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A concerned member of the human race

Friday, October 31, 2014

Rotten Red Apples (Based on "Little Green Apples," 1968)

Rotten Red Apples (An Ed. Reformy Song of Pure Love) in the Wake of the Recent Time Article.


Well, I wake up in the morning
With dollar signs in my eyes
And she says hi
And I hurry to the charter board
While the kids are kicked out of their school, goodbye
And she reaches out and takes my hand
And squeezes it and says "can you give more mon'*?"
And I reach across with stacks of bills that warms her heart
And I see my morning sun
And if that's not loving me
Then all I've got to say

God didn't make rotten red apples
And they don't test for six days of New York public-school classroom time
There's no such thing as Common Core
Pearsonland and Walmart store, no test review slime
God didn't make rotten red apples
And they don't test for six days of New York public-school classroom time
And when kids scores are looking low
I think about all of her dough and it eases my mind

Sometimes I call her up at home, knowing she's busy
And ask if she could get away and meet me
At some secret ed. retreat
And I know she drops what she's doing and hurry's down to meet me
And I'm always late
She sits waiting patiently and smiles Broad at my money
Because she's made that way
And if that's not loving me
Then all I've got to say

God didn't make rotten red apples
And they don't close schools across the U.S.A. when the test score comes
There's no such thing as StudentsFirst
Mister Gates or his big purse, no C.C.** guns
God didn't make rotten red apples
And they don't test four six days of New York public school classroom time
And when kids scores are looking low
I think about all of her dough and it eases my mind

*money

  **Common Core

Thank You, Taylor!



When you have little girls running around your house, you naturally hear a lot of Taylor Swift.  And, you kind of steer them that way because you recognized her genius at sixteen, a maturity well beyond her years, a good soul and songs that resonate in so many ways.  Plus, she's one of the more positive role models for a little girl today.   

I've taken some flack from a certain male member of my household for my enthusiasm for Taylor as well as for being bold enough to defend public education via blogging, but I've never had any regrets.  (I just "shake it off.")  If nothing else, I love the fact that she can pick up and play a banjo (even if it is six-stringed) as well as a ukelele.  When I heard she pledged to donate the proceeds from her single "Welcome to NY" to the NYC public schools rather than the favored  charter schools of other millionaires, I said a silent prayer.  So, thank you, Taylor.  

Thursday, October 30, 2014

On the Probablility of Surviving to See Your Pension

Pension News

I recently received a copy of the UFT Pension News.  Before I perused its pages, I had to wonder how many current teachers will survive the onslaught against our profession long enough to actually earn a pension.

Probably not a great percentage.  Although teacher attrition rates in the public schools may not be as high as in some "successful" charter schools, the rate is high.  Besides, we seem to be on our way to more charters.  Most teachers today seem to have been in the profession no longer than five years.  When I first became a teacher more than twenty years ago, I was the youngest kid on the block.  Most of my colleagues had at least fifteen to twenty years experience.  That is becoming increasingly rare.

So, why do teachers leave the profession?  Some find it is much harder than they suspected.  Some suffer burnout.  Some lack the stamina or the proper mindset.  Some, doubtless, bow out because they can no longer suffer seeing the profession so demeaned.  The due-process rights of tenure are under attack.  In an age in which administrators are sometimes driven to extremes to maintain the veneer of school success and keep their budget out of the red, ethical teachers may suffer terribly.  Despite years of faithful service, seasoned professionals are micromanaged and over observed.  ATRs are subjected to second-tier due-process.  One may perform one's job religiously, yet one can be crucified for student test scores that may have more to say about society than any individual teacher.

The profession is made the most ugly, perhaps, by the focus upon uniformity and test prep.  Teachers no longer have the same latitude for creativity.  They must subject students to consistent, time-pressured, sometimes very stressful, test prep for Common-Core tests designed to fail a 2/3 majority.  I don't know anyone who signed onto this profession to work under these conditions.

On top of teacher attrition rates due to exodus from the profession, the extreme stress and possible depression generated by all this reform may lead to increased teacher illness and death.  But what the hell!  When TFA recruits are always waiting in the wings, teachers are expendable.

There is a fight here to be waged in the name of public education against those who would privatize and profit.  They favor a compliant, sheepish workforce deprived of its hard-earned rights.  Teachers may become neo-TFA recruits.  They may work for a couple of years, burnout, never gain much experience and move on.  Ultimately, some reformers would replace teachers with cold computers.  After all, if no one "gives a shit" about what you think or feel, a la David Coleman, you might as well be replaced by an inhuman object.  

So, will you be among those surviving to actually claim a teacher's pension?  Only time will tell, but I'm betting even the statisticians would tell you that in this era of educational deformity the probability is low.  

Save the Teachers!

In the best of all possible worlds, I would teach world history to five classes of ninth graders, no Regents, just the pure, unadulterated love of history. My kingdom for a history course without mandatory test prep!

This year, I face three tenth-grade classes with some trepidation.  When I asked them some questions about what they remembered from their ninth-grade year, they only wanted to tell me that their teacher had been absent a lot.  I told them the teacher had not really been absent as much as they remembered.  But this fact got lost with so many others over the long summer.  I, of course, will be held responsible for their performance in June on a Regents based on two-years of study.  Great joy.

To a lesser extent, everyone is affected by the same phenomenon.  An English Regents is not based on one exclusive year of study.  It measures the culmination of skill and knowledge accumulated over a lifetime.  And, who's to say if my kids manage to ace their history exam, it's not actually the work of their English teacher, perhaps, even a P. E. teacher, a parent or the unassuming local librarian?

If ed. reform continues at the same pace and in the same vein, teachers may soon become an endangered species for specious reasoning.

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

On Ground-Zero Reform on This Anniversary of Sandy



On this second anniversary of Hurricane Sandy hitting the tri-state area, perhaps we should pause to remember the words of Education Secretary, Arne Duncan, who finds the glass more than half full.  Hurricane Katrina was "the best thing that happened to the education system in New Orleans."  Perhaps in his mind, despite the immense damage wrought, Sandy fell short of his educational goals.  

The stills above taken from the pro-Common-Core video at commoncoreworks.org seem to confirm the same point of view.  Education reform must come like a swift and violent storm, sweeping away the local distinctions of the schools around which our communities are built.  

So, should another storm like Donna (1960) or Sandy (2012) come a-knockin,' let us comfort ourselves with the realization that the ed. "reformers" in their infinite wisdom will find some good in our devastation.  As we watch remnants of our lives float away, we can have faith that there will be fertile ground for the unleashing of more ed. reform.  Why waste foolish sentimentality remembering what was lost, when you can have the wherewithal to welcome a brave, new world of ed. reform?

The Governor's Test-Based Teacher Evaluations Will Whack The Best Teachers of the Rich and Poor Alike



This new system of teacher evaluations which our Governor promises to use to "bust school 'monopoly' if re-elected" hurts teachers at all ends of the public-school spectrum.  And, it necessarily hurts their students.  

Good teachers stand at the mercy of junk science, no matter whether they work in affluent or impoverished communities.  Teachers working in over-sized, under-funded classrooms in which students have high needs will be branded as the cause of the problem.  Teachers like Sheri G. Lederman, Ed.D., in Great Neck will suffer even though her students far outperform state averages.  Teachers who teach some of the best students may find it nearly impossible to generate the "progress" demanded by statistical formulas.  Dr. Lederman has brought suit against the NYSED junk science that condemns her.  She stands for every teacher who faces this statistical insanity. I wish her nothing but success.  Our hopes ride with her and similar lawsuits.  

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Why doesn't Chetty attempt a Value-Minus Model?



Since the Common-Core-based "reformy" people are dead set on measurements of student progress and teacher accountability, I naturally wonder if they ever thought to measure the damage that they cause.   I think many teachers, students and parents might agree that they have already inflicted too much damage upon loads of individuals as well as the precepts of public education in general.

They start with the faulty assumption that all this "reformy" nonsense created in the face of far greater threats to society than student scores on tests engineered specifically for failure, primarily by individuals who have never been elected, funded by noneducators, is in the best interests of other people.  But what if it isn't?  Then, they might create a VALUE-MINUS MODEL and see where it takes them; perhaps back to the drawing board with more educators on board.  They might attempt to gauge that damage.

Yet, I'm sure the thought never crossed their minds to measure student disengagement, future dropout rates, parental anguish and anger, teacher attrition rates, illness rates, etc.  If a student gives up during the middle of a test, bored and stressed out of his wits, it counts toward a simple failure of that student.  In reality, every student that finds himself in that position or opts out is a testament to the failure of this largely nonsensical path of reform.

Although statistically minded "reformers" will never attempt to use their junk science to measure these things, it is clear to me that damage is extreme.  My only question is how extreme, and whether any of it is reversible.  

Monday, October 27, 2014

It's Impossible to Fire a Bad "Reformer"


In the mind of "reformers," the Time article "Rotten Apples" may be the greatest coup since Rhee graced the cover with broomstick in hand.  Apparently, the fact that non-elected, backers of charters and private schools (like David Welch) crusade against public-school teachers may be the best thing since sliced bread.  But what if it isn't?  Can the bakers be fired?

"Ineffective" teachers are a sore on the body politic.  But how can you define ineffective teachers?  If you see one, will you know one?  Here is the rub.  Is it based largely on student test scores in a strange world of Chetty-based "science."  How can you identify ineffective reformers?  There's no formula.  When it comes to their performance, they seem to have only formulas for Success (Academies)!

God help the teachers who work in high-needs classrooms in a world without tenure.  The author of the article in question, Edwards, makes note of now famous Pasadena teacher castigated by Vergara, former teacher of the year.  In my mind, a teacher cannot be highly effective free of his or her students.  The teacher is a head and the students make up the body.  Neither can function effectively without the other.  Even one highly disruptive student, the type to suffer expulsion at the hands of name-brand charter schools, can cause incredible chaos for the best teacher.  And what if public-school teachers contribute to life-altering progress in students' lives, but it is not registered in test performance?  The teacher will be buried under the dust heap of corporate reform.  

Nancy Gibbs, the editor of Time, states that "one Texas study found that cutting class size by 10 students was not as beneficial as even modest improvement in the teacher."  Nice study.  I would love to know if anyone with practical experience in a high-needs classroom with thirty-four students was part of that study.  Nice to make studies built on faulty samples, engineered to produce the results desired.   The system engineered by the "reformers" strikes hardest at teachers who have sacrificed higher incomes to help high-needs kids.  Despite their lofty goals, they will be denigrated, degraded and readily disposed of.  Worst of all, the achievement gap may widen to an abyss.  

A crying shame?  Yes...  But although some "reformers" may change their names and step back from the spotlight, in this world of demented ed. "reform," it is nearly impossible to fire a bad "reformer."  

Sunday, October 26, 2014

School Days With the Living Dead



Having graduated from haunted hayrides, we moved onto mazes of terror this past weekend.  My seven-year old wavered between being sure she wanted to take on the challenge to spooked out of her wits.

I explained to her that the zombie in a plaid shirt who kept following us around is only an actor.  He's really not back from the dead, probably just from a day job.  Plus, he's more interested in spooking her older sister who compliments his plaid shirt every time she sees him.  

I told her, the zombie can't touch you.  It's part of his contract.  He'll sure as the heckers hope to jump out of a dark corner and try to catch you off guard though.  He and his friends might even have some highly effective screams.  They get their jollies by spooking you, so just pat yourself on the back for humoring a rogue band of would-be zombies.

Now, she was going in.  As we approached the front of the line, four teenagers emerged, all but crying.  They exclaimed , "It was the scariest thing imaginable!"  I pretended not to hear, but it took only three long seconds for my seven-year old to process the comment and repeat it verbatim.  She wasn't going in.  With another pitch about how zombies, ghouls and ghosts are just people, too, she wavered.  Then, she went in.

Mommy ended up leading our pack about a third of the way through.  It wasn't by choice.  So, I naturally began talking aloud.  That way, if some ghoul made a run at me, shrieking as it came, at least it wouldn't be out of the dead of silence.  I also reasoned that if I had some interesting things to say, the ghouls might lend an ear to listen, preferring to remain in their dark corner to eavesdrop rather than to rush out at us.  

At one point, we seemed to lose our way in the maze.  I commented upon it.  A friendly zombie voice came out of nowhere to tell me which direction to turn.  I thanked him and he, of course, said, "you're welcome."  My "middlest" was so psyched she vowed to hold no hands on her way through the maze next year.  My youngest pleaded to go to Bayville for the granddaddy of horror houses in 2015.

So, what does all this have to do with ed. "reform"?  Not much, I suppose.  But just as those ghouls and ghosts were't real, the people leading all this ed. "reform" aren't real educators.  They're not principals, superintendents, professors, career teachers or others who understand the foundations of a sound education.  They are Silicon Valley magnates, entrepreneurs, business managers, statisticians, profiteers and inexperienced products of the ivy league.  

Although they are fakes in the field of education, they, nonetheless, do a damn good job of haunting my classroom.  They lack the academic credentials and career experience to plan effective policies.  Yet, they have the power to cause great damage.  They have done so and continue to do so.  That, in and of itself, can be pretty terrifying at times.   And sometimes I have to wonder: how long will it be before they start eating brains?

Saturday, October 25, 2014

Rotten Silicon?: Teacher Bashing Equals Teacher Flight


It seems so many of the words written about education today are written by people who believe in demeaning the profession and bashing its teachers.  If you follow the Rhee school of thought, perhaps, you blame teachers for poverty in America.  And, if this be the case, you may be entirely thankful that generous Silicon millionaires will pause in their mansions to write checks to fund tenure suits to help solve these persistent issues of poverty. 

But if to the contrary, you care about the experience of the people educating America's youth, you may feel differently.  Teacher attrition rates and illness rates are already on the dramatic upswing.  I have read that enrollment in teacher programs is dramatically down.  The average experience of teachers now seems to be between one and five years--whereas in the past there were many more career teachers.  With the way things are going and the recent attempts to further demean all teachers by removing tenure in the name of a few who never deserved it, few self-respecting persons will survive a career in the classroom, especially given our current test-based system of accountability.  And, I suspect, as usual that the children who suffer the most will be those who could profit the most from experienced teachers, the poor, the language deficient and those with special needs.  Teachers will flee settings with high-needs students in the name of higher salaries AND  job security.    Looking on the bright side from the vantage point of some "reformers," inexperienced teachers are cheap, especially since they won't come close to hitting retirement age.  

Friday, October 24, 2014

How Much Stress Should Schools Manufacture?



Beyond a doubt this new brand of corporate-sponsored ed. "reform" stresses students.  Sixty-five percent of NY's students have been branded as failures this past year.  But if you prefer to view the cup as 5% more filled than in 2013, perhaps you appreciate the dregs of cut score manipulation that do little to trickle down to high-needs students, English-language learners and minorities.

Beyond a doubt this new brand of corporate-sponsored ed. deform stresses teachers.  Teachers are asked to place their love for teaching second to test prep.  They must prep like there is no tomorrow and force feed questions engineered to fail students in the name of playing a high-stakes game of statistics weighted against public-school teachers, students and their schools.  All of this amid the backdrop of teacher bashing, over-the-top observations, attempts to strip teachers of tenure and dignity as well as school privatization.

I can also tell you that beyond a doubt this new brand of corporate-sponsored ed. deform stresses parents.  Many watch their students bring home loads of work geared towards test preparation, some of which boggles the mind.  They see their kids stressed to the max, practicing and practicing, only to be labeled failures.  They watch children be sapped of their natural love of learning.  

So, who is not stressed by this new system?  Probably those who have the luxury of sending their kids to academies that will have little-to-none of this nonsense; doubtless, those who stuff their pockets with the profits of test prep and privatization.  In the meantime, the rest of us who experience the system first hand must find ways to deal constructively with the mounting stress that accompanies this perversion of the purposes of education.

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Robert Moses Redux?



I saw a Daily News story the other day entitled, "Goodbye, My Bed-Stuy."  When I first attempted to understand the nationwide agenda of the self-proclaimed educational "reformers," the name of Robert Moses kept coming to mind.  

He viewed his intelligence and his central planning as superior.  He sought to improve society as he saw it.  People's homes and neighborhoods stood in the way of his highways, slum clearance and grand schemes of gentrification.  Communities needed to be razed, landmarks devastated and neighborhoods re-engineered.  
Protest arose from many circles.  Jane Jacobs rose to prominence.  

With public-school closings, the Common Core and prevailing definitions of "college and career readiness," I see modern-day reformers ripping at the hearts of communities, much in the same vein as Robert Moses.  Sometimes, reformers blinded by their own ambitions fail to recognize the harm they inflict.  In some ways, the Common Core seems to be Robert Moses redux.

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Riding the Common-Core Surf: Lessons Learned at Commoncoreworks.org

Here are the lessons learned in slow motion from the video at commoncoreworks.org.

1.  Your life is measured in dollars and cents.  If you've chosen a career that prioritizes helping others over raking in the dollar bills, you're a loser...no matter where on earth you live.



2.  Just as your worth in life is measured in dollars and cents, everything needs to be measured by one ruler or statistic, including your brain. You are a statistic.





3.  There were only false local metrics until the Common Core swept into town. 



4.  You must constantly race uphill against others.  Race to the top!  Don't ask why!  Don't stop to recognize the sometimes very unappealing nature of life at "the top"!  





5.  Everything built up locally, prior to the Core, is of no consequence.  It should be swept away with all the ferocity of Hurricane Katrina because, as Secretary Duncan has made so very clear, natural disasters may be the best things to happen to education.





One question:  Are you and your children riding that surfboard--or are you being drowned?

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Creating the World We Would Wish to Have--For a Photo-Op Only





Our Schools  

I found all of the pictures on this post at schools.nyc.gov, the website for the N.Y.C. D.o.E.  If you look carefully, you will see that the teacher-student ratio appears in most cases to be five or fewer students per teacher.  That's pretty awesome, if you ask me.  Who wouldn't want to work under those conditions?  The neediest kids could really be helped.  But, alas, it is only an image of the world as we would like it to be.

With ratios like that, NYC teachers would have a much better shot at more effectively helping students.  It's common sense.  Kids would have a much better chance at succeeding in life.  We don't need small schools as much as small class sizes.  Small class size would be an investment in the future that could offer a great return for the kids who demand and merit more attention.  Unfortunately, ed. "reformers" have decided that privatization, one common curriculum, harder tests and stripping teacher of their dignity are better solutions than smaller class size.  

So, for the time being, I must live with the overcrowded realities of NYC classrooms, only vicariously experiencing a soothing and beneficial class size in the publicity snapshots at the D.o.E. website.   But imagine for a moment if we could create the world we would wish to see...and imagine if it was for more than just a photo-op!  





Monday, October 20, 2014

On Losing Your Head in This Era of Educational Deformity





It's that time of year again in which the mind naturally strays towards all things spooky and haunted, especially if one has small children.  So, with that in mind, we set off for a haunted hayride the other night.  

If how long you wait in line is any measure of the worth of something, after four hours we knew we were in store for something truly special.  Indeed, there were plenty of ugly and frightful things that jumped out at us and/or swung from trees, ghosts, goblins, ghouls, zombies and the like.  We even passed a very realistic Ichabod Crane as well as an army of chainsaw murderers.  

One ghastly creation had the nerve to throw his head at me.  I refrained from catching it.  It fell amid the stacks of hay.  The horrid figure civilly asked for it back.  It was a good thing he asked nicely, too, because otherwise I might not have been inclined to search amid the bales of hay and oblige.  You see, my mom raised me to demand manners even from those without a head!

There were werewolves jumping on the truck and hanging ominously over our heads from the tree branches above. 

Fate threw us together with five middle-school students.  They were shrieking.  They decided to stand up to get a better view of the things that might make a run at their backs.  One girl landed on my lap once or twice and stood up only to cling to me to prevent toppling over again.  Another landed on my daughter's lap several times.  Her friend pointed out, "you're crushing that little kid!" (That little kid takes after her mother.  She was laughing her head off.)   

They apologized and we accepted.  In fact, I told the girl that the ride wouldn't be half so much fun without her teenage contingency.  She confessed to her friend that she felt safer having a mom along.  It seemed like she could have been one of my students.  I decided not to tell her I was a teacher.  That might have really frightened her!

At any rate, as we rode on, more glad to survive the four-hour wait than worried about the ghouls that lay ahead, I couldn't stop laughing.  I'm pretty sure my oldest was laughing all the way--in between trying to engage the ghouls in pleasant conversation.  

So, I asked myself, why do I laugh my head off in situations such as these?  Is it some sort of nervous reaction?  Is it some sort of defensive mechanism?  Or, is the whole thing really hilarious?  I think it's probably a little of everything.  There's one thing of which I am sure, however.  My reaction to those ghouls mirrors my reaction to the educational deformity which knocks every day at my classroom door.  

I can't believe the absurdity of it all.  It's like ghouls rushing out at me unexpectedly at every turn.  It's frightful and horrifying and unbelievable at the same time.  They do damage to students, teachers, schools and communities.  Who could believe that tests are the measure of human worth for student and teacher?  Who could believe that tenure does more harm than good?  Who could believe that schools should be run like businesses?  Who could believe that "college and career readiness" should be measured in grade school?  Who could believe that public education should be sold to the highest bidder?  

It's so absurd, it's best just to laugh.  Otherwise, a person's anger might build to the point of metaphorical bolts of lightning.  Perhaps the "reformers" with these ideas should take off their heads and launch them at me.  For the good of society, however, they mustn't expect a civil return.   

Sunday, October 19, 2014

The SATization of Learning and Life

The chief architect of the Common Core, David Coleman, has served as the president of the College Board.  From where he stands, tests surely look beautiful as the best measures of humankind.

I am sure many of us have vivid memories of SAT time...probably not happy memories.  I settled on the cheap option of purchasing an SAT review book.  I looked at lists of words that began with the letter A.  I love words in context, in real life, in literature, in film, but I disdain long lists of words one feels obligated to memorize.  I didn't get much past the As, and AB..., at that; yet, I survived.  And to this day, I wish I could have ABSTAINED from the test.  I ABHOR SATs.  The time spent studying was ABYSMAL and a personal ABASEMENT.  And,  by the way, I would have had all the above words in my vocabulary without the SATs!

I didn't take classes for the SATs, but I remember many of my peers went to Stanley Kaplan.  It was generally accepted that if you wanted to make it into the best schools, you needed a near perfect score.  And, I knew people who got perfect scores and they all had parents pushing them and they all went to SAT classes.  They were smart, but the intensive test prep made them appear to be geniuses. 

If one took the SATs twice (of course, there were costs incurred), one was pretty much guaranteed to improve one's scores.  So, I took the SAT twice and most everyone took the SAT twice.  I didn't become much smarter in the months between the two testing dates, but you would never know that from the scores.  As one gained familiarity with the types of questions asked, one could rake in more points as the College Board raked in more money.  

When it came time to take my Graduate Record Exam, I decided there would be no playing around.  I took a Stanley Kaplan GRE course at Queens College.  I still remember marveling at one question about airplanes and a certain number of passengers, and so many wearing green shirts, with birthdays in July, spaced so many seats apart from others with birthdays in February and November, wearing yellow and orange shirts.  When learning is detached from anything of real or practical interest to me, my preference is to fly elsewhere.  That summer, I grit my teeth to bear it and I did well.  Witness the fact that I only took the test once!  

My school once gave Stanley Kaplan a contract to come to our building to do professional development.  As I sat in the class, watching the representative from Stanley Kaplan try to conduct a class lesson with Do Now and all, I very quickly started to compile in my mind a whole list of suggestions for improvement.  It began with shortening the Do Now to considerably less time.  Then, there were other errors, inaccuracies, a flurry of handouts that missed the mark and so much else that showed this "teacher" had barely got his toes wet in any real classroom.  After that day of sessions with Stanley Kaplan, our contract was speedily canceled. 

I know the SAT has been recently redesigned, but I am still far from filled by confidence.  So, I wonder what kind of world we are creating for students when the love of learning and inquiry are replaced by people who see tests as the best measure of student quality and test prep a necessary and admirable aspect of academia.  I would say we have turned education on its head.  So, much of the information I learned for the tests was of little interest or value to me outside of the test.  I probably haven't used many of those skills since.  I know it's somewhere in my brain and I might be a better person for it, but I kind of doubt it.  I'm sorry to think that given the emphasis on high-stakes Common-Core tests, elementary-school students are witnessing the SATization of learning and life.  Such is the price of "college and career readiness" in an age of educational deformity.  

Saturday, October 18, 2014

Online Learning from Cradle to Grave?


Perdido Street referenced a humorous piece at The Onion denoting the expansion of the online-learning industry to Pre-K.  I was mildly horrified that such a thing might be possible one day despite the fact that Pre-K, K and the early grades must emphasize human interaction, help children build social and emotional connections, develop notions of sharing toys as well as sharing responsibilities.   But given the nature of reform, nothing much would surprise me any more!  It is probably only a click away.

It seems that the online industry has the ability to expand from cradle to death.  So, what will not be online in the future?  How long will it be before someone sells online and copyrighted access to heaven and hell, reincarnation, etc., for those who prefer more technologically-advanced versions of their preferred afterlife.  Automatic upgrades available from the privacy and comfort of your own coffin or urn.

Friday, October 17, 2014

Recapping Some of the Recent Battles in Ed. "Reform"

The charter industry makes severe inroads in New Orleans when the City is submerged.  Some people's devastation becomes Arne's educational beacon light.  

Meanwhile back in New York, 


public-school teachers in a 'shield-wall formation,' resist Success Academy colocations.


Eva and her entourage on their way to Albany to garner further support from the Lord Governor.

Journey To Normandy scene 1 - Bayeux Tapestry

The merry party leaves, well satisfied that its time has been well spent.  Triumphantly, they ride on to and through NYC with the Common Core in hand, leaving a path of carnage, I mean "reform," in their wake.  





Thursday, October 16, 2014

On Secret Sauces for Success

Scenes from Success Academy PREP Rallies:  Things to Come or Things That Have Come? 


Too often I hear about miracle charter schools.  People who abhor the public schools attribute charter success to superior staff.  Public-school teachers are portrayed as unionized, depraved leeches from which only half-a-million-dollar-a-year Eva can save society.

Given the teacher attrition rates, however, and the degree of mistrust in their staff, exhibited, in part, by hand-delivered uniform lesson plans to their teachers, I'm guessing her charter staff develops about as much creative initiative as experience.  

If charter schools truly wish to claim a secret sauce for success, they should bare all their statistics, including percent served with differing types of IEPs, limited English-language capabilities, student attrition rates, class size, funding per pupil, etc. Then, if they truly wish to serve society, they can award more seats to students with greater needs.  

Then, we might find that in terms of test scores, it's not so much the quality of the teachers as much as the capabilities and aptitudes of motivated students with proactive parents or guardians in small, well-funded classrooms that makes the difference.  Of course,a focus on test prep, bordering on insanity, doesn't hurt either.  

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Crafting 101: A Common-Core Catcher

  



The kids decided to craft their own home-spun dreamcatchers the other day.  My hope is that the good dreams will travel unencumbered through the center and the bad dreams, especially any common-core-aligned ones that interfere with childhood and the natural love of a child for learning, will get stuck in the web and vanish...if and when ed. deformers finally see the light and come to their senses!  

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Be Well, Karen Lewis!


Could You Imagine a Million-Kid March?



Eva bused her kids to the Brooklyn Bridge on school time.  She paraded her boys and girls in Albany before a Governor who was already very cozy with the campaign-contributing millionaire backers of the charter industry.  Most recently, she turned out her kids to  "protest" again in the Big City.  

But could she entertain for even one moment the notion that her small, select crowd comes anywhere close to the needs of nearly a million NYC public-school kids?  What if those kids, their families and their teachers took to the streets?  What if all the kids the charters kicked out came back to haunt her?  What if the approximately 45,000,000 public-school kids in the country rallied?  Do you think Eva's charter kids could look like much more than a drop in the bucket then--despite her millions from backers and all the TV ads money can buy?  

Imagine if the proponents of public schools, you know all the ones who love their local schools, including the ones who have seen their doors closed in their faces, coordinated their actions and mobilized in support of their schools.  What if they made their voices heard for better funding, more services and less space shared with privately sponsored, selective charters?  Could you imagine almost a million students in NYC and close to fifty million in D.C. standing up for public education?  Even mighty Eva, those who bankroll her and those on her payroll, might have to take a step back then, sit down and reconsider how much their money can buy.  

Monday, October 13, 2014

Will a Common-Core Aligned Society Have More Or Less Suicide?



Once upon a time, my school had a well-funded program called SPARK which allowed a specially trained counselor to visit classrooms throughout the year to discuss issues involving peer pressure, alcohol and drugs, eating disorders, sex and suicide.  There were different sets of lessons to target the freshman, sophomore, junior and senior classes.  The counselor had generous office hours to meet with students who needed a friendly ear, extra time and some specialized counseling.

We still have a SPARK counselor in our school, but there are no more classroom visits.  We have a guidance department and the older students take a semester of health.  It is not enough.  We need counselors in 9-12 classrooms for at least five days a year packed full of potentially life-saving discussion.  Some students will not seek out help on their own.  The help must come to them, anonymously, through a classroom door.  

Test prep and "college and career readiness" aren't worth a damn if kids don't know how to deal with the pressures of their teenage and young-adult years.  I would chose preventative measures any day over dealing with the aftermath of a crisis.  Wouldn't you?  What if the child was one of your own? The development of young and mentally healthy individuals must begin from the earliest years.  It may not align to the goal of the Common Core which impresses failure upon students, but, alas, just one more reason why the Common Core misses the mark.  

So, have you ever asked yourself:  Will a Common-Core aligned society have a higher or lower incidence of suicide?  No one can say for sure.  (South Korea, an educational model in some important ways for the likes of Secretary Duncan, has a high suicide rate for adults.)  But do you think the self-appointed "reformers" have ever asked themselves this question?  Do you think they even care to?  Haven't they got the meaning of life all sewed up?