"Ask an impertinent question, and you're on your way to a pertinent answer." —Jacob Bronowski, The Ascent of Man
As of October 2015, my goal for this blog is to ask 101 impertinent questions.

Monday, January 3, 2011

2011—Quest for a New Direction

When I first started teaching in 1965, I would look at older teachers waiting to retire and scoff at their constant complaints about the way our culture was changing and their unwillingness to adapt. Now that I'm pushing seventy, I find myself in a strange situation. I'm frustrated with the younger generation of educators and reformers who keep repeating the follies of the last fifty years of education reform that has turned our education system into a national disgrace. I find myself becoming grouchy and focused on the negative. And there are certainly a lot of reasons to complain.

Waiting for Superman was supposed to be the hot new film that would reveal the truths about the problems in America’s schools. Sadly, it turned out to be nothing more than an infomercial for charter schools and a sentimental portrayal of the injustice of a lottery system that determines whether a poor child will go to a good charter school or be condemned to a failing and overcrowded public school. Nothing points up the superficiality of Mr. Guggenheim's assessment of American education as his film's conclusion. The solution to the problems in our schools, he tells the viewer, is “you.”

Mr. Guggenheim now claims his purpose was merely to encourage a dialogue on education in America. His failure is evidenced by the fact that media gurus who had shown absolutely no interest in or understanding of the problems in education suddenly became experts on learning—dismissive of public school teachers and advocates for charter schools.

Meanwhile, Joel Klein, upon leaving his post as chancellor of New York City Schools, is claiming that one of the great achievements of his tenure was the closure of failing schools in favor of smaller charter schools. Unions have complained that because charter schools can reject problem students who have to go somewhere, public schools that remain open have become even more overcrowded and overburdened. While the facts show this to be true, Mr. Klein responds by saying that the real problem is a power struggle with the unions.

One of the stars of Mr. Guggenheim's film and a compatriot of Mr. Klein is Michelle Rhee, who boldly stated on the big screen that our children are getting a "crappy education." As chancellor of Washington D.C. schools, Ms. Rhee got a lot of press for firing bad teachers. It never seemed to me that she even considered the possibility that it's difficult to be a good teacher in a bad system. When I googled Ms. Rhee yesterday, most of the hits were about her upcoming wedding. While it seems petty to mention this, I do so because it seems to me that while Ms. Rhee might have been sincere in her initial desire to help children, that desire got lost in Ms. Rhee's slash-and-burn policies and image for toughness. A beautiful and intelligent woman with a gift for the sound bites, Ms. Rhee cuts a perfect media figure.

I have to admit that I'm jealous. And perhaps bitter. It's harder in this world to be heard if you happen to be a less striking, white-haired excommunicated teacher who lived through the half century of reforms that crippled our education system and finds that while, yes, children are getting a crappy education, the solution is way more complicated than firing all the "bad teachers." Ms. Rhee claimed that in her three years of teaching, she worked wonders with her students who then went on to bad teachers and lost all they'd gained. So then why doesn't she teach all the bad teachers her method so that they can all be wizards like her?

I don't know all the details of Ms. Rhee's success in her three years as a teacher. I do know that in my first three years of teaching, I was enthusiastic and inspiring, and I cared about the students with all my heart. The students responded. But it wasn't until I became an experienced teacher that I realized it was arrogance to mistake youthful spirit for skilled teaching.

During my career, I worked under four public school superintendents. Three of them came in with high flung promises, created a mess, then moved on. I also met with Al Shankar back in the sixties when he was a leader in shirtsleeves out to change the system and drumming up support for the American Federation of Teachers and challenging the establishment ideas of the National Education Association. When I was a keynote speaker at a convocation of Montana teachers in 1995, Mr. Shankar appeared on a big screen in hall of educators, right alongside the president of the National Education Association, both sporting the corporate image.

I believe that Mr. Guggenheim is a well-meaning person whose artistic credentials gave him a bigger voice than he should have had. Mr. Klein won his reputation as a United States District Attorney. Neither man knew enough about education to handle the responsibilities they were given. Ms. Rhee, for all of her prestigious credentials and confidence, shows little understanding of the complexities of the problems in our schools and none of the leadership qualities that will be required Time and opportunities were lost, money was squandered, America's education system remains a national disgrace, and millions of children continue to receive a poor education.

What I've just described is a microcosm of what's happening in our education system and what has been happening for the last fifty years. We need a new way of thinking about how we educate our children. Over the years, many excellent books have been written about the crimes of injustice in our education system. These books have not stopped the injustice or stemmed the tide of academic decline. I don't see what can be accomplished by any more complaining about the problem. Analyzing the problem won't do any good when our leaders show no indication of paying attention. Most of all, I don't want to become like the older teachers of my youth, always carping about the system.

Anything I would say in The Gullog is merely a variation oof everything I've said about education reform on my website. I hope you will take some time to review the information there. With this new year, the onset of age, and the feeling of time nipping at my heels, I'm going to continue to do what I began doing as a young teacher. I'm going to continue my quest for a better way of educating students. As my memoir Prisoner of Second Grade shows, the system never took kindly to my goals. That's no reason to quit. My new memoir The Romance of the Netartians, is the story of how I recovered from my excommunication from the teaching profession. I hope you will join me in this adventure of sand, wind, and sea that led me to the teacher I'd been waiting for all my life and showed me what's been missing from the last fifty years of education reform in America.

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