and transform our public schools into a thriving community of not just teachers and students, but also include the people within the neighborhoods that surround our schools. I believe that when we can bring all members of a community to the table and show them that when they are promoting education, not belittling it, then students will begin to thrive and failure rates will go down and graduation rates will go up. It will take some heavy ground work to get people interested, but that should not be an excuse. Reaching out to community members, speaking positively about public education, showing off the hard work students are doing, and working with students to help solve social problems will, in my opinion, be the key for not only public education survival, but also for advancement of the communities that surround schools and it will take a lot more than teachers at the schools to create this change.
I will end today with this last thought: Let's take the blame off of public school teachers and start looking to the root of the problem. It's not simply the teachers' fault that communities are failing. It's not simply the fault of the communities that school's are failing. It's everyone's problem and we are spending too much time pointing fingers and not enough time taking action. If you are waiting for a superhero, then good luck.
Now, let me say that yes, great teachers are key in any educational institution. You cannot have a school filled with 30-year tenured veterans who hate their jobs and are just showing up to collect a check and health insurance until they can hopefully retire in a couple years. You cannot have a school filled with people fresh out of college who aren't willing to stay in one place longer than two days before they run for the hills. You need dedicated people in this field. People who are unwavering and unshakable and who are willing to fight this education battle each and every day. However, all of these "superhero" folks in the education debate are solving the whole public education catastrophe about as quickly as NCLB has. Yes, there are some terrific ideas such as the charter school movement that has helped so many young people in under served communities gain better opportunities and a focus toward attending college and become career oriented. The idea of the charter school is pure in it's intent: let's take kids and parents who "care" and put them in an environment with a rigorous curriculum, make parents come to conferences, and give kids the tools to attend college while hiring teachers who won't be tied to unions and tenure. Most charter models make the school day longer and teachers are required to be there from 7am-5pm and most come earlier and leave much later and are required to give out personal phone numbers and emails in order to be "on call" to their students at virtually any time of day or night. But what about everyone else? What about the majority of the other students in the inner-city who get left out because they didn't win the charter school enrollment lottery?
To another issue, when Michelle Rhee came on the scene, she took to firing "bad" teachers and shutting down "bad" schools. She created the DC Impact evaluation system that put tons of pressure on teachers to perform at a much higher level and hold schools more accountable for poor performance. Even though, since Rhee was ousted from her role as DC Schools Director, DC Impact has been facing scrutiny for unfair mechanisms within its evaluation formula, other school systems, such as Memphis City Schools have picked it up to help inform their teacher evaluation process.
My point is that while charter schools, harder hitting evaluation systems, and threats of shut downs for failing schools make sense on paper, none are completely solving the problem. The problem lies within the community that surrounds the schools. Waiting for Superman implies that schools are failing the neighborhoods that surround the schools. I argue that not many other people outside of teachers and schools are being looked to as saviors of these poor and failing communities. The pressure is all on teachers and other school officials to save these kids. People look at teachers as almost other-than-human. Can we really pay teachers $35,000 a year, give them insufficient resources, insufficient training and professional development, and then turn around and ask them to save the world? Most teachers I know are doing the best they can with what they have with both the resources they have and people they teach.
In order to attempt to round out this post, I offer this: we have to change our way of thinking and reform the entire public education system, the one that exists now. Unless charter schools are going to be looked to as the new way of doing things and eventually all current public schools, primarily those in the inner-city, are going to be transformed into charter schools (which I am not certain is the right way to go about solving the problem), then something has got to give. We must start with the root of the problem: the communities that surround these failing schools. Schools need to open their doors to parents and other community members by not just offering job skills classes, medical assistance, housing advice, etc., but to show parents and other stakeholders that what is going on in the schools in their communities is important. What better way to help these young folks who attend our schools feel a sense of importance in our world, where they otherwise often do not, than have people who live around them be supportive of the work they are doing behind the school walls? Better yet, let's take our kids into the communities to focus on helping solve the problems that exist within them. Let's grow food in the school yards and have community dinners. If "public education" has such a negative connotation, then let's change that notion. No better way to do that than do whatever it takes to help people become more informed of the importance of education and that it does in fact almost always lead to a better life situation than welfare and poverty. Education, more specifically public education and public school teachers and administrators should not be seen as the problem with our country. The public education system needs to be viewed as a purposeful and beneficial right for all people of the United States: a way to gain knowledge, personal freedom, a viable career, and create so many other opportunities. I am working to develop a plan of action to do just this. I want to blow the roof off of the current system and transform our public schools into a thriving community of not just teachers and students, but also include the people within the neighborhoods that surround our schools. I believe that when we can bring all members of a community to the table and show them that when they are promoting education, not belittling it, then students will begin to thrive and failure rates will go down and graduation rates will go up. It will take some heavy ground work to get people interested, but that should not be an excuse. Reaching out to community members, speaking positively about public education, showing off the hard work students are doing, and working with students to help solve social problems will, in my opinion, be the key for not only public education survival, but also for advancement of the communities that surround schools and it will take a lot more than teachers at the schools to create this change.
I will end today with this last thought: Let's take the blame off of public school teachers and start looking to the root of the problem. It's not simply the teachers' fault that communities are failing. It's not simply the fault of the communities that school's are failing. It's everyone's problem and we are spending too much time pointing fingers and not enough time taking action. If you are waiting for a superhero, then good luck.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
An Introduction to My Mission
When presenting my resume for a new teaching job, I am ALWAYS asked "so why have you changed jobs so many times?" It is a valid question and I always give my run down of why I went here and there and why I moved from place to place and why I did not continue on with Teach For America, etc, etc. However, if I truly ask myself "so why have you changed jobs so many times" then the answer becomes, "because I hate what I do." Now before you jump to any conclusions, let me say, I do not hate education and I do not hate teaching, I hate how we "do" the whole thing.
There are only a few truths in life. For instance, it is proven that the United States has an obesity problem. That problem primarily stems from the fact that since industrialization in this country we have been increasingly feeding our children processed, unhealthy foods. We have made it OK to endorse institutions that manufacture our meat, dairy, and vegetables, and over process even things that should be healthy like wheat to the point that gluten intolerance is now another rampant issue. We know that eating fresh fruits and vegetables, grass fed beef, free range chickens, freshly churned butter, and a host of other natural and organic products can keep us more healthy and perhaps allow us to live longer. Our bodies have not yet evolved to keep up with the processed foods that we have come so accustomed to feeding ourselves. What we also know is that every person on this planet is different, even those from the same family, culture, region of the world, or even race. Knowing that truth, it should also be plenty obvious that all people learn differently. Dr. Howard Gardner introduced us to the theory of Multiple Intelligences and since then schools of all genres attempt to promote the fact that children learn differently and as a result teachers must develop diversified instruction in an effort to teach to all students. On the flip side of the coin, apparently the government has not recognized this at all thus implementing such jewels as No Child Left Behind. As a result, this diversified instruction gets jumbled up and mostly becomes teaching to the lowest denominator which is a mess in and of itself.
Let me describe my personal viewpoint of how NCLB works in the public school setting. Each year when school begins teachers are given a set of standards depending on the content that the teacher teaches. Along with these Student Performance Indicators (SPIs) as we call them in Tennessee, teachers are also given a pacing guide. In my experience, when I am being evaluated the three times a year I am required to be observed, if I am not in line with the pacing guide, that is a mark against my teaching ability. When February hits, the schools get hectic. Faculty meetings turn in to forums for pouring over data to determine which individual students we need to work with in order to ensure that those specific kids score higher on their TCAP math and reading tests so our school will not be taken over by the government. Students are pulled out from science and social studies classes for math and reading intervention, even though science and social studies teachers are still held accountable for the TCAP scores for kids in their classes. Basically the entire school is teaching whatever we need to teach to ensure that when our students sit down with those bubble sheets, they will get high enough scores to keep our doors open. No one cares about anything but this one test year in and year out. When the test is done, it is a struggle for the rest of the school year to convince kids that learning still needs to take place in order to be ready for the next year. TCAP scores aren't released until at least September of the following school year, so the kids know they get zero benefit from taking this test. What's more, kids know that because of NCLB, they virtually cannot fail and be retained. They will get passed on through the system until they graduate or turn 18 and can drop out.
Let me ask this question: What is right about this scenario? What is just or equitable in what I have described? If you ask me, absolutely nothing. NCLB has pretty much said, we want everyone to be the same, and if you aren't the same, we will stick you in special ed so your test scores won't have to count and you can still graduate anyway. And what happens when kids either graduate or drop out? Pretty much the same thing either way. Yes, some will go to college, others will try but are so ill prepared for that level of education that they can hang, and some will do exactly what parents and others in their neighborhoods do, live off of government welfare and sell drugs (generalizing here of course).
Do I have research that backs these statistics, absolutely. I also have something that most people aren't willing to listen to and that is a vantage point that not all are privy too. I sit in my urban, low-income, Title I, inner-city, under served (or any other catch phrases you want to use) schools each year and see the same thing: poor performance, lack of interest, lack of community support, lack of parent involvement, gangs, drugs, fights, teenage pregnancy, poor eating habits leading to an overwhelming amount of health problems, disrespect for adults, and what do we do? make excuses for these kids and keep teaching to the test! We band-aid the problem and keep throwing valuable dollars allocated for education into failing programs in an effort to look like we are doing something. All the while, the people who are running this system, most of whom have never been teachers or administrators, keep closing their eyes to the big issue.
THESE KIDS ARE BORED OUT OF THEIR MINDS AND SO ARE THEIR TEACHERS!!!! It is my goal to do something about this issue. I may not be a PhD, an attorney, an MBA, or have any other background that apparently people think you have to have to solve our education problem. What I am is an educator. A teacher. A lover of all children regardless of their individual background because I know these kids are not robots and cannot be standardized. They are creative, passionate, caring, wonderful human beings. If we keep stifling them under the guise of NCLB, then we will continue to have the same problems that we have dealt with for years.
Over the course of the next few months I will be presenting ideas for change in how we "do" education. I hope that you can follow me on my journey to save our kids from this mess and help transform our schools and the communities that surround them into thriving places of learning. I wish to create an educational system that is supported by all and where teachers are held up as leaders and children are viewed as people in this world too. I can't wait to continue this conversation and I want lots of feedback!
There are only a few truths in life. For instance, it is proven that the United States has an obesity problem. That problem primarily stems from the fact that since industrialization in this country we have been increasingly feeding our children processed, unhealthy foods. We have made it OK to endorse institutions that manufacture our meat, dairy, and vegetables, and over process even things that should be healthy like wheat to the point that gluten intolerance is now another rampant issue. We know that eating fresh fruits and vegetables, grass fed beef, free range chickens, freshly churned butter, and a host of other natural and organic products can keep us more healthy and perhaps allow us to live longer. Our bodies have not yet evolved to keep up with the processed foods that we have come so accustomed to feeding ourselves. What we also know is that every person on this planet is different, even those from the same family, culture, region of the world, or even race. Knowing that truth, it should also be plenty obvious that all people learn differently. Dr. Howard Gardner introduced us to the theory of Multiple Intelligences and since then schools of all genres attempt to promote the fact that children learn differently and as a result teachers must develop diversified instruction in an effort to teach to all students. On the flip side of the coin, apparently the government has not recognized this at all thus implementing such jewels as No Child Left Behind. As a result, this diversified instruction gets jumbled up and mostly becomes teaching to the lowest denominator which is a mess in and of itself.
Let me describe my personal viewpoint of how NCLB works in the public school setting. Each year when school begins teachers are given a set of standards depending on the content that the teacher teaches. Along with these Student Performance Indicators (SPIs) as we call them in Tennessee, teachers are also given a pacing guide. In my experience, when I am being evaluated the three times a year I am required to be observed, if I am not in line with the pacing guide, that is a mark against my teaching ability. When February hits, the schools get hectic. Faculty meetings turn in to forums for pouring over data to determine which individual students we need to work with in order to ensure that those specific kids score higher on their TCAP math and reading tests so our school will not be taken over by the government. Students are pulled out from science and social studies classes for math and reading intervention, even though science and social studies teachers are still held accountable for the TCAP scores for kids in their classes. Basically the entire school is teaching whatever we need to teach to ensure that when our students sit down with those bubble sheets, they will get high enough scores to keep our doors open. No one cares about anything but this one test year in and year out. When the test is done, it is a struggle for the rest of the school year to convince kids that learning still needs to take place in order to be ready for the next year. TCAP scores aren't released until at least September of the following school year, so the kids know they get zero benefit from taking this test. What's more, kids know that because of NCLB, they virtually cannot fail and be retained. They will get passed on through the system until they graduate or turn 18 and can drop out.
Let me ask this question: What is right about this scenario? What is just or equitable in what I have described? If you ask me, absolutely nothing. NCLB has pretty much said, we want everyone to be the same, and if you aren't the same, we will stick you in special ed so your test scores won't have to count and you can still graduate anyway. And what happens when kids either graduate or drop out? Pretty much the same thing either way. Yes, some will go to college, others will try but are so ill prepared for that level of education that they can hang, and some will do exactly what parents and others in their neighborhoods do, live off of government welfare and sell drugs (generalizing here of course).
Do I have research that backs these statistics, absolutely. I also have something that most people aren't willing to listen to and that is a vantage point that not all are privy too. I sit in my urban, low-income, Title I, inner-city, under served (or any other catch phrases you want to use) schools each year and see the same thing: poor performance, lack of interest, lack of community support, lack of parent involvement, gangs, drugs, fights, teenage pregnancy, poor eating habits leading to an overwhelming amount of health problems, disrespect for adults, and what do we do? make excuses for these kids and keep teaching to the test! We band-aid the problem and keep throwing valuable dollars allocated for education into failing programs in an effort to look like we are doing something. All the while, the people who are running this system, most of whom have never been teachers or administrators, keep closing their eyes to the big issue.
THESE KIDS ARE BORED OUT OF THEIR MINDS AND SO ARE THEIR TEACHERS!!!! It is my goal to do something about this issue. I may not be a PhD, an attorney, an MBA, or have any other background that apparently people think you have to have to solve our education problem. What I am is an educator. A teacher. A lover of all children regardless of their individual background because I know these kids are not robots and cannot be standardized. They are creative, passionate, caring, wonderful human beings. If we keep stifling them under the guise of NCLB, then we will continue to have the same problems that we have dealt with for years.
Over the course of the next few months I will be presenting ideas for change in how we "do" education. I hope that you can follow me on my journey to save our kids from this mess and help transform our schools and the communities that surround them into thriving places of learning. I wish to create an educational system that is supported by all and where teachers are held up as leaders and children are viewed as people in this world too. I can't wait to continue this conversation and I want lots of feedback!
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