Schizophrenia of Teaching

The title of this blog came to me this morning after reflecting on the semester just ended. This year, semester-long courses ended before the holiday break and new students and courses arrive January 5. It is a good time to review.

Part of the ruminations included moments of deep despair, survived only by deliberately ignoring the larger system within which I labor and focusing on the details of each day.  It means setting aside an awareness that "official dogma" is in direct conflict with the necessary components for real learning.

Schizophrenia.  When being honest about what could be done in relation to what we are often asked to do there is a clear division.  At times it is impossible to hold the two images at once. It's crazy-making.

And then, in an effort to avoid writing, I clicked through some missives my brother shared, one being Pope Francis' Christmas address.  And here is one of the 15 ailments the Pope sees in the Catholic Curia:

Suffering from 'existential schizophrenia.' "It's the sickness of those who live a double life, fruit of hypocrisy that is typical of mediocre and progressive spiritual emptiness that academic degrees cannot fill.  It's a sickness that often affects those who, abandoning pastoral service, limit themselves to bureaucratic work, losing contact with reality and concrete people."

Yep.  That would be it.  Thinking too hard about education means living a double life.  I'm a hypocrite.  Let me count the ways.

1. Despising the tests that I neither trust nor find a reliable measure of ability (to do what? take a test? on an esoteric bit of old information that students will quickly forget? On a computer that's as far from the real world as you can get?) while simultaneously making sure that every student passes both the reading and the writing test.
Devoting hours to collecting and pouring over data, directing human and financial resources to remediation time and rah-rah "you can do it" sessions to insure that every child passes because they cannot graduate without those passing scores, and I desperately want their 13 years in school to mean something--though it is my firm belief that the tests mean that their degree means less and less....

2. To hating, absolutely despising and decrying grades while simultaneously using them as both carrot and stick to engage students in their work.
Seriously, what is an "A"?  An abstraction for.....I'm not even sure any more.
My students are fully round people.  Some break the rules in creative and disruptive ways, and we should encourage that.  After all, how will change come about if we don't have rule breakers? Others rise above difficult lives, come to school everyday, work hard, but still just don't 'get' what intellectual pursuit is, what it means to wrestle with ideas.  In fact, some students openly avoid any equivocation in their lives.  They want to comply, to have something they can count on day after day. They don't want disruption.  Is compliance an "A"? Is risk-taking?

3. Two days before break I proctored re-takes on our state tests. Every one of the hundred or so students in the room was a 'failure,' having already failed one or more of the tests. Some would return the next day to try, yet again, to pass more tests.   Of course the idea that you can fail the test one day and pass it the next, sometimes by a 30 point margin, begs the question: what is this test anyway?
Every computer in the building was employed and our Media center was a hush of test-taking seriousness--as it had been for the previous six (soon to be seven!) days.
The kids were incredible. Polite. Patiently waiting while teachers helped them reboot computers, find scratch paper and calculators.  Raising hands to tentatively ask "Am I allowed to go to the bathroom?"in the midst of the repeat of a sometimes four-hour long test (just one of many).  Not a peep when they were reminded that their addiction to cell phones would have to be curtailed.  Hushed voices, serious, focused faces.
I wanted to scream: Walk out!  Fight back!  You're better than this!  Hell yes, you can go to the bathroom, and if they won't let you, throw some furniture! You! You're the kindest student I've ever taught. You! You're hilariously funny! You! You're athletically gifted. Celebrate that!
But I did not. I helped and encouraged them to do their best.
I marveled at how well they have learned what we have taught them: This test, on this day, is all that matters.  Your worth is being measured now.
The kids have got it.

4. While working on a strategic plan for our district we listed our beliefs.  And I believe them--every one.  But, sadly, I do not think that we will realize our vision of helping every student find their purpose, talents, and skills in this world before they leave our system.
There are too many forces we cannot control.  Over half our students live in poverty.  Their parent(s) need jobs that pay enough to put affordable roofs over their heads and healthy food on the table. Some need even more than that. The children need safe places to grow and explore before their "official" schooling begins.  All children need a variety of hands-on, playful experiences and a chance to get off their block.  Otherwise all of school is just an abstraction to which they have no connection.  Some of our students have never see the other side of town, much less a hiking trail or an escalator.
Without these supports in place the yardstick that measures success deems them failures before they ever step foot in our buildings.  And once they arrive there we begin to sort them into 'awesome" and 'abject failure,'  perpetuating a dismal view of the world.
But I signed on because if we list and fight for what we believe maybe we can get the wider community to believe it too.
Maybe.

So a New Year's Resolution is in order when going about the daily work of teaching children.  I will follow Pope Francis' directives and strive to be the apostle of  education.  He urges us to avoid the 'funereal face':

"In reality, theatrical severity and sterile pessimism are often symptoms of fear and insecurity.  The apostle must be polite, serene, enthusiastic and happy and transmit joy wherever he goes."

Less hypocrisy.  More joy.  That is the tonic for teaching schizophrenia.

Next blog: Moments of joy.

UVA and Our Heart of Darkness

All of Europe contributed to the making of Kurtz...

If you think our country isn't currently sinking in a fetid sea of corruption born of greed, inequality, and a slavish adherence to market forces, think again. Read the recent account in The Rolling Stone of the brutal, animalistic, predatory rape of a freshman woman on the campus of The University of Virginia. The scales will fall from your eyes.

The description of abusive behavior perpetrated at the venerable university is physically sickening.

Update: This article is now under scrutiny by the media for its failure to fact-check.  This is a sad turn of events surrounding violence perpetrated on women. However, I stand by my premise that women are being abused and the powerful are ignoring their sacred trust in order to protect their 'brand.'  The evidence for this lies in the student body reaction after the article and the pile of stones placed by women on the campus, with each stone representing an event.  There is clearly a problem.

The case is finally--years  later--the subject of an investigation.  But only after the leaders of the institution have had their hand forced by the publication of repetitive, abhorrent events swept under the rug to maintain UVA's "reputation."  In the modern parlance, the UVA 'brand' must be protected so the dollars keep flowing.

If you doubt a systematic abuse of women on the campus, look at the pile of stones placed on the Phi Kappa Psi porch last week by young women who have been the victim of "a bad experience," as the women in the Rolling Stone article came to view their sexual abuse in frat houses. As in: "I had a bad experience" after I was drugged and then raped by privileged frat boys.

From the article, it is clear that money talks--and that some are more equal than others.

Thirty years of concentrated effort has been centered on privatizing nearly every institution in this country because the 'magic of market forces' promises to right any wrongs through fevered competition.  But it has brought us down to this: we would sacrifice our own children in order to maintain a money-making machine.

UVA, like other public schools across the country, has seen state funding dwindle as taxes have been held low. Nearly all schools continually search for grants, donors, and wealthy alumnus with nostalgic ties to campuses. They pander to the monied elite, many of whom have fraternity ties.  De-funding public schools has been the policy of the right, including K-12 schools where "vouchers" are promised to bring market-driven competition into the lives of all our children.

In the 70's, when I was a college student, most of the funding of state schools was provided by the state.  When state funding was the norm, students found higher ed in easy access.  Who knew these would be the golden years of opportunity to advance by furthering an education?  It was possible then to work a part-time job, live independently, graduate debt-free, and find a decent job.

No more.  But that could be the case if we had the will.

Today we pit our students against each other in a "race to the top" where achieving high test scores and grades encourages cheating and a single-minded attention to scores, not learning for its own sake. Students, too, understand the need for winning at any cost and are mired in a market that demands ever more from those competing for limited resources.

Following a high-school career driven by the desire for a seat at a college--students land on campus where they apparently drug and drink themselves into oblivion. On some level the students must realize their purposeless existence of chasing the next score (money, grades, whatever).

For those who realize their dream (is it their dream?) of graduating into a job, most face beginning life mired in debt where true adulthood--owning a home, raising a family--is pushed further into the future.

We haven't learned much from the past.  This story has been told before (Leopold's Congo, the Gilded Age, Louis XVI).

Concentrated wealth corrupts absolutely.  Our education system has absolutely been corrupted by the same forces.

'Savage Inequalities' Resolved

While my students read, I read as well.  You can get a surprising amount of reading done in just 20 minutes a day...

Currently I am reading Savage Inequalities by Jonothan Kozol, borrowed from a co-worker when I spotted it on his "favorites" shelf.  He models reading and talking about books with his students every day. (A simple move with big results: students choose from his favorites and then a chat around books begins...)

I feel like I should have read this book 20 years ago, but didn't.  But I also feel that I have read this all before since the situations Kozol outlines in this groundbreaking book have been an acknowledged part of my education reading for years now.  Kozol unabashedly reveals the failure of our nation to provide equal opportunity in education for our nation's children.  The descriptions I've read make me want to cry in frustration. (Horrible buildings, no textbooks, no supplies, a poorly trained and transient teaching force...but only for the poorest of the poor.) And this book is from 1991.  In some ways things are worse now.

As I read, I sit in a school with close to 50% free and reduced lunch, a growing second-language population (close to 20% now, I believe), a stable faculty that includes many highly experienced teachers, and a building dating from the 1920's that was recently totally renovated and fitted with smart boards, energy saving lighting and other gorgeous amenities (fully stocked library, updated auditorium, public space for kids to gather....).

The new building is a source of pride for the students and the community as well.

How do the students exhibit that pride?  The new building has been occupied for four years now.  There is no graffitti anywhere.  One hallway features reproductions of art that go unmolested.  Student work has hung outside my room for over two months and has been admired but untouched. (Though its time to get it down since the crowds tend to turn up the edges....)  Kids voluntarily pick up trash.

The setting makes a difference.  Whether the students are aware of it or not, they are getting a visual message from their community every day: No matter who's child you are, we care about you.

Not so everywhere else.  But it could be possible. (Ugh. East St. Louis, Southside Chicago, the neighborhoods of New York....)

Here's my "pumpkin pie in the sky" wish for a new year, under a newly freed Obama administration:

• Stop spending money on Race to the Top initiatives that are squandering funds with little result.
• Use the money to bring every school building in the nation into the 21st Century.  If the feds really want to do something that makes a difference, turn every school building into a federal building and keep them all wired, updated, and havens for research, development, and community centers. How I'd love to live in a nation that tells it's children everyday: We care about You.  The current message is: Some are more Equal than Others.
• Force colleges of education to meet guidelines of effective practice--and partner with surrounding districts by training to fulfill needs, rather than turning out a glut of graduates without prospects--by providing full scholarships to top students who want to become educators.
• Shift the competitive drive of RttT from pitting schools and states against each other into making teaching both lucrative and competitive.  Scholarships would only be offered through identified regional schools that meet the needs of the pre-service teacher.  Several accreditation programs have already stipulated what is needed in an effective program. Endorse these and drive the best and brightest towards them.
• Include a long clinical phase in the teacher prep program.  Expect universities which receive scholarships to partner with surrounding districts.  Teaching interns would work alongside professionals in a "teaching" school.  (This is the kind of school where Arne Duncan and Barack Obama sent their own children.  The advantage is low teacher-student ratio and an exciting and progressive workplace for the adults resulting in the kinds of gains in learning and experimentation the current RttT reforms are trying to 'inspire' in a ham-handed way.)
• Use the leveraging proven to be effective in currently building the misguided Teacher Evaluation programs into forcing states to drive education dollars into teaching as a career to be sought after.  (Funds freed from the "hardware" of education--buildings, laptops, textbooks--could funnel into the "software": paying teachers, providing release time to collaborate, extended professional development programs.)  The new profession would include a career ladder that makes it possible for teachers to ascend quickly into competitive wages. The title Teacher would trump all others as masterful teachers take on the facilitation of buildings, instruction, teacher training, community outreach and other roles that are best fulfilled by practicing educators.

Oh, and dump the standardized testing--and all those who profit from them.  I'm pretty tired of doing the scut work for the testing industry.  Hold teachers and schools accountable by having neighboring districts evaluate each other against standards.  This is the Finnish setup and it is a win-win.  As teachers evaluate other programs, both teams are learning from each other.

An exit test might be useful to graduates, but that would be my criteria for testing: how does it serve the student?

Looking forward to a holiday season that gives some real gifts....

Planting a S.E.E.D. for Literacy

Yesterday was the annual Bernadette Mulholland Glaze* Language and Learning Conference at George Mason University.  This annual convergence of teaching professionals celebrates all that is good about effective practice in language classrooms.

The annual rite features a leading voice in the world of writing and reading.  The keynoter spends the afternoon with K-12 teachers after a morning of presentations by the Teacher Consultants of the Northern Virginia Writing Project.

The philosophy of the project is on display: teachers leading teachers and offering choice in professional development to thinking practitioners.

The assumption is that practicing teachers know what they need to know (choice) and are best at translating theory into effective classroom practice (demonstration lessons).

The presentations are hands on.  Teachers try their hand at using writing as a tool for learning, writing creatively, thinking in writing, sharing, discussing.  In other words: making meaning for themselves through coached inquiry.

This year was no different, and the keynoter was a Writing Project Teacher Consultant writ large: Donalyn Miller, a sixth grade teacher from Texas who is known to most classroom teachers by her nickname and self titled book, The Book Whisperer.

She drew in over 350 teachers who voluntarily spent a Saturday honing their skills.

In her presentation Donalyn was warm, humorous, and student-centered--just what one would expect from a teacher of excellence. She used pictures of her sixth graders throughout her description of research-supported classroom practices.

Her classroom is real. She pointed out where not everyone was on-task every minute--just in case the audience might assume her kids "weren't like everyone else's."  Her students appear happy in a book-stuffed room as they zoom through self-selected books.

In her budget-reduced, student-swollen classrooms (all of her classes are over 30 students each) her students read anywhere from a low of 19 books to a high of over 70 last year.  (Have you read 70 books this year? Have you read 19?) All without brow-beating, threats, grade deductions, public humiliation....

The Writing Project, long the gold-standard for professional development--and so frequently used as an exemplar in national reports when indicating the standard for collegial, intellectual, transformative, and sustained teacher development that it is almost cliche--lost its funding from Congress last year.

Luckily, robust local sites like the NVWP housed at George Mason University have been able to maintain services while planning for an uncertain future.

Earlier this month, some of that funding was restored.  The National Writing Project was awarded an 11.3 million grant, roughly less than half of the $24 million lost in last year's Congress.  The money came through Title II's Supporting Effective Educators Development (S.E.E.D. - the DOE is big on acronyms) program.

Yay for the Writing Project.  This is money well spent because the dividends reaped in building effective teachers has proven to have a rippling influence within schools and across districts.

The SEED money is awarded through a competitive application--yet another "race" proposed by the office of our basketball-player-in-chief Arne Duncan.

Others who benefited from this round in the competition: TFA and the the New Teacher Center in Santa Cruz.

The Absolute Priorities were Number One:  Teacher and principal recruitment, selection and preparation -- especially in areas that serve high-needs students.  That would cover TFA and TNTP,  though I would argue against the effectiveness of TFA practices where student achievement is concerned.  TFA received $8.3 million - on top of the $50 million awarded in yet another competition last year. The New Teacher Center received 4.98 million for work in Hillsborough County.

Priority two includes "Professional development enhancement of teachers of English Language Arts with a specific focus on writing."  That would be the NWP, an organization that has proven itself time and again in its ability to improve instruction in writing and in building teacher leadership.

Apparently the SEED money ran out before those who met Absolute Priority Three were awarded funds: Programs that result in Advanced Credentialing.  The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards did not receive funding.  I cannot put into words the irony of funding TFA over the NBPTS.

The Obama Administration wants to beef up the funding for the SEED program in the current budget cycle.  (Good luck.)

For this early spring, at least one worthwhile SEED has been planted in my backyard.

Donalyn Miller's visit was rejuvenating.  Here is a teacher who lives the project philosophy:

• Teachers who read and write for and in front of their students are better teachers. (Only as an aside did she point out that all of her students pass "the tests."  She devoted exactly that much of her two-hour commentary to standardized testing, demonstrating the lack of faith accomplished teachers have in these measurements of student achievement.) 
• Teachers who have investigated their practice in a Summer Institute carry this habit of mind into their classrooms and continue to revise practice.  Donalyn peppered her talk with ongoing decision-making and student-watching that is part of her daily mindfulness. She openly testified that she would not have written a book if she had not gained confidence in writing through the Summer Institute.
• Teachers who have confidence in their abilities influence their peers (a best selling book? an auditorium of over 350 teachers? a blog? Need I say more?  This was federal money that has reaped far more than was sown.  Other popular Professional Development books have been penned by NWP Teacher Consultants, including Tim Gillespie, Kelly Gallagher, Sheridan Blau, Linda Christensen, Harvey Daniels and on and on.)
• Teachers who use writing as a tool for learning grow critical thinkers who make meaning rather than memorize facts.
• Teachers who teach teachers model professional demeanors and habits.  See all of the above.

Thanks for a rich day of celebration.

*Bernadette Mulholland Glaze, Bernie to those of us who worked with her, was a long-time member of the NVWP who influenced legions of teachers and students through her roles as teacher, instructional coordinator at Fairfax County Schools, and as a Co-Director of the project.  She devised the Language and Learning Conference and sadly left us when she succumbed to cancer.  We still miss her energy and vision.