I once visited a school where the principal conducted a morning pep rally to get the kids revved up for the day ahead. The kids politely and unenthusiastically parroted what he wanted them to say as he went through a litany of rote-learned bromides. The whole thing smacked of contrivance. Later, as the kids were walking out of my assembly program (where I had just blown up toilet paper) they were buzzing with excitement. Quickly the principal stepped to the microphone, “Let’s show Ms. Cobb how much we appreciated her program by how quietly we leave the room.” The kids were showing genuine interest and enthusiasm and he was being a wet blanket!
He then told me, somewhat apologetically, that one of the older teachers, who was near retirement, had insisted that her class meet me although her grade was too young to be included in the assembly. Would I mind dropping in? He went on to explain that he was just enduring this teacher because she was tenured and he couldn’t get rid of her. Of course I assented and proceeded to a fabulously decorated classroom displaying the creative efforts of the children. The teacher greeted me warmly and told me that that she had shared my books with her students in preparation for my visit. Her first graders were sitting quietly at their desks, hands folded, each with a cup of cider and a sugared donut hole before them; a temptation waiting to be devoured. I was their excuse for a party and they exhibited remarkable restraint until I, too, could share in the refreshments as their honored guest. This amazing teacher, who hugged each student as they departed, was the “enemy” of a principal who couldn’t wait until she was out of there. She simply refused to do as he said and taught her own way. My question: how could an administrator, who clearly cared about education, get it so wrong?
Getting it wrong in education has been going on lately, ever since the enactment of No Child Left Behind. The high-stakes testing and corporate reform of education have backfired big time. Diane Ravitch, once a proponent of NCLB back when it was first passed in 2001, has since reconsidered. She has gone on a one-woman campaign speaking to more than 80,000 people this past year at various venues around the country. She is definitely worth listening to. She spoke two months ago at the National Conference on Education and you can see and hear her for yourself: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.
Why do people ignore or discount facts when they don’t agree with them? Isn’t education supposed to make us use truth in a reasonable and logical way so that we can see the error of our ways? Diane Ravitch talks about how she changed her mind when she saw she was wrong, but that, apparently, is an exception to the herd mentality afflicting the politicians and corporate executives jumping into the “reform education” movement. (This is a subject I intend to explore in another post).
But there are signs that the natives are getting restless. I met a principal from Pennsylvania at a conference this past March who said that the parents at her school were getting ready to file a lawsuit opting out of the assessment testing, which everyone felt got in the way of high quality education. In my last post, I recounted how John Kuhn, a superintendent, wrote what he wished he had said to the Texas legislature about the effects of public policy on education and why. Last week, Representative Ted Deutch called a town meeting in Boca Raton, Florida, to inform the public about how public policy had to change in order to return real learning back to public education. Diane Ravitch was there to energize the crowd, which became intensely involved. He will now go back to Washington to help revise NCLB.
In oppressive societies people are controlled by fear. Our children would be faring much worse if not for the subversive activities of excellent teachers who refuse to be cowed by the slash and burn policies towards schools that don’t measure up to the test-driven metrics of the Bush/Obama policies. Subversion foments revolutions. Democracy has mechanisms for peaceful change built into it. Education historian Diane Ravitch quotes the reformers who say that democracy is the “problem” interfering with current reforms. Don’t they get that our very democracy depends on an informed and educated electorate? It’s more important than ever to educate our children in our country so that they continue to uphold and defend our brilliant American values.
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