BACK TO SCHOOL

 

 

I have taught elementary school, middle school, high school and been a principal.   It has been seven years since I have been in a classroom.

Most people remember their school years with less than found emotions.   Children come from homes with various levels of stability that truly represents a cross section of the community: wealthy homes; stable homes with enrichments; single parent homes; families living in poverty; homes with violent parents, drug and alcohol addicted parents… The list is as varying as the community itself.   

It is safe to say that no two children are experiencing the same home life and same life pressures.  They come into school with different degrees of abilities, advantages, emotional stability and attitudes.

 Adding to this, in the classroom we try to fit them into a one-size-fits-all-mold – a homogeneous curriculum dictated by educational bureaucrats and mandated by politicians. 

Then, children have to deal with the social pressures inflicted by their peers - often cruel and sometimes violent. 

We have all been there – we have all lived through it.   No wonder we have conflicted feelings about school.

 

Most parent’s knowledge of school come from their experience as a student – from a child’s perspective.   Nine months a year the parent’s responsibility is to make sure their kids get off to school.  Many parents cannot tell you the name of their children’s teachers, or even recognize them in passing – much less understand the function and dysfunction of the local education environment.

Education is a complex bureaucracy and does not necessarily have the actual education of the students as its top priority.

Superintendents are strictly political animals; they know nothing of the actual culture, educational standards taught, teachers or classroom conditions in the schools they supervise.   They serve at the pleasure of the school boards that hire and can fire them.  They are 99% politicians and 1% educators.   Their primary concern is keeping their job by keeping the school board happy – and much of it is smoke and mirrors.

Principals are mainly site administrators.   They are responsible for the school budget, physical plant, teachers, support staff, safety and welfare of the children; and to insure that some type of coordinated schedule, in line with state standards, is maintained.   Principals are the minions of the Superintendents.   Their tenure – their jobs – depend on covering the Superintendents ass; and they exist knowing that no one has their back.  The Superintendent will sacrifice a principal in a New York minute if a site problem reaches the attention of the school board.

And then there are the teachers.   I have often wondered why anyone would make a career of teaching. 

The only true educators in the school system are the teachers.   Teachers come to school each morning tasked with teaching a bloated curriculum aimed at preparing the students to pass some arbitrary, politically required test.  The only purpose these test serve are to give politicians bragging rights that they are fixing failing schools.   

In the classroom the teachers deal with disruptive and rude students, students with no interest in learning, and special needs students that are ‘mainstreamed’ into the regular classroom. 

Even with these difficulties teachers still care about most of their students, and do their best to actually present educational material tailored to each child’s ability. 

Teachers are underpaid and underappreciated.  They are the whipping post of politicians.   It always burns my ass to hear some parent harping on and on about their child’s teacher.   To become a teacher requires a minimum of four years schooling plus internships.  Teachers have to pass a rigorous test to become certified, and then teachers are constantly, formally evaluated including classroom observations.  In order to recertify on a state mandated schedule teachers are required to complete a number of college level continuing education classes.   Many teachers have Masters Degrees and above; whereas the only qualification for being a parent is the ability to breed. 

I have little patience for people that complain about their public schools.  Perhaps we should close all public schools and fund only home schooling programs – you chose to have them – you stay home and teach them.  A few years of parents dealing 24/7/365 with their children would either result in a dramatic decrease in the national birth rate or a renewed appreciation for the public school system. 

 

School days School days

Dear old golden rule days

the Ol’Buzzard

THE WOEFUL STATUS OF AMERICAN EDUCATION - V

MY LAST WORD ON THIS SUBJECT (PERHAPS)

In prior post I have voiced my opinion on the negative results that politicians, school boards and watered down curriculum text have on our education system.   There is one other issue that has a pronounced effect on the outcome of a child’s education, and unfortunately it is a social effect that has no present solution. 

Let me reemphasize that teacher’s training and performance is not the problem.   Teachers presently meet demanding standards, constant evaluation and continuing education requirements that ensure their competency.  

However, having said this, all education content and societal beliefs of our teachers are not equal.   Teachers that matriculate through southern schools and southern colleges are extremely likely to carry religious beliefs into their classroom that conflict with hard factual information. 

Religion is, and always has been the enemy of enlightenment and free thinking.  

After retiring from teaching in Alaska, my wife and I moved to Kentucky, where we substituted in the local school system.   I took long term substitution positions in science, math and literature: generally the results of maternity leaves.  

When teaching science and biology I was told not to cover the family tree of man (Australopithecus to Homo sapiens – the timeline of mankind.)   I was told that that was one of a number competing theories and that it was best not to deal with it as it would cause parents to complain. 

 

Some of the teachers in the school kept Bibles on their desk; one of the teachers had a number of books entitled Chicken Soup for the Soul that she encouraged students to read; and at one high school assembly a Christian church group came in and gave a presentation on abstinence, complete with religious songs and Bible references. 

It was not an unusual thing in Kentucky for students to wear tea-shirts asking What Would Jesus Do.  

I also did a stent as president of Adult Literacy Council for the county.  One of the adult students was a Mexican named Jesus – the local community had refused to call him Jesus and so had nicknamed him Joe.  

I could go on and on listing the instances of religious compromise permeating the education system of that county; but, I must state that the school was a reflection of the norm of the community in general. 

The schools turned out students that were proficient in math, computer science and language arts.   The school also had an excellent shop program.  

The points of failure for most southern and many mid-western school systems is the blatant deficiency in science, civics and social studies, as well as the development of critical thinking skills.   This is the results of religious influences in the community that interject themselves into the school curriculum - often through the teachers. 

the Ol’Buzzard 

THE WOEFUL STATUS OF AMERICAN EDUCATION III

SCHOOL BOARDS   

We enter the conference room.   The school district superintendent and the school board president are casually seated at the end of the table.  The Superintendent is laughing at something the board president is saying.  As other board members come in and take their seats at the table the superintendent greets each by name and makes some small comment of familiarity.    I look at the Superintendent, a man with a Doctorate in Education and years experience in the classroom and as a school principal, playing the part of a snake-oil politician, obliviously grabbling in supplication to this group that will, in the future, be asked to renew his contract.  

I am sitting on the periphery of the table with two other principals.   We are there to report to the board a summary of the month’s accomplishments at our schools.     One of the school board members has a son at my school that was not eligible for a basketball trip because of his grades in language arts.  I already know that I will have to defend the teacher for maintaining her standards for achievement.  

The meeting starts and past minutes are read, old business is discussed – usually to do with money issues, or curriculum and testing issues which everyone on the board listens to intently and pretends to understand.  There is a small discussion that perhaps the teachers have too much free access to the copy machines and that they should be limited to a certain number of copies per week.  For new business it is suggested that an electronic key card could be employed to determine who uses the machine most, and controls the use.   The Superintendent immediately agrees.  

Next the principals are asked to report.   I give a watered down version of the testing preparations that the teachers and I have spent hours discussing and planning, and a brief description of a cooperative learning field trip that involves archeological research at a traditional Native fishing site on the river.    Everyone listens attentively; then I ask if there are any questions.  

Immediately my board member states that a number of parents have complained to her about a particular teacher who seems to have the goal of preventing students from engaging in extra-curricular activities.   I defend my teacher and her academic autonomy to set standards in her classroom.   The rest of the board enthusiastically joins in, unanimously convinced that students should be allowed to play basketball regardless of grades.   I stand by the policy of eligibility and come just short of telling the board member that her son is a pain in the ass in class and thinks that because his mother is a board member he doesn’t have to meet the requirements of the rest of the students.    I look over at the Superintendent and he is frowning.    The board is heated and I am aggravated but maintaining control; but refusing to capitulate.    The Superintendent steps in and says that perhaps the board should consider reviewing the standards that exist among all district schools for sports and other activity and set uniform standards.

A motion is made and passed and the principals are asked to provide an in-depth report of eligibility requirements at each of their schools for the next board meeting. 

Elected school boards are the other bane of education.   Like politicians, there is no competency test to qualify a person for the school board.  Members are mainly composed of activist mothers or fathers who readily inform you that they are qualified for the position because they are parents.   (In reality the only qualification for being a parent is the ability to fuck and conceive.)  Other members of the board will be business persons looking for local recognition, and special interest activist (usually religious) looking to insert their agenda into the school.  Occasionally there is a retired school teacher, but as a whole the board is woefully unqualified to set education policies and totally ignorant of the day to day problems involved in educating children in a classroom.

We don’t have civilian elected boards intricately controlling doctor’s protocols and emergency room or operating room procedure; nor do we have elected civilian boards manipulating law firms, psychiatric medicine, physics or chemistry labs, and other disciplines.   Yet, we feel perfectly justified in ‘electing’ non educators to regulate and control the education processes of our school districts.    

Congress mandates the curriculum through standards and testing requirements and school boards interfere with the way schools are run on a day to day basis with frivolous and uninformed edicts via their ability to hire and fire school administrators. 

We will never improve American schools unless we remove the control from politicians and local school boards and place education professionals in charge.

the Ol'Buzzard

THE WOEFUL STATUS OF AMERICAN EDUCATION II

PART TWO

It always burns my ass when I hear politicians decry teachers - demanding more training and stricter regulation for the teaching profession.    It is ludicrous when you realize that teachers are required to have a specialized college education and pass a battery of test to receive certification; and they are constantly under the supervision of a principal and require continuing education and evaluation for recertification.   On the other hand, any fool can become a Congress or Senator person – there is no test for competency.    In Congress we have elected high school graduates, beauty queens, laborers of all stripes, preachers and even a blues singer.   It is not beyond the realm of possibility that some day we may have a Congressman Joe the Plumber.   And, adding insult to injury, these people legislate policies that define our educational system.   

When a Congress person is elected his (or her) immediate concern becomes re-election.  He will attend strategy meetings with his party, show up and vote party lines, get on as many committees as possible (you receive extra pay of each committee you are assigned) and always seek to keep a low profile – be one of the pack – not stand out – because if you make waves and take a public stand you may anger some constitutes.   

The majority of a Congressman’s time is spent meeting with special interest: businessmen and lobbyist that might be willing to help finance his run in the next election.    Months prior to the reelection he starts his appeal to the electorate via public forum: he believes in God, he is for the family, he is concerned about the economy, he is a red, white and blue American and he has a plan to overhaul our failing educational system through comprehensive testing and tougher teacher scrutiny.

He can’t take a public stand on gay rights, women’s rights, minority rights, gun regulations, universal health care or the separation of church and state, because these are too controversial.  But, he can safely stand for education improvement – comprehensive testing of kids and getting rid of bad teachers, which is obviously the problem. 

Returning to Alaska as a principal I found myself dealing with NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND.    I had taken the position of principal of two elementary and one high school in two Native villages in the Kuskokwim Delta of Alaska.  When I arrived on site I found, that at the high school, the prior senior class of twelve had graduated only four students.   The Native children in this schools were not equipped to pass the culturally bias – one size fits all – test.   So actually, NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND had left eight children behind that year.  A few came back for another shot, but eventually dropped out.   After attending twelve years of school, eight students ended up without a high school diploma.   

Working with the teachers we revamped the curriculum – not to teach the test – but - to teach to the test.  That year we graduated eight of twelve, the second year we graduated eight of ten and the third year twelve of thirteen students.   I am still devastated that during my three year tenure I failed to graduate seven students – students that spent twelve years attending school but were unable to pass the NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND prescribed test.  

There are those that would criticize me for revamping a curriculum to focus on testing, but my concern was for the students and not to justify some flawed political education policy.  

Very early in my teaching career I learned that Native children live in a different world.  Their parents speak ‘village English.’  They are raised in a hunting and gathering society.  They have their own history and their own values.   They stand with one foot in the present and one foot in the past.   They live, often, with disdain of white cultural norms.   

Our government, from the very beginning, has strived to change their culture by producing acceptable white clones of their children.  To a large extent, government has succeeded in decimating their culture, their language and their religions.  

It is not just the native culture that struggles to meet a legislated idea of conformity, but all minority cultures.    They must speak proper English, they must meet education standards, they must forsake their culture and adopt American cultural norms…and the list goes on.  

This one-size-fits-all shoe box has destroyed our educational system.   We do not strive to educate children to be productive members of society, but to pass some arbitrary test required by legislated standards enacted by politicians campaigning for reelection. 

Our society is diverse.  The differences in cultures, religion and language have made our country the great melting pot.   And, it is this diversity that must be considered when educating our children.  

Politicians only know ‘one-size-fits- all’ to produce ‘people-like-us.’

We need to get politics out of Education.   We need to place ‘certified educators’ in charge of education.   We need to do away with culturally restrictive standards and celebrate cultural diversity in our classrooms. 

The federal government’s job should be to generously fund state public education.    A State Board Of Education composed of one teacher from each school district and appointed by the district on a rotating basis, should oversee all schools and determine school efficiency in that state on a case by case basis.   The standard for graduation should be flexible and determined by a team of teachers and principals from that district.

Would this produce a standard of education?   No.  

Would some schools be more technical and advanced? Yes

Would some schools graduates students more prepared for secondary education? Yes.

Would more children be left behind?  No.

Would children receive a more thorough education?  Yes.

Teachers would be able to teach math, literature, science, social studies and integrate technology without the constant concern of meeting an arbitrary testing standard that could destroy a student’s future and cost them their jobs.    Students would emerge from twelve years of school with a more thorough education and better critical thinking skills. 

On the next blog I will take a shot at local school boards.

The Ol’Buzzard

  

THE WOEFUL STATUS OF AMERICAN EDUCATION

PART ONE

                         

My second career was elementary and high school teaching and elementary and high school principal.   As such, ‘I have made my bones,’ and from intimate knowledge have earned the right to evaluate the system.

                                                                                            

Politicians drone on about the deplorable state of American education and people like President Bush 41 ask the question “Is our children learning?”  

The answer is NO! At least they are not graduating with knowledge and understanding of the world we live in and a factual chain of math and scientific cause and effect; and most of all they lack the ability to apply logic and reason.

There are numerous causes for the inability of our schools to effectively educate our children to a twenty-first century adequacy.   The major problem is that our system is the product of politicians and radical (mostly religious) groups with special agendas.

The ‘whipping boy’ for this failure is always the teachers. 

As an educator, no longer serving at the pleasure of an elected school board let me give a view from inside a system designed for failure.  

Let’s first look at teachers.   Most teachers are better educated than you local bank president.   All have Bachelor Degrees and many have Masters and Doctorates.   All have passed strenuous certification tests and are required to continue their education in order to recertify at specific intervals. 

Teaching was historically a female occupation, and as such was never looked on as a ‘legitimate’ profession.    That mind set has carried over to today where teaching is still not considered as professional, but instead viewed as advanced child care.    Teachers are not paid salaries accurately reflecting their level of education and are not given the respect received by other professions with lesser requirements and less responsibilities. 

Part of this image is the fault of teachers.  How often have I heard teachers state that they teach because they love children.   What bull shit!   You might love lions and tigers but that doesn’t qualify you as an animal trainer.   Teachers should demand professional respect.   They should state that they teach because they have developed a unique ability to impart information and because they have special training and background on certain subject matter.   They should support their unions that constantly try to elevate teaching to a respected profession. 

Teachers constantly have an uphill battle.   They preside over classrooms that are overcrowded; they deal with unnecessary discipline problems from unruly students - some that are potentially dangerous; they lack support from principals who serve at the pleasure of parent and special interest school boards; they are required to teach curriculum that is scattered and loosely connected.  

Most teachers are good teachers.  There are some special teachers that can go beyond and are able to encourage logic and critical thinking skills (this of course is not valued in the south.)  There are, in fact, very few ‘bad’ teachers.   Most ineffective teachers become dissatisfied with teaching and move on to other (and often more lucrative) fields.   There are, however, struggling teachers in impossible situations.     They are basically good teachers, who lack support from their administration, and eventually burn out.   Realizing the futility of their situation they develop a survival attitude.  They are products of a system that can not succeed.  

As a retired school principal I can tell you with authority that the teacher’s main goal is the success of their students.   Our teachers morn the fact that their students are matriculating with an incomplete education.  They hate the fact that they have to teach to testing standards.  They know that if given the authority and autonomy to set their curriculum to the special demographics of their students they would be able to effectively improve understanding and knowledge retention.   They are, however, hobbled by outside influences of non-educators and a bureaucracy and a public that is not teacher friendly.   

The teachers are not the problem with the education inadequacy – they are the solution. 

The Ol’Buzzard