I've never gone anywhere out of my home state of Oklahoma to attend a demonstration or rally of any sort. But, this is different....
More than ever before there are strong forces with monetary and ideological motives who seriously want to kill not just some bad public schools; but, the concept of public schools and all that goes with it.
Of course we need reform. Been ready for that since my first year of teaching. This isn't about that.
I'm marching because public political action in mass is just about all we have left to channel passions for reform toward the benefit of our parents and students and away from a wealthy minority who only want to loot a system - a public asset - that took 100 years to build.
I'm marching because it is too easy for the less informed among us to believe the jingoistic crap that is being passed off as education thinking. If they see masses of teachers, administrators, and school board members marching on national TV and locally, too, at least they'll start asking questions and wondering just what the deal really is.
I knew for several years now that if I was patient, I could find a good use for those award miles. I found it. Got my hat and sunscreen out. Running shoes and shorts packed.
I'll see you there....
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Friday, July 15, 2011
So, Teacher, you don't want to be "political"? That's No Longer An Option
I know, you are in the teaching life to teach, to instruct, to give to the next generation. So am I. But, I have come to some stark realizations lately:
1. If you are a public school teacher, you are involved in politics right now, whether you acknowledge it or not. Professional writers and pundits have been hired and paid handsomely to attack public school teachers and our representative organizations as their full time job. And in case you missed it, they are attacking you, too.
2. Even if you don't like the idea of being involved in some sort of job collective, like being active in your union, your critics will lump you together with all other teachers anyway. Sorry, your critics won't let you out, no matter how much you want to be seen as that virginal, non-collective, not-dirty-with-politics, nice-smelling teacher.
3. Critics will want you to forget that your democratically-elected union leaders at the local, and state levels have been, and in many cases still are in the classroom, teaching every day. They will begin presumptive statements with phrases like "greedy union bosses" and hope that you forget that your "bosses" are still certified teachers, deeply committed to the profession. For instance, the president of my local teaches AP English full-time with a huge grading load and is working on his Masters Degree while being a responsible husband and father. Wow, what a "greedy union boss."
4. If your union falls apart, you will be on your own to negotiate a job or contract up against big-money interests who have teams of staff lawyers just waiting to overwhelm you if there is ever any legal action that you may bring. Don't believe me? Ask any number of professionals, including doctors and nurses who work for huge hospital corporations. Remember, school administrations operate in collective ways, also, not just teachers. And they won't stop even if all teachers unions go away. It is in their best interest to act collectively. Hmmmmm...Maybe it's in our best interests, too.
5. If you have any concern for the poorest of your students, you will want them to have the consistency of a good education, right? The original purpose of public schools was to create that kind of consistency. Those who want to dismantle public schools today want only to "open up a new market" of private schools that will come into existence, fail, over and again. Isn't that what wide open, freewheeling business does today? Sure it is. And not much of anyone thinks anything of it. Would we think something of it if a charter school collapsed and closed at odd times and their students had no place else to go for the rest of the year. Oh, yea. Who stands between "market" education and consistent public ed? The teachers unions. That's the whole purpose of the attacks.
The only way left for you to not be "political" is to stop being committed to public education. So, welcome to "the collective", like it or not. Your critics have made sure that you are locked in.
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| Teachers Protest Budget Cuts & Union-busting Legislation at the Oklahoma State Capitol Photo by Brett Dickerson |
2. Even if you don't like the idea of being involved in some sort of job collective, like being active in your union, your critics will lump you together with all other teachers anyway. Sorry, your critics won't let you out, no matter how much you want to be seen as that virginal, non-collective, not-dirty-with-politics, nice-smelling teacher.
3. Critics will want you to forget that your democratically-elected union leaders at the local, and state levels have been, and in many cases still are in the classroom, teaching every day. They will begin presumptive statements with phrases like "greedy union bosses" and hope that you forget that your "bosses" are still certified teachers, deeply committed to the profession. For instance, the president of my local teaches AP English full-time with a huge grading load and is working on his Masters Degree while being a responsible husband and father. Wow, what a "greedy union boss."
4. If your union falls apart, you will be on your own to negotiate a job or contract up against big-money interests who have teams of staff lawyers just waiting to overwhelm you if there is ever any legal action that you may bring. Don't believe me? Ask any number of professionals, including doctors and nurses who work for huge hospital corporations. Remember, school administrations operate in collective ways, also, not just teachers. And they won't stop even if all teachers unions go away. It is in their best interest to act collectively. Hmmmmm...Maybe it's in our best interests, too.
5. If you have any concern for the poorest of your students, you will want them to have the consistency of a good education, right? The original purpose of public schools was to create that kind of consistency. Those who want to dismantle public schools today want only to "open up a new market" of private schools that will come into existence, fail, over and again. Isn't that what wide open, freewheeling business does today? Sure it is. And not much of anyone thinks anything of it. Would we think something of it if a charter school collapsed and closed at odd times and their students had no place else to go for the rest of the year. Oh, yea. Who stands between "market" education and consistent public ed? The teachers unions. That's the whole purpose of the attacks.
The only way left for you to not be "political" is to stop being committed to public education. So, welcome to "the collective", like it or not. Your critics have made sure that you are locked in.
Friday, July 1, 2011
Why Incentive Pay for Teachers is a Trojan Horse
The same people who have been promoting incentive and merit pay for teachers are also those who want cuts in taxes and government. The two will never go together, and proponents of the incentive approach know it.
On June 24th, newly-elected Oklahoma State Supt. of Schools, Janet Barresi cast the tie-breaking vote that, among other things, ended one of the best National Board Certification incentive programs in the United States.
According to the Oklahoma Education Associations website "The NBCT program has made a significant impact in Oklahoma. Oklahoma ranks 9th in the nation for the percentage of NBCTs. As a result of this achievement, Oklahoma also ranks in the top ten nationwide for teacher quality and high standards, according to Education Week's Quality Counts report."
The same Republican-controlled Oklahoma State Legislature and Republican governor who can't seem to cut enough taxes, issues one press release after another that presumes that there just isn't enough money to go around.
So, the game is: Offer lower salaries in exchange for incentives. Cut taxes and then say "we're broke, we have to cut". First thing, cut teacher incentives. Achieve the result of lowering teacher pay without any politician taking blame for doing so.
Our Republican State Superintendent agrees, and chooses to take away a nationally-recognized incentive program as one of her very first budgeting acts in office.
Tell me again who is in favor of merit pay and incentives?
On June 24th, newly-elected Oklahoma State Supt. of Schools, Janet Barresi cast the tie-breaking vote that, among other things, ended one of the best National Board Certification incentive programs in the United States.
According to the Oklahoma Education Associations website "The NBCT program has made a significant impact in Oklahoma. Oklahoma ranks 9th in the nation for the percentage of NBCTs. As a result of this achievement, Oklahoma also ranks in the top ten nationwide for teacher quality and high standards, according to Education Week's Quality Counts report."
The same Republican-controlled Oklahoma State Legislature and Republican governor who can't seem to cut enough taxes, issues one press release after another that presumes that there just isn't enough money to go around.
So, the game is: Offer lower salaries in exchange for incentives. Cut taxes and then say "we're broke, we have to cut". First thing, cut teacher incentives. Achieve the result of lowering teacher pay without any politician taking blame for doing so.
Our Republican State Superintendent agrees, and chooses to take away a nationally-recognized incentive program as one of her very first budgeting acts in office.
Tell me again who is in favor of merit pay and incentives?
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Martin Luther King, Jr. As More Than a Cardboard Cutout
For a history teacher, one of the easiest, yet most damning mistakes in teaching is to allow the history of the United States to become safe, sanitized, vanilla, and sloganized. I have never met a history teacher who wants to be credited with such an offense to the discipline; but, it does happen even to the most vigilant.
First, there are the teaching objectives: usually the lowest common denominator from a long, arduous committee process at the state level. Next is the earnest desire to not offend someone from among the broadest spectrum of cultures that teachers have ever faced in the same classroom in the history of American education.
The objectives can be dealt with easily after a few years of experience. It's that second factor that slowly, like dripping water, wears away at the U.S. history teacher. There comes a point where principals and teachers start to wonder about the worth of those battles with parents who just don't want some particular part of history to be taught.
That's the point when the history teacher can choose to keep actual people in history alive in the fullness of who they were rather than cardboard cutouts.
It is so much easier to play the end only of King's "I Have A Dream" speech and let students engage in a vacuous exercise such as writing a letter to him. About what? The inevitable questions surface:
"Who was that dude, again?"
"What was he dreamin' about?"
Other teachers, administrators, and curriculum supervisors will love it. It's just what anyone who has not taught history imagines is good history teaching. It plays well in meetings and the teachers' lounge over lunch.
But we know better.
Life, and so, history is untidy, uneven, often offensive to someone. That's why this audio of King's "A Knock At Midnight" is so much more appropriate and powerful to remember and use. It is confessional. It shows King, the man who fears for the lives of his wife and children. It reveals the fervent Christian who struggles with the call to faith and action. It also reveals the sheer brutality, violence, and, yes, evil that he faced day-to-day in a place where the ruling class had one "Christian" personna in the day, and entirely another at night.
History in all of it's fullness is far more interesting and engaging to our students, but far more irritating to others who want to twist it to fit their own current agendas.
It is the history teacher's job to keep untwisting history. Our students will be truly inspired to live full lives of meaning if we do. The cardboard cutout can stay in the closet.
First, there are the teaching objectives: usually the lowest common denominator from a long, arduous committee process at the state level. Next is the earnest desire to not offend someone from among the broadest spectrum of cultures that teachers have ever faced in the same classroom in the history of American education.
The objectives can be dealt with easily after a few years of experience. It's that second factor that slowly, like dripping water, wears away at the U.S. history teacher. There comes a point where principals and teachers start to wonder about the worth of those battles with parents who just don't want some particular part of history to be taught.
That's the point when the history teacher can choose to keep actual people in history alive in the fullness of who they were rather than cardboard cutouts.
It is so much easier to play the end only of King's "I Have A Dream" speech and let students engage in a vacuous exercise such as writing a letter to him. About what? The inevitable questions surface:
"Who was that dude, again?"
"What was he dreamin' about?"
Other teachers, administrators, and curriculum supervisors will love it. It's just what anyone who has not taught history imagines is good history teaching. It plays well in meetings and the teachers' lounge over lunch.
But we know better.
Life, and so, history is untidy, uneven, often offensive to someone. That's why this audio of King's "A Knock At Midnight" is so much more appropriate and powerful to remember and use. It is confessional. It shows King, the man who fears for the lives of his wife and children. It reveals the fervent Christian who struggles with the call to faith and action. It also reveals the sheer brutality, violence, and, yes, evil that he faced day-to-day in a place where the ruling class had one "Christian" personna in the day, and entirely another at night.
History in all of it's fullness is far more interesting and engaging to our students, but far more irritating to others who want to twist it to fit their own current agendas.
It is the history teacher's job to keep untwisting history. Our students will be truly inspired to live full lives of meaning if we do. The cardboard cutout can stay in the closet.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Still A Student
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| My yoga teacher, Trinity Mays |
My twenty-something yoga teacher is a great student of her students. That's why she is such a good teacher. She knows what is going on with this fifty-something guy in her class who sometimes has problems with contrary knees...and back...and...and. What's important is that she studies, remembers, adjusts, yet always challenges her students to grow. There is a very impressive organic approach that she takes to teaching. In addition to the obvious benefits to my yoga practice under this teacher, I learn much about teaching from being her student.
That's what I want to do in my classroom: I want to see my students for who they really are. Right now. Today. Yea. That kid with the green shirt on. The one who just walked past me smelling like he just came in from fighting a forest fire. Only there isn't one. And his eyes are not red because he has an eye infection.
I want to connect with that kid. And it won't happen without my becoming a student of him. I am still a student in order to be a teacher.
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