From the National Education Association

Love this!

Here are President of the NEA, Dennis Van Roekel’s remarks on the Treu ruling in California:

Yesterday, when political ideologues were running full page ads attacking teachers and calling kids garbage — I was in the small town of Emporia, Kansas helping to dedicate a memorial to educators who made the ultimate sacrifice for their students. The headlines in the last few days have been dominated by political attacks against public school educators, while scant attention was paid to a cherished child who lost his life to yet another gun attack in a school.

It’s easy to get discouraged when the rhetoric of our opponents dominates the headlines and the airwaves.

But I, like you, don’t look at the world through the pages of USA Today or the headlines in Politico. I see the world through the eyes of the students I have taught and the eyes of educators who you and I work with every day to fight for great public schools for every student.

We look through their eyes and see those attacks, those headlines and get angry.

Angry at a system that would vilify dedicated educators who get up every day with one focus — helping their students succeed.

Angry at a system that’s narrowly focused on small silver-bullet solutions while blind to the larger problems of poverty, inequity and the growing gulf that separates students from the opportunity to succeed.

And Yes — I get angry at corporate interests that would rather see public schools as a billion-dollar enterprise and our children as commodities to be profited from rather than a public good and the driving force for excellence AND equity.

I have a message for those people who would seek to reduce children to a test score and teaching to a technological transaction.

You are mistaken if you think we will see your attacks and get discouraged, that we will read the headlines and give up.

You may put students in the name of your campaigns but that doesn’t mean you really care about the millions of children in our public schools.

If you did truly care, you would look at the more than half of public-school children who live in poverty and wage your crusades against the inequity in our economy.

If you truly cared, you would look at the deteriorating conditions in schools across this country and aim your fire at politicians who have starved our schools of the resources to succeed and then punished them for their failures.

If you truly cared, then you would see the scourge of violence that has once again taken away a young life and run your full page ads demanding action to end the plague of gun violence in our schools and communities.

Yesterday those opponents of public education were celebrating their political wins and driving their version of the story on education hoping that in declaring victory we – educators, our association – would concede defeat.

But what they don’t realize is that I am a teacher. I, like the millions of educators across this country, won’t give up on our kids.

I will continue to fight for them, and for the educators across this country who dedicate themselves to fulfilling the promise of another generation of students.

This association won’t give up until we have brought together everyone who believes in the promise of great public schools for all and we’ve declared victory for our kids.

I, like you, won’t give up because we are educators.

We are NEA.

Why the common core is destined to fail – Not alone!

From the Facebook page“Technology in Education”

The comments show that the people get it!

Jim Buchanan: How does going from well-rounded to overloaded make you better/smarter?
Like · Reply · 10 · May 31 at 3:31pm
Jessica Rising: The people in charge should be the same people who actually WORK with children and understand them. I know, crazy idea, huh?
Like · Reply · 5 · Yesterday at 2:01am
Beckie Zullo Legislators shouldn’t be calling the shots. They put educators in a desperate situation of losing their jobs if kids don’t achieve. They decide what should be taught and what should go by the decisions they make. Schools were better when professional educators made the big decisions–not legislators.
Like · Reply · 2 · 20 hours ago
Louise Quinto: Give them a 3rd grade test .they’d probably fail
Like · Reply · 1 · 14 hours ago
Christopher A. Barbieri How did we ever learn w/o
All this ” improved” stuff.
Like · Reply · 1 · June 2 at 7:02pm
Eric Perez When idiots run schools. ..
Like · Reply · 3 · May 27 at 5:48pm
Brigitte Lehmkuhl Yes!!!
Like · Reply · 7 hrs
Vj Stanley: balance hot specialization. ironic isnt it, the supposedly learned are not learning and cant figure out why the model they use is a model that doesn’t teach. education is a process, a journey, which, they need to understand is more important than the goal
Like · Reply · 18 hours ago
Dennis Atkinson: Oooops, Slovenia just passed the US in test scores.
Like · Reply · June 2 at 4:06pm
Ken Lundberg • MO’ LIK DIS •
School ditches rules and loses bullies
tvnz.co.nz
Ripping up the playground rulebook is having incredible effects at an Auckland school.
Like · Reply · May 28 at 9:34am ·
Carol Frakes: Patterson Idiots.
Like · Reply · May 27 at 12:17pm
Bud Beaver:  The school system doesn’t know the answer either and instead of looking to pump
more money into the system they ought to look at the methods and techniques they are using and the qualifications of the teacher’s in the classroom.
Like · Reply · 19 hours ago.
Although I’ve answered this more fully in “Teacher Bashing” I would like to point out to Bud and anyone else who shares this opinion that the curriculum is set by the state and federal government.  The teacher in the classroom has no control over scheduling or the content.  We HAVE to teach what we’re told to teach, even though we know it’s destined to fail.

What do you think?

Why the Common Core is destined to fail – Politicians

I am convinced that most politicians want to be cowboys in old John Wayne movies. They all believe that the way to get elected is to be “tough on (fill in the blank)” Unfortunately, when the blank is filled in with “crime” we end up with the highest percentage of our citizens in jail than any other country in the world. And when the blank is filled in with “education” we end up with ever falling world-wide rankings. The fact that politicians getting tough on whatever never works doesn’t seem to matter. Politicians want to be elected and scare tactics work.

Teachers were by and large allowed to teach to their school’s standard prior to the election in 1980, as the Office for Education was a part of the Health and Human Services Department. Their job was primarily to fund the public schools. They were ‘upgraded’ to a separate department at that time and are much easier to manipulate for political gain.

As I recall, the first get tough campaign was all about geography as we hadn’t started failing everything else yet.

Now the education department is about reward and punishment. Each mandate requires a separate student test, each test brings the school some of the money it needs to survive. They also serve as evaluation for the teachers. Have you ever wondered why you/your kids/grandkids seem to be stressed out over testing year round? Now you know.

Why the Common Core is destined to fail – and the long distance runner

I restarted this blog with the post “Why the Common Core is destined to fail”, Each post since has focused on one of the points I made there.

From the time an infant is born, loving parents watch over them fretfully. When will they roll over? Will they walk soon? and on and on. The answer is always the same, the child will tackle the next hurdle when they are ready. Trying to force the next stage is a lesson in futility which only confuses the child. Such tactics also convince the child that they are inept, stupid or bad.

This is exactly what has been going on in the American educational system, particularly in the core subjects of math and science.  Given our present world ranking, raising the standard is a great idea, but the way they are going about it is ridiculous at best,  most likely completely counter-productive, damaging at worst.

It’s like saying that they want everyone to be an Olympic marathon runner by graduation, therefore all children should be able to run 1 1/2 miles by their first birthday!  Never mind that most children are just beginning to walk at that point.

If they don’t make the grade, they will of course be told that they are failures. Their coach knows he or she will be fired for being incompetent if they don’t somehow force the issue.  This doesn’t sound like something anyone would want for their child, even if they wanted him or her to become a runner!  Imagine how little pleasure will be left in those children on the subject of running for the rest of their lives!

The most effective way to learn anything is to wait until it’s physically possible, then by setting a series of challenges and goals which are attainable.  All Olympic marathon runners started as unsteady but giggling toddlers.   They improved slightly over time as their bodies grew taller and stronger until they came to a point where development and enthusiasm met understanding and strategy.  From there, the learning curve can be very steep and still very attainable.

Now imagine math being taught like that.  Scientists and Educational Psychologists have known for years that students are ready to deal with abstract concepts like math at about the age of 7.   Second grade teachers talk about how they “can almost see when the light goes on” in math class.  Imagine what would happen if we were to wait until the children were ready!

That was a trick question, we already know what would happen.  All of the countries at the top of the world’s list DO wait until the children are ready.  Most don’t even have mandatory Kindergarten.  None of them have pre-school.  They start math class at approximately age 7 and are out-performing us by age 12.  They use first grade to play games that create enthusiasm until the child is has developed an understanding.  From that point the learning curve is very steep, but very attainable!

Kind of reminds me of a marathon runner I once knew…………………………….

 

Teacher bashing – the beginning.

I fit into an interesting demographic as a teacher.  I began college prior to 1980.  From a working class family, my college education was made possible by grants and low interest loans that could be paid off in 10 years.  Teaching was poorly paid but a well respected career choice.  There was a reasonable budget at most schools for textbooks and supplies.

Then came the politicians.  In one fell swoop in 1980 the federal education budget was cut in half.  When the teacher’s unions spoke up, they retaliated with a smear campaign against all teachers and instituted the “teacher test” which is similar to the bar exam.  It’s a full day exam which costs hundreds of dollars to take.  The first ones had questions which could have come straight from “Who wants to be a millionaire”  It was designed to ensure a 60% failure rate.  The unions backed down under threat of being shut down.  I was lucky and was “grandfathered” out of this particular money pit.

Education became a popular budget cut from that point on.  There was no consequence to the politician because all they had to do was point to that one teacher we all had in school who gave us a hard time.  Case in point: I met the teacher who held my position in the 1960’s.  In conversation he mentioned that his supply budget had been $2.50 per child per year.  Remember, he said, those were 1960’s  dollars so he was sure it seemed paltry to me.  My budget in present day dollars worked out to $1.60 per child per year!  No wonder most of us have to supplement it with our own money.

Tenure is another popular target.  The idea of tenure came about as a remedy to the severe teacher shortages of the 1950’s and 60’s.  Teachers at that time were routinely fired for rising too high on the salary scale by budget conscious administrators.  The average teaching job required a college education but lasted less than 15 years.  Understandably, when teachers could no longer be fired without reason, the shortage disappeared. 

Administrators and politicians love to broadcast that the tenure ties their hands and prevents them from firing bad teachers.  This is simply untrue.  Tenure only means that they have to have a reason for firing someone.  In my career I’ve seen many who were fired for incompetence.  You just need an administrator who plays by the rules.

Teacher bashing is now a part of the American psyche, people seem to believe that a good and dedicated teacher is the exception rather than the rule.  It’s a problem and is in part the reason that our education system is failing because these teachers and their unions would have been the only ones with the will to stand up to the politicians on behalf of the children.

 

Teacher bashing

When I taught it was for the expressed purpose of changing the world.  I planned to encourage the students to follow their hearts, dream big and never surrender.  After all, If I could do what I loved so could they!  Every day I would go to work with a smile on my face, excited for the day.  Every night I’d research better ways of getting the subject matter across.  It never bothered me to spend 60 – 80 hours a week because when I was in the classroom I knew it was the best job ever!  Having to take on a summer job and additional college courses to improve my skills were worth it!

Then I was laid off and had to deal only with the worst part of the job – those who hadn’t been in the classroom for years.  They remember their worst teacher vividly.  The horrible woman who once did or said something terrible.  From this they assume that all teachers took the job only because of the summer vacations, caring nothing for the welfare of the kids.  They feel that one bad day, one frustrated comment, one dorky project entitles them to call for her to be fired on the spot.  Since they believe that all teachers are the same, some will go out of their way to be miserable to all teachers.

Hard as it may be to believe, teachers are human.  My most hated teacher had a Grandchild in intensive care when he snapped at me.  Another had just lost her husband when she made a rude comment.  I’m sure the list goes on.  No one cares.  How dare they lose it even if only for a moment!  That unguarded moment will be remembered forever.  Fire them!!!!  And those who came after!

 

Why the Common Core is destined to fail

On it’s surface, the Common Core is a great idea. 

It’s not surprising that in a country as vast as ours, with each state coming up with it’s own curriculum, that expectations would differ.  Common Core was supposed to set a bar so that when a student moved, they would be on track with their new class in the core subjects such as math, science and reading level.  Employers and Universities would be able to compare applicants without taking geography into consideration.  With the United States falling in the rankings every year, those overall standards must be higher!

So they did what they’ve always done:

First came the “Educational Experts” –  University Professors who knew the outcome they wanted for future freshman classes.  Their thought process was “If we want them to know ‘Z’ by graduation, they will need to learn ‘Y’ in 11th grade, ‘X’ in 10th and so on down to pre-Kindergarten”.  Very simple, very logical.  And how we began and have continued our race to the bottom of the list.

Then came the politicians who worried about whether it would be too liberal or too conservative.  And various churches who wanted control over precise parts of the curriculum (most notably Creationism vs Darwinism).  They made their points of view known and changes were made.  Same as before.

As usual, no one asked teachers or educational psychologists if this was a good idea.  No one looked to see how students in the top performing countries were educated.  As usual.

An observation:

The slip was becoming obvious in the 1980s when I was in college to become a teacher. I wondered how France and Japan had made it to the top of the list.  I’ve researched systems from then to now with Finland’s win this year.  So what are they doing that we’re not?

It all has to do with child development.  In every superior system, Kindergarten (if offered) through age 7 is all about play, getting along with others, art, music and sometimes learning a foreign language.  This takes advantage of their brain development stage, when language and social abilities are at their peak.  At approximately age 7, the logical and systematic stage begins and subjects like math and science make sense.  Students who are allowed to wait until they’re ready find these subjects interesting and even fun.

We know what happens to students who are pushed beyond what can reasonably be expected of their ability.  All we do though is push harder and harder.  The common core is expecting our children to add and subtract by the end of Kindergarten. 

“The definition of Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results” Albert Einstein

 

 

 

Teaparties, conservatives and other things to be cranky about.

An eloquent and insightful letter to the editor.

To The Editor:

Not only is Scott Walker the first Wisconsin governor to lack a college degree, he only averaged C’s before dropping out, so I guess it’s expecting too much to think he might know anything about labor history. But thanks to the Internet he can now Google “An Eclectic List of Events in U.S. Labor History” to learn that blood has been shed during the over-100-year struggle for workers to have any input into what is a huge part of their lives.

There he would also learn that FDR’s time was a high point, when American workers could finally band together to speak to powerful employers with the law at their back. Ah yes, FDR: a prime target of the new Republican Party that scorns Republicans like Eisenhower and the things he did, such as warning Americans of the military-industrial complex, as these new Republicans consider Eisenhower a traitor to the agenda of their new Republican party. Walker, the son of a minister, is a loyal soldier in that army of the super-rich; if he hangs tough he, too, no doubt, will become super-rich.

Hanging tough should be fairly easy as underlying the Wisconsin fight over collective bargaining is the ugly fact that the super-rich no longer need the strong middle class that grew up following WWII.

Why give veterans a GI bill so they can get good jobs and become eager consumers of a vast productive capacity honed during the war and forever after turning out more and more consumer goods when there is a new and growing army of consumers created by the global market?

Why employ the logic of Henry Ford raising his workers’ wages so they could afford the cars they were making when American consumers are now being replaced? When outsourcing leaves Americans out in the cold they will just dub it the “new normal.”

But the saddest part of this change now looming is how the New Republicans have managed to persuade so many Americans to vote against their own (and their children’s) self-interest. How a president “educated” by a General Electric executive but with undeniable Irish charm could virtually destroy the Air Traffic Controllers’ union (huge handwriting on the wall foretelling the coming of another poorly-educated politician seeking to destroy teachers’ unions) while charming the electorate will be debated for years.

And how well Walker prepared the script for his big showdown with labor. The budget he found when he assumed office on Jan. 3 wasn’t that terrible, so he gave tax breaks to corporations and the wealthy. That way he could look into the camera and pull a Pontius Pilate: Don’t blame me; we’re just broke. Not only is he a good soldier in the army of the super-rich; he’s a pretty good actor, too

Education

So once again a report has come out and American Students rank lower than “THEY” would like in Math and Science.  OH, NO!!  The reaction is the same as usual….let’s make the curriculum more difficult at an earlier age – with so much more practice, we’ll improve in the only subjects “THEY” think are important.  As a result of the last “OH, NO”  My children were expected to be able to count to 100 by the end of pre-school and algebraic equations were homework in the 3rd grade.  They’re in High School now, and both hate math and science with a passion.  If they were allowed to stop taking those classes, we’d throw a party the likes of which have never been seen before!

We’re also losing ground compared to where we were 20 or 30 years ago, when I was introduced to Algebra, Geometry, Trig and Calculus in High School.  While I wasn’t a huge fan, Math at the time was OK.  The problem  to “THEM” is tenure (not kidding).  If they could only make the teachers add joblessness to their list of worries around testing time, the students would learn more.

The solution is simple, though impossible for the Education Gurus to comprehend.   First, take into account that you are dealing with developing brains in developing bodies.  Teach the subjects that those brains are ready to learn when they are developed enough to learn them.  (this radical idea is already being used in the countries that are kicking our collective butts)  This isn’t just for Math, but foreign languages as well (where we also are behind to our detriment) It turns out that little kid brains soak up language better than older kids, so taught earlier it’s easy for them to pick up a second or third language – without an accent!  This would double or triple their opportunities later on.  Math taught later wouldn’t be the chore it is for them now and you might just end up with a kid who LIKES it!

Another common sense change would be to realize that kids are not identical little drones.  If we took the time to look at each kid individually before graduation, we just might discover that some kids would be better served by allowing them to take more practical or even creative courses.  This would also improve our testing as only those kids who wanted to be in Math class would be there and the teacher would be able to spend at least some of his/her time teaching rather than refereeing.

Indian Summer

Indian Summer

In youth it was a way I had

to do my best to please

and change with every passing lad

to suit his theories.

But now I know the things I know

and do the things I do

and if you do not like me so

to hell, my love, with you

Above is a poem I learned in college which I thought funny.  Now it describes me perfectly and is the theme for this blog.  Unfortunately in the years since I have forgotten the author’s name.  A Google search brought up lovely poetry about birds and bugs and trees. So if anyone knows who wrote it, I’d appreciate your letting me know.