The Return

Learners here. It has been too long, but I have decided (and hoping that one day I can convince AVIW) to return to the world of Edu-Blogging.

I think there needs to be more voices to provide the other side of the story- the side that comes not from political or financial desire, but from a desire to affect change for those who matter: our children.

So, please bear with me. I will be getting back into writing here slowly because I am trying to avoid getting overwhelmed again.

Wishing everyone a happy and healthy 2009!

Getting the urge to bolt…

It’s always driven my mother crazy that when something brings me down or confines me I get the urge, in her words, “to bolt.”

I’ve never seen in that way, in all truthfulness.  From the time I was very young, I’ve felt that life is too short to stay in a situation or environment that doesn’t feel right.  She sees it as “bolting”.  I see it as striving to lead a happy life.

My parents were raised in New York City.  When they married, they decided that they wanted to raise their children in the suburbs, so they worked like dogs to raise us in a nice, “safe”, insulated neighborhood.

I absolutely hated it.

I found the comfy, middle class town I lived in to be narrow minded and ethnocentric.  It didn’t seem normal to me that everyone I went to school with or socialized with, looked exactly like me.  In addition, there was this general consensus that there was only one right way to think, which I found unbelievably confining. Our neighborhood was the center of the universe, and we had all of the answers to life’s problems; go to the mall, vote Republican, and make sure your car is nicer than your neighbors.

You were never supposed to drive into a black neighborhood. You kind of had to take a detour around it.  My friends were dismayed that I would often drive into “minority” neighborhoods.  Rest assured that they would quickly look around, lock their car door, and hide their handbag when we entered.

So, much to my parent’s dismay, when I was old enough, I made a reverse migration right back to the city, where it felt more comfortable.

It’s been the same with my career.  I’ve chosen to make my career in the inner city.  My family have somewhat grudgingly stopped sending me want ads for jobs in the suburbs, but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t still baffled as to why I would stay in the city.

The truth is, I like the reality of the inner city.  I like the reality of the students and the people I work with.  I’ve met some amazing, intelligent and committed people who have chosen to stay in the inner city-despite being maligned by fools and bigots.  They stay, because it ‘feels right’ to be right in the middle of the educational struggle.  Someone has to advocate for inner city children.

Truth be told, I actually did leave for a short period of time, to work in the suburbs.  I was tired of the sub-par salary I was getting in the city and was enticed by an offer of an increase of $17,000 per year.

I lasted a few short months.

I hated working there and quickly realized that it wasn’t the right place for me.  I didn’t hate it for the reasons that people think either.  The “over-bearing” parents didn’t realize faze me.  Yes, some of them were a bit too involved, but I couldn’t really find fault with being concerned with their children’s education.

I really enjoyed the students as well.  A couple of them were a bit spoiled and defiant, but in general they were effortless to teach and work with.

No, what I really couldn’t deal with were the other teachers.  They were some of the most bitter and narrow minded people I’ve ever worked with.  People complain about the way that teachers talk about about students in low income schools, yet if you heard the way that the teachers in this fairly wealthy, upper-middle class school complained about and disrespected the students, your hair would curl.

To be perfectly honest, I also found it very boring.  I didn’t have to work hard at all.  Our lesson plans were expected to be readings and questions from the textbook.  There was another teacher there who had also come from the city, and our assistant principal used to chide us about our lesson plans, which we tried to make interactive and interesting.  “Just give them a passage and make them answer questions,” she would admonish us.

Truthfully, the kids didn’t need anything too spectatcular.  Most were reading on or above grade level and were headed for college.  Still, I kind of felt that they deserved a bit more from their teachers.

I’m definitely not trying to say that all suburban schools are like the one I worked in, or that all teachers in suburban schools are like my co-workers, by the way.  I’m merely retelling my experience.

Needless to say,  I left to return to an environment where people seemed to care more.

I’ve written this pretty long introduction to show that in a weird way, I actually live an insulated life.  When I find myself around bigots and fools, I move on.  Strangely, it has protected me and kept me in my own self selected world.  I pick and choose where I go and whom I surround myself with. If I sense that I’m around too many of them, I simply leave.

This is why I think that I’m going to leave edublogging.

I’ve only been blogging for a few months, and to be perfectly honest with you, I find it completely aggravating.  I’m  really shocked at the depths of narrow mindedness and foolishness which exists.

I read comments on this blog which reflect an incredible prejudice and foolishness.  It seems that there is an alarming amount of people who pick up The Daily News, read a corporately sponsored editorial about education, and feel that it is gospel.  They don’t question what they read and see.  They make judgments based on their own position of insulation and spout rhetoric and bigotry which I found astounding.

And they feel completely entitled to do so!

Most of the time, I try to avoid their comments, but I’ll glimpse a line or two which baffles me.  They respond only to what they think and never to what they read.  They’re arrogant, and self rightous and completely bigoted.

They don’t realize this though.  They think they’re the ‘reformers’.  Only they care about children.  “Look at the educational system,” they say.  “It’s a disgrace.”  Yet they never address the forces which have driven our educational systems to the state they are in.  Instead, they align themselves with those very forces which seek to keep our low-income children exactly where they are.

They are the very people I’ve struggled to avoid.  And now they’re back.

And so, I now find myself with the familiar urge to “bolt.”  Don’t get me wrong, there are some very insightful people who comment on this blog, but there are also some real ding dongs, and they’re pissing me off.  Yes, I could simply delete their comments, but that doesn’t take away from the reality that they exist-in multiple cases.

Their presence is starting to sicken me, and like all cases where I feel surrounded by narrowmindedness and bigotry, I think I need to leave.

So, I think I am going to take a break for a while.

I see no reason to continue to spend so much time on something which, rather than add to my own growth and happiness, is giving me a headache.

I’ve enjoyed getting to know some of the other edubloggers whom I respect and enjoy reading, and I give you a lot of credit for perservering.

I don’t know how you do it.

It’s an Ed Reform Life

Things were not looking great for billionaire Mike Bloomberg and his corporate cronies who wanted to take over public education and make oodles of money for their well connected buddies.

The U.S. economy was in the toilet.

Average citizens were starting to become tired of the obvious nepotism and growing class divisions.

Luckily, some recently elected presidential back rubbing, swooped in to save the day.

Here’s hoping this never happens and that you have a truly wonderful holiday from The Chancellor’s New Clothes!!!

Might be a little slow to load up.

Journalists drink the charter school Kool-Aid

From Caroline Grannan, San Fransisco Education Examiner:

The editorial presumes that the results found in the D.C. schools are replicated nationwide, which repeated studies show is not the case. Overall, charter schools do not show higher achievement than traditional public schools. And more significantly, the editorial fails to mention the fact that charter schools in San Francisco don’t outperform other schools at all, with the exception of the controversial KIPP middle schools, whose student attrition is so high that it confounds any attempt to compare them to other schools. (If your lower-performing students stampede out the exit at a rapid rate and aren’t replaced, which is the case at the San Francisco KIPP schools, you can’t compare those schools to schools where that doesn’t happen – at least not if you care about an honest and sound comparison.)

Read more of “Dead-trees journalists drink the charter school Kool-Aid.”

Replication of Milgram’s Experiments shows how easily Americans are brainwashed

You may remember the disturbing Milgram experiments of the 1960’s which proved that most Americans will do whatever they are told if an authority figure tells them to-even torture another human being.

Scientists long believed that the original results must have been flawed in some way, for people could not possibly be that easily influenced-could they?

Apparently they can.

Mike Adams reports that researchers at Santa Clara University have mimicked the original experiments with similar results.

70% of people will blindly follow what they are told, if they believe the orders to come from “an authority.”

Adams writes:

Why is this important to understand? Because it explains the sheeple effect that’s so dominant in society today.

Adams’ explores the concept of American “sheeple” and applies the concept to rampant consumerism; but the implications for the results can be applied to all aspects of American society.

So here’s the question-do sheeple even know that they are sheeple?

I don’t think they do.

Here’s the other question-what makes some people be able to think apart from the flock?

What caused the 30% of free thinkers to disentangle themselves?

So, if you do find that you are one of the 30% of people who are able to think for yourself Adams warns:

The upshot of all this is one, important realization: About 70 percent of the people around you are dangerously obedient to even the most insane directives given by apparent authority figures…A good rule of thumb is to never be caught with too many 70-percenters around you. Hang with the 30-percenters.

The only problem is-sometimes they follow you around and they really like to comment on blog posts which threaten their carefully constructed refusal to think critically.

Yet rather than get upset, Adams writes the following:

I can’t wait to read the haters and flamers post negative comments to this story, because what they’re actually doing is demonstrating the depth of the brainwashing they have embraced as 70-percenters. People who are brainwashed into obeying orders will aggressively defend the very system that brainwashed them. Any person threatening to think for themselves gets slammed, criticized or verbally abused in much the same way that the Milgram experimenters verbally abused the study subjects to cajole them into obeying.

OK, sheeple.  Let’s hear what you have to say now.

Teach For America Recruiter Fesses Up! (REVISED)

I edited this entry to include the rest of the conversation Geoff had with the recruiter. Originally, he asked me to stop because  he still sees this guy and was worried about backlash. However, after speaking with my co-author, I realized that there was so much that could be taken the wrong way and I had to show the whole truth. Geoff agreed to let me publish the conversation in full.

I had a conversation with a young man named Geoff, the nephew of a close friend. He interviewed with Teach for America during his last semester of college. He attended UVA where he was in various clubs, a RA, and had appeared in various brochures for the university. He also maintained a 3.9 GPA.

During his summers Geoff held internships with Harper Collins and Random House, MTV, and a Not-for-Profit organization whose name he asked me not to mention. He wanted to become an Entertainment Lawyer until he worked with the Not-for-Profit which ran a literacy program in a neighborhood much like the one in which he grew up. Geoff was shocked that so many of the HS students he met could not read.

He decided that he wanted to teach, but had majored in Business/Marketing and English. He heard about TFA from a classmate who was going through the interviewing process and decided to meet with a recruiter.  This is the conversation that took place during that meeting as emailed to me by Geoff (printed with his permission):

Recruiter: What are your career aspirations?

Geoff: I want to teach HS English.

Recruiter: I mean, what do you want to do after that?

Geoff: I want to teach- I want that to be my career.

Recruiter: But didn’t you do internships for a few publishing companies?

Geoff: Yes, but I also worked with a Not-for-Profit and I realized thatI need to help the children of communites like the one I grew up in. I think teaching is a great way to affect change.

Recruiter: Well, what if you don’t like teaching? What will you do then?

Geoff: I don’t want to think about not liking teaching, I want to think about how to become a good teacher…

Recruiter: Well, Teach for America offers a number of networking opportunities for it members to meet representatives from some of the most influential companies in the world.

Geoff: What kind of support will be offered?

Recruiter: We we provide you information about building your resume and showing your best assets.

Geoff: I meant in terms of teaching…

Recruiter: There will be other members at your school and you will …

Suffice it to say, Geoff decided not to go through with applying for TFA. He moved back to his hometown in Detroit and has since decided to go the traditional route to becoming a teacher. I can’t say that I blame him.

Why you should ‘just say no’

Here’s a clip of the 911 call that was made by a police officer who baked some confiscated marijuana into brownies, ate them, and then decided that he and his wife were overdosing.

It’s hysterical.

“I am a teacher…”

OK, I’m doing it again – using someone’s comment as a post – but this comment was so good that I wanted to give it a bit more show.

It was a left by ‘Mrs. K’ in response to my post that asked if teachers would encourage their children to pursue a career in teaching.

This is her response:

I come from a long line of teachers. Everyone in my family back to my great great grandfather is/was a teacher. My father is retiring next year after teaching Art for 34 years. When I went to college the last thing I wanted to do was to be a teacher.

Growing up, I saw what happened to teachers.

I saw the long hours; I wore the cheap clothes. I couldn’t believe the long hours, the burden of caring for other people’s children, the tears of frustration advocating for kids. I watched my father struggle and my mother move into educational politics to defend her husband and their friends from further political bullying.

After changing my major four times in college, I admitted defeat.

I am a teacher.

It is in my blood (as my father would say-much like insanity). I tried to deny it. I can’t. There is a reason they say this profession is a calling. My family NEVER encouraged/discouraged me. They wanted only “what would make me happy.” That’s what they said. Then they just waited (knowingly).

Don’t hide the hard truths of this profession-but don’t hide the rewards either. I think I’m going to have to pry my father from the classroom with a crowbar. There’s a reason for that (he’s crazy)-he loves it.

So do I.

Wasn’t that nice?

“Does Teach for America Suck?”

Not my title.

It comes from a blogger at The Stopped Clock who writes:

If TFA tried to pitch itself to my local school board, it would be told that its services weren’t needed. If TFA tried to convince parents in my town that they should happily have their children taught by one of its participants instead of a certified, experienced teacher, they would be laughed out of the room. If TFA tried to pitch its programs to private schools, it might be told to send over its graduates – but not its novices. It’s exceptionally important that enough teachers be available to serve inner city kids, and it’s wonderful that TFA helps that happen, but please, let’s not pretend that this is the ideal, or even on par with having those same schools staffed with qualified, dedicated, experienced, professional teachers.

Read more of “Does Teach for America Suck?”