State of Emergency: Have you heard it all before?
This week was the “week of action” organized by the California Teachers’ Association, which included a series of demonstrations, protests and rallies. While in some ways I find this kind of grass-roots action inspiring and invigorating, I found myself feeling frustrated as a San Francisco resident who teaches in an East Bay community that is basically a satellite of the Cal community. It was the definitive “preaching to the choir” conundrum. The people who are willing to hear about the current crisis in education already support education in every way that they can. It is very frustrating.
The situation is pretty simple. As a nation, we have a compulsory education requirement, and as such, we promise to provide a free public education to our people (I am not using the term ‘citizen’ here intentionally, though the D.R.E.A.M. Act is a topic for another discussion altogether.) The idea of public education goes way back. Way, way, WAY back. Thomas Jefferson was the first leader to propose a universal public education system in the late 18th Century. In spite of the fact that the state of Texas has voted to remove Jefferson from their curriculum (would that I had not already expounded so prolifically on irony!) most of America seems to think Ole T.J. is worth considering at least to some degree. If you, like Texas, have found him to be a little too “Out there” for your more modern sensibilities, do consider that a few others who vouched for public education around the same time were Benjamin Rush, Noah Webster, Robert Coram and George Washington. They can’t all suck.
Once the United States began trying to stand tall on its own feet, it seems that education did become somewhat of a priority and the elitist approach of the traditional European approach was counter to the whole “Democracy” gig they were trying to pull off out here.
And then, we were off and running.
Super STAR(testing)
This week we are spending doing STAR testing at school. These are the annual tests that “measure” student progress and contribute to school funding. It is a big deal with a tremendous amount of protocol attached and fairly large consequences for a school, though little direct influence on the students taking the test. I am proctoring my freshman and they are pretty good about the whole thing, but it is not an easy sell. Granted most of them have been doing this annually since the second grade so they are not surprised by it, but the general consensus is that it is a waste of their time – hence the hard sell. Because, of course… it *does* matter for us and it is imperative that they take it seriously.
But at the end of the day I feel pretty frustrated because I am fairly certain this is not the most effective or accurate way to measure student ability and I am sure that it is no way to measure intelligence. Of course, this is the age-old public education problem: how does the state measure the performance of their schools in any kind of manageable way outside of standardized testing. I am not sure I have a solution – yet – but I guarantee this is not it.
I have lots of students whose ability will not be accurately reflected on the STAR. This has a lot to do with what they bring to the test. A lack of confidence probably being the primary handicap. Also the lack of context within the test is frustrating. There are some students who will always perform well on these tests. Like me, they are the type of student for whom the test is designed: generally high achieving kids who are products of homes where expectations for college and success are promoted by educated and successful parents. These are kids who do not need to see the direct connection between the test and the individual, they understand the game. They understand the goal of the test and therefore they can exploit it.
On the other hand, I have an increasing number of students whose abilities are best reflected through discussion, explanation, creation, design, comparison and questioning. My students are largely kinesthetic and visual learners. They DO things. Sitting and completing reading comprehension questions is a challenge for them not for their intellect, but because they would do better to demonstrate their comprehension through analogy and discussion.
Socrates had it right: you divine the understanding (and enhance and develop it) through questioning. It is like the article I used to have my students read about the importance of stupidity in scientific research…. you cannot know what you know until you get to the place where you do not know. Regurgitation of information does not indicate knowledge – a skill, yes. Knowledge? No.
But for this week, I will sit and administer the test and we will follow all the rules to the letter because there is one thing we all understand, which is the importance of not being invalid. We will not do anything to jeopardize our results because we do care: me about the school meeting its objectives, them about not feeling like time they already feel is wasted is doubly wasted by having test results that do not count. And until there is some more effective (in terms of application and data) method, we shall continue to count (and wish upon…) our lucky stars.
“You forgot ugly, lazy and disrespectful.” Or, the teacher crisis in America.
This post would have been more relevant three or four days ago. But you know what? In between lesson planning, grading papers, teaching 110 high school freshman the finer points of public debate, completing five different forms for IEPs and AD/HD diagnoses, explaining the difference between lyric and pastoral poetry, writing individual narrative evaluations for 28 AP Literature oral presentations, answering no fewer than 30 parent emails and three times that from my students, attending a faculty meeting, two special education meetings, a departmental planning meeting, having a school emergency code red lock down for more than two hours, and showing up ready to go at 7:40 a.m. everyday to deal with teenagers that the majority of America has no apparent interest in… I could not find the time to blog.
How bizarre.
For the past few weeks I have been doing my best to ignore the Governor of the soon-to-be-much-more-mediocre state of Wisconsin. The guy was just pissing me off (he also looks like a total douche and I would be willing to bet he sports Tommy Bahama and loafers with no socks while he is vacationing on his taxpayer financed salary). And frankly, the whole “teachers are overpaid, lazy, stupid, malingering, greedy malcontents with the summer off” story is really cliché. Really, can’t these people come up with anything better? I think it was particularly grating at this point in time because I have been dealing with the reality that I am going to be losing a significant portion of my benefits (which I will not be afford to pay for on my current salary) as well as the fact that all California teachers on one-year or temporary contracts are getting “pink slipped” this month. (My letter was actually printed on a lovely, buff, high-grade paper and said that the school board had voted to terminate my contract at the end of the current school year. My principal said not to take it personally, it was standard, but that language was pretty personal.)
But at a certain point, ignoring this kind of rhetoric becomes dangerous. Dangerous because people who don’t know what they are talking about are the ones making the accusations and they are all making six figures leading to false causation [while they occasionally quote a statistic I can verify, they generally lie by omission. I would love for any of these Fox News Biddies to spend one day doing my job. And I work in a (very academically oriented) suburb. I'd give them four hours before they fell to pieces.] And they are creating a social attitude towards education that is going to take us right back to the Middle Ages.
Whenever I tell people that they will be sorry when there are no more people willing to teach they tell me it doesn’t matter because teachers suck so hard these days. There argument is that it doesn’t matter if schools shut down because they are a waste of time.
WTF?
And what do you suppose all those kids will be doing when there is no school? Contributing to the GNP or drawing from it? I am not suggesting that you must have a traditional education to be successful, but I am suggesting that without other advantages (yeah, yeah, I read Outliers and I know the Bill Gates anecdote) there seems to be some advantage to be gained by educating people.
What I said about a regression to the Dark Ages is a much simpler causal relationship. Pretty soon we will only educate the rich. Then it will be only the very socially and politically elite rich. Then it will be only a certain part of that infinitesimally small number (I will not go so far to say only the boys in this dark age, the way it is going it would be a lot more likely to be only the girls.) And then that tiny oligarchy of educated elites will have the power to manipulate anything they want; politics, rights and liberties, even language – making it accessible only to those in the elite circle on the basis that they are the only ones with the knowledge or expertise about what to do with that sort of information.
And then what? I have no idea.
But I do know this: when education was a privilege and not a right, people wanted it. Once it became available to everyone, in fact promised to everyone as a basic human right, it lost its panache. Those who had always had the privilege (the rich) started to disparage it – loudly. The biggest complaints about education are coming from the wealthy, who ironically, are not suffering the pains of the demise of the American education system because they are insulated from it in their privately funded schools. Privately funded schools where they still have art and music and sports and books and supplies and functional facilities. How fascinating that the schools that generate success have these things.
When people say that there is no connection between poverty and education they demonstrate that they are too unfamiliar with either one to have an opinion on the matter.
So, my Dark Ages analogy? Yeah, education tanks until society gets to the point where they realize that “Hey, maybe it did make a difference!” and we start all over again. That should only take about 500 years.
And the criticism of teachers? Yeah, I am sure there are some shitty ones. I know some of them. But you know what? Find a profession where there is not dead weight. The Fox News contention that teachers have an easy job because: ”It’s a part-time job; they are done at 2:30,” seemed to overlook the planning, grading, professional development and required continuing education teachers do, to say nothing of the amount of time teachers spend with *your* kids- listening, supporting, helping, encouraging. Another Fox Newsian said teachers are lazy because, ”Teachers know the kids are going to be in the seats and the taxpayers are just going to be sending in the money no matter how poorly they do. They have no incentive to do a great job.” Because, yes, getting kids in their seats is the primary function of my job. Are you fucking nuts? (Oh, yes, you are on Fox News, nevermind.)
And then there is the money issue. Teachers are overpaid because they only work nine months [I am looking forward to the first full summer off I have had since college this summer. And that is because I am in posession of that pretty little buff (pink) slip.] This is the average teacher salary. I realize it does not include benefits, which for teacher were historically really good, though I would bet that they pale in comparison to the bonuses meted out in the private/financial sector – where benefits are also part of the salary packages, by the way. And we are losing these benefits. So, for all the Fox Newsians who say that adequate pay is required to get quality people in any industry, it seems you actually don’t *want* good teachers. [I can tell you several stories of people I knew who had to revert to waiting tables in San Francisco because they could not afford to keep on teaching, or about the time I went to a job fair to try to recruit minority teachers in California and I was told by parents that they did not want their college students to be teachers because they worked too hard to put them through college for them not to make a decent living.]
I love my job. And I went into the profession because I love it. It is the only reason I can continue to do it because it is simply too hard to do if you do not love it. You cannot hide in a cubicle. You cannot just not show up and fuck around on Twitter and Facebook all day long. And you do have a responsibility to do a good job, because somewhere around 120 kids a year are counting on me to do just that.
So, for all those anti-teacher ranters out there, I would just ask you to consider positing some other solution. A more cost-effective one, if that is what will make you happy. But remember, as the saying goes, if you can read this… THANK A TEACHER.
Oh, and yeah, Jon Stewart said this all already more articulately and with more style. If you did not watch it, you should.
Looking at the dilemma of modern education through the eyes of Freshman: So Crates style.
Last week I wrapped up a fairly lengthy unit in my frosh English class that was built around the rise of plagiarism, not only in academia but also within our social schema: the notion that ownership of ideas-impressions-creations may be falling by the wayside as people mistakenly believe that access to these abstract concepts (not always in the abstract) somehow equates to a lack of proprietorship. And that, as a means to a more individually relevant end, this behavior (which possibly eradicates the pillars of public good by ignoring the significance of authenticity) ain’t nothing but a thang.
My students read a slew of articles like this one on the rise of academic plagiarism. They looked at statistics. The considered the causes of effects of these behaviors. They debated whether the behaviors, generally focused on in a school setting, may actually act as a gateway phenomenon to more egregious acts of dishonesty – perhaps even plain theft – in society at large. They considered the difference between originality and authenticity [Vanilla Ice syndrome.] They looked at why they cheat in school [pressure, emphasis on grades over knowledge, unreasonable expectations, a simple lack of time to do everything one must do - and sleep occasionally.] Then old GW Bush, bless ‘im, did me the ultimate favor and started his book tour under a huge plagiarism scandal (for the record, my students cut him absolutely no slack on this.)
Using Sherman Alexie as our selected author for the unit, they considered the case of Native Americans in US History and the conundrum of “ownership” of intangibles, as well as of the more tangible effects like relocation and eradication. Sherman Alexie, his talent and cultural heritage notwithstanding, was also selected to be the focus author because he had been embroiled in his own interesting issue of plagiarism.
It was an ambitious project, and their final exam was a Socratic Seminar is which they were fully responsible for moderating and maintaining a 70-minute discussion among themselves that articulated their questions, observations, challenges, opinions and conclusions on all of the material. As a teacher, this was a huge challenge to stand back and let them succeed (or flop…) on their own. But I did it. And they were nothing short of amazing. I introduced Socrates with Bill and Ted, because, well… Bill and Ted are the shit.
They liked the idea of the Socratic Method, which established that their job was to question everything: why why why why why…. Why do we need to know this? Why is this important? Why are we told that practice makes perfect and nobody is perfect? Why are we punished for doing whatever it takes to get grade when we are measured only by said grades? Why does it matter if we cheat in a subject that has no significance to us? How do you prove an idea is your own? Does it matter if someone copies you? Is it worse to copy math or english homework? [They all said english as it was idea based and math was rote... or maybe because they are savvy and they were sitting in an English class...] Is dishonesty mitigated in certain cases? Is it bad to take advantage of opportunities, which may include behavior that is not exactly honest? Does it matter if we illegally download music if Jay Z has enough money? Is cheating in school the same as cheating on your boyfriend/girlfriend? [They said hellz no, because the boyfriend and girlfriend matter more...] Does cheating decline when students study what they want to study? [Statistics said no, even in college where students are ostensibly studying what they want to study, cheating is in full swing.] Can you know what will be important to know or not important today when things change so fast? Who cheats – is it the high achievers or the low achievers, and with no stigma attached to it, who really cares? [Consider the information in this article about a man who writes essays for cash for college students across the country: he says his market is ESL students, hopelessly inept students and rich lazy students. And that the largest group within his clientele is comprised of, get this, future educators.]
They came up with all of these questions.
They are 14 and 15 years old.
I need a job and you should really hire me. Here’s why:
I am a teacher. I mean, I am a lot of things, but one of the more significant ones is that: Teacher.
There are all sorts of teachers. In fact, some of my most influential teachers have not been found in school. But I was lucky enough to have a few teachers in school who were all that, and in so being, mildly altered the course of my life. I have also had some really unfortunate teachers. Mostly those were people who didn’t want to teach because they didn’t like kids and/or what they were teaching. I am not sure what it was that sucked me into teaching, but the result has certainly made my life a lot more interesting. Teaching in Asia has also taught me a tremendous amount. In Asia lots of people are teachers who might not be teachers in other places. They are teaching their native language to people who want to learn that language and they make good money doing it. Those facts apply to me as well, but I happen to also love teaching, not because I speak (a derivative of ) English, but because… well, why exactly I am not sure. It just fits for me. I think it is the non-static nature of it, for better or for worse (I’m talking to you Texas.) I have been teaching high school Social Studies since 1995 and in many (most?) ways my work has defined who I am. I guess I think that is pretty cool. I have always worked in public schools and philosophically completely advocate for public education. This in spite of NCLB (education reform categorically opposed by teacher organizations and unions across the country) and offensive budget cuts and California laying off 22 thousand teachers this spring (after 26 k got pink slips last year…) So, philosophy aside, I may need to look elsewhere, but that’s cool.
So, considering the dismal job outlook, the untold numbers of teachers looking for work, and the apparent dearth of funds to educate our citizenry because the budget is “just not that into you,” why should you hire me instead of… well, all those other people? Here’s why:
Essay requirement from the Oxford Gods goes to the dogs
Since 1932, and on and off prior to that, Oxford has been requiring as essay as part of a multi-day assessment [it consists of 12 hours of essays over two days. Half are on the applicants’ academic specialties, the other half on general subjects, with questions like: “Do the innocent have nothing to fear?” “Isn’t global warming preferable to global cooling?” “How many people should there be?” and the surprisingly relevant, because this is Britain: “Does the moral character of an orgy change when the participants wear Nazi uniforms?"] for entrance to All Souls College that some have called the hardest exam in the world. It is the “One Word Essay.” Now don’t get excited kids… it is not the answer that is one word; it is the prompt. You get a single noun and three hours to work your magic. Water. Bias. Innocence. Style. Censorship. Charity. Reproduction. Corruption. Novelty. Chaos. Mercy. Harmony. Miracle. Conversion.
Oh. My. God.
I cannot imagine a more enjoyable task, and my hyperbole is absolutely sincere. This would be something that I would love so much, I am filing it away for my imminent return to the classroom (beware…) I would love to see what students would come up with and I think the results, no matter the quality would be so telling. It’s brilliant. I mean, even if it is, as one person describes in the article, “an exercise in showmanship to avoid answering the question,” doesn’t that demonstrate certain skill sets (or a lack thereof)? No matter, it has been scrapped.
And I think that is a crying shame. Seriously. I know that some of my former students would say that this is the assignment of a lazy teacher… ‘can’t even put a real question together,’ ‘just want to give the students something that takes up a lot of time…’ But I disagree. For a student who is willing to think about their word and really mentally consider the scope of the lexis, the context, the power of the word itself, the possibilities are endless.
But therein lies the rub.
Who are you calling stupid?
There is something really bad going on in American education. And I do not mean á La Mala Educación… which would at least be interesting. It something pretty serious though.
One of my illustrious [former] administrators once announced at a faculty inservice meeting that there was “no place for competition in the classroom, nor was there a place for sarcasm.” For one brief shining moment I was incredibly glad I was a basketball coach because I was certain there was a place for both competition and sarcasm there – but then I became perplexed (and if you have ever had to sit through teacher inservice meetings you know that perplexed will soon segue to aggravation.) I have been a high school teacher since 1994. And though I would never go so far as to say all of my clients loved me, I feel comfortable asserting that there are few of them who would say I was a shitty teacher. Competitiveness and sarcasm are probably two of my more dominant character traits and I am certain that they have long stood strong in my classroom. So what was this person, who as far as I could tell was fairly out of touch with kids regardless of their (hopefully) good intentions, doing telling me that I was ‘doing it wrong’?
Devotion.
A silly beginner, basic apprentice aggression
In the absence of a master, trying to make up my own lesson
Who knew I would wait,
I would wait such a long time…
~ Astronautalis, Oceanwalk
I have been known to mock devotion a little bit. Okay, I have been known to mock a ton of shit, but I have really taken it to the devotees. It has just struck me as so… simple, I guess. Like a way to not have to think about things for yourself while you stroke some big old dogma lying on the rug.
And so, of course, here we go with the whole bit about learning lessons [really just a euphemism for the reverse-I-told-you-so].
Recently I have begun to understand how people could become so devoted. Not hopelessly devoted, (like I have often joked), nor necessarily devotional, (that, too, is an area around which I find it hard to mask my mirth, as it were.) But more like, totally committed and receptive to the guidance that is being presented to you. In whatever form this takes.
This surprises me.
Who knew I would wait, I would wait such a long time.
I am inspired by this person. I look forward to hearing what this individual has to say. I feel good to be in their presence. I am calmed by the knowledge that this human being is present in my life. I listen to this person. But more than that I hear what he is saying.
And, of course, I did not realize that this would happen. I sort of tried to avoid it. Ironically, my method of avoiding was to adopt the consciousness I just disparaged above… I wanted to be dedicated to something and not really have to think about it… not to have to learn. But in the new context within which I have found myself, thinking and learning are required, pleasantly demanded, you might even say. And the idea of a “Master” has always been completely and totally annoying to me in pretty much every way I could manifest the concept. [I do not like being 'told' as it were.] So, I am wondering if I got tricked a little bit here, because I totally did not see this one coming. He is clearly a master. But he is not like any master I could have imagined. I am not sure he is “my” master either, I think he just sort of exists in his own little parallel universe of calm, cool and collected. [When I joked that I wanted to take him home and just keep him in a drawer or something just to have him there, my cousin said, 'Yeah, and if you had a 2'x2'x2' drawer he could fit easily into it.'] But in all seriousness, he has some very interesting things to say… more to the point, things to demonstrate. And I am fascinated.
It is strange and cool and reassuring. I certainly subscribe to the idea that learning in infinite, but I am rarely so conscious of the learning I do. [My lessons usually kick me pretty square in the ass. Effective, yes. Not so gentle on the psyche though.]
Conscious receptiveness is totally bitchin’. I guess this means I was ready.
Bring it.
What is the point of school anyhow???
Man, I have been thinking so much about this over the past couple years, and I cannot seem to get my brain around it… what are we doing with education in the world today and why are we doing it?
Albert Einstein, who most people acknowledge was a pretty smart guy, defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. I think he was really onto something there and I would love to hear what he might have to say about the state of education in the world today. [Especially since his educational experiences were interesting and widely misunderstood.] My hypothesis is that he would be horrified, but I may be projecting my own horror here.
I am a teacher. Not an English speaker who, by that qualification alone can teach in Asia. (If that sounds arrogant, whatever- I am a better teacher for my training and experience and I know that is true.) I believe in sharing ideas and information and enthusiasm with other people, and I think this is teaching. Since I believe that teaching is a dialog, and dialog [proper] should be dynamic, it makes sense that to have the same dialog over and over ad nauseum is pointless. As put forward here, Shift Happens. So, why aren’t we shifting??
I left my job in the US feeling very disenchanted and disconnected with “education”. I was watching the people who worked the hardest get treated the worst among my colleagues and the students who needed the most attention get the least. Everyone, from my administration on down wanted to take the easy road, and everyone was okay with this attitude as long as no one talked about it or brought it up.
Amanda
