AWAKENING The SLEEPING GIANT!!

Awakening the Sleeping Giant!

Some of you may know that my daughter, a product of PUBLIC schools, lives and works in Japan. She currently works in the translation department of a rather large international brokerage firm, but when she first landed in Japan she taught conversational English at one of the many English Language Schools that operate(d) in the country. Her immediate boss was an American whose wife is a Japanese native and they had a son who was just born when my daughter arrived there and almost 2 when I first visited there and now is 5 going on a very important 6.

His name is Seth and he’s a very bright young man and has been this year enrolled in Kindergarten. Just the other day his mother reported on her Facebook page that his class had put on a play of “Jack and the Beanstalk” and that the children in the class had rewritten the tale so that the ending was happy. This prompted me to reply and say “Wait, I thought the ending of Jack and the Beanstalk was already happy. Am I wrong?” Didn’t it end with Jack and his mother going from desperately poor to wildly rich? I wondered “Have I been reading a sanitized version?”

Seth’s mother replied that the kids had wanted to end the tale so that it didn’t just happen that Jack and his poor mother came out well-to-do in the end but that the Giant and Jack became actual friends too.

I thought to myself “Wow, leave it to children to have the audacity to want peace and harmony and everyone to get along and share bean paste cookies at the end of a tale!” (Incidentally, I don’t personally recommend bean paste cookies, I’ll stick with Oreos.)

At any rate, with this altered version of the Giant’s tale in mind, I started dreaming that perhaps the brave efforts of the Wisconsin 14 and the House Democrats in Indiana and all the other protesters in all the other states against the assaults on education and worker’s rights might actually have a happy ending! - An ending where the “light” is seen by all who have the fates of our children in their hands. And we will all sit down in the end, achieve some actual progress and share the wealth and some milk and cookies. Happily Ever After-like.

In my dream, I saw “us” ( the Nation’s educators and workers) as poor Jack trying to make something out of our magic beans and the Governors of Wisconsin and Indiana and New Jersey (and elsewhere) as well as Arne Duncan, as the Evil Giants trying to kick us off of their cloud. I envisioned us climbing the beanpole up into the higher atmosphere to the Giants’ castle and somehow actually having a real dialogue with them and them realizing the truth of what we were saying and saying “oh, we’re sorry, Let’s work together!”

Ah. But that’s a fairy tale, is it not? Instead we see the Governor of Wisconsin calling out the National Guard on the Wisconsin 14. We hear him call for the crushing of the “bastards.” We hear an Indiana Deputy Attorney General calling for the protesters to worker’s rights to be shot. (In all fairness, I need to report that this man was fired.) But also, we hear Indiana’s Governor calling those of us belonging to Unions “Elite” and insinuating that all we teachers care about is money. I laughed heartily when one of my colleagues spoke up and said “Yes, i live in a very elite mobile home on my teacher’s salary.” I myself contributed that I drive a very elite Ford Focus. We then heard our State Superintendent of Public Schools issues a statement calling the Indiana State Teacher’s Association “liars” for relating to us the very real effects of the proposed Senate Bill 1 will have on our pay.

All in all, It’s not exactly the lions lying down with the lambs here. It feels much more like the lambs being led to the slaughter to me. Or in continuing our “Jack in the Beanstalk” theme, it sounds a lot more like the thunder of “FE FI FO FUM” and “I’ll GRIND your bones to make my bread” on the Governors’ parts to me.

Ah. Giants, they are not exactly likeable characters, I’m thinking. But then as often happens in real life and in fairy tales, there is a twist to the whole story-line here. I open up my email and I read of a Blog Campaign entitled “Waking Up the Sleeping Giant!” And instead of the Giant being cast as the EVIL character in this play, it’s framing the Nation’s educators as Sleeping Giants! Not evil giants but POWERFUL GIANTS! POWERFUL and AWESOME ENOUGH to band together and finally be heard over the top of the sound bites and the rhetoric about educational reform as spoken through the mouths of people (such as the Governors of Wisconsin and Indiana) who actually know very little about education and children and such things as poverty and need.

I had not thought about it all this way- that we ourselves, the educators are POWERFUL if we UNITE and STAND UP TOGETHER! It is true, we have been sleeping for far too long and living in a dream world that everyone has good intent towards education. And It is time for us to WAKE UP and realize the power we have and to stand up for ourselves and our students! Here is how you can realize that GIGANTIC POWER too- Open up your browser and type in “http://www.saveourschoolsmarch.org and RISE UP with us!

And maybe the ending of the tale won’t be that we will all sit down someday with our milk and cookies on a cloud and find a way to come together. Perhaps that “happily ever after” ending is only possible in the minds of children, but we at least owe it to them to WAKE UP and RISE TO MIGHTY heights for them, do we not?

Anyone Who's Ever Had A Heart- I HEART PUBLIC EDUCATION!

This Lou Reed/Velvet Underground song performed here by the Cowboy Junkies is clearly an emotional plea. Just read the lines:

"Anyone who's ever had a heart
Wouldn't turn around and break it
And anyone who's ever played a part
Wouldn't turn around and hate it"

And I'm not gonna lie, It's Valentine's Day, so I'm really just trying to tug at your heartstrings. I'm also trying to tug at the heartstrings of our Government Leaders (Barak Obama, Mitch Daniels, etc) and Educational Leaders (Arne Duncan, Tony Bennett etc.) and our Senators and our Representaives, the media, and the public, many of whom are buying into rhetoric and lies. I'm asking them "Could you maybe? Could you maybe stop this runaway train political agenda you have regarding Public Education and for one second LISTEN?

LISTEN TO YOUR HEART? or maybe more importantly- listen to the HEARTBEATS of our children in this country? Children (rich or poor, gifted, average, or challenged) who deserve your understanding that to destroy PUBLIC education not only destroys their chances in life but their future of living in a democratic society. Do you see that those are the hearts you have in your hands?

Because really, "Anyone who's ever had a heart" and "played a part" for PUBLIC Edcuation, really wouldn't turn around and vote for charters, for vouchers, for merit pay for educators, for the end of collective bargaining for teachers etc and so on. They really wouldn't turn around and break CHILDRENS' HEARTS that way.

Now I could spend the rest of this post giving you facts, figures, statistics about why I feel the way I do and why I think those in positions of power should believe and act on those realities instead of following political agendas. I could cite for you all kinds of reputable and respectable sources who are speaking up about it all. I would write more in depth about why the survival and the health of our democracy depends on PUBLIC education. I could do that.

But today? Well, it's (almost) Valentine's Day and so I'll leave that to past and future posts and to the thousands and thousands of other people with more credentials in education than I have. Today I'm just going to tug at your heartstrings. That's all.

And I'm going to tell you about an organization that is FIGHTING against this Heartlessness going on in our country regarding PUBLIC education and I'm participating in their "I (HEART) PUBLIC EDUCATION" Blog Campaign. That organization is SAVE OUR SCHOOLS MARCH AND NATIONAL CALL TO ACTION. Their website is http://www.saveourschoolsmarch.org and here is their message for you this Valentine's Day:

"Everyone who cares about young people cares about our schools. Our best schools nurture children, make them feel safe, and able to take the risks they need in order to learn. But our schools are in danger of becoming even more narrowly focused on test preparation, while class sizes rise, and teachers are blamed for the ravages povery inflicts on their students.

We are responding. We LOVE our schools. We declare Valentine's Day. 2011, to be "I LOVE PUBLIC EDUCATION" blog day. On this day we will write our hearts ou, about why it is that public education is so important to us, our children, and our democratic society. Join us and tells us why you love public education too, send your comments and posts to saveourschoolsmarch@gmail.com. Writing will be displayed at the www.SaveOurSchoolsmarch.org website, and will be tweeted with the hashtag #LovePublicEd. We offer the march and events of July 28 to 31st in Washington, DC, as a focal point for this movement, and we ask participants to link to this event, so we can build momentum for our efforts. If your readers wish to repeat this post on their own blog, we would LOVE it."

I really feel that "Anyone Who Has a HEART" would join the cause.

Following the Yellow-Brick Road!!

2.6.11
Unlike these days of the Redbox, movies on demand, and downloading flicks instantly to your computer, unless one of the (3) networks decided to broadcast a film, you were out of luck and at the mercy of their schedule to see a movie at home in the comfort of your living room.

In a way, I suppose it made it seem just a little more special. It became a big deal to get out the cokes and the popcorn and cozy up under a blanket in front of the glowing screen when a movie was aired into your living room. It wasn’t everyday. It was a big deal.

And there was NO bigger deal than the annual showing of “The Wizard of Oz.” I think everyone of my vintage fondly remembers this yearly event: partly because the story had everything- from frightening flying monkeys to apple-throwing trees to terrifying twisters to witches (good & bad) to a wizard to munchkins; and partly because IF you had a color TV then when Dorothy’s house crashed down on the Witch, she opens the door to a wondrous and multi-colored world. I’m telling you- THAT, was SOMETHING!

Of course you know the story, “everyone” does. It’s how Dorothy (played by a tightly bound-in-gingham Judy Garland) in a concussive dream visits the land of Oz and meets up with a Scarecrow that needs brains and a Tinman that needs a heart and a Lion in dire need of some gumption and they skip off down a yellow-brick road to find the Wizard, perform some Wizard-appointed tasks, and return to claim their promised rewards from him, only to find out that the Wizard is not really a wizard, but instead a humbug- simply a Midwestern man pulling levers and throwing projections on a screen. Then in the end, the curtain is pulled back on the so-called Wizard and the truth is brought to light and everyone sees that they’ve had everything they’ve needed all along. What a WONDERFUL story!

Ah memories. I have to note that in the years before my family had a color TV, I remember being especially excited one year when taken in by the claims of the advertising, I danced around and announced “THIS YEAR it’s going to be IN COLOR!” only to be told lovingly by “Mr. Know-it-all” (aka my brother) that it didn’t matter what the commercials said- “We don’t have a color TV, you idiot.”

So yeah, I was kind of a stupid little kid. It took me years to catch on to the double casting of the characters of the Wicked Witch, the Wizard, the Lion, the Tinman, and the Scarecrow with their Kansas counterparts. I’d like to think however, that as an adult, I’ve got a few more brains.

And if you’re wondering what my little trip down the yellow-brick memory lane is about, It’s that it’s starting to appear to me that my Governor and the State Superintendent of Public Instruction here in Indiana are either glad or banking on that I am (and YOU are) still that ignorant kid who wouldn’t dare look behind a curtain to expose their lack of wizardry.

Today I went to my state’s education website to read about the new teacher evaluation rubric my Governor and State Superintendent want Indiana school boards to implement and read the following:

"Too often it’s not a lack of money or resources that keeps individuals, states and nations from achieving their goals—it’s a lack of courage. ( bolding is mine) This is the moment for Indiana to emerge as a national leader for innovative and aggressive education initiatives that put student success first. We cannot afford to keep doing what we've been doing. We must truly hold the best interest of students at heart, and we must not fail to act now."

I read those words and I’m suddenly angrier than Dorothy when the Wicked Witch takes Toto from her. If ONLY I had a bucket of water to melt the subject of my ire!

This man (Dr. Bennett) is throwing levers and projecting voices and hiding behind a curtain pretending to be a great wizard and helping the students in my state but really sending us all on wild goose chases trying to prove our worth, just as Dorothy and her friends were sent to fetch a broomstick.

Maybe you don’t see why this seemingly innocuous, supposedly inspiring passage about courage would set me off. Those of you that know me or have read this blog before will know it’s because I feel there is a different intent behind Dr. Bennett’s words. I feel that while putting in, once again, a “small” dig at the “inadequacy” of the state’s teachers, he’s trying to rally people around the implementation of proposed house and senate bills that he’s pretending will be the solutions to what he says are Indiana’s educational woes. He’s pulling levers and using his microphone diligently and furiously trying to influence public opinion to get his “reform” legislation passed. He’s trying very hard to control to obfuscate the public with erroneous propaganda, just like the Wizard in the beloved movie was trying to do to Dorothy and her friends to hide the fact that he didn’t really have the answers.

In so many words on the IDOE post, Dr. Bennett is citing that teacher resistance to his reforms are due not just to our lack of brains and heart, but also to cowardice. We educators are afraid of change. We’re cowardly. First, No heart, No brains, and NOW- No courage. Wow. That feels like quite a slam to me. Like a pelting of apples raining down on me and my colleagues.

If you follow Dr. Bennett and Mr. Daniels agendas, just like their compatriots in other states across the country, you might see that they have either insinuated or downright stated that many of us working in the PUBLIC schools are rotten- apples and incompetent. Never mind that his very own chart lists the top 10 schools in Indiana as “ISTA” schools and of the bottom 10, only ONE is.

Bennett and Daniel’s plans to remedy the supposedly dire situation is by weeding educators out- using take-over tactics with no respect to the staff or the real issues behind any failures of schools. What they really want is control so that they can more easily balance the state budget. They want to do this with no respect to the effects it will have on Indiana’s students. Under the guise of “putting students first” they plan to unleash more charter schools and implement a merit pay system with merit being based on the evaluation rubric http://www.doe.in.gov/puttingstudentsfirst/ (or one similar) that I went to look up, ignoring all unbiased research on the connection between teacher experience and education on student achievement. They plan to reduce collective bargaining rights to such innocuousness that they might as well not even exist even while the top ten schools in the state ARE what they term ISTA (Indiana State Teacher Association) schools. They to use PUBLIC education dollars for Vouchers for private interests, never-mind that this sucks away precious resources from PUBLIC schools who accept EVERYONE as surely as a tornado sucks objects up into it’s funnel.

But before you believe their pontifications, please listen to this man - Tony Lux, Superintendent of Merrillville Community School Corporation. In a guest editorial at nwitimes.com, he is standing up and calling the Governor and Tony Bennett- “Snake Oil Salesmen.” For the full text with real facts about the state’s agenda that they are trying to push through with legislation, please go to http://www.nwitimes.com/news/opinion/guest-commentary/article_7e1f20dd-08c6-5755-bb8e-fb030bea8b2b.html?mode=storyHere is a quote from his commentary: “Snake oil salesmen, like the Wizard of Oz in the Emerald City, don't want anyone looking behind the curtain to see their illusion. They also want to be out of town before the pubic realizes the illusion.”

Hmm. See how the theme of the Wizard of Oz is coming through here? And if you still don’t see it, let’s look behind that curtain a little bit. Here is a comment that was left on Mr. Lux’s commentary by a poster named Rat Region 11: said on: February 1, 2011, 6:38 am
“Heres a little data for everyone that was provided by the IDOE.
ISTEP
Per the IDOE data, 331 school corporations are listed as taking the ISTEP last year. Of the 331, 284 are Traditional Public schools and 45 are Charter Schools, 2 are State Run Schools.
Schools Scoring Greater Than or Equal to 70% Pass Rate
Charter Schools: 5 or 11.1% of total
Traditional Public: 138 or 48.6% of total
Schools Scoring 69% to 51% Pass Rate
Charter Schools: 15 or 33.3% of total
Traditional Public: 139 or 48.9% of total
Schools Scoring Less Than 50% Pass Rate
Charter Schools: 25 or 55.6% of total
Traditional Public: 7 or 2.5% of total
The numbers don’t lie. 97.5% of all Traditional Public School Corporations are scoring above a 50% Pass Rate compared to 44.4% of Charter Schools. If we need more Charter Schools to boost our scores and the education of our children shouldn’t these numbers be reversed.

End of Course Assessments

Algebra
Per the IDOE data, 1011 schools took the ECA for Algebra 1. Of the 1011, 981 were Traditional Public Schools and 30 were Charter Schools
The State Average for the ECA for Algebra 1 was 61%

Schools Scoring Greater Than or Equal to 60%
Charter Schools: 5 or 16.7% of total
Traditional Public: 602 or 61.4% of total

Schools Scoring Less Than 60% Pass Rate
Charter Schools: 19 or 63.3% of total
Traditional Public: 363 or 37.0% of total

Schools With No Scoring Due to Not Meeting Minimum Number of Participation
Charter Schools: 6 or 20.0% of total
Traditional Public: 16 or 1.6% of total

By this data for Algebra 1, you can see that the Charter Schools have in essence actually brought down the State average for the ECA in Algebra 1. I also looked at those schools scoring greater than or equal to 90% since the state likes to through that number around. Here are the results:

Schools Scoring Greater Than or Equal to 90%
Charter Schools: 1 or 3.3% of total
Traditional Public: 252 or 25.7% of total

Looks like yet again the numbers show that our Indiana Traditional Public schools, as a whole, are far out-performing our Charter School counterparts.”

Hmm. Isn’t this a horse of a different color than what Mr. Bennett and Mr. Daniels seem to be riding? Hmm. Do I see someone pulling back the curtains and opening the door to a more beautiful and multi-colored educational world?

Some other entities who are daring to look behind the curtain are the Indiana State Teacher’s Association http://www.ista-in.org/dynamic.aspx?id=304 and the Save Our Schools march and National Call to Action group at http://www.saveourschoolsmarch.org. Please join up with them and fight against the impending “reforms” if you want to follow a yellow-brick road a happy ending.

As you probably know, when the Wizard in the movie is revealed to be just a man and Dorothy chastises for being a very bad man. He corrects her and says “no, I’m a very good man, just a very bad wizard.”

Oh, if only real life were more like the movies! Then I’d truly be able to say “There is no place like home.” I might even click my heels together!