“We Told You So” Doesn’t Come Close to Covering It…

For those of you who can’t “hear” my tone because you’ve never met me, let me assure you this is not one of my sarcastic, fired-up rants. It’s been seven exhausting, depressing, ridiculous and in some cases, surreal years thanks to NCLB (No Child Left Behind). Seven years is apparently the exact amount of time needed to pass before our nation’s policy makers, journalists, and titillating-gossip-only-news-junkies figure out that those teachers who have been complaining about and rallying against many of the horrible changes NCLB has wrought… are in fact, right. Teachers suspected what has now been confirmed: NCLB’s policies were intentionally put into place to create nationwide failure among public schools in order to make school privatization more appealing to the public.

Jim Horn at Schools Matter shares:

… it just took Time Magazine seven years to ask someone on the inside if what we have been saying for seven years is true, but later is better than never, you might say. Susan Neuman, former Asst. Sec. of ED under Rod Paige, now admits that insiders at ED saw “NCLB was a Trojan horse for the choice agenda.”

“Neuman gives no clue as to how she will make amends for staying silent during the past 7 years of educational genocide, as millions of children, parents, and educators have been brutalized by the policies she promulgated and promoted.”

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From the Time Magazine article (with bold emphasis mine):

There was always something slightly insane about No Child Left Behind (NCLB), the ambitious education law often described as the Bush Administration’s signature domestic achievement. For one thing, in the view of many educators, the law’s 2014 goal — which calls for all public school students in grades 4 through 8 to be achieving on grade level in reading and math — is something no educational system anywhere on earth has ever accomplished. Even more unrealistic: every kid (except for 3% with serious handicaps or other issues) is supposed to be achieving on grade level every year, climbing in lockstep up an ever more challenging ladder. This flies in the face of all sorts of research showing that children start off in different places academically and grow at different rates.

Add to the mix the fact that much of the promised funding failed to materialize and many early critics insisted that No Child Left Behind was nothing more than a cynical plan to destroy American faith in public education and open the way to vouchers and school choice.

Now a former official in Bush’s Education department (Neuman) is giving at least some support to that notion.

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Horn also links to TeacherKen who wraps up his blog post:

“No Child Left Behind has been very destructive to many of America’s public schools. And to have someone as connected as was Susan Neuman acknowledge that for some supposedly dedicated to the well-being of our schools and students it was instead serving as a vehicle to attempt destroy the public schools (and thus a chance at a meaningfully improved economic future for many of our young people) strictly on ideological grounds is something about which everyone should be aware.”

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Some self-reflections about my job and responsibilities as a teacher as well as my responsibilities as a parent and the educational experiences I want my own children to have are posted here, here, here, and here.

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No wonder I need a hug!

Back to the Dark Side

Oh, how I wish I was referring to chocolate, cookies, anything other than teaching. I’ve been a bit torn lately in fact, because I’ve found I’ve been spending more and more time reflecting upon home, family, creativity, emotions, and craft explorations than I have on teaching as our year-long stay in the Bordertown stretches on. Totally natural, I’m sure, but I’m going to have to dive head-first back into the Land of Public Education when I return to teaching kindergarten (hopefully this fall), and that means I’ll be back to inservices, professional development days, collegial groups, and trying to pep-talk myself into demonstrating a rah-rah mood about the new learning community to which I will belong. School number four, back in Oz. Which hopefully will be pro-student, and pro-teaching, not pro-Kill-and-Drill-for-the-State-Assessments.

Baby steps, baby steps. So I’ve gone back to listening to podcasts related to education, visiting the blogs of some of my favorite teachers (their moods don’t help, most are bummed out, burnt out, sick and tired), exploring web sites and blogs featuring actual kindergarten classrooms, and trying to leave meaningful comments at the posts that speak to my inner-teacher. Staying on top of my game requires that I continue my own education, formally and/or informally. This year, podcasts, online essays, e-books, and visits to Barnes and Noble to follow up on recommended reading suggestions have been the affordable way to go,and have kept me from having to choose a subject of study for a Master’s program.

With NCLB and the attacks on students, teachers, and public education as a whole, I cringe at the thought of one day growing up to be a principal… of being a curriculum coordinator whose job it is merely to buy the the sole program and products approved by the government-approved corporations that have no scientific basis for their claims to fame and success…or the education professor at a university rehashing this whole nightmare for future generations of teachers. Nope, sorry, I’d rather do crafts. Make wreaths. Figure out how to read stories to blog visitors via podcasts. Learn more about digital photography. Lose myself in an antique store or flea market. Or wow, just TEACH.

I’d like to introduce my students to new forms of expression, to new authors, new voices. Encourage them to sing, to question, to discover, and to help others. To take chances, to forgive, to problem-solve. To laugh at knock-knock jokes, to encourage their friends, to persevere when an answer doesn’t come easily. To try something new, to enjoy something not-so-new. To paint, to plant, to pretend. To read, to write, to communicate with a diverse group of people, to know they have value. It’s wonderful when students realize that LMNOP is really “L-M-N-O-P,” five letters, not one. It’s even more rewarding when my students help one another celebrate an accomplishment like learning how to tie one’s shoes, writing both first and last names, or reading a story. Sharing wonderful stories with parents about those moments they miss as a result of allowing me to spend so much time with their children is something I’m happy to do. Offering longer conferences, sending silly emails, keeping parents in the loop, inviting them to spend time with us.

Time spent actually teaching and guiding is a gift, not a chore to tolerate or endure. But the careful activism that seems to be required right now, advocating for my students, advocating for their future, advocating for their parents, advocating for my own children, advocating for my colleagues, and frankly, advocating for my job is a heavy burden. They’re worth it, we’re worth it, I’m worth it, but it is difficult. Unpleasant. And it takes away from what I feel I should be doing: opening finger paints, helping cut yarn, vacuuming sand out of the carpet from our sand table…whatever it takes to give my students an environment rich in kinesthetic, emotion-imprinting discoveries and inspirations.

Here’s what I’ve been reading- some of them are lengthy, in-depth… all provide important information and viewpoints of which more parents should be aware…of which more new teachers should read up on if they ever hope to be “real” teachers and not just script readers and assessment administrators:
Drop Out Explosion: Wonder How Come:

“…teachers and principals are blamed and held “accountable,” which reinvigorates all over again the inhumane and immoral practices that the Bush kind of tough-love exacts from educators turned into brutal bureaucrats. In order to keep their schools from being shut down or taken over by charter outfits or EMOs, the just-following-orders educators make sure the losers are shoved out, encouraged out, and pushed out in order to avoid their negative effect on school test performance.”

A Nation at Risk: Burn in He** (outlines the scare tactic that has been used to great success to destroy public education):

“From an irrational faith in the ability of standardized tests to inspire greater learning, and from an unwillingness to finance more expensive tests that would sample critical thinking as well as basic skills, we’ve again narrowed the curriculum to “minimum competency,” precisely the 1970s standard that A Nation at Risk denounced. From a belief that an alleged decline in student achievement must be attributable to a decline in teacher quality, at best, or to malfeasance (‘low expectations’) of teachers, at worst, many districts have attempted to overcome this teacher incompetence by implementing scripted, or nearly so, curricula. We’ve attempted to focus teachers’ attention by a testing regime so rigid that it threatens to destroy teachers’ intrinsic motivation and their ability to address the full range of student difficulties that can only be diagnosed by creative teachers, student-by-student.

Again, this does not suggest that teachers are as well trained as they should be, as well-motivated as we would like them to be, or as student-oriented as they must be. But it is hard to defend the proposition that teachers, especially those of minority and disadvantaged children, have been sitting around making excuses for poor performance when these children have gained a full standard deviation in test score improvement in a single generation.”

Mike in Texas posted “Get Those Test Scores Up or I’ll Kill You” at his blog, Education in Texas (and oh yes, I left a comment):

“Of course, it had to have happened in Texas, where the drive to destroy public education began via high-stakes testing. A principal has threatened ‘I will kill you all and kill myself.’ if TAKS science scores don’t improve.”

(What galls me is that parents decided to pooh-pooh the teachers, when those same parents would have been the first to worry about and report the incident if it had happened in their own workplaces, or if their child had come home and told them that another student had made a similar threat. )

Endure. Teach in spite of the ever-increasing-list of obstacles. The students need me. Their parents need me.

I’m going to need a LOT of coffee.

Catching Up and Clarification

I’ve been home since Monday evening. I have re-cleaned areas of the house that the family *thought* they had cleaned before my return (our techniques for dusting, mopping, vacuuming, laundering and disinfecting don’t exactly match), and I finished reading The Other Boleyn Girl last night. I baked some cookies that are perfectly accompanying my coffee this morning, and I’ve just made it through all of the blogs I missed reading while I was away. Wowzer, was NetNewsWire *full*! I’ve emailed friends and family, sent photos of my trip, and fast-forwarded through most of my recorded t.v. shows on DISH. Catching up, catching up.

I’m not certain what inspiration will find me today, but I’m guessing grocery shopping and re-thinking the seasonal decor in the house will occupy some of my time this morning. Of course I’ll be working up tomorrow’s Show and Share blog, with more photos of some of the goodies I bought while in Oz this past weekend, and will keep my fingers crossed that our internet tech is able to find the source of our internet connection woes sometime today.

I’m looking forward to Shannon’s visit next week as is Dear Daughter. Having moved four times in five years by this summer, time spent with our family and friends who are family helps us to stay connected in between our travels hither and yon. No, still no news on where we’ll be stationed next- I’m keeping my fingers and toes crossed that we will NOT be staying here in the Bordertown. Thank you for your good thoughts!

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Clarification:

For those of you who followed the link in my Knowledge is Power post, and were wondering if I was advocating that all parents pull their children out of school during mandated assessments, the answer would be “no.” I do encourage and am an advocate for parental involvement, LOTS of parental involvement in the lives of their children, but I believe that in our country’s present state of turmoil, not many parents have taken the time (for whatever reason) to really sit back and look at the long-term effects of decisions they’ve allowed others to either make for them or scare/convince them into making themselves in regard to NCLB. When I provide links that I’ve found interesting and thought-provoking, I share them in the hopes that their content will somehow engage others, get them thinking from another angle, or provide another detail or interpretation that will help with the bigger picture for those readers who are spending time to survey the terrain outside of their own backyard.

Remember, I’m not only a teacher (who has the year off, is not presently employed and is therefore not representing any state or any school district) but a parent as well. I don’t believe that my own children will get “do-overs” once NCLB and its testing malpractice(s) are shown to have succeeded in obliterating both the pros AND cons of our public school system. My children will be out of school, and hopefully in college, surrounded by other problem solvers, knowledge-lovers and big thinkers who survived in spite of NCLB, while younger students still in junior high and high school will be doing all they can to just make it through. How many students that reach basic proficiency through today’s drill and kill testing practices are really going to be motivated to attend or adequately prepared for a college’s or university’s rigorous curriculum?

Looking to the future, it’s probable that should my children decide to study Education while in college, they’ll take classes on the history of education, education reform, testing and assessment, etc. I suspect that college professors and other education analysts will tell future teachers that NCLB (and all of its programs, those based on punitive measures AND rewards) was one of the biggest and most successful tools used to control our country. Maybe my crystal ball is a bit cloudy, maybe my vision is a bit off, maybe I’ve had too much coffee… but WHAT IF…

What if the NCLB machine was engineered to make sure enough children failed? No, not every school, or every child. When enough students fail, the school puts canned programs into place that are not only endorsed but mandated by NCLB. When students continue to fail (and some always will, sorry to burst your Pollyanna bubble), for whatever reasons, school environments are taken over and restructured completely, and parents, if they so choose, can move their children to schools that have made AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress). “But what about those schools that have received accolades and rewards and who proudly advertise their school’s report card that PROVES they’ve made adequate yearly progress? Doesn’t that mean that at least those schools are succeeding thanks to NCLB?” Uh, maybe.

Let’s assume those beribboned and shiny gold star schools are accurately reporting their test scores. That doesn’t necessarily mean that the teachers are providing your child with the most comprehensive and well-rounded educational experience possible: it means that students have been taught enough to pass a single test. And guess what, if that gold star school honestly continues to do well while neighboring schools fail, the students from the failing school get to overcrowd Gold Star Elementary, increasing class size, bringing their less-than-proficient scores with them, thus increasing the chance that the school will lose ribbons and gold stars in the future. Yep, in giving schools those fun little awards, the government goes out of its way to make it more difficult for those schools to continue to succeed, though somehow most parents feel placated when told, “don’t worry, your child can go to the good school now,” and don’t think too much past their own reassurance. For those who need an analogy:

Imagine a weight lifter. Strengthening his body, monitoring his diet, trying to make it to the next competition. He pushes himself, hopefully safely, by adding more weight, making his muscles stronger over time. He can bench press two hundred pounds, two hundred twenty five, two hundred fifty, three hundred, three-fifty, four hundred, success after success. Five hundred, six hundred, more. Believe it or not, there will come a time when someone puts enough weight on the lifter that no matter his training/development or his previous successes or trophies, he will not be able to lift it. Ever. Pick up the truck. Pick up the house. Pick up the weight equivalent to a neighborhood block. You can’t. You failed! YOU FAILED. Gee, how did *that* happen? Guess you need us to take over.

Tsk, tsk.

Another thought that today’s intake of cookies and coffee have fired off in my brain is this: If the NCLB machine has indeed been created to guarantee that all schools eventually fail, wouldn’t those beribboned and gold starred schools that continue to blatantly “succeed” no matter how much weight is dumped onto their own weight bars be easily spotted and eventually identified as deserving of investigation? Of, perhaps, misreporting their assessment scores? Of altering test administration? Of cheating? It would certainly be a red flag to me if I made sure everyone would fail (gradually of course, don’t want to tip people off), and one little upstart continued to succeed no matter what. In fact, if I were a real mastermind, I would have made sure that ribbons and gold stars were mandated as rewards BY ME, as my failsafe catch-all. Everyone would be on my radar, easy and clear targets.

Maybe my children will choose to study architecture in college instead. Maybe I should try a more well-balanced breakfast in the morning. Maybe it’s time for that grocery shopping I’m supposed to be doing today.

Knowledge is Power

Is your child an English Language Learner?

Does your child have an IEP, or 504 plan?

Does your child receive “Special Ed” services?

Does your child have any label, “EI,” “ADHD,” “Speech/Language,” etc.?

Is your child demonstrating reading and math skill acquisition at HIS OR HER OWN PACE (did you know that most teachers with experience consider the third grade the “magic catch-up year?” Go ahead, ask them *why*.), regardless of what the required NCLB assessments demand?

Did you know that when a “school loses funding,” it’s not money the government takes away from a building, or a staff… it’s money the government takes away from YOUR CHILD’S EDUCATION?

Knowledge is power. Try this on for size:

Parents Lead to Testing Boycott

Personally, I Vote for HOPE

It’s February, but there is something I’m *not* loving at the moment… the all-encompassing FEAR that many/most (if not all) of us have felt for quite some time now. Fear of terrorists, fear of our children “being left behind,” fear of immigrants, fear of gender, fear of race… interesting how we’ve allowed ourselves to be steered in this direction.

Living in the Bordertown gives me visual reminders of fear everyday:






Now these homes aren’t in bad shape, nor are any of these located in what’s considered to be a “bad” neighborhood, but their prison “look” is representative of the rest of the community at large. In my opinion, it doesn’t matter if your gates and bars are painted a complementary color to your home, or if you add swirly curly-q’s to them, or try to make them architecturally interesting by making their line follow the architecture of scalloped walls: you’re still locked in behind those bars, and you’re trying to lock everyone else out. Sure, we outsiders see your fence of fear (oh I know, the manufacturers call it a “security fence”), but you know what? When you’re looking out of your window, so do you. Must be a great view.

Fear.

Somehow, we can deny entry into our country to any music star who might have a drug conviction, but we can’t keep terror cells outside of our own borders. And just when you try to return to Mom, baseball, and apple pie, someone somewhere decides that 9/11 footage should be shown AGAIN. How’s your adrenaline?

Blanket statements about immigration ignore those newbies to our country who came here the “right way,” legally obtaining citizenship. Instead, we’re fed information from a different slant. Many statements (usually racist) made about how all of “our” jobs are being lost, our school/health/welfare systems are overburdened by non-citizens, etc. Riled up yet? Oh wait, is that….adrenaline again?

As a teacher, I resent the fact that many people in this country have bought into fearing me, fearing that I might “leave your child behind.” In twelve years of teaching, somehow I’ve morphed from trusted guide and awesome kindergarten teacher to “She-Who-Must-be-Doubted-and-Feared.” No, my intense interest in finger paint, glue sticks, and songs by Raffi is actually not an indicator of substandard or inappropriate teaching practices. Really. Surprised?

I value my ability to put food on my childrens’ plates, clothes on their backs and someday, Uncle Sam willing, a long-term roof over their heads. I’ve spent a lot of time, a lot of money, and a lot of effort obtaining knowledge from a college I didn’t have to attend in order to learn how to teach well. I complement my educational expertise with ongoing training in child/parental psychology, health and nutrition guidance, nurse/EMT training, multi-cultural awareness, sociology and communications, technological advances, and a slew of other areas of specialty, again, so that I can do my job well. I utilize developmentally appropriate practices and I believe children are very different from adults (and should be allowed to be so).

In my classroom you’ll see children BEING CHILDREN, learning through experience and exploration, expressing themselves, sharing, laughing, singing, and yes full-day-kindergarten-advocates, taking naps. Sorry folks, but no matter what politicians or testing company CEO’s try to tell you, duct taping students’ fannies to their chairs multiple times per week to assess their knowledge gained actually results in kiddos spending less time participating in activities and experiences that enhance and facilitate their learning.

Stop. Think. Breathe. You can understand this one, really. If you have to take your kids to soccer, then to the store to get new pants, then over to the dentist’s for an appointment, then over to the bank to deposit a check, how are you putting your family’s photo album together at home? And when? If you keep taking kids away from their teacher, and keep making them spend extra time on math and reading in isolation in order to pass a single test, when are they going to learn how to play an instrument (which by the way, would offer yet another way for a child to have an “a-ha moment” in regard to both math and reading!), have time to explore literary genres, or learn a foreign language and exercise their bodies? After school? Uh, honey, check the newest after-school activity list: here in the Bordertown you won’t find band, babysitting, or computers. You’ll find TAKS TUTORING. When did you decide that it was okay to no longer value your child’s creativity? His or her inner song? Interests? Gifts? Mental, physical, and emotional health? Did you learn best by sitting in a chair, day in and out, in a room filled with silence, or are your most vivid memories of learning filled with sights, sounds, textures, smells, exertion, emotion, and interest?

Someone told us to be scared. And we bought it.

What other messages of fear have you been fed lately? Which ones have you gulped down, hook, line and sinker? And to whom has it been of benefit?

Questions to ponder… I know, they’ll tick some of you off:

What’s the big threat, really, of having a president whose anatomy includes breasts and a vagina? Same goes for a male president whose family tree doesn’t solely include ancestors who were Elmer’s Glue “white.” A president represents his or her entire nation, all colors, sexes, creeds, and beliefs. In order to do so, s/he must have a diverse background, advisers who are paradigm shifters, and the ability to understand that the most honest answers (and best solutions to problems) will come from going straight to each horse’s mouth. Please stop talking to CEO’s and other salespeople about how I should be doing my job. Talk to child advocates, other teachers, parents, and children. Fame does not equal credibility. Donald Trump and Bill Gates may be Googled more than I am, but that doesn’t mean they could do my job better than I do it. Their business models are MODELS FOR BUSINESS, not for teaching and guiding young children in ways that will enable them to lead enriched, expressive, generous and tolerant lives.

Presidents aren’t perfect, they’re human, and will make some mistakes. But isn’t it time to have hope again- hope that our president will stop serving a single agenda, and stop steering us with fear? We’re not just a nation at war. Americans are starving, we are homeless, we are displaced. We have no health care. Our environment is suffering, a lot of people are depressed. And we are allowing ourselves to be herded like sheep with scare tactics.

Eek! A woman! Eek! Someone with brown skin! Eek! Someone who isn’t a teacher has told us to be afraid of education! Eek! A Republican! Eek! A Democrat! Eek, someone whose marital decisions entitle little ol’ me to judge them! Eek, a veteran! Eek, a non-veteran! Eek, someone whose religious practices don’t match my own! Eek, a person who doesn’t photograph well! Eek, change!

Any idea why our nation’s enemies find us so deserving of their attention? Why we are viewed as predictable and easily-targeted drones? Oh, go ahead spin doctors… our nation is the strongest in the world, our American way of life is awe-inspiring, so other countries and cultures fear us and our strength and our divine right to demand compliance from them, er, our desire that they accept our generous gift of democracy, yadda yadda yadda…

Sweethearts, I’m an American woman with a multi-cultural background who teaches students in our public educational system. I’m a mother, and I’m the proud wife of a United States soldier. Members of my father’s family are considered “indigenous” people, meaning they were here on this continent, living on the land that is part of our present nation, long before my mother’s family arrived on the boat. I would be proud if my children chose to serve in the military, and I would proud if they chose to become doctors, mechanics, computer techs, non-fiction writers, woodworkers, or rocket scientists. I appreciate the fact that it is your tax dollars that move and house me and my family with each new military assignment my husband receives, but I also know that it’s my family’s tax dollars moving and supporting us too.

Hope isn’t frivolous. Hope isn’t a fad. And regardless of what you’ve been told, Hope isn’t going to bring our enemies “into our backyards.” We can be a nation of hope, and have a strong, capable, and appropriately equipped military to defend it. We can be a nation of hope, and provide our children with the best education possible (once we stop taking money away from our students to give it to corporations- yes, I said “students,”not “schools”). We can be a nation of hope and require that all immigrants join us legally. We can be a nation of hope and of health and provide for ourselves as much as our political-correctness inspires us to demonstrate care for others.

It’s time hope returned to our nation. I VOTE FOR HOPE.

Candidates, please deliver, regardless of your political party’s affiliation. All of America is your party.

Merit Hiring

I was reading Science Goddess’ “More Isn’t Always Better” post this morning and her thoughts took me down the road of introspection regarding my lack of employment this year. Her assertion that merit pay for teachers wouldn’t guarantee better teaching made my head nod vigorously in agreement, and made me wonder exactly what equation used for hiring here in “Mexico-North” is applied to new teacher applicants such as myself.

My info? College graduate, twelve years teaching experience, licensed/certified to teach in Alaska, New Mexico, Kansas, and even here, Texas. I have glowing letters of recommendation, an excellent résumé, and wonderfully gracious references. Resources? My own extensive childrens’ library, professional library, math/science/literacy/art/music manipulatives, classroom decor, puppets, puzzles, blocks, audio/visual teaching aids, computers (yes, I provide my own computers for my students) and even sleeping mats. Like most teachers, money for play dough, paint, glitter, glue, dress up clothes, and every small yet necessary detail for kindergarten explorations (sunflower seeds, cotton balls, snacks) comes out of my own pocket. I’m also not burnt out on teaching and I actually *like* children, both very valuable commodities.

After submitting résumé after résumé to school districts and having several interviews for kindergarten and other primary grade classes, I’ve not been offered a job. My observations as the parent of a student have had me cringing, shaking my head, venting, and vowing to move away from here as soon as Uncle Sam lets us. At this point I’m a fan of “merit hiring,” hiring someone who is the most qualified, who offers the most resources, and who has the most desirable background as vouched for by other education experts. I was, in fact, under the impression that hiring highly qualified teachers was a requirement mandated to school districts nationwide in our latest educational reform. But like everything else, “highly qualified” is interpreted very differently here.

Budget constraints rule the day, and the logic used in the Bordertown when trying to address the needs and requirements of NCLB (not that I agree with them) just doesn’t fit. The community is at least eighty-percent Hispanic, which makes not hiring me because I don’t speak Spanish an understandable decision. The need to communicate effectively with all students, build those bridges, and give the gift of multiple languages to students are all goals I respect and believe in. In not speaking Spanish, I am not the most highly qualified. Hiring a Spanish-speaking aide with whom I could team-teach isn’t an option here like it is in New Mexico however, perhaps because you really can’t get two for the price of one.

During one of my interviews, a principal asked if I had any questions for her, to which I replied “yes, how does your school utilize technology, and what resources are available to kindergarten students?” The response of the other teachers in the room was polite laughter, while the principal explained that none of the kindergarten classrooms in her school had computers yet, though they were waiting for some old ones to be donated by a military Academy class here on post (which my husband attends) this year. I then asked her if sharing learning centers amongst kindergarten classrooms would be possible since I had computers for student use that I’d be happy to share. “Oh no, that would be unfair, one teacher having computers and the others not. We don’t even have computer standards for our pre-k or kindergarten classes yet, just guidelines.” Totally missed my point and offer, but apparently the bottom line was that NO students would have computer time if all classrooms weren’t equipped. It’s all or nothing.

Several weeks after my last interview, I ran into one of the teachers who had been part of the interview committee at a fast-food restaurant. She remembered me and we did some chatting while waiting in line to order. She said she was sorry I hadn’t been hired though I was qualified and I had “done so well” during my interview, and said her principal had hired another applicant because she “wouldn’t cost as much.” She also divulged that the person hired was certified through an alternate licensure program that required she only complete a year-and-a-half’s worth of education courses and practicum experiences before being employable by any district here. Budget again. I’m wondering how much classroom money, if any, she was given to set up all of the learning centers necessary to provide appropriate educational experiences for her students. With her limited knowledge and experience with public education, would she even know to ask for funding? Perhaps “clueless” is desirable.

Hiring Spanish-speaking applicants with the least amount of experience (and possibly skill) and least amount of classroom resources doesn’t seem to be the best plan of attack when it comes to addressing this town’s interpretation of NCLB’s biggest rules:

1) All students must pass.
and
2) All students must pass in English.

Students are hit with monthly barrages of TAKS “practice” tests which take away from learning anything OTHER than how to take the TAKS. They are allowed to take the test in their “native language” until high school, when TAKS must be passed in English by all students, regardless of ethnicity or language experience.

Huh?

Okay, so maybe it’s *just me.* Either I’m grossly underqualified because I just don’t see (nor understand) the big picture, or I’m grossly OVERqualified because I’ve noticed that there isn’t one.

Still, it would be nice to have a paycheck.

Still Learning

I’ve never been the type of person who gets the “big picture” about everything. In fact, most of my close friends and confidantes will describe me (kindly) as a late bloomer. Narrow vision, not much spiraled schema starting from my own little world reaching out to the grander view of it all. My naïvité, lack of exposure, and lack of awareness that there are many things out there about which I should become more knowledgeable got me into some hot water as a college student, a young newlywed, a new mother. As a friend and a teacher as well. Thankfully I had caring, tolerant if not patient, forgiving family, friends and colleagues around me who were terrific resources as role models, sounding boards, guides, and shoulders to cry on. I even managed to learn lessons from those less-than-ideal situations and people I encountered. Better late than never, I learned that effort, focus, and endurance were required to live life peacefully and enjoyably with fewer surprises coming out of left field. Timing was everything as it turns out, since I ended up falling in love with a military man.

Moving every year or two as a military dependent has helped to expand my view by effectively throwing me into the deep end of our country’s pool, forcing me to sink or swim, though sinking is never really an option. Before we explore, it’s been important to me to quickly set up house, set up home. Home-base is our safety zone with its routines, chore lists, established family time, even predictable decor. Our traveling foundation is what enables us to feel like we’ve got a safe starting-off point as we navigate the new posts, towns and states in which we get to live. We navigate cultural situations and exchanges, educational experiences, and observe and are affected by local political ills and issues. It’s been difficult to invest a lot of time learning all of the history about each new post and locale when we know we’re leaving again in a year. Instead, we find treasures, places we like to go, bits of the local flavor we’d like to pack and take with us, and try to build new friendships.

The issue that seems to affect us most no matter where we travel with our little corner of the universe is education. I’m a teacher and we have school-aged children. My big-picture-schema has indeed, been spiraling. Being the late bloomer, I have observations, not solutions. More questions than answers. This will probably bother educational and social activists, but hey, we are where we are.

*There are poor families and students in every state to which we’ve moved, the “haves and have nots.” No matter how wholesome, how diverse, or how religious a community claims to be, there is always some version of “them versus us” affecting behaviors and decision-making.

*Every neighborhood, each street, each church, school, school board, and each town council have their own view and focus of what’s important, what should be taken care of and how, and those diverse views rarely produce anything other than debate. Unproductive debates turn people off, are felt to be a waste of time. And not every group has a voice at the table with which they can advocate for themselves and their children.

*In the emotionally shell-shocked environments of many places in this country, people are DONE. Done going to meetings. Done reading the paper. Done finding out more info, seeking out multiple viewpoints to find their own balance. They accept what is mandated to them and are paddling like mad just to keep afloat. Why question? Push on, and try to make it through.

*Those parents who aren’t done are eager for reassurement. Many are distracted by the bells and whistles of ribbons, seals, medals, banners, and accolades schools vye for each year to show that they are quality places of learning.

*Parents wonder if their childrens’ teachers are partners in education, or the enemy, deserving of immediate criticism, complaints and badmouthing. Many of them suspect the latter, even when just starting out sending children to kindergarten. Here in the bordertown, articles or newsblips about principals who are clueless that teachers aren’t using provided textbooks, school board trustees taking bribes, and teachers crossing the VERY OBVIOUS line between personal and professional interactions with students help to fuel this fear. Issues are found and reported in every state, at every grade.

*Parents (and teachers) fear for their children and students. Teachers and administrators fear for their jobs. School board members fear for their seats (in more ways than one). Those people who do question, who do ask, who do seek out answers by digging if necessary, fear what will happen when (IF) the masses figure out that this:
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is really just this:
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Nothing like being immersed in exhaustive fear and distraction- hmmm….almost like it was planned. In the ebb and flow of things, I’m wondering when, IF, we’ll ever truly come to consensus about the tide. In February, we’ll find out where home-base will be moved to next. Something tells me that while we’ll experience new flavors and events in cultural diversity, societal “diversity” will reflect many, if not all of the characteristics mentioned above. More questions, more wonderings, more learning to come in the months ahead.

Ancora imparo.

Colleague Care

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…but until then, we’ll do what we can to support each other through this interesting time.

I was raised in a family of teachers. I have rather vivid memories of not only events in my own kindergarten classroom thirty-three years ago, but of years and years and years of bulliten boards, schools, towns, school board meetings, parent teacher conferences, school carnivals, open houses and all of the other events that I accompanied my mother to or helped her with in Texas and Alaska. I did some more growing up while in college, choosing teaching as my field of study and profession. I wasn’t too terribly observant of all of the educational history I was surrounded by, but a few tidbits here and there got my attention and had me thinking as I began teaching my own students. With my family, my master teacher’s input and guidance during my professional year, and terrific mentor teachers as colleagues, those tidbits were sewn together, and after five years of teaching, I felt that I could reach out and invite practicum students and student teachers into my classroom.

I’ve made new friends and worked with new colleagues after relocating to the Lower-48, and have found these collegial relationships reflecting the fact that I have continued to grow older. No longer the newbie on the staff, nor the youngest, but not so old as to be thought of as “disenchanted” or merely “hanging out until retirement,” teachers new to the profession come and ask me for input, advice, or ears to listen and shoulders to cry on when the going gets tough. Shrapnel from the CRT fiasco is still raining down on some of their shoulders and though I now live several states away, how they feel, what they think, and how they problem-solve to manage this situation and their own self-care matters to me greatly.

“Newer” teachers ask new and fresh questions and think of innovative and paradigm-shifting solutions to educational problems, but they also ask those basic questions that more experienced teachers have already moved past. More experienced teachers have been there, done that, and have moved on with their professional knowledge and development, and perhaps don’t feel the need (or have the time) to share stories from their own educational histories with the colleagues that have recently graduated from college. When a former colleague expressed both hurt feelings and disappointment over teaching and posed a question on her blog about test scores, “…do they mean that a teacher isn’t teaching or that a student isn’t learning?” I was inspired to tell a few stories.

Ah, you’re in mental-overload-mode now aren’t you? That tends to happen to conscientious people such as yourself. As per our OTHER discussions, I’m not sure if the following comments will help stem the tide of professional disappointment for you or if they’ll just take your mind zooming in another direction:

* Do low test scores mean that a teacher isn’t teaching or that a student isn’t learning? Good question. Can you answer it by putting a spin on it though: do HIGH test scores mean that a teacher IS teaching and that a student IS learning? Everyone would have you think so- teachers, administrators, board members, politicians, “experts,” etc. but many of us have seen firsthand how reported test scores aren’t accurate for whatever reason- a teacher’s inexperience administering the assessment, a child’s home life or start to that particular day, learning strengths and needs, behavioral issues, disturbances during testing, cultural or socio-economic biases… and don’t forget “dumbing down” the test by making it easier so more kiddos will pass, timing the tests with the idea that smarter kids fill in bubbles faster (I still don’t understand that one!) and that dreaded “no-no,” fudging the scores.

I remember my friends in Barrow (an Eskimo village) years ago not understanding why they got a question “wrong” on the ITBS test. They were asked: what would be good to eat? a) a flower b) a chicken c) a whale d) a car. Now the Eskimo kids who had never SEEN a chicken but who annually helped haul bowhead whales onto the shore when the whaling captains landed “a strike” chose “C, whale.” And they got it WRONG. Children who had butchered, cut up, cooked, and eaten bowhead whale had test scores that put them in whatever “needs help” category existed for the test. School experiences happened in isolation, ONLY AT SCHOOL, and “life” for the kids happened outside of school. Students were tested on subjects that were only applicable to them during the school day, not during the annual whale hunt that put food in their bellies and refrigerators.

So NCLB comes along with perhaps a Pollyanna view of reforms aimed to help those considered less fortunate… by ignoring the kids who don’t “need” help because they score too high (have you seen any big push for gifted/talented kiddos lately?), making sure the average kids don’t slip below their baseline, and by throwing a lot of school experiences at kids that are often only applicable to poor children when they’re AT SCHOOL. And school funding is based on the kiddos who are least likely to apply school-knowledge in all aspects of their lives (usually because parents don’t), so panic sets in when teachers, administrators, board members, and local politicians figure out that they are being judged on the performance of their lowest students, and they know they are NOT to fail. NCLB doesn’t take care of the socio-economic issue or culture of poverty no matter what its proponents claim. The poor stay poor, but now parents, colleagues, and politicians can zing you for not doing their job.

* A lot of people are sucked into the drill that this “school reform” has created. I certainly did not get into teaching to become a revolutionary, a politician, a yeller and a screamer. Nor did I want to be a thoughtless drone, blindly following the commands of all of the “experts.” I wanted to help students safely expand their knowledge and appetite for compassion and lifelong learning, and I wanted to work with colleagues who had the same goals. I hoped to be paid for doing something I LOVED, which I suppose is rather indulgent. I certainly do not love all of it now, and I’ve found that it is usually only with my students that I feel the most fulfilled and effective, the most “aligned” with my own personal goals for my job. What has gotten me through has been reaching out to other like-minded teachers. I was very lucky to have been raised in a family of teachers, a family of GOOD teachers. I was even more fortunate to have worked with the same group of colleagues for a decade before leaving Alaska. We were FAMILY, and while we didn’t all agree, most of us felt safe in working together because of our professional mutual respect. When I moved to a new state, I was alone because of the grade I taught and the mood of my grade-level colleague. I had to do my own “professional development” because no one else talked my language. I stayed in touch with colleagues in Alaska, asked them to send me links or copies of materials they were finding useful, and bless them, they did it! I looked online, started finding websites that I could visit regularly so I could maintain some balance and not feel so isolated. When I moved to the next state and was hired, it took a lot of time to find balance between the DRAMA and the real educational issues that needed to be addressed. I had so much I felt I could share, and knew I needed and wanted others to share what they knew with me, but workplace psychology took up more time than should be allowed. So blogging, MySpace, and searching out other resources became a part-time hobby that helped my full-time teaching brain.

I encourage you to continue to reach out. Read some blogs, purposely seek out the thoughts and expressions of teachers from around the world. You won’t feel so alone, you won’t feel so judged, and you’ll know there are a lot of other people out there on your side and on the side of your students.

I’m concerned that many first-year and newbie teachers are leaving college ready to work, ready to teach, and ready to blindly trust educational reforms, mandates, and practices that are not beneficial to students. Some of the newbies are so busy with the duck-and-dodge of their first classrooms and students that they’re barely able to come up for air. Others are noticing a huge discrepancy between theory and practice now that they’re out in the real world. Many, like my friends, are facing moral and ethical dilemmas as they decide whether or not to risk future tenure, letters of recommendation, and the ability to put food on their tables and clothes on their own childrens’ backs by calling other more experienced teachers and administrators “out” for horrible educational practices.
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