Educational Steamrolling

I've been a little silent on this blog once again. Many people I've run into (people I didn't even know read this blog) have asked me why?- Why I got quiet right before the mid-term election and after the election? Why I wasn't screaming my little head off about it all?

And the only thing I can really chalk it up to is depression over being steamrolled. Really, it's hard for even a hugely opinionated person such as myself to stand up and say "PLEASE PLEASE LISTEN!" when the powers that be (aka the enemy) seem to have fixed all the races to go their way.

Sadly I just get to the point where I say to myself "What's the point of making any noise, NO ONE with any of the power listens or even cares to listen and the voting public just does NOT seem to "get it" no matter what research is shown them or what logic is put before them? What good does all my yelling do when all I'm doing is preaching to the choir?"

Adding to my depression following the elections, the other day I saw in my local newspaper that Tony Bennett (my state's Superintendent of Public Instruction) has been honored by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce as Government Leader of the Year.

And to make it worse than that, the article stated it was because he was saving the state money. He wins an award, not because his educational leadership and policies have any legitimate research behind them, or because they have been proven to be effective solutions or reform; but because he's helping to keep costs down in Indiana.

And I respectfully say that THIS is NOT his job. His job is to lead Indiana Schools, not to save the taxpayers money. And while it's wonderful if those two things can go hand in hand, but I have to tell you that none of the legitimate research I read indicate that the things he has in mind have any validity in improving schools.

What his policies seem to be about to me is saving the governor a buck and destroying the ISTA. You'll have to forgive me if I won't be sending him a note of congratulations. Closer to the truth is that I'd like to wring his neck. (But rest assured, I'm not a violent person.) But that aside, it's just another example to me of how the public schools are being steamrolled in this state.

So today when I was at church, someone again approached me and asked me why exactly I hadn't been more vocal to the local press preceeding the election while complimenting me on the one letter to the editor I wrote. And my answer to her was "I'm depressed. I'm too depressed to speak right now."

Then I came home and while sitting in front of my TV watching my beloved Colts, I noticed a tweet from "truthout" titled "Deligitimizing Public Education." When I clicked on the link it was an op-ed piece from the Washington Post. I'm going to copy/paste it in for you here. It expresses EXACTLY how I feel about what's happening nationally and in my state with public education. It will tell you why I'm so depressed. It enumerates the steamrolling that's been done to public education.

Education
Thursday 11 November 2010

by: Marion Brady | The Washington Post | Op-Ed

The quality of American education is going to get worse. Count on it. And contrary to the conventional wisdom, the main reason isn’t going to be the loss of funding accompanying economic hard times.
Follow along and I’ll explain:

Step One: Start with what was once a relatively simple educational system. (For me, it was a one-room school with 16 or so kids ranging in age from about 6 to 15, and a teacher who, it was taken for granted by the community, was a professional who knew what she was doing.)

Step Two: Close the school, build a big one, buy school buses, open a district office, and hire administrators to tell teachers what they can and can’t do.

Step Three: When problems with the new, more complicated system develop, expand the administrative pyramid, with each successive layer of authority knowing less about educating than the layer below it.

Step Four: As problems escalate, expand the bureaucracy, moving decision-making ever higher up the pyramid until state and then federal politicians make all the important calls.

Step Five: Give corporate America - the Gates, Broads, Waltons, etc. - control of the politicians who control the bureaucracy that controls the administrators who control the teachers.

Step Six: Pay no attention as the rich who, enamored of market forces, in love with the idea of privatizing schools, and attracted by the half-trillion dollars a year America spends on education, use the media to destroy confidence in public education.

Step Seven: As a confidence-destroying strategy, zero in on teachers. Say that they hate change and played a major role in the de-industrialization of America and the decline of the American Empire.

Step Eight: As the de-professionalization of teaching and the down-grading of teachers progress, point to the resultant poor school performance as proof of the need for centralized control of education. So, what’s next?

I don’t have a clue. But if I were forced to guess, I’d say that what’s next is whatever the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable - eyes fixed no farther than the next quarter’s profit - want to be next. They’ve been wildly successful thus far.

It’s possible, of course, that education policy next year will be just another excuse for partisan warfare, with little or no change in the status quo. Or it may be that some small congressional caucus will stick a wrench so firmly in the legislative gears that the simplistic, reactionary education "reform" machine built by corporate America, sold to Congress, and showcased by non-educator-educators like Joel Klein and Michelle Rhee, will simply grind to a halt.

What particularly grieves me is that, whatever happens, it won’t be a consequence of any real understanding of education. Neither will it cause the education establishment itself to take seriously what Erica Goldson said in her June valedictory speech at Coxsackie-Athens High School in New York:

"We are so focused on a goal, whether it be passing a test, or graduating as first in the class. However, in this way, we do not really learn. We do whatever it takes to achieve our original objective.

"Some of you may be thinking, "Well, if you pass a test, or become valedictorian, didn't you learn something? Well, yes, you learned something, but not all that you could have. Perhaps, you only learned how to memorize names, places, and dates to later on forget in order to clear your mind for the next test. School is not all that it can be. Right now, it is a place for most people to determine that their goal is to get out as soon as possible.

"I am now accomplishing that goal. I am graduating. I should look at this as a positive experience, especially being at the top of my class. However, in retrospect, I cannot say that I am any more intelligent than my peers. I can attest that I am only the best at doing what I am told and working the system."

And whatever happens next won’t support and encourage educators to get a spine. They need to scream bloody murder at stupid policy, reject inappropriate use of market forces, point out mainstream media educational naiveté, and demand that policymakers listen before serving up dysfunctional programs like No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top.

And when they do so and are dismissed as self-serving whiners who don’t want to be held accountable, they should take to the streets in protest.

(All republished content that appears on Truthout has been obtained by permission or license.)

Now the author of the piece indicates that we educators ought to be standing up and "screaming bloody murder." And I'm thinking "Yes you're RIGHT, I need to fire up the "pen" again and start screaming again. We all need to come out of our educational funk and SPEAK UP!

A commentor on the Washington Post piece said that rather than "scream" that we educators needed to stand up and present "a better way." And all due respect to that person but I just want to say "Really? REALLY? You think that no one has? REALLY? Because it seems to me like Diane Ravitch has, a great many of our teacher leaders already have and our Unions already have and yet we are not listened to and we are continually STEAMROLLED over. So GIVE ME A BREAK!"

So where am I going to go from here? Am I going to spring up (cartoon-like) from my steamrolled flattened state and pop back into shape again? Start screaming again?

Well, here I am posting again. That's my start. What will you do?