the devolution of the teaching profession

Last night I returned home from an invigorating, yet sweltering, five days in Washington, DC for the Save Our Schools March and National Call to Action. My profession was affirmed by not only the keynote conference speakers, Diane Ravitch and Jonathan Kozol, but also by the thousands of like-minded individuals attending the event. At the rally, the voices of Deb Meier, John Kuhn, Taylor Mali, Nancy Carlsson-Paige and Matt Damon were added in the mix. We listened. We learned. We marched. We engaged democracy.  I returned home inspired, energized and ready to start the new school year.

And then I went to training for our new language arts curriculum.  We were handed the obligatory copy of the PowerPoint slides as we signed in. I'll admit, I was tired and not particularly looking forward to the training, but here I was, like it or not. I get that my district is held hostage by the policy makers at the state and federal levels and they're just doing what is being mandated. But, really, I don't know how much more of this absurdity I can take.

As the trainer read the PowerPoint slides, I reflected on how unamusing I find it when trainers read their PowerPoint slides to their audience. I mean, all of us are college graduates who are very capable readers. We don't really need a read aloud. The story's just not that good. 

Then we were introduced to content and language objective frames, and my eyes started rolling around in my head. I mean, how many times do I have to point out that our kindergarteners can't read the frames, so what's the point in posting them? And why in the hell do they have to repeat them after me? I'm teaching children here, not monkeys. And regarding focus walls... don't even get me started. And I am so over using academic language with my four year olds.

So I admit, I was kinda having a brattitude about all this, but I was doing a pretty good job of not looking seriously pissed off. After all, I do have a degree in Theatre Arts and am a highly proficient actor. So I can look interested if need be. And though it's annoying enough to have to choral read the PowerPoint slides, that was nothing compared to what we were told to do next.

The topic was the importance of reading with expression. Yeah, ok.... like, duh?! That's a no-brainer, dude. But I was completely unprepared for what came next. With the text projected on the screen, our trainer selected several words from the text. We were told that we were now to read the passage, chorally, putting emphasis on the selected words. 1, 2, 3, go! Geeze. If this is a bad nightmare would someone please wake me up? I mean, we're already handed a script for teaching, complete with comprehension questions in red to ask during the read aloud which is utterly joy killing. Seriously, can I just read the story to the kids for fun? Interrupting the flow of a good read aloud to ask these inane questions is a real story killer. And now we're being told which words to emphasize in the text? Sh!t. What comes in the next edition of the Teacher's Manuel? Will Houghton-Mifflin start color coding the words they deem important enough to emphasize when reading aloud? I mean, I may be blonde, but I'm not stupid! Is this absurdity never ending?

After the training, I returned home and reflected on the day and what was being asked of, and imposed upon, my profession... my practice. I'm tired of forcing a joyless curricula on my children. I'm tired of interrupting stories to discuss pointless questions. I'm tired of having 8 million standards to cover to prove the rigor of our curricula. I'm tired of discrete lessons focusing on useless details taught without context. I'm tired of hearing myself talk talk talk. When do I get to listen to my children's voices? I'm tired of racing to reach the ever rising bar. And I'm beyond tired of doing stupid sh!t that is not supported by research, just because it's in the Teacher's Manuel. And I am oh so so tired of our collective wisdom, expertise and understanding of how kids learn and should be taught being ignored.

I just think I'm done. I don't think I can keep imposing this stupid stuff on my kids. These kids are my future. What will happen if they don't learn to think critically? What will happen if they never learn that their voices are important and need to be heard? What will happen if they think the only thing that gives them value is a test score? What will happen if they only learn how to listen and not how to participate in a meaningful way? What will happen if they never learn the importance of relationships and working together? What will happen if they never discover the joy of reading or develop a love of learning? I worry about this because the current day curricular programs put my children's brains, hearts and lives in harms way. And like doctors, I believe teachers should do no harm yet that is what we are being forced to do.

I know how the kids will feel someday if their voices are not heard, or if their expertise is not honored, because that's the way teachers are feeling today. Disillusioned, demoralized, angry and uncertain whether or not they can carry on in today's climate. So the big question is what do I do now? Perhaps I'll just close my door and read stories all day long, without being interrupted, and choose which words I want to emphasize. I cannot live without reading. I want my kids to feel that way too. And if I need to have my spirits lifted and my efforts encouraged, I'll just go to YouTube and watch Diane Ravitch's inspiring and passionate speech at the Save Our Schools rally because bottom line, I've got precious lives to save!

weighing in on the brooks/alter/ravitch debate

A 150 word version of the following was submitted to the New York Times in response to "Invitation to a Dialogue: Fixing the Schools" where Diane Ravitch responds to David Brooks's article "Smells Like School Spirit" where he lies about misrepresents her views.

Pundits such as David Brooks and Jonathan Alter are long on hyperbole and criminally short on facts (the real kind, not the pretend or purchased kind). Does Dr. Ravtich cherry pick her facts? Absolutely! She draws her facts from high quality, peer-reviewed research. It is this proclivity that caused her to reverse her initial beliefs on the school reform strategies that she helped develop as one of the architects of NCLB.

It is this relentless pursuit of the truth, and a deep commitment to public education for all of our nation’s children, that inspires such a dedicated following.  As a parent, educator and researcher, I have lived under NCLB mandates from its inception and now suffer the latest not-so-great-thing, Race to the Top.  I have followed the research; that research has supported my findings in the classroom. These reforms have and continue to negatively impact our students, teachers and schools.

The blatant disregard of the professional voices from the trenches has been baffling. Our concerns have been ignored. We’ve been forced to watch our children burn out at young ages from being tested to death. We have seen our curricula narrow due to high-stakes testing. We have seen our most struggling students receive inadequate support, then be labeled as failures.  We have been seriously demoralized.

Billionaires have funded the assault on public education, fueling it with misinformation and lies, and have effectively co-opted the media. Teacher voices have been silenced. The lone voice speaking on our behalf, speaking truth to power, has been that of Dr. Diane Ravitch. She’s our Little Engine That Could; she’s our David to the corporate education reformers, Goliath. That this mild mannered, 73 year old grandmother and much honored education historian has been under attack, both professionally and personally, by pundits whose education qualifications are sorely lacking, is abhorrent.

That these rich, white men, decades younger than Dr. Ravitch, find her such a threat is amusing. She has been able to do things her critics will never be able to do: admit when they’re wrong. THAT is what has earned her my undying respect and support.

In the 1950s, it was Clark Kent, a mild mannered reporter. In 2011, it’s Diane Ravitch, a mild mannered education historian. And she doesn’t need no stinkin’ phone booth!

more summer reading for arne

Hey, Arne. I'm just checking back to see if you put your laser-like focus on those articles I posted for you a while back. They were GREAT reads, weren't they? I'm certain you enjoyed them as much as I did. 

But I'm not sure you were reading for meaning because today, at your press conference with Governor Snyder.... (loving that you're on twitter!):

@arneduncanArne Duncan 

Just finished press conf w/MI Gov Snyder. I'm encouraged for Detroit schools, but important to give teachers & unions a voice in reform.

...well, I've gotta bone to pick with you. Teachers and unions have been talking!!!!! YOU JUST HAVE CHOSEN NOT TO LISTEN TO US!!!! (Sorry to scream at you, but sometimes, you just really piss me off! ...OK... ALL the time you piss me off!) I mean, really, how dense can you be? Do you not get that not only are the policies you continue to push, failed policies, but you're also really pissing off a lot of your boss's base? No matter how determined you are to change the reality by spinning misinformation ad nauseam, IT IS NOT WORKING!!

Sheesh! I just get so steamed up over the stupid sh!t you say. But I'm not giving up on you, Arne. Nope, that would be shirking my patriotic duty and letting my students (and those across the nation) down. So in a continued effort to enlighten you by giving you facts (you know, those things that aren't made up or pretend), I'm including in your summer reading list, some highly regarded books by some of the finest minds in public education today. And Arne, don't let the facts scare you; let them guide you. After reading, you might want to do a compare and contrast between what these books say and what your Blueprint is pushing.

So when you're on your vacay relaxing, pick up any of these great beach reads. When you're done you'll be a better man for it... and hopefully a better Secretary of Education.

And as we used to say, back in the day: Have a bitchin' summer! See ya next year! luv, tracey xoxo

The Death and Life of the Great American School System:

How Testing and Choice are Undermining Education
by Diane Ravitch 

Education Hell: Rhetoric vs. Reality

by Gerald W. Bracey (RIP)

Catching Up or Leading the Way:

American Education in the Age of Globalization

by Yong Zhao

The Manufactured Crisis:

Myths,  Fraud, and the Attack on

America's Public Schools

by David D. Berliner ~ Bruce J. Biddle

in a nutshell

No Child Left Behind is the status quo. The biggest single cause of low academic performance is not bad teachers, which is the current mantra of the US Department of Education. The biggest single cause of low academic performance is poverty.

Dr. Diane Ravitch

US Department of Education: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

DUNCAN FIRED. RAVITCH HIRED.