tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40751357552525024342024-02-19T02:10:41.658-08:00The Gullog"When one person cries out, 'The emperor is naked!'—when a single person breaks the rules of the game, thus exposing it as a game—everything suddenly appears in another light...." —Václav Havel , "The Power of the Powerless."
Joan Cutulyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001404162520912853noreply@blogger.comBlogger37125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4075135755252502434.post-16121974486799768032016-01-03T05:31:00.002-08:002016-01-03T05:31:50.130-08:008—Question for the New Year<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
From Deng Ming-Dao's The Lunar Tao: Meditations in Harmony with the Seasons:<br />
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Go beyond schools. Follow Nature. But ask: why do all ships carry lifeboats?</div>
Joan Cutulyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001404162520912853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4075135755252502434.post-57193622601593695612015-10-24T15:41:00.002-07:002015-10-24T15:44:11.604-07:006—When will we realize that our education system is not failing? Yes, it's failing to give our children the education they need and deserve. But the education system itself is the strongest institution in America. And here's why:<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Just today, President Obama announced that no more than 2 percent of classroom time should be spent on standardized testing. He and his Education Secretary Arne Duncan will be meeting with teachers to see how they can cut down on testing time. For the last seven years, Arne Duncan's Race to the Top has taken the failures of testing resulting from No Child Left Behind to new lows. In another decade, we will be reviewing the failures of the Common Core and lamenting the devastation of public education by the charter school movement.<br />
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Since the National Defense Education Act of 1958, one ineffectual reform after the other has gone tearing through through the halls of American public education like Mr. Toad on his wild ride.For a brief history of the craziness of education reform going back to the fifties, <a href="http://joancutuly.com/GI/currentreform.htm">check out my website</a>. Begin here with current reform, and check out the menu for the history and other observations on reform.<br />
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The bottom line regarding all education reform is that it's crafted by think tankers, bureaucrats, and politicians in offices where children rarely go. The policies they write are based more on expediency and academic fad than on the welfare of children. More recently the wealthy such as Eli Broad, Bill and Melinda Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg are on the scene. Their efforts are experimental and lacking any sort of plan for comprehensive reform effort that will address the damage done to public education by decades of ineffectual reforms.<br />
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Our education system is not failing. Yes, it's failing to give all our children the education they need and deserve. But the education system is the strongest institution in the nation. Why? Because no one has ever been held accountable for turning our public schools into stagnant learning environments where success is defined by mission statements and test scores. And because, year after year, we keep sending our children to these schools that we know are academically inferior but are becoming increasingly dangerous. In short, we're doing exactly what we've been taught to do in school—which is to sit down, keep quiet, and do whatever it takes to get the grade.</div>
Joan Cutulyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001404162520912853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4075135755252502434.post-15137979436470647342015-10-14T07:46:00.001-07:002015-10-14T08:58:12.191-07:005—Whoever decided that nations or people could own a piece of the Earth that they didn't create and therefore have no right to except through domination by force and the illusion of law?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Check out the website <a href="http://www.trueactivist.com/">True Activist</a> for a variety of constructive and informative articles about life in our strange times. Take, for example, item that especially caught my eye described how locals are <a href="http://www.trueactivist.com/locals-are-using-the-us-mexican-border-as-a-volleyball-net-to-promote-peace/#.Vh5mAgOfb0g.facebook">using the US-Mexican border fence as a volleyball </a>net for promoting peace.<br />
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Property. Property rights.<br />
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From Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land": On the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Land_Is_Your_Land">Wikipedia site for Woody</a> is a first draft of the song, originally titled "God Blessed America." But the songwriter changed his mind, and the revision of the fourth verse of his well-known creation says a lot:<br />
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<dd style="color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 1.6em; margin-right: 0px;"><i>Was a high wall there that tried to stop me</i></dd><dd style="color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 1.6em; margin-right: 0px;"><i>A sign was painted said: Private Property,</i></dd><dd style="color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 1.6em; margin-right: 0px;"><i>But on the back side it didn't say nothing —</i></dd><dd style="color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 1.6em; margin-right: 0px;"><i><s>God blessed America for me.</s></i></dd><dd style="color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 1.6em; margin-right: 0px;"><i>[This land was made for you and me.]</i></dd><br />
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In 1949, Aldo Leopold wrote in <a href="http://www.waterculture.org/uploads/Leopold_TheLandEthic.pdf">"The Land Ethic" </a>that while we preach the importance of the Golden Rule, our concept of love and community do not extend to the land. This remains true today, even though schoolchildren are taught about the interdependence of life in the natural world:<br />
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<span style="font-family: 'ArialMT'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">"Do we not already sing our love for and obligation to the land of the
free and the home of the brave? Yes, but just what and whom do we love? Certainly not
the soil, which we are sending helter-skelter down river. Certainly not the waters, which
we assume have no function except to turn turbines, float barges, and carry off sewage.
Certainly not the plants, of which we exterminate whole communities without batting an
eye. Certainly not the animals, of which we have already extirpated many of the largest
and most beautiful species."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'ArialMT'; font-size: 12.000000pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: 'ArialMT'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">Leopold goes on to say that the conqueror will eventually defeat himself:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'ArialMT'; font-size: 12.000000pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: ArialMT; font-size: 12pt;">"Why? Because it is implicit in such a role that the conqueror knows, </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic;">ex
cathedra</span><span style="font-family: ArialMT; font-size: 12pt;">, just what makes the community clock tick, and just what and who is valuable,
and what and who is worthless, in community life. It always turns out that he knows
neither, and this is why his conquests eventually defeat themselves."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'ArialMT'; font-size: 12.000000pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: 'ArialMT'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">By contrast, this <a href="http://www.wolfwalkercollection.com/articles/aho-mitakuye-oyasin">Lakota prayer</a>:</span><br />
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Arimo, Arial, Helvetica, 'Nimbus Sans L', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 0em;">
<div style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">"To the Creator, for the ultimate gift of life, I thank you.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">To the mineral nation that has built and maintained my bones and all foundations of life experience, I thank you.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">To the plant nation that sustains my organs and body and gives me healing herbs for sickness, I thank you.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">To the animal nation that feeds me from your own flesh and offers your loyal companionship in this walk of life, I thank you.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">To the human nation that shares my path as a soul upon the sacred wheel of Earthly life, I thank you.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">To the Spirit nation that guides me invisibly through the ups and downs of life and for carrying the torch of light through the Ages. I thank you.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">To the Four Winds of Change and Growth, I thank you.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">You are all my relations, my relatives, without whom I would not live. We are in the circle of life together, co-existing, co-dependent, co-creating our destiny. One, not more important than the other. One nation evolving from the other and yet each dependent upon the one above and the one below. All of us a part of the Great Mystery.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Thank you for this Life."</span><span style="font-family: Times; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: normal;"> </span></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
Joan Cutulyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001404162520912853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4075135755252502434.post-67166967064235765132015-10-12T10:51:00.000-07:002015-10-12T11:23:27.345-07:004—What might we see if animals could hold up a mirror to human behavior as they often experience it?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
"Some animals may find this disturbing,"warns Rémi Gaillard's video at the outset. We are then treated to Gaillard's prankster video that shows what kind of foolish and tawdry exploitation might occur if human and animal roles were reversed. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1k4tyPuIOQ">The video</a> satire called Human World made me an instant fan of Rémi Gaillard.<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi50LctpQJj_XrFBRtm4eTMjZek-M6i88R2jGNQ1U34QaQjzLS4P5TZWi9METoSV-1MB_avsoo3YDhYRLV4h3ZPcPDt6B9zq4Pd55W-G8R6epEs05wTdqG2CnL3Jg4W2PJw7wUSl85AIqlF/s1600/320x240-2Vz.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi50LctpQJj_XrFBRtm4eTMjZek-M6i88R2jGNQ1U34QaQjzLS4P5TZWi9METoSV-1MB_avsoo3YDhYRLV4h3ZPcPDt6B9zq4Pd55W-G8R6epEs05wTdqG2CnL3Jg4W2PJw7wUSl85AIqlF/s1600/320x240-2Vz.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From Rémi Gaillard's "Dog"(YouTube)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Reflecting on the lack of respect toward animals so rampant in our culture always brings to mind a little known book called <i>Animal Rights Considered in Relation to Social Progress</i> published by Henry Stephens Salt back in 1893. A remarkable man, Salt was a pacifist, humanitarian, vegetarian, social reformer, conservationist, and, though from England, the first biographer of Henry David Thoreau.<br />
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For all his convictions, he was not a stuffed shirt as we see in his verse:<br />
<div class="centre" style="border: 0px; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.3; outline: 0px; padding: 6px 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;">
<strong style="border: 0px; line-height: 1.3; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">A Lover of Animals</strong></div>
<div class="centre" style="border: 0px; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.3; outline: 0px; padding: 6px 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;">
Oh, yes! you love them well, I know!<br />
But whisper me—when most?<br />
“In fields, at summer-time.” Not so:<br />
At supper-time—in roast.</div>
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></span>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5yQGyYF-HWvOJk0ahgQe3nBgsI-W6J6FRWXmm6ToNa-inWi3vE3OMOSnAOVVu4DCzRfUIbRNaLNBhQTSpZOjUE9gn9DkZ6wpLuVYaOmVI_ETUCyzzfcb9AXichFsb9G7nCViR4-_m2lTg/s1600/Unknown.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5yQGyYF-HWvOJk0ahgQe3nBgsI-W6J6FRWXmm6ToNa-inWi3vE3OMOSnAOVVu4DCzRfUIbRNaLNBhQTSpZOjUE9gn9DkZ6wpLuVYaOmVI_ETUCyzzfcb9AXichFsb9G7nCViR4-_m2lTg/s200/Unknown.jpeg" width="130" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Henry Salt (1850-1939)</td></tr>
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I learned <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">about Henry Salt from a more recent book by Roderick Frazier Nash called <i>The Rights of Nature: A History of Environmental Ethics</i>. Salt and other animal rights activists back in the nineteenth center saw their cause as one with the Abolitionists. Later, they linked the rights of animals to the rights of women during the suffragette movement. While Henry Salt's book went out of print long ago, it's available at Amazon through a publishing outfit called </span><a href="http://www.forgottenbooks.com/" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Forgotten Books</a><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Salt's insights are simple, yet profound. To the charge that animal rights activists are sentimentalists, he wrote, "the only real safeguard against sentimentality is to take up a consistent position towards the rights of men and of the lower animals alike, and to cultivate a broad sense of human justice (not 'mercy') for all living things. Herein, and herein alone, is to be sought the true sanity of temperament."</span><br />
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Salt goes on to explain why the rights of men and women should not be viewed as any different from the rights of animals: " 'It is only by a wide and disinterested study of <i>both</i> subjects that a solution of either is possible. 'For he who loves all animated nature,' says Porphyry, 'will not hate any one tribe of innocent beings, and by how much greater his love for the whole, by so much more will he cultivate justice towards a part of them, and that part to which he is most allied.' "<br />
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Click to learn more Henry Salt's <a href="http://www.henrysalt.co.uk/reformer/">Creed of Kinship</a> and learn more about this fascinating reformer praised by Gandhi.<br />
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<br />
(Bonus video by Gaillard: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfUflij74P4">"Dog"</a></div>
Joan Cutulyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001404162520912853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4075135755252502434.post-19657867085879645502015-10-08T06:23:00.002-07:002015-10-08T07:19:30.176-07:003—Politicians love to tell us America is the standard bearer of freedom and human rights in the world. So why is our entire well being as a people dependent on a financial system in which it is difficult to determine the difference between bad judgment and policies based on ambition and greed?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2G5sdIcydOINhJgy4wejhmFw_WO7NgEtOofw0eOHC9fucG47lFPZL1QLkMZnvk_r-SMusw384CKwO1eN0BY4chY5YZNH028V2CEwAcPeZgErvawSpf2CbiYENqH_VuAQxJa11rl8h4v6a/s1600/51k%252B1bxdMpL._AA160_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2G5sdIcydOINhJgy4wejhmFw_WO7NgEtOofw0eOHC9fucG47lFPZL1QLkMZnvk_r-SMusw384CKwO1eN0BY4chY5YZNH028V2CEwAcPeZgErvawSpf2CbiYENqH_VuAQxJa11rl8h4v6a/s200/51k%252B1bxdMpL._AA160_.jpg" width="200" /></a>Yesterday, Ben Bernanke, Chair of the Federal Reserve during the 2008 financial crisis, was talking to Charlie Rose about those dark days when it seemed that our entire financial system might collapse.<br />
Well, actually, he was pushing his new book, <i>The Courage to Act</i>.<br />
<br />
Ben told Charlie how he, Hank Paulson, and Timothy Geithner worked to save Wall Street in order to save Main Street. Hank apparently regrets his inability to convey this noble goal more clearly to those of us who remain resentful of the massive bailout that has enabled financial firms to continue their malpractice.<br />
<br />
Ben stressed the fact that had the financial system failed, it would have taken the world with it. No doubt.<br />
<br />
When Charlie asked Ben about his statement that someone should have gone to jail, the savior of the financial system insisted he never said that. What he did say—he explained in carefully and haltingly chosen words—was that it would have perhaps been a good idea if more investigation had been done to determine if people made bad judgments or behaved with criminal intent. It's a fine line, he said.<br />
<br />
Really?<br />
Or more specifically, Ben, I thought America is the standard bearer of freedom and human rights in the world. So why is our entire well being as a people dependent on a financial system in which it is difficult to determine the difference between bad judgment and policies based on ambition and greed?</div>
Joan Cutulyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001404162520912853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4075135755252502434.post-42136125896618568512015-10-05T09:40:00.000-07:002015-10-08T05:51:19.412-07:002—Even beyond the epidemic of mass shootings, what is the real danger of guns in our culture?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; white-space: pre-wrap;">On Saturday night, I decided on the spur of the moment to drive into town to see <i>The Martian</i>. As I walked into the theater, I thought, well, I hope this movie is good enough to risk getting shot by a mass murderer. After settling into my seat, I wondered how many people in the crowded theater were carrying concealed weapons. The thought of this didn't comfort me as I imagined guns being fired from five or six directions. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Back in my days as a teacher in Las Vegas, life became unsettling with the growing number of guns and the constant threat of gang violence permeated the school. I decided to take up the offer of a local gun shop for free shooting lessons—not because I wanted to own a gun but because I wanted to understand what shooting a gun felt like. Just six years before, I'd gotten to know the students by listening to their music and going to a couple music events. Times had changed. Now their lives were defined increasingly by violence—even the nonviolent. Also at that time, </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I was writing<i> Home of the Wildcats</i> and </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; white-space: pre-wrap;">had been interviewing many students including one of my eleventh-grade drug dealers on house arrest who described how easy it was to get guns and that if I ever needed one, he could get me a small terrain tank. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Anyway, the gun shop owner gave me the wrong date when I signed up. So to make up for the inconvenience, his instructor gave me a private lesson in addition to the class. As it turned out, my martial arts training made me remarkably steady and focused and therefore a highly accurate shooter. The teacher would then move a life-sized paper figure up and down the indoor shooting range. As it moved forward, I was supposed to yell the warning, "Stop. I have a gun." If the target retreated, I didn't shoot. If it did, I shot non stop until the paper dude stopped. And as I unloaded the handgun into the paper target, an adrenaline rush flooded away all the words of Gandhi and Thoreau to which I aspired and filled me with the worst version of myself. When it was all over, I'd shot the paper dude 22 times in the heart and 12 times in the head with a scattering of holes through his various body parts. Highly impressed, the instructor gave me the target to take home as a souvenir. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Following the class itself, all five students got certificates and the right to buy a gun. One of my classmates was a little white-haired grandmother in a pink sweatsuit who wanted a gun so she could "shoot snakes in the night" while she and her husband were camping. She also wanted a gun in her car so she could protect herself against "suspicious people." </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; white-space: pre-wrap;">More recently, I know of a delightful five-year-old girl who took great interest in keeping a journal about her ladybug farm and asked very philosophical questions about death following the departure of a family friend. She enjoys meeting new people, loves dressing up in outlandish and colorful costumes, cannot get enough of reading, and, emulating the love of her parents, is a thoughtful and caring big sister. Then out of the blue one day, she announced that she wanted to buy a gun. </span></div>
Joan Cutulyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001404162520912853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4075135755252502434.post-1456528906160232702015-10-03T09:53:00.003-07:002015-10-08T05:59:55.356-07:001—If we look at our culture of violence, would the reasons for "senseless tragedy" of mass shootings become clearer?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/us-school-shooting_560d88bde4b0af3706dff6b8">45 school shootings in America thus far in 2015. </a></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">It's too easy to say that guns don't kill people; people kill people. Could it be that our culture's obsession with guns and our glorification of violence is killing people? Gun violence is everywhere—movies, TV, the media. Something or someone is getting blown up or away every time you turn around. It's difficult to tell the real from the fictional. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Politicians allow themselves to be bullied by gun lobbyists—and once in office promote themselves through divisive rhetori</span><span class="text_exposed_show" style="color: #141823; display: inline; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">c about the need to bear arms. </span><br />
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<span class="text_exposed_show" style="color: #141823; display: inline; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Parents who have lost children to gun violence are left standing at the doors of Congress—the voice of the Movie Moses echoing all around them: "From My Cold Dead Hands." Mass killers continue to get days of media coverage. Yet, the media wasn't allowed to show the thousands of flag-draped caskets of soldiers lost to wars waged more on bravado that truth. </span><br />
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<span class="text_exposed_show" style="color: #141823; display: inline; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Then there are all those pictures that show hunters smiling over dead animals—celebrating a kill. </span><br />
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<span class="text_exposed_show" style="color: #141823; display: inline; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">And let's not forget the more subtle kind of violence inflicted on children by continuing to glorify football in the light of all the facts about brain injury. Beating the crap out of your opponent on the football field has become so much a part of our culture that we focus on making helmets better instead of stepping in to protect the future brain health of our children. </span><br />
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<span class="text_exposed_show" style="color: #141823; display: inline; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">In light of these attitudes, the so-called mass shootings are not "senseless." It makes tragic but perfect sense that a culture such ours sends a very clear message to the fragile and powerless that guns are a handy answer.</span></div>
Joan Cutulyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001404162520912853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4075135755252502434.post-89312403337701496742014-04-02T08:25:00.002-07:002014-08-06T07:38:12.101-07:00Mirror, Mirror: Who Is the Fairest in the World?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
"United States is Cruel, Inhuman, and Degrading to Poor, UN Report Charges: The UN Human Rights Committee says the U. S. should stop criminalizing homeless people for being homeless." — headline in the <a href="http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/un-human-rights-committee-united-states-cruel-inhuman-and-degrading-poor">AlterNet</a>.<br />
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The article goes on to describe how a sick and homeless vet ended up being "baked to death" in a Rikers Island jail cell. His initial crime was trying to stay warm by sleeping in the stairwell of a housing project. This condemnation of America came on the heels of a creditable international report warning that our planet is in trouble. While the problems of the poor and our planet are not news, the United States is being called upon to do some serious self reflection.</div>
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How do we as a people undertake such self refection when in our House of Representatives, the chair of the Science, Space, and Technology Committee does not believe climate change is a man-made phenomenon. And for decades, the mind of the American public has to a large extent been shaped by marketers so that today we have become a consumer society. The success of our economy depends on how much we shop, not on our skill as craftsmen. In fact, most of what we shop for is not made in America but in cheap labor markets overseas.</div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I was recently in a big urban mall for the first time in a number of years. Call me a rube, but I could not believe all the stores filled with stuff. So much stuff. Really cool stuff. But most of it not made in America—and in styles or with operating systems soon to be out of fashion or obsolete. With its vast space and tall ceilings, the mall felt like a cathedral to stuff. After having a new battery installed in my 2009 computer, I fled my desire to buy something new and beautiful and shiny, something to make me better than I am, smarter and more stylish.</span></div>
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As this week has unfolded with the grievous reports of the tragedy befalling our planet and the poor, I see the problems compounded by the ambition and lack of compassion among our politicians. Perhaps the most revolutionary act of social and environmental justice in our time might be to ask: How does every dollar I spend on stuff make me complicit in the suffering of our planet and the poor?</div>
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Asking such a question is pointless if we're not willing as individuals to change. Like basic manners, compassion and self-reflection are not skills encouraged in a culture such as ours where image has become so important. Instead of promoting self reflection, or schools promote it by fostering an environment where grades, winning, and popularity are more important than character and creativity. </div>
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For decades, the American education system has been sending children into the world without the skills, historical perspective, and character required to become creative and compassionate problem-solving citizens. I keep hearing that America has the finest institutions of learning in the world. On the other hand, when we look at our leaders, most of whom have at least one degree from these fine institutions, we see a government run by people who appear to lack the nobility and know-how required to solve the problems that will make us the exemplars of human rights they claim us to be.</div>
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Joan Cutulyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001404162520912853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4075135755252502434.post-91949451450345658342013-12-16T08:10:00.000-08:002013-12-16T08:10:01.459-08:00Is A Culture of Guns the Answer?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">This article from <a href="http://www.concealednation.org/2013/12/colorado-shooting-over-in-80-seconds-because-of-armed-staff-member/">Concealed Nation</a> is seductive. Yes, we want our children to be protected. And without trivializing the violence done to the lovely Arapahoe High student Claire Davis and her family, we are all thankful to those who ended the shooter's rampage b<span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline;">efore more lives were damaged. However, is the answer to this epidemic of violence to promote a culture of guns? Any weapon can become or be perceived as a form of bullying and therefore encourage more weapons. After a career in teaching, I don't believe for a second that any shooter just snaps or that no one was aware of his precarious mental state. My experiences as a teacher also convinced me that we would likely get more bang for the buck if all the money spent on assault weapons, hand guns, and training police forces to respond to mass shootings were spent on the development of mental health programs and the development of an engaging and creative problem-solving curriculum to replace the culture of popularity, competition, and measurable objectives that now permeates our education system. And imagine what might happen if all the money and power that goes into promoting the gun lobby's agenda were used to encourage our politicians to give all of our children the education they deserve and to create a jobs program aimed at putting Americans back to work and eliminating the growing income disparity throughout our country. It's just a thought in this season of peace and goodwill.</span></span></div>
Joan Cutulyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001404162520912853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4075135755252502434.post-16977610387250043822013-08-22T05:56:00.000-07:002013-08-22T08:14:20.421-07:00Letter to Richard Brodhead, Cochair of the Commission on the Humanities and Social Sciences<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Dear Dr. Brodhead,</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I saw you several nights ago on the <i>Colbert Report </i>and previously with John Lithgow on the <i>PBS NewsHour</i>. Yesterday, I read <i>The Heart of the Matter. </i>As a former English teacher, I am overjoyed to find that so many prominent citizens are making a case for the arts and humanities. However, as a teacher who was driven from the profession for her crimes of imagination against the system, I feel there are some pieces missing from the education section of <i>The Heart of the Matter</i>. I’ve therefore decided to send you my heartfelt two cents.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">This matter of restoring the arts and humanities to their rightful place alongside the sciences has been my cause since the National Defense Education Act of 1958 turned me into second-class citizen behind my fellow students whose talents lay in science and engineering. I’ve always thought it unfortunate that instead of trying to beat the Soviets in the arms and space races, we didn't do more to inspire the Russian people’s love of poetry in our own citizenry. I mean, great science is often metaphor: Einstein’s ride on a beam of light, Watson and Crick’s climb up the spiral staircase, and Loren Eisley’s fabulous lessons in humility as he takes us into the many worlds that exist beyond the edges of human consciousness. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So that you might know I’m not just an idle complainer, I have included my memoir, <i>Prisoner of Second Grade. </i>I wrote this book because what happened to me during the forty-six years I spent in school as a student and teacher is a metaphor for why we can’t solve the problems in our education system. But my story also shows the more intimate consequences resulting from policies that in many schools have reduced 30,000 years of what it means to be human into an occasional elective.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I wish with all my heart that you would take the time to read at least the two sections about my experiences at the Home of the Wildcats. This school was a microcosm of the great American melting pot, and what happened there shows how much human potential is lost when policymakers and administrators cannot see past their programs for change into the hearts of those they would change. Improving education in civics will mean nothing if young people are taught by example that the way to get ahead is to sit down, be quiet, and do whatever it takes to get the grade. The tragedy of our country is that so many children’s lives are turned to dust before they even have a chance to contribute their considerable talents. Perhaps there might be a way to add a new dimension to your commission’s goals that would include more average and poor people in your planning—not to help them but to allow them to help policymakers, academics, and corporate leaders discover a deeper, more inclusive vision for America.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">It seems to me that <i>The Heart of the Matter</i> is by academics for academics. I understand that the map is not the territory. However, the academic language of the document lacked the poetry of a humanistic vision. Where is the passion and imagination that would make scientists believe they can’t live without us? Where is the call to give more respect to teachers by allowing them the power and initiative to do what they know is best for their students? Where is the promise for changing the mindset of so many schools administrators who are so afraid of their jobs that they won’t risk any deviation from the policy manual? Like the education system and the country itself, ordinary people are not made to feel welcome. The language has no, well, heart.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Nowhere is the lack of heart more evident to me than in the fact that this commission that has tasked itself with bringing heart back into American life and education did not include one public school teacher. And where was Arne Duncan? Nothing is going to change in our education system until someone in authority addresses the mindset that determines education policy. And nothing in our country is going to change until we have a national education policy that will solve the problems in our schools. When Finland reinvented its education system, <i>everyone</i> was involved.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Changing the mindset of public education policy has come to mean soliciting contributions from foundations and donors. Having such contributions sounds great but will do nothing to generate the kind of vision that we need to solve the problems that have been compounding themselves over the last fifty years of ineffectual education reform. We’ve seen this in the efforts of Bill Gates and Eli Broad, among others. Diane Ravitch, more credentialed than I, says the same thing. But I would also point out that there is little that she has seen following her conversion that that my colleagues and I didn’t see as young teachers back when she was rising in the ranks of power. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I found in my teaching that the arts and humanities can change lives—and the system. The problem was the policymakers. I am convinced that with fewer bureaucrats and more imagination, solving the problems in our schools would not be as expensive and difficult as we’ve been led to believe. But this can happen only by enlisting teachers because the problems our schools face are as diverse as the schools themselves. Administrators and funders should be facilitators, not policymakers. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Believing this, I found <i>The Heart of the Matter’s</i> praise for the National Defense Education Act of 1958 disturbing. In fact, I would go so far as to say that many of our current problems began with that legislation. Yes, the NDEA did promote international studies, and we do live in a global world and must learn to communicate. However, the NDEA also narrowed the vision of the education system to beating the Soviets in the arms and space races. Faced with the challenges of the sixties, the education system had nowhere to go. Even as we walked on the moon, our education system was in serious decline. By 1983, a U. S. Department of Education study declared us to be “a nation at risk.” Since then, things have only gotten worse. When will policymakers begin to communicate with teachers before imposing policies that are based more on political expediency and academic fad than on the welfare of children? And when will we make effective education reform the priority it should be? </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Also disturbing to me is the support for the Common Core. The Common Core will not work because it’s stated goal is to prepare children for college and careers. This is not a bad objective, but a narrow one given the problems with achievement, discipline, and class disparity in our schools. We saw a similar reform in the early eighties when schools went rushing back to the basics in response to <i>A Nation at Risk. </i>The goal there was also to get more children into college. The result was to push students in a direction they were not prepared to go. The only way to get them there was to lower the standards. And we see how well that has turned out.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Mostly, though <i>The Heart of the Matter</i> made me sad because what I read in that document<i> </i>was an academic proposal prepared and promoted by academics. Its vision was corporate, not personal. I felt nothing in it that would touch the heart of the nation or inspire We the People to a more humane consideration of each other and the problems that threaten our everyday lives. Change must be personal, not bureaucratic. It will require heart, not goals and mission statements—teachers, not academics and corporate funders.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I hope that I’m wrong here, that the map is not the territory you and the commission envision. </span></div>
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Joan Cutulyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001404162520912853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4075135755252502434.post-45829133232253092502013-07-22T07:24:00.001-07:002013-07-22T07:24:07.771-07:00Show Me How You Are Searching<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Some months back on the PBS NewsHour, I watched students of all ages in a North Carolina school where everyone has a computer. Books in that district will soon be obsolete. The students were all sitting at their desks, eyes glued to their own little screens. Several days later, I heard on the radio that a new study shows that children, especially the young and disadvantaged, learn best by discussing and playing. <br />
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Now I see that the iPad will be arriving in the Tillamook School District where I live. I’m old. I started my career as an English teacher in 1965. I love books. But times are changing. Besides, textbooks are expensive, heavy, and environmentally unsound. Even worse, most textbooks, having been dumb-down and edited so as not to trouble anyone with a controversial thought, exude all the personality of Pablum.<br />
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When I started teaching in the sixties, I swore I would never become like those cranky old teachers, wringing their hands about the new generation and all their irreverent ideas. Technology is not the problem. I’m a writer and deeply attached to my computer. And yes, the iPads will offer unimaginable opportunities for students. The sky is no longer the limit.<br />
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On the other hand, surfing is not learning. Acquisition of massive amounts of information is not wisdom or insight. Albert Einstein said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” The iPads should definitely stimulate imagination. But Einstein also said that “God doesn’t play dice with the universe.” The universe runs according to laws, even the quantum world where electrons behave differently, depending on how you look at them. How cool is that.<br />
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But while it’s been said that “a little knowledge is a dangerous thing,” we might also say the same about limitless information. Access to all the information in the universe is nothing more than a whole lot of information if you don’t know how to use it. The scientific method is the same now as it was in the time of Aristotle—the ongoing use of observation, hypothesis, experimentation, and verification. These terms are, of course, just fancy language for figuring out how to do or fix stuff whether you’re a farmer, politician, or NASA scientist. Having instant access to all the information in the universe is fun and may harness the attention of students. But despite the 24-7 access to limitless information that is already available to many of our young people, the fact remains that American students rank 29th in science, with one out of four students falling at the very bottom of the rankings. What else do young people need to know in order to solve all the problems we’re dumping in their laps?<br />
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Today’s hospitals are all hooked up so that their staffs have great swaths of information at their fingertips. Yet, a recent study of three sophisticated hospitals showed that one third of all patients suffered some adverse complication during their hospitalization. Also, every week in America, forty wrong-side surgeries are performed, as in amputating the left leg when it was the right leg scheduled for surgery.<br />
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All our Washington politicians have one or more degrees from our finest institutions of higher learning and large staffs to gather massive amounts of information. Yet many of these politicians appear to lack the character and basic skills required to solve our nation’s growing problems. In fact, much of what the politicians have done has made these problems worse. What didn't they learn in school? <br />
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While budget cuts have become routine for Tillamook schools, Education Secretary Arne Duncan just spent $4.35 billion of our taxpayer money on his education reform program called Race to the Top. The idea of the program was that states were to compete for the money by coming up with innovative programs. Except the money went to the eleven states and the District of Columbia who are developing data systems, massive collections of data on individual students from test scores to their interaction with child services. The winning proposals uttered hardly a word about more effective curriculum development.<br />
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“Show me how you are searching,” wrote Ludwig Wittgenstein, “and I will show you what you are searching for.”<br />
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Technology is a marvel of the human mind. Ray Kurzweil predicts in <i>The Transcendent Man</i> that by 2045, computers and man will have merged. Isaac Asimov predicted the same thing in his fabulous short story "The Last Question," which I first read in 1975. In 2045, I'll be 103. Or not. It's a strange feeling to see the world changing before my eyes, almost by the day. What concerns me is not the future, but what I have experienced in the past that has brought us to this point where we are now shrinking our children's experience within this vast universe to fit inside a tiny screen. <br />
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Shouldn’t we at least be asking ourselves if staring into little screens might actually be narrowing our vision as a people. In 1958, Congress passed the National Defense Education Act so we could prepare children to beat the Soviets in the space race and the arms race. Since then, the arts have been systematically eliminated from curriculum and the humanities so denigrated that today in many schools, 30,000 years of what it means to be human have been reduced to an occasional elective. </div>
Joan Cutulyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001404162520912853noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4075135755252502434.post-37389966620710027022013-07-22T07:19:00.000-07:002013-07-22T07:29:04.393-07:00Bridgeport Parents Say No to Icebergs<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Bridgeport, Connecticut parents <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/22/education/change-agent-in-education-collects-critics-in-connecticut-town.html?pagewanted=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_ee_20130722">complaining</a> about their school superintendent Paul Valles have it right. U. S. Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan does not.<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span">Mr. Valles, formerly CEO of the Chicago Public Schools and Superintendent of the Recovery School District in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina, was hired about two years to revamp Bridgeport schools. But apparently </span>annual salary of $234,000 <span class="Apple-style-span">isn't sufficient, as Mr. Valles has also negotiated an $18 million contract to bring his famed "Valles Turnaround Model" to Illinois schools. Bridgeport parents don't think much of the model which is based on a standardized curriculum, aggressive testing, and the move to reorganize schools under the leadership of charter management companies. And there's evidence to show they're right.</span><br />
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Remember when Secretary Duncan said that Hurricane Katrina was "the best thing ever to happen to education in New Orleans"? This, he said, allowed the old system to be washed away to make room for the "perfect" system. Enter Paul Valles as superintendent. Mr. Valles does what so many school reformers, including Bill Gates, like to do. They go into a district, spend a lot of money, get no results, then just leave and call it a success.<br />
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So what happened in the New Orleans Recovery (so-called) School District. Well, <a href="http://jonathanpelto.com/2012/09/20/paul-vallas-maybe-you-should-get-the-new-orleans-people-to-stop-calling-it-the-vallas-turnaround-system/">reports</a> show that 79% of Mr. Valles charter schools received either a D or an F on Louisiana's school report card. And the average score on the ACT is 16.8, among the lowest in the country. This average score rose by less than half a percentage point under the Valles Turnaround Model. All this, of course, happened at a cost of millions.<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span">Yet, when Connecticut parents see their schools headed down this dead-end street, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/22/education/change-agent-in-education-collects-critics-in-connecticut-town.html?pagewanted=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_ee_20130722">Secretary Duncan calls their complaints</a> "beyond ludicrous"and an example of too many schools who are clinging to "archaic ideas." Both Secretary Duncan and Mr. Valles served as CEO of the Chicago Public Schools. In </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><a href="http://cnsnews.com/news/article/only-21-percent-chicago-public-school-8th-graders-are-proficient-reading">2012</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span">, only 21 percent of eighth graders tested at grade level or above with only 20 percent at gradge level or above in math. </span><br />
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In his <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/22/education/change-agent-in-education-collects-critics-in-connecticut-town.html?pagewanted=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_ee_20130722">criticism</a> of Connecticut parents, Secretary Duncan said they were "<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">just another painfully obvious, crystal-clear example of people caught in an old paradigm. This is the tip of the iceberg."</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">Reformers like Mr. Valles and Secretary Duncan are the iceberg and the voices of denial driving the American public education system full steam ahead into disaster. </span></div>
Joan Cutulyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001404162520912853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4075135755252502434.post-5892065288908317832013-02-13T10:25:00.001-08:002013-02-13T10:25:27.512-08:00Has the President Thought Out His High-Tech Promise?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In last night's State of the Union Address, </span> President Obama proposed a program for encouraging schools to prepare students for high-tech jobs. This brought to mind a friend who is a school librarian. She spent the last 15 years building up her library to include a balance of books, computers, and a variety of resources based on the needs of the school’s students and teachers. Recently, her administrators instructed her to get rid of 5,000 books. Then without consulting her, they turned the library into a media center with a coffee bar. My friend says the place now has the look and sound of an arcade. I’m not sure how this will prepare young people for high-tech jobs...unless in our new world it’s enough to be wired from caffeine.</div>
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This is probably not what the President has in mind. But if we look at education reform going back to the <a href="http://www.joancutuly.com/1958.htm">National Defense Education Act of 1958</a>, we see a history of short-lived reforms that were based on academic fads and political expediency rather than on sound classroom methodologies and the welfare of children. For example, that National Defense Education Act of 1958 was a knee-jerk reaction by Congress to the Soviet's launching of Sputnik. Without any proof, our legislators concluded that the Soviets were first into space because American children were behind in math and science. So they passed the NDEA of 1958 to promote the study of science, math, and engineering. This had the effect of denigrating the arts and humanities and turning those of us in these fields into second-class citizens. This is what began the systematic elimination of these subjects from our school. Today, in many schools, 30,000 years of what what it means to be human have been reduced to occasional electives. </div>
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So we did beat the Soviets in the space and arms races to become the world's sole military and economic superpower. But what was the trade-off? When I take a look at our nation's leaders, I see men and women with degrees from our nation's most prestigious universities. Yet they seem to lack the character, skills, and compassion required to solve our country's problems so that all of our citizens have the equal opportunity promised by our founding documents. We the People do not seem to understand the powers of citizenship well enough to demand better schools for our children and decent health care for all.</div>
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George Santayana warned us that those who don't understand history are doomed to repeat it. I invite you to take a few minutes to read up on the National Defense Education Act on my Web site, <a href="http://www.joancutuly.com/1958.htm">The Gulliver Initiative</a> and then follow the links at the bottom of the page to discover more about what has turned our education system into a national disgrace. I believe that unless We the People begin to demand better from our local school boards and administrators, our we are never going to learn what we need to know to demand better solutions from our leaders.</div>
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Joan Cutulyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001404162520912853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4075135755252502434.post-8961955037414553482013-01-22T12:52:00.000-08:002013-01-22T12:52:25.871-08:00The President and His Priorities<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px;">As President Obama beings his new term, he speaks of America's limitless possibilities. America’s possibilities would be limitless if all our children were getting the education they need and deserve. Since the National Defense Education Act of 1958, the arts and humanities have been eliminated from many schools—and with them, the spirit of creativity and humanity required to solve the nation’s problems and carry us into the future. Math and science alone are not the gateway to innovation. As Einstein said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px;">In his new Organizing for Action campaign, the President encourages us all to become involved locally and nationally in issues related to immigration, gun violence, and budget concerns—all vital concerns. However, this campaign offers no encouragement to take action to improve the American education system.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px;">When will we address the fact that for decades schools have been sending an increasing number of young people into the world with little more than minimum-wage skills? And when will we ask ourselves why America’s leaders have degrees from the nation’s top universities, yet lack the character and skills required to solve the nation’s problems? In fact, it seems that our leaders not only fail to solve our problems, but often make them worse with their stalling and ideological bickering. What are we teaching our children?</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px;">Secretary of Education Arne Duncan calls his plan for improving our schools Race to the Top. Race to the Top of what? As America was busy becoming the world's economic and military superpower, our education system deteriorated into a moral and intellectual disgrace. Restoring the arts and humanities to their rightful place alongside math and science in our schools would be a good thing. But nothing will change until the lessons of humanity become more important than the acquisition of money, position, and power. </span></span></div>
Joan Cutulyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001404162520912853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4075135755252502434.post-73562302803835329742013-01-04T20:15:00.002-08:002013-01-04T20:15:35.436-08:00Makeshift Memorials<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Last night on the TV news, a story about Newtown, Connecticut showed a huge warehouse filled with toys, games, stuffed animals, and dolls sent to Newtown from all across America to honor the memory of children and teachers gunned down and held the troubled town. In the warehouse, Newtown residents are now sorting out the mounds of stuff and trying to figure out how to distribute or dispense with the items. I couldn't help wondering how much money had been spent on these toys. I estimated that there were probably at least three thousand items. At $10.000 each, the collection would total $30,000, not counting postage to send them from across the country. Even if I'm off by half, $15,000 is also lot of money. My thought was that this money could have bought a lot of books for children whose homes and schools were destroyed by hurricane Sandy. Also the toys could have brought joy to many poor children over the holiday. Or homeless shelters could have fed a lot of hungry people. Even if the games and plush toys are donated to good causes, the cost to Newtown of doing this will not be insignificant. I've noticed in previous tragedies that makeshift memorials are piled high with stuffed animals and other such things. Perhaps, we should rethink the idea of the makeshift memorials—maybe send or even create a card offering condolences to the bereaved and make a small donation of goods or money that will help alleviate the grief of the world in more practical ways.</div>
Joan Cutulyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001404162520912853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4075135755252502434.post-41753033142953469312013-01-04T18:38:00.002-08:002013-02-13T10:27:26.138-08:00Arms or Arts?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
December 23, 2012<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">This morning, I heard more discussions on TV about putting armed guards in schools than I’ve ever heard about eliminating the arts and humanities from our classrooms. Since the National Defense Education Act of 1958, the arts and humanities have been budgeted away so that today in many schools, more than 30,000 years of what it means to be human have been reduced to an occasional elective.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Several days ago, a gun enthusiast on TV advocated arming teachers. A skeptic said that in recent public shootings, the shooter wore bullet proof gear, so did this mean that the teachers would have to do the same and if so, what about students? As a former English teacher, I thought it’s way easier to ban books than assault weapons. The American Library Association's list of 100 Banned and Challenged books for 2000-2009 includes The Color Purple; Brave New World; To Kill a Mocking Bird; I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings; Bless Me, Ultima; Slaughterhouse-Five; Of Mice and Men; and The Catcher in the Rye. . . .</span></div>
Joan Cutulyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001404162520912853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4075135755252502434.post-67288758645880178572011-03-18T08:33:00.000-07:002014-02-12T14:27:06.726-08:00Michelle Rhee: Education Reformer or Corporate Steamroller?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a name='more'></a>Michelle Rhee has been showing up on talk shows in her new capacity as founder of <a href="http://www.studentsfirst.org/content/index">students<b>first</b>.org</a>. Ms. Rhee was the chancellor of Washington D.C. schools who left the nation's capital when her champion, Mayor Adrian Fenty, was voted out of office. Many felt that his failure to get re-elected was due in part to his support of Ms. Rhee's slash-and-burn drive to rid the district of ineffective teachers. And she was indeed as fierce and unyielding as her picture on the cover of <i><a href="http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,20081208,00.html">Time</a></i>. Ms. Rhee said later that she wished they'd shown her in a picture with kids. Is Michelle Rhee a champion of children or the ruthless reformer on the cover of <i>Time</i>? <br />
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I believe Ms. Rhee is sincere in her efforts to give all children the education they need and deserve. I also believe her efforts will go the way of every other major education reform effort going back to the fifties. Why?<br />
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If you go to her <a href="http://www.studentsfirst.org/pages/our-mission">website</a>, you will notice a crisp, beautifully designed presentation of mission statements and stategies. Her mission, however, is a statement of the obvious: children need good teachers, teacher need better training, parents need to get involved, politicians and school officials need to adopt more effective policies. <br />
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The site's <a href="http://www.studentsfirst.org/policy-agenda/entry/studentsfirst-policy-agenda-executive-summary">policy agenda</a> talks about how to "drive change" and the need for "promoting governance structures that prioritize accountability and put students' interests first." Ms. Rhee would also "elevate the teaching profession" by implementing strategies for "evaluating principals on their ability to drive student outcomes, and to attract, retain, manage, and develop excellent teachers." Despite the name of Ms. Rhee's organization, there's very little mention of students in this site that reads more like a corporate manifesto or the mission of some politically motivated think tank.<br />
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Throughout the site, there are videos and testimonials galore, along with boxes inviting you to get involved, sign a pledge, or show your support. And what is it that you're being asked to get behind? <br />
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The site sparkles with glittering generalities such as the need to promote "great schools" and "great teachers." What I see on this website is the very thing I saw throughout my career as a teacher. The bureaucracy is not the problem; it's a symptom of the problem. The problem is that education has gone corporate. It's all about image, product, and outcomes a.k.a. the appearance of success, graduation rates, and test scores. None of these things addresses issues such as improving the quality of education or preparing our children to become creative problem-solving citizens. <br />
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All Ms. Rhee's talk of empowerment is hollow if we lack the historical perspective and creativity to understand what is happening. It does not appear to me that Ms. Rhee understands much about the history of education reform because in so many ways she is repeating it. To understand what I mean, please visit <a href="http://www.joancutuly.com/">The Gulliver Initiative</a>. <br />
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Ms. Rhee wants to empower people and make sure they get paid what they deserve, which I think from her website means that they recreate themselves in her image...although what she wants to see happen in classrooms is not clear because of the general nature of her strategies and her emphasis on political change rather than changes in curriculum and discipline policies. Ironically, her plan lacks the specifics of lesson plans that make for good classroom teaching and successful classroom management.<br />
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There is also nothing in Ms. Rhee's vision that encourages the development of creativity and character. In fact, despite the name of her organization, there is more talk of politics, money, and empowerment than changes that would enhance the education and welfare of children. <br />
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Ms. Rhee taught for several years with the Teach for America program. She's talked about how successful she was but that when the kids went to other teachers, all they'd learned was lost. I have often wondered why she hasn't patented her miracle methods for all to use. I also wonder if she's ever thought that her feeling might be shared by every teacher who is struggling alone in a system where the lack of creativity, compassion, and character in leadership have led to fragmented curriculum and lack of discipline that demoralizes teachers and burns them out to a crisp. <br />
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I would say to Ms. Rhee that we don't need to be empowered. We have the power. The problem is that we've been taught in school to sit down, keep quiet, and do whatever we're told to do, no matter how irrelevant or absurd the assignment is. If you look at Ms. Rhee's website, you will see the perfect example of how a bright and caring woman has been trained to speak and act in the corporate way by an education system gone corporate. It's tragic, really, that a person of her talent and energy can't see that driving people to be effective will never be as effective as inspiring them to be the best they can be. Yes, there are ineffective teachers who should not be in the classroom. But few people go into teaching with the hope that they'll fail. Teachers, like students, want to succeed. Good teachers know how to tap into the best in their students. Good leaders should try first to inspire teachers to work together to find solutions instead of just firing the people they decide are losers. <br />
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I believe that with more inspired leadership, principals and teachers can find the courage and incentive to create solutions to the problems in their schools and overcome the inhumanity and stagnation imposed on them by a system gone corporate.</div>
Joan Cutulyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001404162520912853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4075135755252502434.post-27528957996078522672011-02-02T11:22:00.000-08:002011-02-02T11:22:15.715-08:00Another Kaputnik Moment?President Obama has called for another Sputnik moment to revitalize our education system and make America competitive once again. I began my career as an English teacher in 1965 and over the course of that career saw how the approach to education reform set in motion by our original Sputnik moment contributed to the decline in academic achievement. I would even argue that the last fifty years that were set in motion by that <a href="http://www.joancutuly.com/1958.htm">first Sputnik moment</a> caused the decline. For the sake of our children and our nation, we must not allow history to repeat itself. <br />
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The most damaging legacy from that first Sputnik moment has been the elimination of the arts and the denigration of the humanities. The most fundamental problem among students today is the inability to read. Reading is fundamental to learning at all levels and in all fields of study. Reading is fundamental to all learning. Reading is a skill. But reading well is an art that requires imagination, perspective, and a point of view. All of these qualities are enhanced through the study of the arts and humanities. The same can be said for critical thinking. Yet, today in many schools, thirty thousand years of what it means to be human have been reduced to an occasional elective. How can young people assimilate and order information without some framework of understanding that helps them ascribe meaning and perspective to what they're learning?<br />
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Studies now show that student performance declines as children get older. This isn't surprising when when we consider that over the last twenty-five years we've tried to solve the problems in our schools, not by expanding the imagination and perspective of our students but by subjecting them to an increasingly standardized curriculum that is geared to nothing more than raising test scores. <br />
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The history of testing is a study in irrationality:<br />
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Testing was used to assess student progress.<br />
When test scores didn't improve, teachers were encouraged to teach students how to test.<br />
When test scores still didn't improve, teachers were encouraged to teach to the test.<br />
When test scores still failed to improve, teachers were instructed to drill students like little soldiers for the test.<br />
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The obsession with testing is not a valid teaching methodology, but rather a mentality of competition instigated by ambitious leaders. As history and great literature show us, hubris of a life defined by ambition is doomed to failure. Right after the first Sputnik moment, America rushed to launch its own satellite into space. So sure that our rocket would succeed, officials broadcast the launch world-wide. The rocket blew up, and our satellite got no farther than the surrounding weeds. Newscasters dubbed our failed satellite Kaputnik. By driving children to study math and science without the balance of the arts and humanities, we make them instruments of competition defined by ambitious leaders. Only, it's the children who are falling among the weeds.Joan Cutulyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001404162520912853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4075135755252502434.post-52077874580275611902011-01-29T07:50:00.000-08:002011-01-29T07:50:56.181-08:00Mr. Illich and President Obama's Sputnik MomentThe last two blogs have recalled excerpts from Ivan Illich's <i>Deschooling Society</i>, first published in 1970. Illich was an Austrian priest known for his critiques of western culture. Today's blog offers his reflections on curriculum. Illich mistrusted institutionalized learning and favored self-directed work, such as offering students a list of names and works related to projects that interested them. While I still favor public education, Illich's insights articulate ideas we need to consider in order to bring more meaningful reform to public education. The following passage about curriculum seems prophetic in light of the way American schools have dumbed down and pureed curriculum over the years.<br />
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"School sells curriculum—a bundle of goods made according to the same process and having the same structure as other merchandise. Curriculum production for most schools begins with allegedly scientific research, on whose basis educational engineers predict future demand and tools for the assembly line, within the limits set by budgets and taboos. The distributor-teacher delivers the finished product to the consumer-pupil, whose reactions are carefully studied and charted to provide research data for the preparation of the next model, which may be "ungraded," "student-designed," "team-taught," "visually-aided," or "issue-centered."<br />
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Jargon is the language of bureaucracy. Jargon works like the language of advertising. It makes people feel good and makes their ideas sound right and important. We all want to feel good, right, and important. But as feeling that way doesn't make it so.<br />
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Recently, President Obama called for another Sputnik Moment. The President has been praised for his inspirational words. We all like to be inspired. But those same words he used were spoken back in the fifties. Driven by national pride, we flung ourselves into the study of math and science so we could beat the Soviets in the arms and space races. I lived through the first Sputnik moment and saw how our response to it changed our approach to education in ways that actually created many of the problems schools face today. I invite you to visit my Web site to learn more about <a href="http://www.joancutuly.com/1958.htm">the first Sputnik moment</a> and why the last thing we need is a second such moment.Joan Cutulyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001404162520912853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4075135755252502434.post-14458070077349369252011-01-23T12:14:00.000-08:002011-01-23T12:25:26.274-08:00Mr. Illich, Standardized Tests, and the Consumer IndexMuch that happens in our schools today is defined by measurable objectives. In fact, measurable objectives seem to define who we are as individuals and as a people: who has how much and how can we get more. It's difficult to know how we got started down this road as a culture, or why it's so hard to recognize the flaws in the current belief among many that the way to save our nation from economic ruin is to get more people buying things. Is it what we can measure that will save us, or those qualities that can't be measured: compassion, creativity, justice for all, and a sense of responsibility based on the welfare of all rather than special interests?<br />
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Perhaps we should rethink our approach to education where measurable objectives in the form of standardized testing have taken the humanity out of learning. In 1970, Ivan Illich wrote, "People who have been schooled down to size let unmeasured experience slip out of their hands. To them what cannot be measured becomes secondary, threatening. They do not have to be robbed of their creativity. Under instruction, they have unlearned to "do" their thing or "be" themselves, and value only what has been made or could be made."<br />
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Millions of dollars are spent on self-help books and motivational speakers across the social and business worlds. Perhaps, we ought to change the way we educate our children and save ourselves a lot of time, money, and personal angst. Perhaps the crisis in America is not economic but spiritual. Over the last fifty years, the arts and humanities have been so denigrated that today in many schools, more than thirty thousand years of what it means to be human have been reduced to an occasional elective. Certainly, we don't want to go back to the open classroom of the seventies where students wandered about schools defining their own courses of study. But discipline and scientific thinking not the antithesis of creativity and compassion. Or rather, they shouldn't be. The challenge is to achieve a balance so that the measurable and unmeasurable can inform one another. <br />
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How could the rejection of the unmeasurable qualities of the human spirit not have contributed to the divisiveness plaguing our political system and the greed that motivates our financial system? Where will all the social networking get us if we don't know how to work together as a people to solve the problems that threaten our wellbeing as individuals and as a people?Joan Cutulyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001404162520912853noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4075135755252502434.post-53894532245109854952011-01-20T08:34:00.000-08:002011-01-20T08:38:35.671-08:00Mr. Illich, Finland, and the Ironies of TestingIn <i>Deschooling Society</i> (1971), Ivan Illich warns of the dangers of an education system in which measurable objectives are the measure of all things. Today's post begins a series of quotes from <i>Deschooling Society</i>, offered for the purpose of encouraging reflection on our education system's obsession with testing and an increasingly standardized curriculum.<br />
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"School pretends to break learning up into subject 'matters,' to build into the pupil a curriculum made of these prefabricated blocks, and to gauge the result on an international scale. People who submit to the standard of others for the measure of their own personal growth soon apply the same ruler to themselves. They no longer have to be put in their place, but put themselves into their assigned slots, squeeze themselves into the niche which they have been taught to seek, and in the very process, put their fellows into their places, too, until everybody and everything fits."<br />
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Currently, Finland has been leading the way in international test scores. As my website report on the <a href="http://www.joancutuly.com/finland.htm">Finnish education system</a> shows, teachers were not encouraged to teach to the test. In fact, the nation was surprised to learn they came out on top. More to the point for this post, the outcome of the tests revealed the smallest gap between the highest and lowest scores.Joan Cutulyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001404162520912853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4075135755252502434.post-59096002851616257842011-01-16T08:35:00.000-08:002011-01-16T13:16:21.692-08:00Thoughts for Expanding America's Moral ImaginationRabindinath Tagore (1861-1941) won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913. One of India's most distinguished poets, he was also a distinguished educator, social reformer, philosopher, and advocate for India's liberation from imperial rule. The following poem was published in a book of prayers entitled <i>The Heart of God</i>.<br />
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<b>Let My Country Awake</b><br />
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Where the mind is without fear, and the head is held high;<br />
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Where knowledge is free;<br />
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Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;<br />
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Where words come out from the depth of truth;<br />
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Where tireless striving stretches its arms toward perfection;<br />
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Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;<br />
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Where the mind is led forward by You into ever widening thought and action—<br />
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Into that haven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.Joan Cutulyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001404162520912853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4075135755252502434.post-55976320530208412652011-01-15T08:02:00.000-08:002011-01-16T13:13:25.914-08:00Data vs. ImaginationToday <i>The New York Times</i> carried <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/07/education/07teachers.html?_r=1&ref=teachforamerica">an article</a> that discusses some novel approaches to education reform. In one school, students are offering suggestions to teachers on how to improve their teaching. In other schools, young teachers are working together to modify their teaching styles so that their schools function more effectively. The article suggests that, as in all things, progress is most effective when people talk to one another. <br />
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The article does point up that this new approach has generated conflict between teachers and administrators. Not surprising. Bureaucracies die hard, and people with power are loathe to give it up. It's too bad that school officials lack the imagination to realize that the willingness and freedom of teachers to change is probably the only way to true education reform. Imagine the reform that could occur with the kind of leadership that encouraged teachers to work together in individual and collaborative efforts to create more effective classroom experiences for students. Just as the school in which students are teaching teachers, perhaps teachers should be given the opportunity to teach administrators. <br />
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In his Tucson speech, President Obama urged an expansion of our moral imagination. There's no better place to begin that expansion than in our schools. Education Secretary Arne Duncan should take note. Instead of his plan to amass data about student performance through <a href="http://www.joancutuly.com/arneduncan.htm">Race to the Top</a>, why doesn't Secretary Duncan expand the moral imagination of our public education system by funding programs that encourage administrators, teachers, and students to work together to solve the problems in their schools?Joan Cutulyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001404162520912853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4075135755252502434.post-88596688719723807932011-01-03T15:39:00.000-08:002011-01-04T11:05:37.039-08:002011—Quest for a New DirectionWhen 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. <br />
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<i>Waiting for Superman</i> 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.” <br />
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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. <br />
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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. <br />
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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.<br />
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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? <br />
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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. <br />
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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.<br />
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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. <br />
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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. <br />
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Anything I would say in The Gullog is merely a variation oof everything I've said about education reform on my <a href="http://www.joancutuly.com">website</a>. 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<a href="http://www.joancutuly.com/secondgrade.htm"> <i>Prisoner of Second Grade</i></a> shows, the system never took kindly to my goals. That's no reason to quit. My new memoir <a href="http://gullog-gulliver.blogspot.com/"><i>The Romance of the Netartians</i></a>, 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.Joan Cutulyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001404162520912853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4075135755252502434.post-30286854255918465632010-12-24T07:31:00.000-08:002010-12-24T07:33:56.303-08:00Happy Holidays"Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in." ~ Henry David Thoreau<br />
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Gone fishin'—<br />
Please come back on Monday, January 3.Joan Cutulyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001404162520912853noreply@blogger.com0