"You're Fired!"

Public Education Matters

3.27.10

"You're Fired!"

I have a really great friend from college who was in management with JC Penney's for years before getting out and starting up her own successful businesses. Even while our life and career paths have been very different, we discovered a few years back that we both got a huge kick out of the TV show "The Apprentice."

Have you seen this enterprise created by Donald Trump? It pits, first, teams of people, and then, individuals against each other in business type challenges to determine who remains hired and who gets fired. The punch line of each show as a contestant is thrown "off the island" is "you're fired." Currently they are doing "Celebrity Apprentice" featuring a number of "celebrities" including the former (disgraced) Governor of Illinois, Rod Blagovich. " Blaggo" incidentally, seems pretty good at practically nothing, struggling to even turn on a computer, use it to search the internet, or even type on it, for that matter.

Anyway, what has bemused both my business friend and I since we first started watching the show is that it's simply amazing to us how really stupid these contestants seem to be at their own chosen "sport." We find ourselves constantly saying "D'oh! No no no, don't do that, do this" and then speculating how we would do things if we were in that kind of competition. We also speculate that we would literally "kick bxxx" if we were to ever go on the show. Make no mistake; Donald Trump would be impressed with us! We'd be hired and rewarded handsomely.

I'm thinking about that today as I read a column "The Scarlet T" by Anthony Mullen (the 59th National Teacher of the Year) on tenure, which would more correctly be called "due process." I'm also thinking about it today because after one day back from spring vacation, I'm considering my NEXT career. I'm thinking to myself that I'm truly tired of all the criticism, scapegoating, and the blame for the state of the economy from people not in my field and who know nothing about it. I’m tired of all the misdirection, misguidance, and rhetoric by our educational leaders and our legislators regarding education and children. I'm disgusted by the lack of respect and even simple understanding of the true nature of things such as tenure from people such as Mr. Mullen's Rolex wearer. I really think that perhaps in a few years I would like to get out of this "biz."

So, I'm wondering what I might do next. I'm wondering what talents I have as a teacher and as a consultant teacher that might lend themselves well to another (hopefully more respected and better rewarded) career. I have to think this way because goodness knows I've not amassed a great fortune on which to retire from my education career. I have to think this way because I will need to be able to pay for my own healthcare until I reach the age for Medicare.

And it occurs to me that while I've been playing along at home with "The Apprentice" I've actually been thinking about this all along. What would I be good at? Well, quite honestly LOTS of things!! I'd be good at marketing, at running a business, at managing people, at human resources, at being a waitress or a hostess or a cashier. I'd even be good at things involving physical labor because I've stayed in good shape alongside students all these years and because I've got a creative enough mind to be able to withstand the boredom of any repetitive job.

I could work outdoors and withstand the elements because I've weathered recess duties that have toughened me for even the most arctic of weather. I could pursue music or art therapy as I've learned to be quite creative using multi-sensory methods. I've developed the patience and empathy necessary for most any counseling type position or even as a hostage negotiator. I could report and write for a newspaper or a magazine. I’d be good at advertising. Because of my own "specialty" of working with students with orthopedic and health issues, I probably know enough medical terminology to work in the health care field. Literally, I could do a million things and do them well, almost anything- so long as it didn't involve extensive math (which is my Achilles’ heel.)

Literally, I do have a long standing offer from my college friend to retire from this business and come manage one of her stores. And I'm thinking to myself as I read about the firings in Rhode Island, hear about my Governor's cuts to our state educational system, watch the dog and pony show that seems to be the Race for the Top competition, and listen to all this business about "those spoiled teachers don't deserve tenure" or "those teachers get raises for breathing, it's time they take cuts" that "WOW, maybe it IS time for me to get out! I have had just about enough from all you people!"

I even hear it from my own brother, who as a stuffy old attorney is about as Republican as they come. He worries that his “just- graduated from college” daughter (my niece) won't be able to get a job in the field that his SISTER (me) inspired her to go into - Special Education. And it takes all the patience I can muster to explain to him for the UMPTEENTH time what tenure actually is.

But I'll explain it one more time for his benefit and for the public's on this post. It IS simply Due Process. It's NOT a set of procedures designed to keep bad teachers, as critics of teachers' unions always want to tout. It IS a set of procedures that makes certain that the law is followed in the dismissal of any teacher. It is a guarantee that you won't be fired simply because there is a cuter young thing with a perky personality showing up at the superintendent's door looking for a position. It IS what would assure my niece and her father that even while she'll never get rich being a teacher, she won't be summarily turned out on the streets after his investment in her education and after she's been a practicing teacher for 5 or 6 or 10 or 15 or 20 or 30 years because the system can find someone just out of school for less money. Again, I'll tell you that there is no reason that a "bad" teacher (no matter how long he or she has been teaching) can't be fired IF the administrators follow the law and the due process procedures.

And you know what? There's another reason that the public and my brother and the teachers' unions want tenure or due process to stay on the books- It's good for the students. There is actually research out there on teacher experience correlating with student achievement. I personally can assure you with complete certainty that I am a much better teacher now than I was at 24. A teacher gets better and more effective with experience if provided a nurturing environment; I can assure you of this.

I can also assure you that without a truly outstanding "older" teacher next door to me who served as my unofficial mentor when I first started, I would not be HALF the teacher I am today. Because of her experience and her guidance and her willingness to share and collaborate with me, I became who I am. I'd really hate to think how different I'd be today if the school system had sought to get rid of her after her first few years of teaching. I simply would not have gotten those same benefits (and neither would my current and past students) had the teacher beside me been a young teacher like me, no matter how great he or she might have been. On top of that, as I've said before in this blog, consistency and community are things that you want in your schools. Can you not see the benefits of a 5th grader looking back down the hallway and knowing that her first grade teacher is still watching out for her as she grows?

Now you can say all you want to that competition in the workplace for teachers would in fact make sure that all teachers were great. But I won't believe you, because I'll tell you what- with all the talents that I've got now (and had the buds of way back when) - if I'd have known a long time ago that I would only have a "chance" of making a living wage rather than having a secure future (so long as I did my job) I would NEVER EVER have gone into teaching. I would have gone into business, maybe run a non-profit organization, or anything else that would have made it more likely that I could provide for myself and my family. People like me would not be in this field.

I did not go into this field to get rich and wear a Rolex, really I did not. I didn't expect that and that's OK. Rather, I went into this field in order to work with and educate students and help them achieve. It seemed like a good idea at the time because I thought I'd be able to live on what I earned while doing a job that I loved. Perhaps I was wrong and maybe it's time for me to take my talents elsewhere. Mr. Trump, is it too late for me to sign up for the next season?

Spring Break!

Spring Break

Public Education Matters

3.22.10

I realize that it’s been awhile since I last posted. I hope you’ll forgive the lapse. It certainly is not because there were not things in education to write about- the talk over the re-issuing and change of NCLB for one. And well, I’m still so very hung up the Rhode Island teacher firings and the President’s response to it.

In fact, I was so upset about Obama’s response that I was having a lot of trouble staying behind his healthcare concerns as things moved toward the House vote last night. Because while I do seriously believe that something must be done with healthcare, I can’t help but worry that if Obama is THIS messed up about education and is standing behind Arne Duncan’s policies and praising the Rhode Island firings, well then he can’t really be doing a good job with healthcare either. I know that’s a rather visceral reaction and there is no real reason to think that Obama’s healthcare policies are similarly misguided.

Somewhere down the line in this blog, a commenter called me a liberal communist and socialist. To be honest, I’m not really hurt by this characterization even while it’s not altogether true. I do not really consider myself to be a true liberal or a communist. I do perhaps see myself as being a bit of a socialist, but I don’t really think that’s a bad thing.

The truth is that I will willingly pay taxes because I want things like roads, and police, and firefighters, and affordable access to healthcare, and YES, indeed, I want there to be public education for ALL children not just those children who have parents who care. I believe in having those things quite sincerely and I do not believe that anything comes for free. I’m more than happy to pay for these things with my taxes. If that makes me a socialist, then so be it. If that makes me less than a free trade capitalist, then so be it. I don’t really think that this is a bad thing. I think it makes me a concerned, and socially aware and caring individual.

So here’s my problem with Arne Duncan and his plans and with President Obama’s endorsement of the teacher firings and with my governor’s educational cuts- All of these things are rather capitalist responses to social concerns and issues. There is a great belief out there in the business world, almost “Randian” in nature that if you just let people play out their capitalist endeavors and let competition rule the day- that everything will sort itself out eventually and everyone will be the better for it.

My problem with this brand of thinking is that it pretty much ignores the reality of how people really are. In education, it ignores the reality of how children really are. One of my commenters on an earlier post gave me a link to something quite interesting. http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/dan_pink_on_motivation.html

This man speaks about how even the business leaders do not really get “it.” Science is telling us that incentives and competition do not motivate people to be better in 21st century tasks. In fact it has the opposite effect, it makes us perform worse. But this is apparently not what business people and legislators and even our educational leaders want to believe. It seems easy to me to connect the dots here and see that incentives such as Race for the Top only narrow our focus and won’t work and won’t have the intended consequences of improving anything in education. But somehow the people in charge are either just not listening or they just don’t really care. It’s hard to decide which it is.

Because, as I watch the struggle for healthcare reform it strikes me that adherence to capitalist and competitive principles left millions and millions of people without the ability to afford or attain healthcare and it’s created a shortage of primary care physicians, partly due to a decline in their wages, and the only people it’s really benefited were the insurance companies and perhaps trial lawyers who litigated malpractice suits. So I have to wonder why on EARTH we’d want to apply those principles to fixing education.

The teachers in Rhode Island weren’t a bunch of bad teachers. I’m willing to admit that there were probably some who were less than stellar, given that you’ll find these everywhere, given that we truly haven’t addressed teacher education and teacher hirings correctly ever. But, what they mostly were, however, were people afraid of giving in to what seems a very slippery slope. You give in here at this point and where does it stop? And who does it stop with?

The problem is that in healthcare it stops with sick people and in education it stops with children. They are ultimately the ones who pay the cost. I’m just really curious why President Obama would think that there are going to be teachers lining up to fill the void left by the fired teachers and even if initially they can find people, please tell me how long they are going to be able to keep it up, when the reality of the day-in and day-out problems of an economically depressed school system hits them where they live.

Just as the healthcare crisis has driven physicians out of the primary care field, I expect eventually this to happen with teachers. I certainly know I would not encourage anyone I love and care about to go into a field where they can’t expect to make a living and they can’t expect to have any respect for their work and their opinions, let alone expect any respect for the findings of behavioral science.

Another disregarded behavioral science finding is that people feel empowered to achieve and perform, when they have a sense of belonging- when they feel as if they are a valued part of something bigger than themselves. I could provide you many a link here, but there is such a preponderance of evidence on this, that it would be hard to pick just one or just a few, so I’ll leave you to do your own research on this. After all, it is Spring break for many of us and you shouldn’t just be sitting around watching the healthcare votes or anything.

At any rate, I still find it hard to understand why no one understands the link to teachers being disenfranchised by their administrators, by their state leaders, and by their national leaders and the fact that we can’t seem to fix or transform or reform education.

To be honest, I’m quite glad to be nearing the end of my career and well, I honestly have the arrogant belief that I’ve been one of the “good ones” throughout most of my career. I know I have always been striving to be better. But you could not even pay me enough now even if I “earned” all the merit pay you could gather, to go into this field where both science and children are completely disregarded in deference to politics and business interests.

Here is a link to one of my less jaded and younger colleague’s blogs. This also is good Spring break reading. Even while she is not as old and defeated and jaded as me, she raises interesting and relevant concerns about our field, while being highly amusing. It seems to me that she is the kind of person we want to remain in the educational field. I only hope that she isn’t chased out by educational reform movements or she isn’t fired for standing up for her beliefs. http://itsnotallflowersandsausages.blogspot.com/

Enjoy. And moreover- THINK!

Accentuate the Positive- Song and Dance in Education

Accentuate the Positive, An Educational Song and Dance

3.7.10

Public Education Matters

On the wall of my office I have a number of cartoons that have something or other to say about education. They’ve been clipped from various newspapers and magazines over the years. My very favorite is a Peanuts cartoon, where Linus is bemoaning that he’s tired of hearing about Dick and Jane and he’d rather hear about how Anna Karenina throws herself from the train, a funny reminder to myself to always pay attention to students’ real needs, levels, progress, and interests rather than just blindly following a lesson plan. A reminder that teaching is rather like a dance and that you should always be trying to meet the students where-ever they “are” rather than where you expect them to be or hope them to be.

One of my other favorite cartoons shows a man with a chart that has an arrow pointing downward. He is standing before a group of men in suits saying “Due to recent budget cuts, I can give you the song or the dance, but not both.” This cartoon represents my frustration with education budgets and funding at times. I’m often tempted to say “What more do you want from me?!!!! I can only do so much with what I have!”

You’d think maybe that would have been the reaction of the states to Barak Obama and Arne Duncan’s “Race to the Top” contest. You’d think that because the economy is so bad, that they’d have analyzed what the “song and dance for money” would cost them against their real chances of winning and the actual “gain” and maybe just maybe have decided that it just wasn’t worth it. But well, you’d be wrong if you thought that, because it seems that 41 of our 50 states applied. This means these 41 states all spent resources (money and time) on applying for something that most of them had no hope of winning in the first place. As it happens, 16 of the 40 states were chosen to be only finalists. It will be interesting to see now in April who will be chosen for this first round of money.

Now some might argue that it wasn’t all wasted time because the policies and programs created for the application might be positive reforms after all for the individual states ----even if they weren’t national winners. But I would argue back that if you see the actual application, for my state at least, you’ll see that most of it seems just a “dance” or “jumping through hoops” and nothing much of real substance or backed up by research. (On top of that, as I’ll point out in a minute, it may be even more ominous than that, in that the application seems filled with an agenda that has nothing to do with really improving public education.) Many are speculating about why these particular states were chosen over others and insinuate that there might have been political issues involved rather than true educational merit.

Regardless of the reasons for being rejected, not all is lost for those states who were losers. They can apply again in June for Phase 2 money with finalists being announced in August and final winners being chosen in September. My State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tony Bennett has already announced his intent to plow ahead with his “losing” Fast Forward reform program in the hope of getting in on Phase 2 funds. He indicated in a public statement that he is undaunted and that he will be most interested in getting feedback from the feds about why Indiana lost out on Phase One money.

The interesting thing about this is that many of the people in my state who have examined Dr. Bennett’s application have been quite appalled about the negative, almost punitive tone that the whole Fast Forward plan assumed. One comment I heard was that it was hard to imagine from the tone of it that anyone could write something like it unless their actual intent was to be negative. I’ve also heard many people comment that Fast Forward seemed to have very clear agendas, not of reform of educational practices or improving student achievement, but of eliminating the right of collective bargaining in our state and of privatizing education. (Two asides- If you are not a fan of collective bargaining, you might want to do a little research about levels of student achievement in states with collective bargaining versus states without collective bargaining. You might change your mind. As for privatizing education, I’m just wondering here, when you privatize education, how do you maintain PUBLIC education? And Do we value public education or not?)

Anyway, the interesting thing is that many are speculating that THE REASON Indiana’s Fast Forward plan was rejected for RttT funds was because it was so very negative and not a positive plan for educational change.

Following that speculation, opinions were proffered about whether or not Dr. Bennett would be so arrogant to push Fast Forward forward without making changes as indicated by the RttT rejection or if he would just more subtly disguise his agendas.

My problem with all of this is that it is costing us money with very little hope of any real gain for children, even if “we” would happen to “win.” First, you should know that in any state that is a “winner” a significant amount of the money “won” stays at the state level to hire people to monitor the data about the implementation of the programs. That’s a stipulation of RttT winnings. Ironically, my state’s department of education has been pondering how they would be able to hire enough people to analyze that amount of data with the less than “living wages” they would be able to offer and so they had been making plans to “outsource” these jobs to outside companies. That just seems slightly “off-key” to me or maybe a “mis-step.”

Furthermore, as an example, I was told that the award for one of my nearby districts (if my state had won a berth in RttT) would have been around $90,000 for ONE year only. After that it would be up to the state and the local system to continue any new programs without federal help. Now, sure if someone gave me that amount of money, I’d be one happy, dancing gal, no doubt! I’d pay off my mortgage or my children’s college debt. But a one-time $90,000 gift for an entire school district at the same time your state is taking the hit of massive state cuts- that’s maybe 3 first year teachers’ salaries with no hope of continuing their employment in the coming years. Or maybe it’s the funding for some new technology, but with technology you always have to be able to upgrade, update and maintain it. How would you be able to do that? Maybe it’s new texts and materials, but textbooks and materials go out of date and then what? Maybe it’s training for teachers? Well professional development has to be ongoing, as staffs and circumstances change, so how would you keep it up- especially in a state that has all but eliminated the funding for professional development?

So, in the meantime, while we in education are all dancing and/or singing for federal funding, how many student needs are going unmet? How many reductions in force are being sent out, reducing teaching staffs and creating larger class sizes? How many current Music, Art, and Physical Education programs are being cut?

In the meantime, while we in education in my state are dealing with the rejection of our state’s song and dance, how are we simultaneously to cope with our Governor’s slashing of $300 million dollars from the schools’ budgets?

Please bear with me while I share with you a not quite random and “cute” education story from my “collection.” One day in February several years back, I was walking down the hall of a school when a bulletin board about the Presidents (in honor of President’s Day) caught my attention. Student papers with “facts” about the President of their choice were posted. On one of these, about George Washington, a child wrote “Washington met with the Indians around a campfire. He said to the Indians “Dance and I will give you money.” Now I’m not sure of the story behind that “fact” but what I am sure of is that it amused me to no end at the time.

But here we are in the year 2010 and it seems that Washington is saying “Dance and I will give you money” to the states and we are starting to see the “Indians’” responses and so far, I just have to say that I’m not real crazy about my state’s negative “dance routine.” I’m also just not sure that it’s going to work out any better for any of us than it did for the Indians.

I’m wondering if the pursuit of the phase 2 money of RttT is worth it.

I’d like to offer that rather than “singing and dancing” for federal money to fund education, and rather than creating negative agenda-driven plans for privatization, I’d like to see us follow Bing Crosby’s advice and Accentuate the Positive that is already there in PUBLIC education if you look for it. It’s a great tune for singing AND dancing.