The Edubabbler

Segregated proms in a "post-racial" USA

2009-05-24T11:18:00.002-04:00

When Obama ran to be the democratic nominee for the US Presidency, many asked if it was the end of black racial politics. When he was nominated as the Democratic candidate, won the election in 2008, some people (like conservative Dinesh D'Souza) claimed that racism in the USA was over, and that the United States had entered a new post-racial era. Still, others note that one election won (no matter how historic), does not change the fact that the US has yet to deal with a major paradox of injustice in its national psyche: the belief in freedom and that all people are created equal and the long standing historical de-jure and de-facto discrimination against particular members of its citizenry.

As a teacher, I point out to my students that just because something has happened once, does not mean that it signals a permanent change, a new reality, or a confirmation of a belief. It's a blip, an anecdote. Until there is an existing pattern supported with evidence in the form of data, it unfortunately can't tell us much. This is not to say that one cannot find hope in that unique instance. One must weigh it against the data from the current reality.

So, imagine my classroom last week when I pointed out to a group of students studying urban education that segregated proms still exist. Some were shocked, and wondered how that could be so. My students are bright and from very diverse backgrounds and life-experiences. It doesn't change the fact that they have more or less been raised in an era in which social studies education teaches them that "we had the Civil Rights movement. Segregation is over." Imagine my reaction this morning when I read the NYT magazine article about segregated proms in Georgia.

The article tells me nothing new but I am sure it will be a surprise to some of my students. What really disturbs me about the article is the Times's failure to really dig deeper than they did. The piece basically focuses on the hurt feelings of the black students. It talks about failed efforts to integrate the proms, and the fact that white students are welcome at black proms (but black students can only stand outside white proms and take pictures of their white friends). I don't want to minimize the grave insult here, or the emotions of the students who were excluded. By focusing on the emotions of students, however, the Times reduces this act of segregation and discrimination to something that is committed against one or a few individuals, when in fact, it is institutionally and community-sanctioned against an entire group of the community itself.

But, some would say, the proms are paid for by the parents. But, other would say, it's the white parents who want to keep black students away from their prom and their children. If that were the case, why didn't the white students protest? Or, as one young black woman mentioned in passing, why did none of the white students text their black friends during prom, or choose not to go? This, in my mind is the crux of the matter: white students, while they may have black friends, girlfriends, or boyfriends, still observe the de facto reality of the community. It's OK to be friends or maybe date outside your race (as long as your parents don't know), but officially, you stick to your own.

The fact that the school does not pay for the segregated proms does not absolve the school administration from its role in this story. The reality that this is the way it has been done since schools were integrated in the 70's does not make the "tradition" (used in the article) does not make it right. This story does serve, however, as data point in a growing list of them that a "post-racial" USA is still a long way off.

"I can't make a living on 500K"-- a message to the whiners

2009-02-04T18:21:00.004-05:00

I have been stewing about this all day. In fact, I have been getting angrier and angrier, and I figure it is better to write about this than to yell at some unsuspecting undergraduate. Be forewarned: This is not a diary about education, though I suppose it the ultimate outcome about all of this is that education will be affected.

Long story short: If I have to read about one more Wall Street whiner who is pissed because he or she didn't get the usual annual bonus, I am going to scream. I will probably blow a vessel if one more complains about $500K salary caps.

Last fall, the Bush Administration gave the banks billions of dollars with few or no strings attached. The bank, instead of starting to loan that money out, hoarded it, used it for conferences, and paid execs bonuses. That's right, our taxpayer money went to reward the yahoos who helped to get us in this mess.

So yesterday, the New York Times had an article about how some folks on Wall Street thought it was unfair that President Obama was placing a $500K salary cap and bonus cap. Today, Obama called for "common sense." Sorry, it's not common sense. It's FAIR.

The folks on Wall Street claim they deserve the bonus because they work harder than other people. Ehm, tell that to police and firefighters who risk their lives everyday. Tell that to hospital workers. Tell that to teachers who work in less-than-ideal conditions. If we follow through on their logic, there are a lot of people who are due some pretty amazing bonuses.

The bigger issue for me is the hypocrisy that is operating here. Yesterday there was an article about Tom Suozzi threatening layoffs if the unions didn't take a 7% pay cut. Question: is he taking a pay cut? Are the managers taking a paycut? How about the judges and other non-union workers?

I understand that we are living in tough times, but let's be real here. The people who are telling us we need to tighten our belts have no intention of tightening theirs. I just found out that they have put an 18 month salary freeze in place for folks here. I wonder if the state legislature is freezing their salaries as well.

Just sayin'

I miss Joe

2009-02-02T22:29:00.002-05:00

Tonight I went to a celebration of the life of Joe Kincheloe. I dragged Mr. Edubabbler with me because I wanted to introduce him to more of my world. It was a rough night.

I have to admit, I am not one for public mourning. I prefer to do it in private, being alone with my thoughts and feelings. My mother hates that about me. After my sister died, all my mom wanted was to talk about it. I wanted to simply think and be. It was the same tonight. There were all of these people there, sharing stories about Joe. There was a presentation about Joe, his life, and his work. All I could think about was the fact that we were having this celebration of his life because he is no longer with us.

But, I got to hug Shirley, the love of his life. And I got to hear stories about Joe I'd never heard before. Most important, I got to see video of him, and I heard his voice again. I do not want to lose the sound of his voice in my mind. I need to hear his gentle prodding and love as I continue my work to make his (all our) vision of possibility a reality.

Peace, Joe.

Remembering Joe Kincheloe

2008-12-20T11:04:00.002-05:00

This morning I awoke to read that my friend and mentor, Joe Kincheloe, died of a heart attack late last night. Joe was one of the lions of critical pedagogy. Born and raised in Tennessee, his slow and gentle drawl comes to mind, even as I remember the complex ideas he would share with me.

Joe was a humble man, a musician, a writer, a thinker, and a teacher. I never felt small in his presence. I always felt welcomed and loved. My heart is broken, for his wife, Shirley, his children and grandchildren, his friends, colleagues, and students, and for all the people who will never get to know a wonderful man.

I would write more, but I don't yet have the words.

Arne Duncan as Secretary of Education

2008-12-16T17:01:00.000-05:00

When the list was initially floated around, names like Duncan, Rhee, Vallas, Klein, and Darling-Hammond were present, as were those of a number of governors. On the one hand, I was shocked at the number of pro-privatization, anti-union, pro-business front-runners. On the other hand, it didn't, given the US's love-affair with most things market-driven (only now are we beginning to see how misplaced that love was). Nor was I surprised, then or now, at the union-bashing that occurred. It never ceases to amaze me how quick the US public is to blame teachers' unions (and there are TWO prominent ones at the national level-- the NEA and the AFT). The public seems to forget that when administrators do their jobs regarding ineffective teachers, tenure is no protection. It's easier to blame teachers and unions than understand the complex ways in which schools function. In fact, it's easier to blame unions for anything, especially if it turns attention away from poor management.

I was dismayed at how the NYT jumped to characterize Darling-Hammond as anti-reform. She does not agree with the punitive measures of NCLB, nor does she view standardized tests and attendance rates as appropriate ways of assessing student learning. That does not mean she is anti-assessment, however. Her research into teacher preparation and student achievement indicates that many factors connect the two, and yet, the focus has remained on her criticisms of Teach For America. To present Darling-Hammond as anti-reform because she is critical of business market-applied models of accountability implies that only those who believe in testing and accountability (as it is narrowly defined in NCLB) have the cache to cal the shots. That is a very narrow understanding how what successful reform entails.

The reality is that schools and teachers cannot do what they are charged without support from society. It's easy to blame teachers and schools because it absolves the community of its responsibility. Yes, schools need to be held accountable for student learning, growth, and development. But, they also need adequate support to be able to do that. Part of that support is understanding how challenging teaching can be, even in the most ideal of settings. It's no surprise to me that people would choose not to teach when teachers get so much of the blame for what is wrong with the US and so little credit or thanks for what is right.

Ultimately, NCLB needs to be altered, and the new Secretary of Education needs to work with all stake-holders, not just those with the most power. I will withhold judgment on Arne Duncan until I learn more about him. But, I hope he is more effective than what this nation has endured for the last eight years.

if you do nothing else today, read this.

2008-12-13T14:02:00.001-05:00

I was doing me usual hanging out on the internet while waiting for the washer to finish its cycle, and came across this. It reminded me just how crucial compassionate and kind teachers are:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/12/12/19482/679?detail=f

Please consider signing! Obama Appointment for Sec. of Ed.

2008-11-12T20:22:00.001-05:00

I admit it, I have a lot of issues with No Child Left Behind, the current incarnation of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. In the past 6 years, testing has become the only focus of public education, with student success in learning being reduced to nothing more than a test score. "Proven teaching methods" have become little more than test prep, skill and drill, and a list of strategies that have little to do with how children really learn.

On top of that, the sanctions for failing schools ultimately put public school monies into the hands of private tutoring groups, charter schools, and private school hands. While there is much improvement needed in public education, the solution should not be to end public education.

Today I received two alerts from colleagues about the short list of people Obama is looking at. One of them is Commissioner Joel Klein of NYC and the other is Chicago CEO Arne Duncan. Both have records of being anti-teacher, anti-union, and anti-democratic. While I understand the Department of Education needs a forward-looking steward, I am not sure installing a leader who wants to further undermine public education should be our only choice.

Please consider reading and signing the two petitions below.

Peace.

The Petition to oppose the appointment of Joel Klein.

We, the undersigned, devoted thousands of hours of volunteer time to the election of Barack Obama as President. As Professional educators we were encouraged by the promise to have an open and respectful dialogue within the educational community about NCLB, its limits, and its failures.

Now, a trial balloon has been advanced in the media for Joel Klein, Chancellor of NYC schools to serve as U.S. Secretary of Education in an Obama Administration. ( It is quite possible that Klein himself promoted the trial balloon.) Trial balloons are trials. They are floated to see how people will react.

This petition is a reaction.

The administration of Joel Klein as Chancellor of Schools in New York City is representative of a particular rigid approach to school change promoted by NCLB which we oppose. Rather than take the advice of educators, Chancellor Klein repeatedly championed and implemented policies that support corporate interests as opposed to children. The NY City Department of Education under Joel Klein has been run like a ruthless dictatorship – with no input from parents or educators. Teachers have not been respected, consulted, nor listened to. And little thought has been devoted to how the policies he has imposed on our schools have been destructive to the children and their futures.

Citizens, educators, and future educators, read the entire petition and sign it at:

http://www.petitiononline.com/campd227/petition.html

And, the second.

Say YES to public education. Say NO to privatization.

Dear supporters of public education,
Many of you have by now heard the rumors of Obama's potential appointees to the position of Secretary of Education. This list includes several people whose records show a history of dismantling democratic public education in the name of private interests. As people committed to public education, this strikes a hard and fast blow in the euphoria that we have felt since Tuesday, November 4th. But it's not too late to make our voices heard once again. Let's build on the sense of representation and democracy we have just experienced to send a clear message to the Obama Administration.

Please visit http://www.teacheractivistgroups.org in order to sign the following statement that voices our concerns about the kind of Education Secretary that we want. Additionally, please FORWARD this message to your friends and colleagues who are also concerned about the future of public education.

Thank you!
The National Network of Teacher Activist Groups
www.teacheractivistgroups.org

Statement on the selection of the U.S. Secretary of Education

Today, we celebrate Barack Obama?s momentous election as President of the United States. We recognize it as a historic culmination of the centuries-long effort for dignity and justice, human and civil rights, and enfranchisement of the U.S. people, and we pay particular tribute to the African American freedom struggle, which played a decisive role in bringing the first Black man to the presidency.

We look forward, as educators, parents and students, to participating in the opportunities for change afforded by this moment. We are excited about the possibilities for improving educational opportunities for all students. Our vision of educational justice, access, opportunity, and equity includes having a Department of Education whose officials embrace the idea of a quality education as part of the common good. We wish to turn away from a corporate model of education that claims that teaching and learning can only improve by imposing market perspectives and processes onto our public education system. Education should be a fundamental human right, not subject to privatization by firms whose primary concern is a profit motive and the bottom line. We have all witnessed the failures of this free market system in recent months and do not support this model for our public schools.

Toward these ends, we urge President-elect Obama and his transition team to choose a Secretary of Education who is committed to the full development of human beings who are prepared to actively participate in civil society. We strongly encourage the selection of someone dedicated to equity and the education of all children with a proven track record in these areas, such as Linda Darling-Hammond, a key member of Mr. Obama?s education team. We want a person who is a professional, experienced, and knowledgeable educator, not a corporate executive such as New York City?s Education Chancellor Joel Klein or Chicago CEO Arne Duncan, who have demonstrated their vision of privatized, corporatized, and anti-democratic schools.

Over the last 20 years in the U.S., education is becoming the business of education, and we emphatically reject that model. We call upon the President-elect to choose someone who will embrace the ideas of civic involvement and public participation. We look forward to collaborating with that person, as well as with students, parents, and the broader public, in developing a truly meaningful and just education for all students in the U.S.

Endorse this statement by visiting www.teacheractivistgroups.org

I voted today

2008-11-04T17:08:00.003-05:00

Truth be told, I think that voting is the smallest thing that we do that is part of participating in democracy. The reality is that elections happen on the first Tuesday in November, in some cases in April or June. But, it's an isolated act. To me there are far more important things that we do as citizens. Being a democratic citizen doesn't just happen a few times a year, or when there is a Presidential election. It happens every day, in very small but significant ways.

We pick up trash, help neighbors clean up their yard after a big storm, take care of each other, and hold each other accountable for the well-being of the community. We dig deeper to understand the bigger issues that are out there and work with others to solve the roots of problems, not just put Band-Aids on them.

I have to admit, though, this election is exciting in a very different way. Regardless of who one votes for, taking part in the election has taken on a life of its own. In some cases the days leading up to the election have brought out the best and worst in us. But what really got me was the number of people who were at my polling place this morning.

I vote at a school that is up the hill from me. In the last six years when I have gone to vote, there are usually more poll workers and observers than there are voters. This morning there was a short line. I went at 10 AM, and there were two people in front of me who I don't think had ever voted before. When I asked one of the poll workers how the morning was, she said it was really, really busy. As she leafed through the signature book, I saw many signatures... so many signatures. Usually, I vote at the end of the day after work, but I was afraid I would have to wait in a long line and I had some things at home that were almost as important as voting (It's Mr. Edubabbler's birthday. When I asked him what her wanted, he said, "chocolate cake and for [his candidate] to win the election." I told him I could take care of the first, but the second was beyond my control). At 10AM, it looked like more people had voted than there were the last time that I voted in the evening. Amazing.

But what really struck me were the people walking TO the polls. When I left, I was struck about the number of people who were walking and driving to the school (it's more or less on a dead end-- it's a pretty easy guess which way people are going). On the one hand were the many older individuals... long standing members of the community. Most of them were white (the town where I live used to be Italian, Polish, and Dutch, depending on which part of the city you were in), and came in by themselves or with a companion (in some cases, they brought THEIR parents with them). In contrast were the young families, many of whom have moved out from New York City in the last few years. Predominantly Latino, African American, and of Middle Eastern descent, they have revitalized the neighborhood in which I live. Many had their kids with them, and it was such an interesting contrast. But they all had to things in common. They held their heads high as they walked and they voted.

My nephew, the grass eater

2008-10-22T23:14:00.000-04:00

Yeah, it's in his genes.

Note to self: Always check for your keys BEFORE you leave the house...

2008-10-22T19:37:00.003-04:00

With the doors locked.

While I don't do it often, I engage in what David Letterman refers to as a "stupid human trick." No, I am not talking about plugging my nose and blowing my eyeballs out of their sockets. Nor am I talking about the middle of the night fall-bounce while running with the dogs tied to my waist. No, this was a repeat performance.

Yes, I locked myself out of the house, only I didn't know it until much, much later.

It started out as a very quiet, morning. The dogs and I rolled out of bed (actually it was more like Kehli sticking her huge nose in my ear to wake me up, while Siddha and Marley had my arms pinned to my sides, but details shmeetails), went downstairs, made the coffee, and sat down to the morning ritual of email and news. A couple hours later, after editing a colleague's piece, I took a shower and headed to campus for fun and meetings.

Because I can be so absent-minded, I more or less have a "leaving the house" ritual. It involves checking that the dogs have food and water and been outside, making sure I have all the books and work-related stuff, and most importantly, I checked to make sure I knew where my keys were. Saw the keys to the house. Check. Grabbed the jacket, the helmet, the gloves, and the keys to the bike, said goodbye to the beasties, and walked out the door.

Four hours later, after several meetings, I went to my office to get a few things and do a "switch out," that is, drop off the stuff I finished with yesterday and this morning, and pick up what I needed for tonight and tomorrow morning. Only, I didn't have my keys. Crap. So, I went to my final meeting, called Mr. Eduabbler, only to find out that he wouldn't be home until after 7PM.

I was stuck.

I had to break into the house.

The first time I did this, I got stuck in the window because it was a small window over the counter in the back of the kitchen. I actually thought I was going to have to call 911 to get me unstuck, only I had left my cell phone in my bag, which was on the ground. I also had the thought that some neighbor would see me trying to break into the back of MY house and call the cops. What a trip that would be. I unstuck myself, and got into the house.

I swore that I would hide a spare key.

The second time I got locked out, I borrowed a neighbor's ladder and climbed into the front porch of the house. That was a lot less stressful in terms of the getting stuck part, but this time I had to then break into the inner door or, figure out how to open one of the windows. Lucky for me, the window to the living room was open.

I went out and had spare keys made and bought one of those hide-a-key things.

This time I borrowed a different neighbor's ladders, sliced the screen on the bathroom window, smashed my hand taking the window apart, and got in the house. I am now sitting on the couch with the dogs sleeping next to me. I am wrapped in a blanket and glad to be home.

This time I will actually put out the damn key and hide-a-key thing.

When students are punished for the incompetence of adults

2008-10-20T16:01:00.002-04:00

While engaging in my usual internet procrastination this afternoon (actually, I was searching for some updated info on how the latest economic debacle with affect public education), I ran across a sad story. 375 teachers were fired in Dallas on Friday.

On the one hand, it comes as no surprise to me that public schools are starting to suffer under the economic pinch. In fact, the story itself, is part of a much, much larger story. For one thing, what the city of Dallas is suffering from is what many large cities also suffer: underprepared, and sometimes less that honest leadership. Let me be clear here. I am not saying that all city school district leaders (and I am talking upper-level management specifically here) are unprepared and dishonest. However, Dallas schools suffered from the type of leadership that is seen as the stereotypical norm.

What is truly sad about this is that teachers were the ones who really suffered, as did students. Well, especially the students. And, students will be victimized again when there are no full-time teachers hired to take the place of those who were let go. In fact, students will be subjected to a revolving-door of substitutes. When it comes time for testing, students will not make the growth expected, and teachers and students will be blamed (as usual). Only, in this case, the blame is off its mark. You can say substitutes are under-prepared, even unqualified to teach a subject area. But, they do not choose where they are placed; nor did they choose to fire 375 teachers (to make up for a gap in the budget grown under another leader's rule). But they will be blamed regardless.

The winner in all of this? Those who want to strip the public schools of even more money, those who want to privatize, and those who hate the public schools. The losers? Why, the students, as usual.

Too much on my mind

2008-10-14T09:48:00.002-04:00

At 4AM this morning when the sky started to lighten, I was more than a little upset with myself. I just couldn't sleep. Honestly, I tried. But I think I just had too much on my mind. If I'd been smart I would have gotten my butt out of bed and gone downstairs to write. Instead I watched some stupid show about cakes. Not the best use of my time.

Here's the short list that's been flowing around...

After paying the mortgage, insurance, utilities, car payment, etc., I have about $400 a month left. That's before food and fun. This time last year I had close to $1000. I am not a big spender. It's kind of scary.

Hmmm.... I am introducing the students today to No Child Left Behind. Do I want to do the historical piece, or just jump into the last 10 years?

Oh, yeah, I can't forget the difference between compulsory and compensatory education.

Should I use the NCLB video?

I really need to find my copy of the Bruner text.

Crap I haven't read the student essays.

Two weeks left for the deadline for the Citizenship piece.

The MWPSA conference call was extended to Friday. Should I send in a piece? Will MSU fund the travel if I get accepted?

I need to get the fall planting done.

Crap, I'm running out of socks. Time to do laundry.

Is public education a right or a privilege? What are the implications for learning depending on your answer?

I wonder if I use the springform pan, Will the chocolate cake turn out better?

Giants game on Sunday. It better not rain. I do not like football enough to go sit in the rain for 3 hours.

I need to write that forward for the book.

It's a relief that Teacher Ed Admissions are done. I couldn't handle another week of that.

Yeah, what goes on in my head is not a pretty thing. And that's just what I remember from last night.

For those of you who think racism is a thing of the past...

2008-10-12T11:36:00.003-04:00

Watch this. And this. And no, this is not some old guy who is expressing his own sad and sick point of view. There are many others around him who are laughing and encouraging him.

I'd like to say that I am shocked, but sad to say, I'm not.

The DOW is below 9000 and I am really scared

2008-10-09T16:55:00.002-04:00

Let's admit it, the dramatic side of me is one prone to hyperbolic statements. But, I think it's safe to say that I am not alone given the recent turn of events in the US market. I've found it fascinating that the talking heads have been on television saying things like, "Now is not the time to assign blame" and the like regarding the fact that we are now facing the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. But when the Dow Jones closed at 8579, I thought I was going to be sick (remember when it hit 14,000?). So much for the 850 billion bailout (or rescue, depending on the speaker).

When I think about what this means for public education, I shudder (OK, I am trembling at many things right now, but I have to stop panicking about paying my bills). Budgets are going to be stripped even more than they already have. The feds are going to cut education spending, even though they will most likely NOT lessen the NCLB stranglehold. Things are going to get a lot worse.

But it's not just about education spending, folks. Families have been struggling for a while, and it is getting much, much worse. Too many families are losing their home to foreclosure. And it's not just people who own their homes. Families who rent are also being slapped with evictions because their landlords have been foreclosed upon as well. I am not sympathizing with the property owners here. People who are renting are paying like good tenants. And they are getting screwed.

People being evicted means more kids homeless. And this is not just an urban phenomenon. It's happening everywhere, and it's going to make learning more difficult than usual. But even for families who are staying in their homes, life is going to stay pretty tough. Parents are going to make hard choices between food, utilities, insurance, etc. It's a scary thought.

For those who believe children are oblivious to this, trust me, they aren't. Many of them pick up on parental stress, and it makes them incredible anxious as well. And it's hard to be a kid who is stressed about things that are hard to understand.

Paul Newman died over the weekend

2008-09-29T22:36:00.002-04:00

It's a sad day for goodness. Paul Newman died from cancer over the weekend. For many people, Newman was one of the great movie actors. I didn't get to know his body of work until I was an adult. However, what I really know about Newman is all of the great work he has done as a community activist. He started an educational program about drugs after his son died from an overdose. He opened the Hole in the Wall Gang camps for seriously ill children. He worked tirelessly as a philanthropist because he believed that you had to leave the world a better place.

I'm going to miss his voice on the national stage.

And I need to go watch some his movies.

Check out this other post

2008-09-24T00:21:00.001-04:00

For those of you in Public Purposes, check out this post. It's the one I mentioned that you can use as a guide for your own writing. Clearly, it's a lot longer than 250 words. The other site, where you can find the aforementioned post will also be our landing spot for all of us. I will be entering your blogs tomorrow.

Tally ho!

OK, I don't want to quit anymore.

2008-09-24T00:16:00.002-04:00

Today was a great day. I LOVE going into the K-12 schools, especially the school I was in today. I find so much life there. And, I have to admit that I find high school students a trip... and in a good way.

On a completely unrelated note, I got my bike fixed, too! I was really upset yesterday when she wouldn't start. Needed to charge the battery and will have to take her back to the shop to fix a short in the brake light (actually, not a short--the darn thing won't go out until I hit the kill switch), but she's on the road again. Wahoo! Which, until I start running again, is one of the only things that keeps me calm, and pleasant, and almost fun to be around.

There are days that I want to quit...

2008-09-18T23:00:00.002-04:00

like today. I won't get into today's specifics, but I am glad the weekend is almost here. I need the time to get some perspective. In the meantime...

Teaching is incredibly personal business, especially if you take it seriously. I think I take it too seriously. Today was one of those days that included a series of interactions that felt like I got a knife in my gut. It left me doubting myself, my teaching, and who I am as a person. As a matter of fact, I am still so close to it and upset by it, that I can't write about it. I may never be able to. I can, however, give you some idea of the type of pain it is causing me.

When I taught public school, I was told that I couldn't fail a group of students because they met the attendance requirement. Didn't matter that they had averages below 60. I threw a fit and didn't get tenure.

I now teach at a public university. My second year, I gave a grad student a B+. It was a gift. She failed the final paper. She spent the first 8 pages of a ten page paper talking about how wonderful her childhood was. The purpose of the paper was to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of public education. When she didn't get her A, she went to the University Pres. and demanded that I be fired because I was clearly incompetent. I was forced to give her an A-.

I had a student cheat. I mean really cheat. Hand in the paper of another one of my students from the previous semester. Too bad he didn't bother to check that the midterm was a different test question. When I wanted to get him kicked out of school, the kid basically threatened me and I was told not to fight because the student was a star athlete. The coach could make my life a living hell.

I work really hard to challenge my students. I prepare them to be teachers. You would not believe the crap they give me when I make them read and then apply what they read. I teach them how to assess students. They learn how to write tests, construct essay prompts, etc., and how to effectively grade those assessments. And then they say things like I didn't teach them anything. I guess the hours and hours of out-of-class help and extensive feedback and comments was mental masturbation.

Of course I do a lot of other things with my students, and I have a lot of success with them. But it's days like today that overshadow the good, and make me forget why I became a teacher in the first place. And, it's days like today that make me question whether it is really worth it.

Like I said, today was a really bad day.

50 million spent to certify 200 teachers

2008-08-11T23:08:00.001-04:00

OK, I haven't written a diary here in a while. I've been teaching nonstop, maintaining 3 other blogs for my classes each semester, trying to be a radical researcher in a not-so-radical world, and engaging in the joys of administrivia as a Summer Chair. But I had to write here. Tonight. NOW.

Like I said above, the Federal Government has wasted FIFTY MILLION DOLLARS to certify 200 teachers. In a day and age when I work with teachers who have to bring their own paper, pencils, and other supplies, I am out of words (almost) after reading this little piece of news.

The Background...

In case you didn't know, Congress passed its latest reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, called the (H.R. 4137). You can read more about it here. I've been following debates surrounding the new HEA for a number of reasons, but mostly because of David Horowitz's attacks on higher education as bastions of liberal thought. OK, so maybe some of them are more liberal, say, when we compare the New School to the University of Chicago, but on the whole, Horowitz's work fails to stand up to scrutiny. However, that is not the purpose of my diary.

I have been particularly concerned as of late about whether Secretary Margaret Spellings would win her way and mirror the HEA after NCLB. In fact, I was convinced that the HEA would be no more than an extension of NCLB. However, Congress surprised me, and instead focused on larger issues than just accountability. This, of course, made the Bush Administration and Margaret Spellings, pom pom girl extraordinaire... I mean Secretary of Education, very mad. They are completely against spending federal dollars without accountability. Their disdain was most clear in a Spellings Op-Ed from earlier this year.

So imagine my surprise when I did a little more digging tonight (as part of my research on a piece responding to the Highly Qualified Teacher Provisions under Title Two of the HEA), when I read the following:

The Federal government has spent more than $50 million on one program, the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence, that has licensed a total of 200 teachers and is accepted in five states. (p. 6)

WTF????

The Bush Administration has authorized the Department of Education to develop a certification exam that states could use. No shocker there. After all, NCLB is proof that they like tests. But while reading testimony before the Subcommittee on Higher Education entitled, Preparing Teachers for the Classroom: The Role of the Higher Education Act and No Child Left Behind, I actually had to stop for a minute, put down the mac, and walk away. When I came back a few minutes later, the numbers were still there.

$50 million.

I shouldn't be surprised, I suppose. All politicians spend lots of taxpayer money on pet projects. I think I was shocked more because of what I had heard from a buddy of mine about the test itself. He was actually hired by the feds to do some standards setting and norm the test (he has a PhD in this stuff). The first time my buddy called me about it, he was shocked at the paucity of questions regarding learning, child and adolescent development, and student learning needs. The only questions asked, he noted, focused on content area issues. The second time he called he was outraged that there were no questions about pedagogy, that is, about issues related to how to teach students so they could learn. It reminded him, he said, of all the college profs we had at No Name University who were really smart but couldn't teach their way out of a paper bag. He could not see how this exam would improve the quality of teachers, no matter how "good" the test was, because it focused on the wrong things.

And then I read about the $50 million dollars. Here, in the state of New Jersey, where I live and work, our state colleges and universities have been called to task for "wasteful spending." On the one hand, I agree that we need to be more responsible for our spending. And yet, NJ has one of the worst spending records for supporting higher education. And they have cut state college and university budgets by 20% over the last three years. Tuition is spiking even higher, my GRADUATE seminar courses have 30 students in them (unless I scare them off the first week of class--I am a demanding teacher), and we are told to "do more with less."

Do you know what we could do with $50 million? We could hire more than 1,200 teachers at $41,000 a year, which is about the median national teacher salary. While that doesn't seem like much, in my mind, it's a great start to remedying the many cuts that districts have had to make in their staffing to meet budget cuts (and increasing gas costs, etc.).

Done ranting.

Teaching is like gardening

2008-06-05T18:20:00.010-04:00

The picture of the calla lily above is from my garden. I have always loved to garden. When I was a child I used to take care of the rose bushes around the dog pen. I loved twining the roses in between the posts, and I looked forward to seeing the fruits of my labor.

Now, as an adult with my own home, I am gardening again. I grow your usual food: tomatoes, lettuce, peppers, spinach, collards, pak choi, carrots, radishes... etc. Sometimes things go really well; other times I deal with vermin, like Kehli who loves to slurp the centers out of just ripe tomatoes that she has harvested. As a result, I have put up fences around some of the beds, and have moved several of the planters out of the main yard.

But, my pride and joy are my flowers. I am not one of those people who loves perfectly landscaped gardens. Instead I inspire to a riot of colors and plants. Sometimes I am successful, sometimes not.

Last year was the first year I put in the back bed. I was so proud of myself. While I didn't put in the wall, I did pick, lay out and put in all the plants. It was a very pretty garden, and I had a number of plants that simply thrived. Still, I had others that failed to do well, and they had to be replaced this year. Even so, my first efforts were very pretty, and oh-so-neat.

Of course this year, the garden is out of control. I LOVE IT. It is a riot of plants, colors, and scents. I am very happy with it, and am planning to do a lot more work with it this summer. Of course, there is the usual work that needs to be done: weeding, trimming, hacking back, pinching, deadheading, fertilizing... it's a never ending process. But it's the daily, small stuff that makes the garden beautiful. It's also these daily chores that help the garden to thrive. Without this daily maintenance, the plants crowd each other, fighting for sun, the weeds choke emerging plants, and it just looks bad. You can never let it get away from you.

Teaching, in this respect, is much like gardening. It takes a lot of preparation beforehand to have a successful classroom. Just like you have to prep the soil, you need to set up a strong foundation for your students. You need to follow planting directions and meet the soil quality, water, and sun needs of each plant. You need to leave adequate room for the plant to spread. It's the same with students. They each have their own strengths and needs, and teachers must know what they are and meet them if their students are to thrive. And like gardens, there is a routine of things that must be done. In classrooms we need to reinforce new learning and ensure that the foundation remains strong.

Ultimately though, we need to decide what type of classroom we want. Do we need absolute order and try to bend Mother Nature to our will? Do we enjoy watching Mother Nature do what she does best? As teachers, we need to make the same decisions. We can quash children's curiosity and make them walk on the lines, sit in rows and never speak until spoken to. Or, we can encourage them to be who they are in all their messy glory. Some children will be quiet and understated like my ornamental bamboo, and others will be bigger than life like my climbing rose. Either way, we need to nurture our students. That's what teaching is all about.

Who is failing whom?

2008-06-05T08:00:00.003-04:00

Take a look at this:

You can see this chart in context and read the entire document here.

Do ya get it? Statewide, schools are not meeting AYP. We could look at this in a number of ways: NJ schools, teachers, administrators, and students are really as bad as the public wants to believe. On the one hand, these stats mask the truly dangerous and academically lacking schools in a sea of other schools. This is not what NCLB wanted to have happen. The ED wanted to be able to highlight the schools that were doing amazing things and pressure schools that were not to do a better job of educating their students. And let's be real, there are some schools that need to do a better job.

On the other hand, I have to ask what AYP is not taking into consideration. What the chart above doesn't talk show is that some of the best schools in the state and in the nation are having trouble making AYP. This leads me to wonder if how they determine AYP is more of a problem than the schools themselves.

OK, so that was a facetious question/statement. I have real issues with how AYP is determined. As I talked about before, I just spent three days visiting amazing schools in an urban center close to my home. There were amazing schools, and not all of them met AYP. Because of that, all the amazing stuff they do get lost in the fact that they don't meet AYP.

When good schools fail

2008-06-04T16:54:00.009-04:00

My students (undergraduate and graduate teacher education students) have spent the last three days visiting several different schools in a nearby urban community. We were guests of these schools as part of the Urban Educators' Institute, an initiative to introduce university students to the schools, teachers, students, and communities that make urban education so amazing and challenging. The theme of this year's institute was What is right about urban education? The short ending to a long story is the schools, the teachers, the students, and the administrators are right with urban education.

The schools were different in many ways. Some had strong administrators who were responsible for creating a professional learning community. In other schools, the culture of the schools themselves guided the school environment, so that the administrators could let things flow on their own. Some of the schools were older than 75 years. Others were built as recently this year. All of these schools housed amazing programs that provided rich, rigorous, and wonderful learning experiences for their students. The evidence was every where, on the streets outside the buildings where we watched parents talking with teachers as the dropped off or picked up their children, in the halls which we decorated with students' projects, in the classrooms where we got to see students and teachers learning together, and most importantly, we heard about it from the students themselves. They told us what they were learning, why it was important, and there were even some tears as they related to the audience the importance of the teachers and administrators who challenged and nurtured them.

The teachers exhibited everything that we (at the university which employs me) hope to instill in our teacher education students; they all have the content knowledge, the pedagogical content knowledge, the skills, and the dispositions of successful teachers. And the students were amazing. And yet, these young men and women that we met were also members of the larger urban community that the schools served. And when we had the chance to talk to them, we were able to take away new ways to engage our own students.

Which brings me to a poignant issue about these schools and the expectations that have been placed on them by the state and the federal government. If I had children (or ever decide that I am bored of the child-free environment in which I live), these are the types of schools where I would want to send them. The programs are strong. The teachers are amazing. The administrators are dedicated. And many of them are identified as schools in need of improvement.

It's the new rhetoric they use today. Before they were called failing schools. Now they simply need to improve. Of course the irony of this is that these schools are outstanding centers for learning. And yet, when most people hear they did not make AYP (adequate yearly progress), they assume these schools must be homes to lazy students, teachers who have checked out, and incompetent administrators. The stark reality is that AYP fails to consider what is right with schools. It focuses on what is wrong. And it's not just urban schools who are in trouble.

Another "What not to Wear" Moment Brought to you by Kehli

2008-06-03T21:43:00.001-04:00

This has nothing to do with education. It has to do with one of my three beasties (aka dogs), Kehli. You can see her lying on my bed here, and she's actually being quite agreeable. That's only because she is asleep.

Kehli is not a bad dog; she just has separation issues. I think that is because she was taken from her mother when she was very young. Sometimes the damage done is pretty mild... like when she chews up a box of Kleenex. Other times, it can be a little annoying, like when she chewed up my copy of David Harvey's A Brief History of Neoliberalism (2005: Oxford University Press).

Needless to say, I was a little annoyed. But what she has done in the last two weeks is downright tragic. It's not that I don't empathize. After all, she and her two partners in crime have been alone up to twelve hours a day. I thought they would be OK with the back door open and all. I was wrong. The first to go were my favorite glasses.

This, for lack of a better word, sucked. And it's not like I could yell at her, because I didn't catch her in the act. It was a good reminder of the fact that I need to be a little bit neater around the house. But of course, I didn't learn my lesson. I came home today to another new and lovely act of eyewear desecration; this time the victims were my fave Smith sun/snowboarding glasses.

I'm just thankful they weren't the brand new ones I bought while up visiting my brother, his wife, and my brand new nephew. Kinda cute, huh?

When students organize to protest

2008-05-21T17:26:00.005-04:00

I gotta admit, I am proud of the kids in the Bronx who refused to that the practice in social studies the other day. For those of you who don't know, a group of 8th graders in the Bronx refused to take an social studies practice exam. Along with the blank test forms they returned to the proctors, they included petitions signed by students. Among the statements on the petitions were critiques about too much testing, practice tests that had nothing to do with their grades, and testing instead of teaching. You can read about it here.

This is so exciting. Talk about students learning what it means to organize and protest. They are living and engaging in democracy. The downside is that students are going to be punished (banning them from graduation is being mentioned as a penalty) and the social studies teacher who, from all accounts, told the kids the protest might backfire (even though he supported their budding critical thinking skills), has been yanked from the classroom. Apparently engaging kids in reading history, engaging in critical thinking, and asking questions is not welcome in this school.

The sad thing is that this is going to be a teachable moment that will inevitably be lost. Instead of opening up the discussion with students to come to a compromise, the students are going to be punished for finding and using their collective voice (they defined those in power), and the teacher who nurtured them will most likely lose his job because he, too, failed to know and stay in his place.

Framing Teachers: No Child Left Behind, the media, and teachers and teaching

2008-04-14T16:53:00.002-04:00

Note: An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Midwestern Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL, 2008

As an urban teacher educator who is very interested in how education policy shapes the lived experiences of students and teachers in schools, the above moments intrigued me. After all, it’s been standard practice for some time now to employ lobbyists to get one’s interests supported in government. In the public sphere, we call it advertising (sometimes pandering), but the effect can often be the same. What I found so interesting about this was the fact that it leads me to wonder what, if anything, the public can believe in the media. For years now, conservatives have been critiquing the media in the United States for what they perceive to be a liberal bias. Liberals have shot back that the media, is in fact not liberal, but under the thumb of conservative pundits. And so it goes. While it might be nice to engage with this discussion, I have a different goal: to explore how the media frames No Child Left Behind.

Let me be clear. I am not a scholar in media studies. I am a teacher educator who is deeply committed to the promise of public education. Given the longstanding ambivalent relationship that the polity has with its public schools, investigating the political discourse surrounding NCLB has been of great interest to me. Debates over what schools should teach and to what end serve as a backdrop for much of the educational reform efforts we have seen, for a large part of the history of public education in the United States. Further, the pressure for public schools to perform for political and economic reasons have had an impact. From the first news that the Soviet Union won the space race and the initial approval of the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) to its latest reauthorization as No Child Left Behind (NCLB), public education has been viewed as the means to effect change (moral, social, cultural, and economic) in all of society in the United States even though the schools themselves are not independent of the communities and society they serve. And, as Arthur Lippman pointed out so long ago people can be manipulated in multiple ways to hold certain beliefs about the state of the nation, and the MSM plays a role in this.

When I poll my undergraduate teacher education students at the beginning of each semester to explore what they believe to be true about teaching, learning, and public schools, they express a number of beliefs about public schools that are firmly rooted in the American psyche: parents don’t care, the schools are failing students, teachers are lazy, teachers don’t care, progressive education is too soft, we need to go back to basics, money to fund schools isn’t important, understanding education theory isn’t as important as practical experience, etc. The list goes on. When I prod further to explore the origins of these beliefs, many students reference what we expect; they just know it, it was their personal experience, their parents told them, they have read/heard about it in the media, and most recently, because “we have NCLB.” It is important to note that the course in which I informally poll my undergraduate students is a required course they must complete BEFORE they apply to the teachers education program at the university at which I teach. And yet, their list is eerily similar to the one that Shaker & Heilman (2004) note has become the accepted view of public education today. Thus, while the above anecdote cannot and should not serve as a statement of truth about college students’ beliefs regarding the public schools, it does serve, on a number of levels, as the inspiration for this paper because it reflects the larger trends regarding perceptions of education.

If one were to take a closer look at the lists above, much of what is there reflects deeper held ideas, beliefs, and values that Americans express and hold about the purposes and functions of the public schools. In fact, many of these deep-held beliefs serve to organize people’s understandings about the world around them. This is what George Lakoff talked about in his work on metaphor, politics, and language. Lakoff illustrates how two contradictory metaphors, the strict parent and nurturant parent, can be utilized to explain the differing political worldviews of conservatives and liberals, and that these metaphors are intricately tied to the process of framing. At the same time, it is inappropriate to consider the media an independent entity that simply reports the news. Lippman (1922; 1997) wrote extensively during his lifetime on the ways in which the elite are able to harness venues like the mass media to shape the perceptions of the public. Herman & Chomsky (1985), building upon the notion of the “manufacture of consent” (e.g., the media serves to entertain, inform, and manipulate viewers based upon the interests of the powerful and the elite, so that viewers’ beliefs and values are shaped by the media), remind the reader that media outlets, after all, are not nonprofit organizations that function simply to serve the public good. Indeed, media outlets are businesses. Because they are subject to the control of owners, the market, and profit margins, they are not just in the business of reporting the news; they are also in the business of producing the news. As evidenced by the GAO report and later news reports about the Department of Education (ED) and its role in paying Armstrong Williams, a prominent African American commentator to tout NCLB when asked to guest on any news program or print outlet, what the public is exposed to is, in fact, shaped by very explicit goals. The choice of visual imagery (e.g., photos, graphics, advertising, etc.) indeed, whether the article itself is cover story, front page, above-the-fold news, is not randomly chosen. Decisions are made to sell papers, and more importantly, to win supporters.

Capturing the imagination of the polity

Historically, the use of pictures on the covers of magazines and front pages of newspapers has served as a means to entice people to buy, but also to function as a means of knowledge production by tapping into people’s emotions. My father collected certain issues of Life Magazine and was crushed when he discovered they were destroyed by water damage in the basement of my childhood home. After my grandmother’s death, my mother and I found several newspapers from the day President Kennedy was assassinated. For my Irish Catholic grandmother it was a horrible day (she mourned the loss of the first Irish Catholic President of the US even though she abhorred his politics). Each of us probably has a similar story to share.

While the examples above derive from my own family narrative, there are other examples that derive from a more collective national narrative. Take for instance the iconic images of the “Little Red Schoolhouse” or the one-room schol house in the historical narrative of the United States. In 1921 a progressive school named the Little Red School House and Elisabeth Irwin High School was founded. Begun as a progressive school, it persists today, in spite of the pressures of NCLB. Numerous other schools and a national curriculum share the same name. In contrast, the one-roomed schoolhouse is much more a rarity today. But what makes the notion of the one-roomed schoolhouse so iconic is the fact that the vision endures in spite of so many changes in society (transportation, population explosions, reform efforts, etc. The image of the little red school house or the one-room school house exists to this day because it harkens back to what people think of as being a simpler, less violent, more stable life. These images are so much part of US popular culture that one can find popular Clip Art capturing the iconic essence. Finally, the ED has also employed this imagery as part of the façade surrounding its entrance, including the words No Child Left Behind emblazened above the entryway.

Teachers unions

In the case of framing the state of public education, there are similar images available in the NYT and Time. And, some of these images literally leap from the papers and into larger than life icons because they can communicate on multiple levels in multiple ways (Mitchell & Weber, 1995). While recently attending the 2008 American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting in New York City, a colleague asked me if I had seen a 70 foot billboard that was located across the street (see Figure 5). This billboard was a replica of a full-page add taken out in the NYT by the Center for Union Facts (see Figure 6) and part of a recently launched campaign to draw attention to incompetent teachers and the unions that supposedy protect them. Other ads like this one from the NYT and other media outlets had been brought to my attention by my graduate students. Particularly in the last few weeks. On the billboard and in the ad was a picture of an apple with a bite taken out of it with a worm sticking out. The text above the apple read, “Vote for the WORST unionized TEACHERS (who can’t be fired)” (font size, etc., approximated). While standing in front of the billboard, my colleague and I watched two women stop to read the text. As they walked away, one of them laughed, and said “How funny is that! There really are so many bad teachers.” Another person walking by said, “You can read that because of a teacher.”

The irony that such a billboard was positioned outside an educational conference was not lost on me. Nor was the use of the iconic apple, often associated with teachers. The fact that there was a worm sticking out of a spot where a person had taken a bite was a great example of visual imagery. But what makes this billboard and the NYT ad important to this discussion is that the women I mentioned completed missed or overlooked the word “unionized” on the billboard. In fact, when one looks at the billboard and the NYT ad, the term “unionized” is in a font size much smaller and finer text than the rest of the text. If one were to glance, one might mistakenly read vote for the worst teachers. When exporing the background of this ad at www.TeachersUnionsExposed.com, there is no mention of from where their support comes other than a mention of the Center on Union Facts. Richard Berman, a Washington, DC lobbyist who has worked for the tobacco industry and other large-scale political interests for years founded the Center on Union Facts. This information is not immediately available to the public, unless one digs much deeper.

In addition to their general critique of teachers unions, the Center has also launched attacks on particular communities, including Newark, NJ, a high-needs district with which my home university partners. Upon exploring the website, the reader learns that they (the designers of the site) are not against teachers; they are against unions, union corruption, and union abuse. However, this message may not seem clear to the viewer of the ad. Indeed, by asking people to vote for the worst teachers, the focus is off any role the unions may or may not play in teacher employment. One’s attention is drawn to the teachers themselves. No mention is made of the conditions in which teachers work, particularly those who work in urban communities. And, these are the teachers whom are the focus of the Center for Union Facts attack. As a result, the critique of a collective, in this case teachers unions is reduced to an attack on individual teachers themselves.

The Labor Movement in the US itself has long been viewed in complex ways. On the one hand, its history of fighting for the rights of workers in terms of a living wage, safe work conditions, and the right to organize is well-known among some circles. In addition, unions also were a site of educational and intellectual development among the working class (Aronowitz & Giroux, 2004). This is not necessarily the image of unions, teachers unions in particular, the media has focused on, historically or today. A second ad by www.TeachersUnionsExposed.com framed teachers unions as bullies in schools. The photo is that of a young, blue-eyed, white boy with light brown hair. He is hung by the back of his coat over a coat hook hung on a brick wall. The image draws upon many-an-adults’ memories of the kid who was always bullied: hung up on hooks, shoved in lockers, lunch money or homework stolen. Instead of the bully being the bigger kid, however, the bully this ad points to is the teachers union. The text above the photo reads, “The Biggest Bully in Schools?” Below, it reads, “Teacher Unions.” The subtext reads, “Teacher unions bully principals into keeping bad teachers, scare politicians who support school reform, and block efforts to pay great teachers higher pay. It’s time to stand up to the bully.”

Indeed, groups like the Education Policy Institute (www.educationpolicy.org), and others have presented teachers unions as the primary obstacle to reforming education. Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, blamed the unions for the problems in public education in February of 2007 at an invited talk at a conference on technology and education w. Rod Paige’s new book, The War Against Hope is subtitled How Teachers’ Unions Hurt Children, Hinder Teachers, and Endanger Public Education (2007). To present teachers’ unions as bullies, not only ignores the long standing struggles for access, equity, and justice in which the unions have participated; it also frames them as an obstacle to justice. In doing so, the media frames school reform (and justice) as a process that must occur outside the realm of teachers and unions. They cannot be trusted to do what is just and right. They must be told what to do because if left to their own devices, they will cut a swath of destruction through their students, because they are lazy, incompetent, abusive, and above all, a threat to the American public.

The coverage of former Secretary of Education Rod Paige’s claim that the National Education Association (NEA) was a terrorist group is a case in point. On Tuesday, February 24, 2004, several US media outlets carried the story that Secretary of Education Roderick Paige called the National Education Association “a terrorist organization” the day before. The next day, Secretary Paige issued a written apology:

"It was an inappropriate choice of words to describe the obstructionist scare tactics the NEA’s Washington lobbyists have employed against No Child Left Behind’s historic educational reforms. I also said, as I have repeatedly, that our nation’s teachers, who have dedicated their lives to service in the classroom, are the real soldiers of democracy, whereas the NEA’s high-priced Washington lobbyists have made no secret that they will fight against bringing real, rock-solid improvements in the way we educate all our children regardless of skin color, accent or where they live. But, as one who grew up on the receiving end of insensitive remarks, I should have chosen my words better." (Secretary Paige Issues apology for the comment about the NEA, February 23, 2004)

Understandably, teacher organizations (and teachers themselves) responded to these statements with fury and disappointment, given that the Secretary of Education discursively situated the nation’s largest teachers’ association at the heated center of political violence and intimidation. Granted, he was most likely responding to the NEA’s resistance to NCLB, which critics consider to be poorly conceived. However, in claiming his comments were nothing more than a poor choice of words, Paige dismissed the reaction of the NEA and teachers as them being overly sensitive and naïve about the fact that NCLB was good for students and society.

The NYT carried no front-page coverage of this event. The Opinion section hosted five commentaries: two editorials, one op-ed, and two letters to the editor. While all five pieces were scathing of Paige’s remark, the fact that they were located in the Opinion section framed their content as clearly partisan. In contrast, the Education section hosted nine articles that referred to Secretary Paige’s comment. The first was an article reporting on the initial discursive act (2/24/2004). In the first article, Robert Pear, NYT reporter, noted that Paige said the NEA “was like ''a terrorist organization'' because of the way it was resisting many provisions of a school improvement law pushed through Congress by President Bush in 2001”. In further reporting of Paige’s apology, Pear noted that Paige stood by the intent of his words, noted that he (Paige) still had great respect for individual teachers (not teachers as a collective), but that he had merely made a “poor choice of words.” The remainder of the articles addressed calls for removing Secretary Paige from his position. All of these articles focused on the unions, individual teachers, some politicians and their reactions to the statement, not its implications for teachers, their work, or public perception of teachers. There was no mention of knowledge of or reaction to Paige’s comments from the wider public.

On one hand, it’s politics as usual; it is a classical rhetorical device to “demonize” what one perceives to be a threat. In this case, Secretary Paige saw the NEA as a threat to implementing NCLB, and therefore a threat to the Bush Administration’s perception of how to achieve justice for all children in the US (through testing, accountability, and choice). On the other hand, to call the teachers unions in general “bullies,” let alone the nation’s largest teachers’ association a “terrorist organization” politically detracts from the work in which unions and teachers engage, especially when the American public is already concerned about teachers and teaching on the national level. To only report the reactions of those who were victims of the attack, serves to further minimize the initial attack (the terrorist comment) and marginalizes the object of that attack (the NEA in particular, teachers unions in a broader sense, and teachers in general) because it is framed as a localized and individual concern, not one of larger social, political, and economic concerns.
Teachers

Still other images available in the media play upon assumptions about teachers. Mitchell and Weber (1995) note that there are several images about teachers that permeate US society. One of the most enduring, according to Mitchell and Weber (1995) is that of the prim and proper, white teacher. Both Time and the NYT utilize this image in their discussion of NCLB. Take, for instance, the February 5, 2008 cover of Time (Figure 8), which includes a picture of a young white female teacher with long brown hair, in a blue button down shirt and grey slacks. She is sitting in a student’s desk with an open math book and other books are visible underneath the desk. The phrases “How to make better teachers” and “Who would be the education President?” flank her on either side. The cover story itself, however, includes a photo of a young white male in white shirt, tie, and khakies. His arms are crossed, and he is flanked by blurred shapes of students (see Figure 9). The caption reads, “Ben Van Dyk fled public school to teach at parochial Servite High. Pay isn't great, but there's more support and freedom to teach creatively.” These and other visual images employed by both Time and the NYT present the image of teacher as predominately young, white, and conservative.

Visually, these two images play upon a number of assumptions about teachers and teaching. On the one hand, both publications presents “better teachers” as being young and fresh. The new teachers are presumably better than current teachers who are more experienced, older, resistant ot NCLB, and presumably part of the union. In this respect, NCLB and its focus on the Highly Qualified Teacher frames youth as something that is desirable because new teachers have not yet been jaded by those who would oppose the requirements of NCLB (see Cochran-Smith & Lyttle, 2006; Weiner, 2005).

The text of the article, however, is not about the age, skills, knowledge, or dispositions of talented teachers, nor is it about what challenges teachers face in the classroom. Instead, the focus is on merit pay, and how merit pay might widen the pool of potential teachers, reward teachers, and motivate teachers in general. Analysis reveals that the Time article, like others addressing issues related to the Highly Qualified Teachers Act, prestents recruiting new teachers and learning to teach, as independent of larger social issues. If one is motivated to teach, has the appropriate bachelors degree, and the desire to be successful (evidenced through raising test scores, etc.) then one can become the type of teacher the nation, under the geies of NCLB needs and want. Better teachers don’t need better preparation, more mentoring, a more stable school environment, better leadership, more resources. They simply need more pay to improve. Connecting the preparation of better teachers to issues of pay and the market reflects a wider public belief that if one is better at something, one will be payed more, because one is worth more. Those who do not perform as well, get paid less, or are fired.

My point here is not that teachers don’t deserve better pay, better working conditions, and more respect. Many teachers work second (and third) jobs to make up the difference between their salaries and the cost of living. Many teachers have to wait to go to the bathroom, have to buy their own supplies, and work in classrooms with inadequate desks (too few or the wrong size), lighting, and heating (too little or too much). Too many hard working educators are told they are “just teachers,” not nearly as important as the doctors, lawyers, and engineers who were once their students (some of homw also belong ot unions—which coincidentally, are rarely critiqued. One has to wonder why only teachers unions are subjects of such derision). The point is that the media frames issues related to justice as a matter of economic justice, as if pay, competition, and the market (in the form of merit pay, vouchers and school choice), will level the playing field for students and prepare them for the competitive workplace in a privatized world by incetivizing public education as a competitive workplace for teachers (McCluskey, 2007; Giroux, 2008; Hursh, 2008; Saltman, 2007). Problematic in this view, of course, is the notion that all school districts, students, and communities are the same, and therefore need and get the same.

In fact, those who are critical of NCLB are excluded from the discussion simply because they challenge the prevailing view of those in power (van Dijk, 1998), and therefore are part of the problem, not the solution. In a speech to the Greater Huston Partnership, Secretary Paige reflected this sentiment.

"Now I know…they [teachers unions, those opposed to NCLB] will fight it anyway they can. If those who fear change defeat national reform, then division, exclusion, racism, and callousness win. This is a debate with profound consequences. If we lose this debate, millions of children will be harmed by being excluded, ignored, disrespected, and under-educated, and then sent out into a world for which they are educationally unprepared and uncompetitive. Who among us would wish that on any child?" (12/15/03)

The discourse here constructs anyone who challenges NCLB bitter and unreasonable. They are not doing so based upon reasonable arguments; they are instead irrational obstructionists who don’t believe in the full potential of all children. Those who challenge NCLB don’t believe in equality, they want to divide the nation and maintain the current status quo of inequitable educational experience, no choice and no opportunity. In this sense, they oppose social justice for students, particularly those from poor or minority communities.

It is significant that this view of justice is so able to capitalize upon what is collectively understood as core American values of equality and opportunity (Feinberg, 1999; Parker, 2003; Sehr, 1997). While this discourse has not silenced the dissension of NCLB, it has effectively de-legitimized much of it, relegated that dissension to the margins, and is so powerful that it has been able to shape the common understanding of public education and where fault for its shortcomings lies (with schools and teachers, not with larger institutions, see for instance, Cochran-Smith & Lyttle, 2006). And, the media, in its discussion of NCLB, still frames its policies and practices as a viable means for achieving justice (in the form of economic access) even when it presents a critique of aspects of or actions surrounding the legislation (for instance, budget cuts, issues related to state standards, etc.).

Take for instance, the October 13, 2004 NYT article about the 2004 US Commission of Civil Rights report about the Bush Administration. According to Janofsky, President Bush,
“neither exhibited leadership on pressing civil rights issues nor taken actions that matched his words."

The draft, prepared by the commission staff, accuses Mr. Bush of civil rights failures in education, voting, gay and lesbian issues, affirmative action, housing, environmental justice, racial profiling and hate crimes and concludes by saying, "Failing to build on common ground, the Bush administration missed opportunities to build consensus on key civil rights issues and has instead adopted policies that divide Americans." (2004)
Instead of continuing to report the findings of the Commission and providing details of the report, the article instead focused on the timing of the report’s release (right before the 2004 Presidential elections) and the fact that a number of Republican voting members of the commission were disturbed by its timing. Janofsky reported that, “Republicans were clearly concerned that politics were trumping fairness. Mr. Kirsanow [the Commissioner] said that the draft "evinces a bias and political slant unacceptable from an allegedly nonpartisan agency." Thus, the focus of the article was more about the individual political concerns of members of the Commission and the timing of the report draft (which was well-known given the process) rather than the content of the report. Instead of digging into the deeper, and more complex issues at stake, the NYT here, and in other places simply presented opposing viewpoints (about the timing of the report) rather than addressing or engaging in a critique of the content of the report (and whether, or not, President Bush’s record merited the critique—see, for instance, Gerstl-Pepin, 1998 on “thin” public, and Gerstl-Pepin, 2002).

The above article illustrates how what some might consider the real news (a report detailing President Bush’s record on civil rights, particularly in relation to education), is not nearly as important as the politics surrounding the release of that report. Instead of focusing on the content of the report, the concerns of individual Republican members of the Commission are deemed more news-worthy (and of more value) than the polity’s right to information prior to an election, whether about an administration in general, or public education specifically. Instead, the issues are framed in terms of the idea that “it’s politics as usual” and therefore not news of a serious issue.

The point is that the media, in the images it produces (whether in the form of advertisements, or journalist photos), in what it reports, where and how, frames issues related to NCLB and education in general in ways that do little to transcend what people’s current beliefs about them are. It simply “reports the news.” As a result, the message is left unchecked. In the case of how the media frames issues of justice as it relates to NCLB, the connection is not necessarily a direct one in the MSM. Indeed, as this discussion illustrated, media representations of unions and teachers frame the discussion more in terms of what and who impede justice, not in terms of what was necessary to achieve it.

Conclusions: Imaging unions and teachers as anti-justice

The discussion here is by no means an exhaustive one. It is a first foray into interrogating how the media contributes to the framing of NCLB within the wider community. It is interesting to note that while many people in the United States are suspicious of the main stream media, they still engage in consuming it and repeating what it reports. In this respect, the media then wields a great deal of power in terms of how it frames different issues, particularly those related to NCLB. In his discussion of television and the media, Bourdieu noted,

"The political dangers inherent in the ordinary use of television have to do with the fact that images have peculiar capacity to produce what critics call a reality effect [italics original]. They show things and make people believe in what they show. This power to show is also a power to mobilize. It can give a life to ideas or images, but also to groups. The news, the incidents and accidents of everyday life, can be loaded with political or ethnic significance liable to unleash strong, often negative feeings, such as racism, chauvinism, the fear-hatred of the foreigner or, xenophobia. The simple report, the very fact of reporting, of putting on record as a reporter, always implies a social constructions of reality that can mobilize (or demobilze) individuals or groups." (1996, p. 21)

When the media continues to simply “present” the story or report the facts, it fails to take responsibility for the fact that it is complicit in how people interpret those news reports. People bring assumptions and beliefs to every text with which they engage and the media is no different. At the same time, however, the media also has the power to give to or take away voice from different groups, depending upon how it presents the content of the story.

In the next few months, NCLB will be (hopefully) hotly debated: in homes, in schools, in coffee houses, at the local burger joint, just as it will be in state and federal governments. As the nation moves forward to reauthorize the legislation, hopefully, there will be serious changes beyond the current discussion. Media outlets like the NYT and Time can play a role in not only reporting the news, they can and should engage in a deeper critique about what they consequences might be for schools, teachers, and most importantly, students, as the ED moves forward. If the only changes are to be relieving suburban districts of some of their requirements—what Secretary Spellings has called “triage”—or requiring states to report graduation rates using a set equation, which will undoubtably heighten concerns about a long-standing problem—one that Fine, 1991 and others discussed extensively before the recent reports about dropouts in the the NYT and Time—then little will change in terms of the educational experiences of students. They and their teachers will still be held responsible for achieving their own justice without any real support from those who are making demands for equality, execellence, and justice form them.

It's all about the budget, or where the money goes reflects one's priorities

2008-02-05T13:18:00.000-05:00

The President has announced his budget for the coming year, and surprise! Education spending is flat, healthcare (medicare and medicaid) is cut by $200b and defense spending is up $200b. While I understand we are in a war (much as I hate it), what this Administration is doing to public education and students is killing me. More and more schools are "under corrective action" and they are not getting the support they need to effect the changes that NCLB calls for.

I really have to ask (tongue-in-cheek, of course), where the nation's priorities lie? Test scores don't really tell us what students are learning, and they certainly don't reflect their ability to think critically or not. So many people are on the standards and testing bandwagon, but no one is talking about how students learn, the conditions in which teaching and learning occurs, etc. And few people want to acknowledge the fact that the schools cannot work independently of the larger social and economic realities that are out there. It's what Lawrence Cremin talked about in the 1980's: schools do not operate in a vacuum. They cannot be expected to ameliorate the ills of society alone.

Let the fun begin! aka Spring 2008

2008-01-22T09:00:00.000-05:00

Sigh. It's the first day of the spring semester. Where did the break go? I got no writing done this break (I was shooting for two manuscripts), but I did get out of town, which was nice. I got to spend four days looking at this. What a great time!

But, I digress. The first week of the semester is always a whirlwind. Meeting new students, making sure the syllable are done, copies to post on Blackboard, trying to take care on Incompletes from the semester before... it never ends. But it's exciting, I have to admit. With the beginning of each semester comes the chance to learn something new. I think that's the thing I love the most about teaching. No day is every the same, nor is any group of students.

And off we go!

T minus two weeks

2008-01-08T10:24:00.000-05:00

The spring semester starts in two weeks. Somehow, it feels like I have had no break at all. Well, actually, I haven't. The holidays are never relaxing. Last minute shopping (well, all my shopping), spending time with family, spending time with other people's families, the New Year, getting sick, finishing grades, returning presents... Add onto that gutting a kitchen, taking a quick trip out of town, and trying to meet with students, and suddenly the new semester is here.

On the one hand, I need another month to get my head together. On the other hand, getting into the spring swing of things is great. The days are getting longer, I can run with the dogs, ride my bike. I also find that I much more efficient and focused in the spring. It's got to be the angle of the earth or something.

Needless to say, it's time to start getting things set up for the spring. I think I've come up with some interesting new visions for my classes, and I am excited to set everything up so everyone is all set to hit the ground running for class.

Two weeks... can I get it all done?

To the fool who called in the bomb scare...

2007-12-06T18:35:00.000-05:00

Yes, folks, for those of you who missed the fun today, there was a bomb scare that closed University hall for over three hours. As a result, I got to teach in the student cafe. Joy.

But seriously, it really irks me that someone thinks it's a good idea to call and get the largest academic building on a college campus closed the week before finals. Ok, maybe it makes sense if one is trying to avoid having to take an exam or hand in a project. Good for you. What about the 16,000 other students who have classes in that building?

I have to commend my undergrads who came to the cafe today to work on their projects, get feedback, etc. I'm sorry it was not our best hour. It will work itself out.

To the yahoo who made the bomb threat. If you didn't already know, it's against the law. And for once, I am glad the Patriot Act can spank your ass to the fullest extent of the law. How dare you be so selfish?

OK, I feel all better now.

The Bee Movie, or, Lessons in not rocking the boat

2007-11-20T12:01:00.000-05:00

OK, I admit it; sometimes my critical brain simply WON'T TURN OFF. I try, but sometimes, I just have to read my world critically.

So, last week I went to see Bee Movie as an escape from the pressures of academic life and the real world. I figured, cute kids' movie, Jerry Seinfeld... what could be bad? Gee, I was wrong.

For those of you haven't seen the movie, you might not want to read on. I am going to ruin the movie for you right now. For those of you who have seen the movie, I'm probably going to ruin it for you, too.

The movie is about Barry Bee who fights 27 millions years of evolution to break out of the bee mold in order to do something different with his life. After graduating school (after three days!), he is told he needs to pick a job that he will have for the rest of his life. Not satisfied with the idea of doing one thing until the day he dies, he decides to take a risk and go out with the pollen jocks. Unlike the pollen jocks, who resemble the archetypal WWII fly boys, Barry is, shall we say, rather puny. But, he goes out with them, and discovers a whole world beyond the hive. And here is where the trouble really begins.

It was bad enough that he couldn't decide what he wanted to do with the rest of his life, he actually went out and met a human girl. That's right, he was dating outside the species (and a big deal is made about this). After all, humans are not supposed to know that bees can talk, and there is a long standing history of bees dying at the hands of humans, what with the swatting and all. What makes it worse (or at least, how I read the message in the remainder of the movie) was the fact the he continued to fly in the face of 27 millions years of doing things the same way. Barry discovered that humans were exploiting bees by smoking them and stealing their honey. So what does Barry do? He sues the human race... and wins.

Everything goes south of course, because the bees get back all the honey that was taken from them. There was so much honey, in fact, that they had to suspend production. As a result, the formerly industrious bees, became lazy and slothful, because they no longer had to work. As a result, no pollination, and the world's flowers, trees, and crops started die off.

Of course, with the help of his human girlfriend, Barry learned the error of his ways, and saved the world by convincing the bees he'd made a mistake, and it really was a bad idea to fight 27 million years of evolution. So, they pollinated and the bees went back to producing honey, etc. And Barry became a civil rights lawyer for animals.

The message? Everyone has their place, and we can't disrupt the natural order of things, particularly when it comes to workers, production, and consumption. Workers can't be trusted to know what's best for them or for society, and one uppity individual who fights for workers' rights and justice can undo the entire order of things. And that, is far more dangerous.

How can we afford $459 billion for war and not $151 billion on education, health, and labor????

2007-11-13T18:38:00.000-05:00

It's official, I could SCREAM. For those of you who don't know, President Bush vetoed a spending bill for Education, Health, and Labor (at 150.7 billion) because Congress was acting "like a teenager with a credit card," but approved the $459 billion INCREASE in war spending.

What!?!?!?!?!?! I get the fact that my priorities are vastly different than the President's. I accepted that long ago. But to continue to mandate the pressures of NCLB without filling in the funding gap makes me want to puke. Certain folks in the Administration are complaining that Congress is being pressured by special interest groups to fund these earmarked projects. I think this is the first time I've ever been forced to view kids as special interest groups.

And this, all from the "Education President."

You can read more about it here. And yes, I am biased. Deal with it (I'm also, apparently, really in a bad mood).

Sometimes when you fall down, it's better to just stay there

2007-11-13T13:31:00.000-05:00

No, this is not about "stupid human tricks." It's about the fact that I realized (well, finally let go of my denial) that I am doing way too much. The end result? I am doing nothing as well as I should. Three classes, two doctoral dissertations, one doctoral, portfolio, 5 masters thesis projects, one independent study, my own research and writing, 4 committees, Graduate Council... and that's just my professional life. I like being busy, and I tend to be more efficient when I have a lot on my plate. But, come on! This is ridiculous.

The reality is that in every workplace, there are people who get away with doing the minimum, those who kill themselves, and there are the smart workers. They are the ones who know how to pick and choose their responsibilities, and really shine because they can focus on what they need to. Clearly, I am not a smart worker right now. But I gotta get there. And soon.

Heading down the homestretch

2007-11-06T13:57:00.000-05:00

It's been almost a month since I've posted. To be honest, I didn't think it was that long. I guess time got away from me.

Teaching can be grueling. It's not the planning or the grading that gets to me (though I hate grading, I admit it). It's what happens in the classroom that drains me. Teaching simply takes a lot of energy.

First, getting students engaged is not as easy as some would like to think. There is this perception out there that learning has to be fun in order for students to be successful. Lights, and music, and lots of movement... sorry folks, it just doesn't always work out that way. Learning can be really hard work, especially when you have to stop and think about what you are reading, talking about, and working towards. Sometimes, goals are not all-that-apparent.

Second, there is always too much to teach and not enough time. You always have to decide what to cut. It kills me to say that, but it's the truth. Do I cut the reading? The lecture? The KWL? The paper? I can never decide.

Finally, teaching never stops. A friend asked me last night if it was like being a student: you never really relaxed until that last final was in. Well, sort of. Except, once all of the students hand in the finals, someone still has to grade them.

Just how much can teachers and schools do?

2007-10-09T10:34:00.000-04:00

It's an honest question, and one that I am surprised hasn't come up in class yet. For a very long time now, the view has been that schools need to do it all. On the one hand, some people are quick to jump and blame the parents (they don't care, they are lazy, etc.) without really exploring why parents may not be involved. True, there are always parents who may not care (and it's not just an urban thing--they exist in all communities). For me there is a deeper issue that needs to be explored: the responsibility society has placed on schools.

There's an interest blogpost in the New York Times that a Chicago teacher posted. It's a wonderful post on so many levels, but it raised the issue of how much schools and teachers can do. You can read the post here. There are also some really great comments attached to the post.

In the 1800's and early 1900's, especially after school became compulsory (e.g., required by law), schools were expected to play the role of "parent" while students were in school. It was called "en loco parentis." On a deeper level, though, schools were expected in some communities to replace parents. The goal here was to make students "American" and to remove as much of the "immigrant" from them as possible. The ironic thing about all of this is that society wanted schools to assume the role of parent, and yet, it still blames parents for not being involved enough.

In fact, we see this today with parents. Schools and teachers tell parents they want them involved in their children's education. But the truth is, they don't want them too involved. I hear stories all the time from both sides. Parents are pushy, and try to tell teachers how to do their jobs (from teachers); teachers and schools are unresponsive or patronizing (from parents). On many levels, this complex relationship has nothing to do with teachers, parents, and students. The system itself relies on these three groups not coming together. The truth is, teachers and parents have a lot of the same concerns. If they were to actually work together, they would be a very powerful block that could get things done. In this sense, they are a threat to the way things are and the way things are done. Just imagine if they all got together to voice their concerns, together, regarding the way in which No Child Left Behind has narrowed the curriculum.

So back to my original question: Just how much can teachers and schools do? They can't do what society expects them to do. They cannot eliminate poverty (though some would like to believe they can). They cannot make society equitable (they are part of society). They cannot fight abuse, unemployment, jobs being shifted overseas, no health care. And yet, too often all of this becomes their burden, on top of teaching. The end result is that teachers are spread too thin. This means the difference between doing one or two things really well and doing a lot of things mediocre.

Ultimately though, teachers get the blame (and parents, too) and students suffer.

A sad day for public school students

2007-10-03T08:42:00.000-04:00

A teacher enrolled in one of my classes was called up to active duty. I am filled with mixed emotions about this, and not just about my personal issues with the concept of war, but with this war in general. But, I respect the choice of this teacher, and all I want is for him to come home safely to his family, friends, and students.

But I really am sad for his students. It takes about 6 weeks, in my experience, for teachers and their students to really settle into their routine, trust one another, and figure things out. This means that he and his students have just hit their grove, and he is being taken away from them. If they are lucky, they'll get a new teacher for the rest of the year, and they can start the process all over again. If they aren't, they could have 5 or 6 subs between now and June. It's a sad day for public ed.

Now this history teacher is not the first to be called to serve the nation, but he is one of the few that I have had the pleasure of knowing and working with. I am torn because we need his talent as a teacher here, even though his other talents are needed elsewhere.

Ultimately, all of this is a moot point. I just want him to come home safely, in one piece. But it did keep me up last night.

My reintroduction to yoga (or why teachers can make the worst students)

2007-09-24T19:43:00.000-04:00

This fall I decided to enroll in a weekly yoga class. In the past, I would promise myself that I would go and then would find all sorts of excuses not to go. So, I paid in advance and it's the same class at the same time every week for the next ten weeks.

I'm doing this for me. It's all part of my plan to help me live a happier life. Doing so will also make me a better teacher. But, I have to say, I was not the happiest of students tonight.

I'll be honest, whenever I am in a class, I end up analyzing the teaching and learning dynamic. It's not that I want to be mean; it's what I do. So, I arrive for the class, and they have moved the location. There were no signs, and I found that vaguely amusing, until I got into the class. The instructor could not decide which way she wanted the class to face. In fact, she changed her mind three or four times in the first ten minutes. It wasn't a pedagogical tool. She simply got thrown off by the change.

OK, I can live with that. I've been thrown off by the unexpected many times. But then, she started class, and I thought I was going to lose my mind. I was once again reminded of what it was like to be the kid in the class who was bored. All I wanted was to get into the poses, breathe, and feel my body respond to the movement and holds. And then she would do things like say, "Let me show you..." and would start to explain a new pose. And of course, students would begin o follow (because she had students follow before). But then she would change her mind and tell us to watch. urgh.

The high (low) point was when she noted that she was relieved that the folks who knew what they were doing were in the back of the room. Gee, make people feel bad because they'd never taken a class before. And why not use those students with more experience as models?

My point here is that teachers can make lousy students because they have an idea in their heads about how teaching and learning ought to occur. As one of those teachers who has always worked with a wide range of students, I know not to call out students. I also know that I need to give directions and be consistent. And, I also know that I need to tell students where we are going, where we have been, and where we will go.

Sigh. I'm going to try and leave the teacher me at home next week so that I can simply enjoy the yoga. I need it. I want it.

A note about blogging

2007-09-23T22:39:00.000-04:00

Blogging is not one of those things we don't have to do every day. Sometimes it's something that we do 3 or 4 times a day. It's the same with commenting. And, as we engage in this type of "intellectual" work, it's also important to remember that even if something is not commented upon, that doesn't mean it hasn't been read.

In some spheres, that called lurking: you hop on a blog to see what's written and commented. I encourage it; I do it. It's part of the process.

But don't stress if you don't see a comment on your blog or a response to a comment. That is, of course, unless it's December and your blog is just you and no one else.

It's a good thing it's Friday (and getting a little help from your friends)

2007-09-21T10:59:00.000-04:00

I love weekends, and not because I take them "off". Teachers very rarely get their weekends free. I do refrain from email and spending lots of time on the web, because that's just too time-consuming.

For me, weekends are about regrouping, relaxing, rethinking, and revisioning. I know it sounds silly, but I've learned that taking time on the weekend and literally planning it into those 48 hours can make the rest of the week a more pleasant experience.

On regrouping: It's literally about mental, physical, and emotional health. Teaching well takes a lot of mental energy. Planning, teaching, grading, and making sure you make it clear for students can be a real challenge, especially when the content is second nature to you (and not your students). It's physically tiring because I move around a lot, have a lot of meetings, run between office and classroom, home and work. And teaching is emotionally tiring because I am still learning (after 14 years) how much of myself to give to my students. I never feel like I give enough. With almost 100 students this semester, there is less of me to go around to each student.

On relaxing: I have to do it. Sometimes it's gardening. Sometimes it involves movies, sometimes time with friends and family, a run with the dogs (planned for as soon as I finish this post), sleeping, music, reading... Relaxing is good for body and spirit.

On rethinking and revisioning: Ok, so this is actually more like work, but it's a different type of work. It is primarily intellectual. I think about what I taught, how it went, my writing... And sometimes, I even get some writing done, which is a good thing because it's expected.

As for getting a little help from your friends: today Marley decided I couldn't complete this post without his help. Therefore he is the co-author of this post. Of course it took me twice as long to get this done with his help, but it's all good.

Sigh. It's a good thing it's Friday.

The numbers and thinking like a teacher researcher

2007-09-18T21:44:00.000-04:00

OK, so we've been chatting about some of the numbers. In some cases you are all falling asleep, in others, you are all fired up. Our task now is to turn our attention to thinking like a teacher researcher.

The Anderson preface talks about the importance of being a teacher researcher given today's political context.

So, being a teacher researcher, how would you use these numbers to pose relevant questions about curriculum? Why are they important? How would you answer them?

There are some things a teacher education program can never prepare you for.

2007-09-17T12:20:00.000-04:00

Let's face it. We can teach you the theory, the history, etc. We can teach you how to develop curriculum, write appropriate lesson plans, help you to understand the needs of different learners, use assessments wisely, etc. But there are some things we can never teach you how to do. We can tell you our own experiences, we can brainstorm solutions. But, it's all different once you are out in the real world.

I could talk about some of what I've learned as a teacher, but I'd rather share the reflections of a second year teacher here. I came across this a few minutes ago. It's worth the read. And it really does the job of posing an important question: What is the relationship between schools and US society?

Numbers, numbers everywhere, but what do they mean?

2007-09-13T08:37:00.000-04:00

Numbers fascinate me. Actually, how researchers and demographers collect information and turn that information into numbers, specifically statistics, really fascinates me. That's because numbers can lie. Not the numbers themselves, but how people collect, compile, and represent the numbers can be misleading. Take for instance the idea of a dropout rate. In most districts, students are considered dropouts if they sign out of school. That means going into the office, signing paperwork, meeting with a counselor, etc. Many students simply don't do that. So, when I look at the statistics presented in The Public Education Primer I'm not surprised at the numbers, but I am skeptical about them.

It doesn't shock me that something like 79% of teachers are women. Nor does it surprise me that 90% of teachers overall are white. After all, research has shown that women have moved into professions that were traditionally considered to be the domains of men. But the reverse has not happened. Men who become kindergarten teachers are often looked at with suspicion. After all, why would they want to work with young children? The same goes for nursing. In the case of minority teachers, it's also an issue of access. Prior to the Civil Rights Movement, many college-educated minorities, particularly African American, were blocked from most careers, except for teaching. In fact, being a teachers was highly esteemed within the community. When schools were integrated, many highly qualified minority teachers were shut out because white teachers were moved into predominantly minority schools, but minority teachers were not moved into white schools.

Whenever I see statistics like these, I wonder what questions were asked, what data was collected (and more importantly, what data was made available), and how they will be used to develop policy (that is, the plan of action or arguments that drive institutional practices). After all, I can look at a statistic and conclude something completely different from someone else. I guess that's the heart of the matter, we need to learn how to critically read statistics and how they are interpreted.

It's freakin' 7:52 AM

2007-09-13T07:57:00.000-04:00

And they start in with the jack hammers.I thought they weren't allowed to make that much noise until at least 8AM. I know it's only 8 minutes, but come on! Some of us are still sleeping, and some of us have not gotten enough sleep to want to hear that noise. Where's the coffee????

Life with Dogs

2007-09-12T20:35:00.001-04:00

This post has nothing to do with education. It's more about the joys of life.

I arrived home today after 6.5 hours at the university to discover that Kehli (pictured here) had a bit of separation anxiety while I was gone. I should add that she is only four months old, so it's not surprising that she gets a little wacky. But, she's 31 pounds, and getting pretty big.

As, I was saying, I returned home to discover that Kehli chewed up the pile of catalogs on the coffee table. She didn't chew any bills, journals, or work-related papers (as far as I could tell), but she SHREDDED everything else. If I had thought about it I would have taken a picture. Now that I've cleaned up and gone for a run (both with and without dogs), I can laugh. Sort of.

The New School Year

2007-09-11T10:40:00.001-04:00

Let's face it. Every new school year starts off with some level of chaos. I had the luck to find a blogger who is an artist (A life in scribbles), who's mom is a teacher. She drew a cartoon, which I think captures the fun of the first weeks of school, particularly the weather we've had so far this week (I had on my purple rubber ducky boots yesterday. I will be buying the matching yellow slicker in the next day or so. I think farce can be a good thing).

The challenge of the new year is not just the nerves (teachers and students have them), it's the changes that happen over the summer, AND the changes that happen in the first few days before and during school. Gotta love it. One thing I can definitely say about teaching is that you have to be OK with chaos and change.

It's just like riding a bike

2007-09-06T19:38:00.000-04:00

Once you get back on, it all comes back to you.

First class down, and the nerves are settling. I just hope that the second one goes a bit smoother (and I don't spend 40 minutes trying to park).

In the meantime, I got this really disturbing message from a colleague crowing about how wonderful it will be if we apply NCLB-style testing to higher ed. I wanted to scream, for so many reasons. Part of it was the fact the person doing the posting knows nothing about NCLB "assessments" and how it has narrowed the curriculum. There is also this assumption that the tests really indicate what students have learned, which is far more complicated than a multiple guess test can indicate. And, if the feds (and the states) were to require testing at the college level, in what content areas would we test students? How would that affect choices of majors? Would it result in closing down certain programs? The President and others have gone on record saying that they want to streamline college majors to better reflect the needs of the marketplace. That is very dangerous in my mind, because it will fundamentally change the role of higher education in a democratic society.

I need help on this one, because I need to respond to this colleague. I have a good deal of the research (from both sides of the aisle that point to problems), and I also know about the shady deals individual states have made with the ED. I need to hear from other people what they think before I compose a response.

Any thoughts?

T minus 12 hours

2007-09-05T23:36:00.000-04:00

In less than 12 hours, I will meet my first group of students for the semester. The butterflies are there; as usual I don't feel prepared. I'll probably be feeling this way 50 years from now (assuming I'm still breathing). Like most teachers, there are the usual questions that run through my head:

Will they like me (not really crucial, I'll settle for respect and positive regard)?
Will they come back (My syllabus is notorious for bringing about some student attrition)?
Will they get my sense of humor (If they do, class is great fun. If they don't, the crickets are really loud)?
Will I get them to love the subject matter?
Will my breath smell?
Will I make some horrible gaff (like tuck my skirt into my underwear--joke. See sense of humor question above)?
Will the technology work (always a crap shoot, which is why I have a back-up plan)?

Don't let anybody fool you that teaching is boring. If my nerves are any indication, it's like the Indy 500, only you have to race around students rather than cars. Oh, and the crashes are not nearly as heart-stopping.

The new NCLB, or, how can we once again punish urban communities for being, well, urban?

2007-09-03T13:03:00.000-04:00

I will not deny the fact that I have been highly critical of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) for a very long time. True, I was hopeful when it was first released in January 2001. A lot has changed since then as I have watched the federal government narrow public education to tests, scripted curriculum, and more tests. I have been enraged at how poor and under-resourced communities have been expected to produce the same results with fewer resources, only to be further financially penalized when they missed the mark. So imagine my reaction when I read this New York Times article this morning.

NCLB is up for reauthorization this year, and a number of different groups have been weighing in on what ought to be changed. There are the “accountability” advocates who say that they will consider no plan that weakens testing. There are those who want to change teacher licensure so that it can be easier for anyone with a Bachelors degree. And now there’s Miller’s latest idea: to ease requirements for suburban schools.

That’s right, folks. Middle class and suburban communities would be held to different standards. Then again, the article notes that states with large immigrant communities would also have different requirements. So why am I not screaming about the changes for immigrant students? It has to do with understanding privilege and language acquisition. This proposal would relax adequate yearly progress (AYP) requirements for suburban schools that have small numbers of students in different groups. What that means is that as long as the schools aren’t failing across the board, it’s OK that a student group or two (as long as it’s small) don’t make it. I thought that was the purpose of NCLB: to ensure that all students are counted. Under this plan, suburban schools don’t have to count all their students.

The changes for states with large immigrant populations are equally problematic. Rather than require schools with large English Language Learner (ELL) populations to test their students in English after two years, schools would have five years. This is good because the research on language acquisition indicates that it takes five years of instruction in English before ELL students would excel academically in an English-only classroom. The downside, of course, is that ELL students will be tested in their native languages for five years, which means that schools need to provide tests in many different languages (in my “suburban” district, that would mean up to sixty different languages). That will be a huge burden to individual districts, to say nothing about the educational impact on ELL students.

So why am I so crazed after reading this article? Because it once again indicates to me that NCLB is nothing more than a shell game to achieve the end of public education. If suburban schools aren’t held to the same standards as urban or rural schools, then the federal government is punishing the students who attend urban or rural schools for being “urban” or “rural” students. And, given the fact that urban and rural public schools tend to have fewer economic resources than their suburban counterparts, the federal government is engaging in a very pernicious form of discrimination. Let me be honest, I am a former inner-city school teacher who is committed to urban education. To have a proposal floated that exempts suburban districts because of their access to academic resources and their lack of “diversity” (read: predominantly middle class and of western European descent) while continuing to punish urban districts is unconscionable.

Less than two days!

2007-09-02T11:32:00.000-04:00

Gack (similar to a gagging noise, but not quite as disgusting)!

I'm not ready. I'm not ready. How will I ever be ready?

OK, this is pretty much my state of mind every year before the beginning of a new academic year. I'm never ready. There is always more tweaking of the syllabus, one more manuscript to finish, 100 more email messages to be written and sent, 3 more proposals to review... it never ends.

Wahhhh! I don't wanna go back to school!!!

OK, I'm over it.

Today's hero: James

2007-08-31T11:41:00.000-04:00

I spend a lot of time at Daily Kos. I find it far more intelligent and informative than the MSM (main stream media). It's also a place where people do a lot of grass-roots organizing and fund raising. It shows just how powerful people can be, and just how effective the internet can be.

But I digress. This morning, I read about this young man named James, who is autistic, and lives with a number of other medical challenges. But, he and his family do not let his "disabilities" define him. They are part of who is he is, but not WHO he is.

He's joining a football team, he's trying to raise money to get a service dog, he's trying to be a normal teen.

Read more about James here. I hope you see him for who he is, learn a bit more about his challenges, and consider becoming part of the netroots.

Gearing up for a new year

2007-08-28T13:20:00.001-04:00

One week from today, I will be "back" at work. What that means is that it is the first day back for faculty at the university. It also means that we are back on payroll (big sigh of relief). Of course saying that we have gone back to work ignores all of the work that people in education do over the summer, catching up on reading, writing, curriculum planning, grant writing, teaching summer classes, developing new research projects, mentoring doctoral students, advising masters students... The myth that people in education get their summers off is just that: a big old myth.

People in education, whether its P-12 or higher ed, do not get their summers off. It's time they work without pay. I'm not complaining, mind you, because my time is my own. In truth, I could choose not to do much of anything over the summer, but then I'd be a mess the first weeks of school (even more-so than I already am). I do take time off over the summer (this year was planting new gardens, training for a 60 mile walk-a-thon, housebreaking a third dog, taking care of an ill parent), but I also spend a lot of time on work related tasks.

This summer was pretty productive given all the other things I did in the last three months. I finished and submitted two manuscripts for review, wrote and submitted a proposal to a national conference, reviewed 12 proposals for the same national conference, began to draft a new article, re-wrote two syllabi, researched and read about an area of research completely new to me, began to organize myself for a new university-level post regarding curriculum, reviewed and commented on a doctoral proposal, looked into grants... the list goes on.

The difference between the type of work that a university faculty member gets done over the summer versus what happens during the school year concerns time-intensity. Teaching, planning, and grading is really hard. But there's also a time limit on it. You are either prepared for class, or not. Writing is very different. My writing colleague and I spent 8 months working on one article. Granted, we didn't spend all our time on it, but this summer we spent a good 60 hours on it. It takes time to complete research and write about what you've learned. But the product often doesn't necessarily reflect the time invested.

So, I have 7 days before we go back, 8 before I teach my first class. I'm hoping to make final revisions on my syllabi, build a draft of a survey, finish two more manuscripts, and write up a short piece on the new research project I started this summer. All in 8 days. I'm not sure if I can do it, but that's the nature of academic work.

And somewhere in there I will also post one or two more times, build this blog a bit more, and ready it for the new semester. All in days' work, right?

Towards an educated public: Who’s “public” is it anyway?

2007-08-12T12:52:00.000-04:00

For those of you who don’t know, President Bush’s landmark education legislation, No Child Left Behind is up for re-authorization this year. As someone who works with teachers on a daily basis (who is not their boss), I can say that NCLB has created some serious trouble for teachers, students, and schools, especially those in resource-strapped communities. On the one hand, there are some good things that have come out of NCLB: content curriculum standards in all 50 states (though 48? of 50 had them prior to NCLB), certified teachers in every classroom (we’re getting there, but there are still shortages in specific subject areas and teachers), teachers not being punished for defending themselves when they are assaulted by students, actually acknowledging students with disabilities and English language learners, the fact that poor and minority kids are getting screwed… But there’s a lot about it that really bothers me. It would be safe to say that it infuriates me.

For instance:

Did you know that a provision was inserted into the legislation that requires all public schools to release the names and contact information of all students to armed forces recruiters? Yep. And there were some reports that the recruiters were pretty insistent and crass in their efforts to get young people to sign up. Parents have to contact their members of Congress to get names removed from the list. Oh, and that information is only made available in English and Spanish. On the surface, I am all for the idea of making that information (about the Armed Forces) available to all students. But it doesn’t work that way. The military has a lot more access to kids in poor and working class communities than they do in wealthy communities. Thus, they have a captive audience of kids who may not have the money or family knowledge about how to get into college.

If schools fail to make adequate yearly progress (on standardized tests), they have to pay for tutoring and other enrichment programs run by private organizations. That’s right, they can’t create their own programs. Instead, companies like Sylvan and Kaplan get taxpayer money. The feds are using our money for yet another form of corporate welfare. And, because the schools have to pay for the tutoring, even more money is taken out of their coffers which many of them desperately need and more money goes to privatizing education.

Parents of students who attend “dangerous” or “failing” can transfer their children to other schools in-district, Such a transfer, of course, is dependent upon proximity and seat availability. What the feds really wanted to do was be able to give vouchers (again, taxpayer money) to families so they could send their kids anywhere. The idea was to increase competition. OK, in theory (though it makes me nervous to apply this to public ed). Parents could use them for public, private, or parochial schools. My big problem with this? Public schools that receive federal funding must meet the requirements outlined by NCLB in terms of teacher certification, test scores, etc. Private and parochial schools don’t. The irony of course is that NCLB is supposed to make education accountable for how schools use money and get results. Because there is no accountability requirement for private and parochial schools, they are being held to a different standard, and still getting taxpayer money.

Oh, and don’t get me started on how they have decided to disaggregate the data. Basically, what that means is that they break down the data into its smaller representative groups (e.g., gender, race, ethnicity, language, English language learner, students with disabilities, etc). Again, really good in theory because schools can no longer tell certain students to stay home on test days (trust me, happens all the time). Every student needs a score (there are big problems with this, but that’s for another diary). But, it is incredibly dangerous when you go macro to the school and district level. How can we compare a school that has 7 groups to one that has 33? It’s much easier to make adequate yearly progress with 7 different groups than it is with 33.

The feds’ definition of a highly qualified teachers simply sucks. Let me be very transparent, I am a former public school teacher who worked in a large comprehensive high school teaching ninth graders. I came to understand that teaching ninth grade was the most important place I could be. The school in which I worked had 1800 students (give or take 200-300, depending on time of year). 900 were in the ninth grade, 900 students were 10-12th grades. That’s a huge “disappearance” rate. That’s why I taught ninth grade. I was certified to teach Spanish and also taught basic schools. I was trained as a social studies teacher, but needed to take extra history courses, even though I passed the state subject area exam. So, I couldn’t get certified. But I was a GOOD teacher, especially in social studies.

My point here is that there is a difference between being certified, being qualified, and being a good teacher. The feds are pushing for content area knowledge only. As a matter of fact, at a national conference last year, one of the talking heads for the Department of Ed. (ED), noted that they were looking into ways to eliminate certification all together.

Currently, I work in a university, preparing people to become teachers. My job now is to help people become the best teachers they can be. That too, is the subject of another diary, which I will get to at some point. But the point I want to make is that knowing your content area is not enough, unless of course, all you want to do is skill and drill. You need to know your students, academically, socially, culturally, emotionally, and developmentally. You need to understand how your content are works, that is, the underlying structures and belief systems that drive inquiry into the fact and content. And you need to know how to make that content accessible to your students. That is what teaching is really about. One of the biggest problems with how math is taught today in the US is that it focuses on procedure. Students don’t learn the concepts and thought processes that lead to choosing different procedures. There’s a great book called The Teaching Gap that talks about this.

The ED refers to the study that is the basis of book’s study. But they screw it up and focus on content and standards-setting (deciding what it is that students should know and how to assess it), as opposed to the message about how teaching in the US needs to be much more complex, theoretical, and philosophical. That part was ignored because it did not reflect the approptiate vision.

Finally, NCLB punishes poor and minority kids, their teachers and the districts that serve them for being, working with, and being geographically located where they are. The ED continues to fail those who have the least and need the most support. I’ll spend more time on this in a future diary. This diary reads like a rant, I know that. It’s needs more citations, I know that, too. But I needed to get this off my chest before I go back to teaching in the fall. Teachers and schools cannot do this alone. Whether you teach or not, have kids or not, this is important. It's about our collective future.

Peace.

Blogging is fun!

2007-08-09T12:45:00.000-04:00

I must really have a lot of work to do. I've spent the last several hours on dailykos and having a great time. I've been cross-posting some of my diary entries because they are applicable (and I am not getting that many comments/hits/attention over here). It's great fun. I think everyone should play around with a blog. Just be careful not to reveal too much about yourself. After all, the web is truly "public."

Merit Pay: Innvoative solution or new punitive measure?

2007-08-08T11:44:00.000-04:00

Cross-posted at Dailykos: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/8/121923/3125

Merit pay, which has been a major talking point in political and public circles for some time now, has gotten renewed attention in the current debates regarding the reauthorization of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), the Bush Administration’s answer to all things wrong with public education. There are a number of politicians on both sides of the isle who ardently support merit pay, including Mitt Romney, George Miller, Mike Blumberg, and Barack Obama. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings loves it. It’s become a key piece of one of the new proposals to alter NCLB. Called the All Students Can Achieve Act, This proposal, among other things, calls for connecting individual students’ test scores to individual teachers, considering growth models, and merit pay. As a person deeply concerned about public education, I wanted to believe in NCLB, but once you get beyond the soft and fuzzy platitudes, the law is a nightmare. And, while merit pay is not part of the original NLCB package, the fact that people raise it as a way to improve student achievement across the political spectrum means that it could become a reality.

I’m not one of those people who fall back on the idea that teaching is little more than a noble profession and that only people who are really committed to students should become teachers. While that is very important, I also acknowledge some very important realities. People need a quality education because it provides access to other things: college, the world of work, social connections, and economic stability. But economics is still only a small part of it. A healthy democracy requires an educated public. Thomas Jefferson pointed this out, and it was one of the reasons he pushed for public education (in the form of University of Virginia). And while Jefferson was still elitist regarding who should have access to higher education, the important point here is that a democratic society requires educated citizens who can make informed and thoughtful decisions. What does merit pay have to do with this?

Those who support merit pay argue that it acts as an incentive for teachers to work harder, it rewards teachers who are successful, and that it will draw people from other professions to teaching, particularly in the math and sciences. The argument is that merit pay has worked for big business, so it should be applied to public education. There are a number of assumptions here that are of concern, the least of which is that public education can be run like a business. Children and adolescents are not commodities. In my mind, the others are far more dangerous.

Let’s take the first reason mentioned above to support merit pay: it acts as an incentive for teachers to work harder. The assumption here, of course, is that most teachers are lazy, and don’t work hard enough. It’s true that there are teachers who do the minimum. That’s true in all fields. And yes, the union protects all teachers, even the problematic ones. But the union ensures due process, which means that an administrator can’t fire a tenured teacher because of politics, sexuality, personality, etc. If an administration documents the problems with a teacher, that teacher can be fired. But, the administration has to do its job, and not pass a poor teacher on to another district.

From this perspective, those supporting merit pay assume that if they reward teachers they can and will work harder. Many teachers are already working as hard as they can. Many work twelve, fourteen hours a day, and eight to ten hours over the weekend. What happens in a rich learning environment doesn’t just miraculously emerge from the back closet in the morning. To suggest that merit pay is a solution to the issue of student achievement ignores the fact that many teachers are already working as hard as they can.

The second argument, rewarding “good” teachers (as defined by achievement on test scores) is equally problematic. The assumption is that all teachers have the “same” kids. By that I mean that all classes are heterogeneously grouped (all ability levels in the same classroom), and all teachers have the same chance of getting the school genius and the student who really struggles. In reality, that just doesn’t happen. Many schools still actively track their students, which means that they are placed in classes based supposedly upon “ability.” So, if a teacher has students in the honors track, she or he will have a greater chance of student success on the achievement tests. The teacher who has the students who are repeating a class (because they failed it the first time around), is less likely to have high test scores. This is not to say that kids repeating a class aren’t as smart, there are many reasons they end up in such a class, and merit pay ignores that.

Teachers don’t necessarily get to choose who their students are. In fact, new teachers frequently have the most challenging student loads. This is bad for novice teachers, and leads to the huge attrition rate of teachers in the first five years of teaching. And honors classes are rewards for seniority in a building. Again, merit pay will not necessarily reward good teachers; it rewards teachers who have the right combination of students. I am not saying that a teacher working with students with a history of failure won’t have great success. I worked with a good friend who was well known for his work with failing students. But, the work is different, and requires different ways of defining success.

Finally, the final argument, that merit pay will draw people from other professions, is equally problematic. It ignores the lack of respect for teaching and teachers in general. Over and over again, when I mentioned I was teaching, people would say to me in that condescending tone of voice, “Oh, that’s nice.” Some people, including family members said to me, “But you could have done anything you wanted to, become a doctor or a lawyer.” I won’t mention what was said to me when people found out that I worked with inner-city students. The disdain was obvious. How is merit pay going to challenge that?

The reality is that merit pay fails to address to two major issues related to public education: the deep structures of public education and public perceptions of teachers and teaching. Tracking is deeply embedded in American society, and it’s important to meet the educational needs of all students. But to ask teachers to do the same things with different students is not realistic. It not only ignores the needs and strengths of students; merit pay rewards and punishes teachers for something that is beyond their control. In addition, how schools are managed doesn’t take into account teacher and student strengths and needs. How schools are governed and how decisions are made needs to change if we are to seriously consider merit pay. And, people need to take a longer look at what teachers have had to take on in the past few decades. They no longer simply teach students. Understanding the roles that American society has forced them to take on would go a long way to change public perception.

So, the next time you have the chance to talk to your local, state, or national rep, ask him or her about merit pay. It might be worth considering before you cast your next vote (especially if you are a teacher or have kids in public school).

And now, for something totally different...

2007-08-06T19:05:00.000-04:00

For those of you who are Monty Python fans, you might expect something completely off the beaten path, quirky, and perhaps down-right hilarious. This post is definitely off my usual topical rant, but it's important. It's about engaging in giving back to one's community, making a difference and gold old-fashioned volunteerism.

This past weekend, I was a participant in the 3-Day Walk for Cancer Research. I will not lie; it was the hardest thing I have ever physically endured. Officially, my walking partner and I walked 60 miles over the course of three days as a symbolic way to bring light to the fight against breast cancer. Collectively, the 200o people who walked raised $5 million. Amazing. We walked in 100 degree plus weather. It was hard.

Unofficially, it turns out they mis-measured the route, and it turns out we walk almost 67 miles. In a car, 7 miles is not that big of a deal. But one look at my feet should illustrate otherwise. I'll save you all the pictures. Let's just say I have awful blisters and am going to lose at least one toenail. And you won't believe the aches and pains I have been dealing with the last few days. But it's nothing compared to what people suffer when they have breast cancer.

We slept in tents. We walked as long as 11 hours a day. I was up earlier than I've been since I taught public school. I used a port-a-john for 3 days. And while I didn't love that part of it, I have a new perspective about a lot of things.

There was a guy walking who lost his son to SIDS, and his daughter at a very young age to breast cancer. When she was young, they used to mountain climb and hike together. He now carries the stick that she wrapped in ribbons, with him on every 3-Day walk that he attends so she can "walk" with him. Rumor has it that he is going to walk all 12 walks this year.

There was the soldier who's sister had breast cancer. He was deployed to Iraq. He requested to do the walk in Baghdad, but was told it was too dangerous. Instead, the army gave him a furlough and he was able to walk with one of his other sisters. He wore a uniform, including combat boots, dyed pink. He carried a flag and cried for his sister. Here's a picture of him. It's lousy, but you get the idea:

There was the woman who walked while her sister was home, dying of breast cancer. She had lost the toenail on her big toe, was told it was probably not going to grow back, and she walked anyway. For her sister. And every time I saw her, she smiled at me and congratulated me on how far I'd come.

Then there was the woman who was in a serious car accident that broke bones in her feet, her ankles, and dislocated both her big toes. I am amazed at the fact that she was able to walk again, let alone walk the long distances she did. She didn't finish every day, but she'll be back next year. She's a special ed teacher and absolutely amazing to me. I'm hoping that we get to meet again and maybe even walk together. She has family in the area, so I am sure I will get to see her again soon.

I don't know many people who have suffered through the horror of breast cancer. No one in my family has had it. But the people I met on this walk have given me a lot to think about. We raised FIVE MILLION DOLLARS with one weekend's walk. There are eleven more this year. Imagine the power in that. I am not a sappy person, and not led easily into sentiment. But this was powerful for me.

I think the most amazing thing was watching my walking partner. She refused to give up. She started this as a means to make a change in her life. I hopped on board to support her. Let's be honest, walking 60 miles over the course of a weekend is not my idea of fun. As I've said all along, it's easier to run 10 miles than it is to walk 10 miles. I still stand by that assertion. But my walking partner was an inspiration to me. I don't think she's aware of just how much she is.

I haven't decided if I will do this again next year. I'm still aching and simply thinking about what I've learned about myself and the power of people when they identify a problem and decide to do something about it. But I do know that it has made a difference in what I see around me. And that's pretty powerful stuff.

On the topic of Sheeple

2007-07-25T21:19:00.001-04:00

You know, it's days like this that I wonder whether the "Powers that Be" (ptb) have a wicked sense of humor, are on vacation, or what. Let's take a quick stock of the summer (the abbreviated version, because I still have some work-work to do). Still in Iraq? Check. Gearing up for Iran? Check. Continuing to dismantle the Constitution? Check. Setting civil rights back even further? Check. Still punishing children for being born into poverty? Check. The rich getting richer? Check.

I need to stop here or I am going to have to engage in some scream therapy.

There was this great scene in School Daze (I think). Laurence Fishurne's character, Dap, stands, screaming in the early morning, "Wake up!" It's a moment that has stuck with me since I first saw the movie as a teen. The movie itself got mixed reviews, and while its focus was on intra-racial politics, the overall message of the movie still strikes a chord with me. Until more of us wake up, we continue to perpetuate... our own shame.

But it's more than that. In so many ways, Gramsci had it right. We (all of us, to some degree or another) really do buy into our own oppression, and we also buy into the idea that we might actually deserve it. And, too many of us let life happen to us. Instead of engaging, thinking, and making up our own minds, we let others do it for us. And, when people do raise questions, too many of us fail to really think about what the questions are, what they mean, and the answers to them. Instead, we let others tell us what to think about it, we let others silence us with fear. We abrogate our responsibility to ourselves and the world.

In the case of Dap's world, he watched the "good" blacks, with the "good" hair, who talked the right way, who didn't challenge the system clash with other black students because they (the other students) were making it hard to assimilate and "get theirs." But the bigger picture here concerning School Daze was Spike Lee's ability to capture how it all plays out in terms of power. One group (the wannabes) decided their road to power was to divest themselves of all those identity markers that made them black. The other group (jigaboos--talk about a racialized and racist assigned identity) consciously chose a different route: to embrace who they were. The irony, of course, is that by fighting with each other, they were not focusing on bigger issues that affected both groups. As a result, they bought into a perception of the way things could and ought to be, that failed to bring them together. This certainly wasn't good for them, but it was good for those who would lose a lot if different interest groups actually saw that they had more in common than they didn't.

The really scary thing about this is that history has borne out this less-than-stellar human behavior over and over again. In education, some us call it the problem of "other people's children." It's all well and good for other people and their kids, but I want what I want for my kids. And, I don't know and care what the larger implications are for my community and society as a whole. In other situations, it becomes sticking your head in the sand.

For the sake of our friends, families, and the world, please, wake up.

CNN/Youtube debate: They want to "scrap" NCLB!

2007-07-23T22:19:00.000-04:00

...except for the accountability issue, of course. But it was nice to hear that several of the candidates were actually concerned about teachers and, gasp(!), teaching! There was talk about a "teacher minimum wage" (which is great for states and communities with lower cost-of-living, not so much for those working in places like, CA or NYC). Someone actually mentioned really supporting teachers to help them become good teachers, and one of them actually talked about the Arts!

Too bad, once again, the Social Studies was completely ignored. And, there was still some support for "competition" (read, taxpayer-funded vouchers for private and parochial schools). There was also the homage to accountability, though it wasn't spelled out what that might look like in a revised NCLB.

At least there is some discussion about it. I'm not sure whether it is an honest discussion, but I can find a small kernel of hope there.

The proof will be in the final reauthorization

Tally ho!

2007-07-23T14:44:00.000-04:00

It's called the All Students Can Achieve Act and is a new "bi-partisan" proposal to further amend the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 (NCLB). For those of you who don't know, NCLB is the "watershed" piece of legislation brought to you straight from Texas to ensure that all children and Adolescents in the United States recess an "equal" education. Supposedly, according to former Secretary of Education, Rod Paige, NLCB is the natural extension of the Brown Decision, that landmark Supreme Court case that stated that separate is inherently unequal. NCLB was supposed to ensure higher accountability with standardized testing, qualified teachers, adequate yearly progress, and research-based teaching methods. All of which, mind you, sounds great in theory. Too bad the "theory" was based upon the trumped up "Texas Miracle" and was signed into law with little or no debate.

But back to the topic at hand. This new proposal actually acknowledges what many of us have been concerned about all along: the fact that individual states can set their own proficiency levels (as high or low as they want), and as long as they make adequate yearly progress (that's AYP for those of you in-the-know), those states get their federal funding. Who cares that the funding itself rarely covers the costs of the tests the states are required to implement? Who cares that districts in distress are punished because they need help? And, who cares if states can set their expectations as high or low as they want? Instead of helping districts in need, NCLB requires these already economically strapped schools and districts to pay for additional services out of pocket. All Students can Achieve takes it one step further. Now they want track individual students and go after teachers who's students don't make AYP. Again, great in theory, lousy in practice for district with high mobility rates, or teachers who work in districts with pretty strict tracking policies. And, this of course requires us to actually believe that the tests are accurate indicators of achievement.

The other thing that is really interesting about this proposed act is that it also calls for national standards and, possibly, national tests. THAT will go over with those who support state autonomy.

You can read about the proposal here:

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/thisweekineducation/2007/07/senator_joe_lieberman_news_rel.html

this is a test

2007-07-05T09:46:00.001-04:00

yes, even a person who is skeptical of them, sometimes chooses to use
them. So, this is a test. More to come later.

reb

It's July 4.

2007-07-04T11:26:00.000-04:00

Nothing like starting a new project on a holiday. Friends and family are arriving for the BBQ in a few hours (hopefully before the rain), and what am I doing? Creating a blog. Yep, that's right, I am an expert at procrastination. But, it makes sense that I post my first set of thoughts on a day that is supposed to symbolize some good stuff. Instead we have:

A POTUS who commutes the sentence of one of his lackeys. The same POTUS who refused, as governor of TX, to release an inmate who had been exonerated by DNA. Yeah, there's equal representation under the law.It's simply"more equal for some than others.

A SCOTUS who in their latest decision has essentially enabled de jure segregation to rear its ugly head again. Because, apparently being race conscious is being racist. Oh, and this latest decision, just like NCLB, is in the spirit of extending the Brown Decision. Right.

Done for now. It's time to prepare for fun for later on this afternoon.