Educating For Human Greatness v.3 flyer

[philipkovacs]

Educating for Human Greatness

A HIGHER VISION
of Teaching, Thinking and Learning
© 2008 The Human Greatness Group

“There is nothing progressive about being pig-headed and refusing to admit a mistake.” --- C. S. Lewis

In 1983 a National Commission on Excellence in Education issued a “Nation At Risk Report” and set in motion a series of government-imposed reforms, all based on a false goal, student achievement in curriculum. The latest of these reforms, “No Child Left Behind,” put extra pressure on teachers to ignore the diverse needs of students and to standardize education through scripted reading, writing, and math. This top-down pressure is evidence that public school teaching is not regarded as a profession in our society.

Over many years our culture has become so obsessed with curriculum we have lost sight of our purpose – curriculum for what? Student achievement in curriculum has become a false goal, an end in and of itself. Grade-point-averages have become the main indicators of achievement in education. We have a cultural cramp – a mass mind-set that spawns counterfeit reform movements.

For genuine reform of public education we must start with a clear purpose. We suggest Education for Human Greatness.

In 1973, ten years before “Nation at Risk,” the teachers at Hill Field Elementary School in Clearfield, Utah decided to ask parents about their priorities for the education of their children. In interviews with thousands of parents, over several years, teachers were surprised to learn of three needs that parents felt were more important to them than the need to have a child achieve in reading, writing and arithmetic.

First, parents wanted teachers to respect children as individuals, to pay attention to each child’s special needs, and to help youngsters develop their unique talents and abilities.

Second, they wanted children to increase in curiosity and passion for knowledge – they wanted children to “fall in love with learning.”

And third, parents wanted teachers to help children learn how to express themselves, communicate and get along. The priorities were so consistent with nearly every parent, the teachers surmised that these may be the core needs of people in every culture – the need to know who we are and what we can become (identity), the need for knowledge (inquiry), and the need for respect and love (interaction).

This finding led to a new concept – curriculum should not be viewed as a goal, but as a tool to help students grow in identity, inquiry and interaction. Even though the concept was temporarily smothered by the standardization movement, it remained alive all these years and has now evolved to become a framework for authentic changes of public, private and other forms of education.

A Clear Purpose for Education

Develop great human beings to be contributors (not burdens) to society by focusing on 7 Dimensions of Human Greatness:

1. Identity – Help students learn who they are – as individuals with unlimited potential, develop their unique talents and gifts to realize self-worth and develop a strong desire to be contributors to family, school and community.

2. Inquiry – Stimulate curiosity; awaken a sense of wonder and appreciation for nature and humankind. Help students develop the power to ask important questions.

3. Interaction – Promote courtesy, caring, communication and cooperation.

4. Initiative – Foster self-directed learning, will power and self-evaluation.

5. Imagination – Nurture creativity in all of its many forms.

6. Intuition – Help students learn how to feel and recognize truth with their hearts as well as with their minds – develop spirituality and humility.

7. Integrity – Develop honesty, character, morality and responsibility for self.

SURPRISE: When reading, writing, math and other disciplines are taught as tools rather than goals, students' learning produces more depth and breadth, they retain more of what they learn and are able to apply it to solve other problems.

This “higher vision” allows teachers to perform as professionals who involve parents and inspire students to accomplish amazing things.

Contacts for more information:

Lynn Stoddard, a veteran educator, is the author of three books and numerous articles on the need and ways to reinvent schooling. [e-mail]

MaryBeth Merritt is an educator, scientist, parent, artist and community activist She is a founder of Four Winds, a non-profit educational organization. [e-mail]

Don Perl – Is a lifetime educator of thirty-five years. He is presently an adjunct professor of Spanish at the University of Northern Colorado. [e-mail]

Phoebe Plank, a teacher for 15 years, is taking one year off from teaching to bring Educating for Human Greatness to students, teachers and administrators. [e-mail]

Susan Ohanian – A longtime teacher and prolific writer on education issues. She maintains a website in opposition to the corporate-politico takeover of schools and the standardization of curriculum. [e-mail]

Emmanuel Bernstein is a veteran educator who has taught all ages. He wrote the book, The Secret Revolution: A Psychologist’s Adventures in Education. [e-mail]

Yvonne Siu-Runyan – Dr. Siu-Runyan is professor emerita, the University of Northern Colorado and a member of the presidential team for the National Council Teachers of English [e-mail]

Lu Pilgrim – Faculty, Pacific Oaks College, Pasadena, CA, 50 years of experience as a public and independent school teacher and administrator in MI, CA, UT, and WY. [e-mail]

Philip Kovacs -- A former high school English teacher now teaching teachers, Dr. Kovacs helped organize the Educator Roundtable which solicited over 30,000 thousand signatures on a petition calling on Congress to dismantle NCLB. [e-mail]

Mary Orlando has been a Montessori educator for the past 40 years, teaching at every developmental level from 3 year olds through 8th grade. [e-mail]

Betty Terrell is a third grade teacher at Sacajawea Elementary School, in Seattle WA, which adopted as its mission 12 years ago, Educating for Human Greatness. [e-mail].

Alfie Kohn, the author of eleven books, has been recognized by Time magazine as “perhaps the country’s most outspoken critic of education’s fixation on grades [and] test scores.” www.alfiekohn.org.

Nel Noddings – A Lee L. Jacks Professor of Childhood Education, Emerita at Stanford University. Her latest book is When School Reform Goes Wrong. [e-mail]

Stephen Krashen is best known for developing the first comprehensive theory of second language acquisition. He is the author of several books. [e-mail]

Darrell Stoddard -- Founder, Pain Research Institute www.healpain.net Author of PAIN FREE FOR LIFE, Email: [e-mail]

Lawrence Baines – Professor Baines is Judith Daso Herb Chair in Adolescent Literacy at The University of Toledo. [e-mail]

Boyd R. Cox – Dr. Cox is a retired educator with 25 years teaching experience as an elementary teacher and who taught 8 years as an adjunct instructor in basic mathematics and electronics at a community college. [e-mail]

William Spady, an internationally recognized authority, is the author of five books. He is the current Director of the New Possibilities Network. [e-mail]

More Contacts ….. [e-mail]

Educating for Human Greatness

A HIGHER VISION
of Teaching, Thinking and Learning





© 2008 The Human Greatness Group

[Jeffrey L. Peyton]

Having had an opportunity to review the document this group plans to submit/ publish for consideration, I have a number of questions. I guess you could say that this is test—for you and myself—to determine who is more naïve, idealistic, or realistic. I do not mean to anger but to engage in healthy exercise of self-reflection and discourse. Allow me the role of a gadfly. Perhaps we can all learn something moving forward.

Frankly, there could 1000s of people and 1000s of groups with agendas very similar in spirit and content to the one now being drafted. Books on this subject continue to fill the shelves, plus 20 years of brain research sits. What makes this one stand out in the crowd?

In principle, such a document should be as foundational as the American Declaration and the Constitution.

For argument’s sake let’s say that this is shaping up as the best document on reform, the last word—in vision and concrete detail—on Education in America. Now we are faced with the challenge of its adoption, the formation of a national consensus, and the complexity of its implementation and delivery. Indeed, making this document a reality would be nothing less than a movement, a revolution, a Copernican, culture-changing and world-changing event in human history. This is not unlike re-engineering and manipulating the economy back to health. In the end, it’s supposed to actually work.

Is this group an ad hoc Manhattan Project? If so, where’s the secret weapon, the Trojan horse? What are the details of the strategy used to insinuate your action items into hearts, minds, and schools across the country? How will it transform what happens on a day to day basis in classrooms? How does the plan suddenly and decisively break past the business as usual?

From where and whom is the document’s power derived? Assuming you get people to sign it, will your power be strong enough to melt, topple, disintegrate, and sweep away the baggage, red-tape, and the ‘tyranny of dead ideas’? Or is this plan something to be claimed by the populace and pushed from the bottom up? Is permission needed from the government to embark on this plan? Why go to Washington?

Will the document be submitted to the Department of Education for the new Secretary to sign off on? Will teachers keep these critical imperatives on a list to the side of the blackboard just like all the ‘you shoulds’ and lists that ultimately have become part of an authoritarian-control crazy culture that marches to the cadence of accountability and assessment? How does your list of critical qualities—and there are countless more—become embedded in the everyday experience of teachers and kids?

I have grappled with these questions for over 35 years as an inventor and reformer with my feet both on and off the ground, in territory that few educators have explored. I have developed a concrete strategy packed with detail, theory, science, infrastructure, and delivery system—and I am still in idealistic territory because my plan must be implemented and tested. But at least I know what the plan is and where I’m headed with it.

The learning culture is a very stubborn creation (and this is true for many wrong-headed behaviors in present-day society), as resistant to change as the institutional practices and beliefs associated with racial prejudice in the early part of the 20th Century. It took decades of painful birthing into mid-century before society began to change. Even today schools breed and reflect inequity and intolerance. Education has even found ways to muffle and mute the power of the Internet. We want to free our schools of these bad viruses.But there are only certain things that can attack and break down these social sicknesses, repressive policies, and bankrupt teaching. Any plan that pretends to reform Education had better include a war room and weaponry that can be used to outsmart the culture.

At the turn of last century, Jazz and, later, baseball appeared out of the culture with a deep impact on our society; they changed people’s minds about black people and paved the way for Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement. I believe that Education Reform is just another chapter in the Civil Rights movement: this time teachers and children could be up for new freedoms. But the freedoms will not be given; they have to be taken.

Unless you can harness something as powerful as Jazz and baseball, something unstoppable and irresistible, something that happens deep within the culture to plant the seeds of change, then any ideas about reform are apt to remain inert. Plans run the risk of being fought from within. And from the top, plans can end up looking like kin to NCLB—government mandated, highly bureaucratized, locked into systems of accountability, etc. Even the best intentions from liberal minds calcify and run amok. The reality is that Education has a culture problem (a health problem like addiction and smoking, a psycho-social-behavioral, mindset problem). It can be cured only with certain elements or vaccines invasive enough to reach and neutralize those walls. Without these, the model cannot succeed. Even if hundreds of thousands march chanting each item on the list of changes, we are stuck with a culture that cannot be made to change. Change can only be made to happen. Set in motion. An escape act that Houdini himself might think twice about. It means giving up conventional control.

Perhaps I am missing something, but I don’t see any such connective tissue, systemic reach in this model of reform. I joined this forum because I have some experience in grappling with the “Education Problem” from a very unique vantage. If I am shown to be totally off base here, please accept my apologies. Or better yet, in the words of Rachel Maddow, ‘talk me down.’ I am being honest and transparent about my motives here, honest enough to incur anger and criticism, but I hope you will respond civilly and thoughtfully to the questions I have raised.

Thank you.

[Leo J. Fahey]

Jeffrey,

Man, I couldn't agree more. It seems to me wherever on the school/education reform-revolution spectrum folks are sitting, there is a total lack of hard strategic thinking, a decided absence of the hard social-political-economic planning and organizing which a movement requires. I mean, trying to get folks realistically moving on the ground reminds me of all those high school and college faculty meetings I had to attend: each faculty member was into doing his/her own thing which each thought far more important than doing anything together and so the poor chairs always had to plead with everyone to cooperate. Is there something about us folks in the intellectual property business or what?

Leo

Jeffrey L. Peyton said:

Having had an opportunity to review the document this group plans to submit/ publish for consideration, I have a number of questions. I guess you could say that this is test—for you and myself—to determine who is more naïve, idealistic, or realistic. I do not mean to anger but to engage in healthy exercise of self-reflection and discourse. Allow me the role of a gadfly. Perhaps we can all learn something moving forward.

Frankly, there could 1000s of people and 1000s of groups with agendas very similar in spirit and content to the one now being drafted. Books on this subject continue to fill the shelves, plus 20 years of brain research sits. What makes this one stand out in the crowd?

In principle, such a document should be as foundational as the American Declaration and the Constitution.

For argument’s sake let’s say that this is shaping up as the best document on reform, the last word—in vision and concrete detail—on Education in America. Now we are faced with the challenge of its adoption, the formation of a national consensus, and the complexity of its implementation and delivery. Indeed, making this document a reality would be nothing less than a movement, a revolution, a Copernican, culture-changing and world-changing event in human history. This is not unlike re-engineering and manipulating the economy back to health. In the end, it’s supposed to actually work.

Is this group an ad hoc Manhattan Project? If so, where’s the secret weapon, the Trojan horse? What are the details of the strategy used to insinuate your action items into hearts, minds, and schools across the country? How will it transform what happens on a day to day basis in classrooms? How does the plan suddenly and decisively break past the business as usual?

From where and whom is the document’s power derived? Assuming you get people to sign it, will your power be strong enough to melt, topple, disintegrate, and sweep away the baggage, red-tape, and the ‘tyranny of dead ideas’? Or is this plan something to be claimed by the populace and pushed from the bottom up? Is permission needed from the government to embark on this plan? Why go to Washington?

Will the document be submitted to the Department of Education for the new Secretary to sign off on? Will teachers keep these critical imperatives on a list to the side of the blackboard just like all the ‘you shoulds’ and lists that ultimately have become part of an authoritarian-control crazy culture that marches to the cadence of accountability and assessment? How does your list of critical qualities—and there are countless more—become embedded in the everyday experience of teachers and kids?

I have grappled with these questions for over 35 years as an inventor and reformer with my feet both on and off the ground, in territory that few educators have explored. I have developed a concrete strategy packed with detail, theory, science, infrastructure, and delivery system—and I am still in idealistic territory because my plan must be implemented and tested. But at least I know what the plan is and where I’m headed with it.

The learning culture is a very stubborn creation (and this is true for many wrong-headed behaviors in present-day society), as resistant to change as the institutional practices and beliefs associated with racial prejudice in the early part of the 20th Century. It took decades of painful birthing into mid-century before society began to change. Even today schools breed and reflect inequity and intolerance. Education has even found ways to muffle and mute the power of the Internet. We want to free our schools of these bad viruses.But there are only certain things that can attack and break down these social sicknesses, repressive policies, and bankrupt teaching. Any plan that pretends to reform Education had better include a war room and weaponry that can be used to outsmart the culture.

At the turn of last century, Jazz and, later, baseball appeared out of the culture with a deep impact on our society; they changed people’s minds about black people and paved the way for Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement. I believe that Education Reform is just another chapter in the Civil Rights movement: this time teachers and children could be up for new freedoms. But the freedoms will not be given; they have to be taken.

Unless you can harness something as powerful as Jazz and baseball, something unstoppable and irresistible, something that happens deep within the culture to plant the seeds of change, then any ideas about reform are apt to remain inert. Plans run the risk of being fought from within. And from the top, plans can end up looking like kin to NCLB—government mandated, highly bureaucratized, locked into systems of accountability, etc. Even the best intentions from liberal minds calcify and run amok. The reality is that Education has a culture problem (a health problem like addiction and smoking, a psycho-social-behavioral, mindset problem). It can be cured only with certain elements or vaccines invasive enough to reach and neutralize those walls. Without these, the model cannot succeed. Even if hundreds of thousands march chanting each item on the list of changes, we are stuck with a culture that cannot be made to change. Change can only be made to happen. Set in motion. An escape act that Houdini himself might think twice about. It means giving up conventional control.

Perhaps I am missing something, but I don’t see any such connective tissue, systemic reach in this model of reform. I joined this forum because I have some experience in grappling with the “Education Problem” from a very unique vantage. If I am shown to be totally off base here, please accept my apologies. Or better yet, in the words of Rachel Maddow, ‘talk me down.’ I am being honest and transparent about my motives here, honest enough to incur anger and criticism, but I hope you will respond civilly and thoughtfully to the questions I have raised.

Thank you.

[Reid Cornwell]

When I wrote to this blog about going to a "gunfight with a knife", I was speaking metaphoricly to the points made elquently by Jeffrey Peyton.

As Leo also stated, "there is a total lack of hard strategic thinking, a decided absence of the hard social-political-economic planning and organizing which a movement requires."

Cudos to both,

Reid Cornwell

[thebandguy]

Both Jeffrey, and Leo, I could not agree more with what you were stating. However, I cannot sit idly by and let the public school system crumble either. Thousands of schools are closing, leaving students either without a classroom, or in a more crowded classroom. (More the latter now, but in the future, where are the kids going to go when their families can't afford private school?) Teachers are losing jobs. Jobs they love, have a passion to do, and want to be part of something greater than this country has ever possibly been able to fathom because education today does not have the support that it needs from the government, the community and the parents. The government said that "they don't have the money". Well, I find that hard to believe when we went to a war on a specific budget. When that money ran out, they came up with 87 Billion dollars-Just like that. When that money ran out, they came up with another 92 Billion Dollars-Just like that. When that money ran out, the government came up with another 83 Billion Dollars-just like that, and I could keep going. The government decided to fight a war that we could not win. It isn't about freedom, it's about religion. It isn't about bombs like they used as an excuse, it is about religion. How come we can find the terrorists that we have no idea what they really look like, yet we cannot find nuclear weapons that show up on radar from space, and a 6 foot Muslum on Dialasis? None of this makes any sense to me. Where is all that money coming from? Blego is being impeached because he crossed Madigan (the speaker of the house.) Most government officials don't know the first thing about educating a child, yet they pass laws all the time, that are not in the best interest of the children they are suppose to protect. I cannot sit idly by and watch it happen without putting up a fight. I agree, we need a clear vision, and we need to decide what would be our goal. However, the movement has started. Teachers are angry because they have to follow a law that doesn't make sense. Teachers are frustrated because they have to teach to a test that doesn't have anything to do with the children they are teaching. Teachers are concerned because students every day, because their students lack the critical thinking skills it takes to survive in any type of society and solve problems as an adult. Teachers are empathic to student needs, but because their curriculums are designed to aid in their scores on the test, the do not teach the necessary skills students will need as an adult. Teachers are thwarted by the fact they don't have the necessary materials to teach their curriculums. Most of all teachers are exhausted because they are trying to meet the standards, but feel as if they are treading water in the long run, especially if they have large class sizes. I for one, cannot sit by and watch this continue to crumble. I have written countless letters to my Senetors, Congressmen, and Representatives at the Federal and State Level letting them know of my concerns.

I hate to bring this up, but has anyone thought about joining in the fight with either of the major teacher unions? They have the money, the research, and the power to help make the change that needs to happen. It's just something to think about, because this small group alone, will have a difficult time making a difference. Just my additional thoughts.

Terry.

[Cooper Zale]

Terry... I hear your frustration.

On your last question not sure about what to say about the teachers unions. In theory they could be great allies for educational transformation, but at least here in Los Angeles their fight for better working conditions for teachers seems to put them in support of the conventional "one size fits all" schooling. For example, the teachers unions here have not been supportive of charter schools because charter schools teachers don't have to join the union. Given that situation, you might understand their non-support, but it doesn't help the effort to create many educational paths.

I'm a parent, but If I were in a teacher's union I would be advocating for my union to take full responsibility for the educational outcomes in schools in exchange for full control over the schools, challenging the educational hierarchy of school principals and higher-up administrators. Short of students having a hand in running our schools, teachers at least should be the major decision-makers. If that were the case, that would give parents like me access to actual decision makers in their kids' schools. What a concept!...*g*

[thebandguy]

Funny you should mention that Cooper, I'm hoping that is the direction our school district will be going. We are trying to get to the point where we are a learning community, instead of public school system. I hope we will get there, but we won't start until at least next year. I understand the problems you are having in California, but I also know that part of the problems come from immigration, the amount of parents that put their students in private schools (not necessarily a bad thing) and the lack of funding and support by the Californian Government. There are many more issues going on in California but I don't want to get off the point either. Fighting for better working conditions is only one aspect the union fights for. Go to the NEA website and check out what they have to say about NCLB. There are pages and pages of research, and reform ideas they would like to see happen. The NEA is well aware of the "One Size Fits All" thing, and they are strongly apposed to it. They are in support of the National Standards, but also believe that each state and each municipality should also set standards of their own. Working conditions is usually the one item that gets them the most publicity, especially during Negotiations and that is just one of the issues that gives them an [unjustified] bad wrap-because that is really set by the local organization, not the National organization.

Cooper Zale said:

Terry... I hear your frustration.

On your last question not sure about what to say about the teachers unions. In theory they could be great allies for educational transformation, but at least here in Los Angeles their fight for better working conditions for teachers seems to put them in support of the conventional "one size fits all" schooling. For example, the teachers unions here have not been supportive of charter schools because charter schools teachers don't have to join the union. Given that situation, you might understand their non-support, but it doesn't help the effort to create many educational paths.

I'm a parent, but If I were in a teacher's union I would be advocating for my union to take full responsibility for the educational outcomes in schools in exchange for full control over the schools, challenging the educational hierarchy of school principals and higher-up administrators. Short of students having a hand in running our schools, teachers at least should be the major decision-makers. If that were the case, that would give parents like me access to actual decision makers in their kids' schools. What a concept!...*g*

[Yvonne Siu-Runyan (PANA)]

Okay, I'll take a risk and be frank.

For me, what is really scary is that professional organizations and teachers are playing in the sandbox with NCLBers. Some say they have to play with the NCLBers to make change. Others are motivated by greed, and still others because of the need to fit in and others from pure fear. Also, consider that those in power don't like it when they are questioned. They want GROUP THINK!

Please go to the Coalition for Better Education's Web site. Don Perl and colleagues are doing great things in Colorado. CBE has put up billboards, have an interactive question and answer link about re: the CSAP, Colorado's high stakes test, and other items of importance. Other Web sites to send people are: Susan Ohanian's, Mothers Against the WASL, Fair Test, Educators Roundtable. Sign up for Susan Ohanian's, Stephen Krashen's, and Don Perl's posts. Then when you get posts from Ohanian, Krashen, and Perl. pass them on to others.

People need to get good and mad or the white elephant standing in the room will not go away.. There is too much money being made by the purveyors of high stakes testing. In addition, government and corporations, and other institutions really don't want a thinking citizenry. Hey Colorado's intent is clear. Colorado's State Dept. of Education is rewriting standards to INSURE THAT COLORADO STUDENTS ARE 21ST CENTURY WORKFORCE READY. To me, Colorado lawmakers, standardistos, and business folks want a citizenry who...Won't question, will just do as they are told. The politicos, standardistos, and business folks will just retool the citizens for their own purposes.

As far as I am concerned, the only thing one needs to be 21st, 22nd century or whatever ready is to question the status quo and authority. But, those in charge don't really want this to happen.

Another point, extortion is going on in schools. School Boards, school administrators, teachers, and any one in an official capacity in education should have to sign a "Conflict of Interest" contract. Marketers abound everywhere I look. It is sickening. Sheez...tell me how do marketers add value? Our students should be learning about the propaganda techniques being used on them. Ever notice how there are advertisements about the TV news every few minutes? Newscasters don't just report the news anymore, they spin the news. BBC is just about the only news I watch on TV anymore.

In the meanwhile, sports heroes make hundreds of thousands of dollars per game. Some even make a million dollar a game. Citizens tax themselves to build a stadium, and won't fund schools. It is all so upside down. Be wary of corporations that produce "so-called" learning software and programs. Their CEOs would like us to think they have the solutions. All we have to do is sign up for their programs. They are merely wolves in sheep's clothing.

Terry is right about the money. There always seems to be enough money to bail out the corporations, Wall Street, and wars. They don't seem to be held accountable. And those same people who hand out money to failing corporations, Wall Street, and the war machinery, want educators to be held accountable for things over which we have no control, such as poverty and parenting, and other ills of society.

This is why people need to get good and mad. So, write letters to the editors, place information re: the travesties of NCLB and high stakes testing in places where people will pick them up and read them, wear anti-NCLB buttons, and inform your friends and relatives, and ask them to do the same.

Yvonne



thebandguy said:

Both Jeffrey, and Leo, I could not agree more with what you were stating. However, I cannot sit idly by and let the public school system crumble either. Thousands of schools are closing, leaving students either without a classroom, or in a more crowded classroom. (More the latter now, but in the future, where are the kids going to go when their families can't afford private school?) Teachers are losing jobs. Jobs they love, have a passion to do, and want to be part of something greater than this country has ever possibly been able to fathom because education today does not have the support that it needs from the government, the community and the parents. The government said that "they don't have the money". Well, I find that hard to believe when we went to a war on a specific budget. When that money ran out, they came up with 87 Billion dollars-Just like that. When that money ran out, they came up with another 92 Billion Dollars-Just like that. When that money ran out, the government came up with another 83 Billion Dollars-just like that, and I could keep going. The government decided to fight a war that we could not win. It isn't about freedom, it's about religion. It isn't about bombs like they used as an excuse, it is about religion. How come we can find the terrorists that we have no idea what they really look like, yet we cannot find nuclear weapons that show up on radar from space, and a 6 foot Muslum on Dialasis? None of this makes any sense to me. Where is all that money coming from? Blego is being impeached because he crossed Madigan (the speaker of the house.) Most government officials don't know the first thing about educating a child, yet they pass laws all the time, that are not in the best interest of the children they are suppose to protect. I cannot sit idly by and watch it happen without putting up a fight. I agree, we need a clear vision, and we need to decide what would be our goal. However, the movement has started. Teachers are angry because they have to follow a law that doesn't make sense. Teachers are frustrated because they have to teach to a test that doesn't have anything to do with the children they are teaching. Teachers are concerned because students every day, because their students lack the critical thinking skills it takes to survive in any type of society and solve problems as an adult. Teachers are empathic to student needs, but because their curriculums are designed to aid in their scores on the test, the do not teach the necessary skills students will need as an adult. Teachers are thwarted by the fact they don't have the necessary materials to teach their curriculums. Most of all teachers are exhausted because they are trying to meet the standards, but feel as if they are treading water in the long run, especially if they have large class sizes. I for one, cannot sit by and watch this continue to crumble. I have written countless letters to my Senetors, Congressmen, and Representatives at the Federal and State Level letting them know of my concerns.
I hate to bring this up, but has anyone thought about joining in the fight with either of the major teacher unions? They have the money, the research, and the power to help make the change that needs to happen. It's just something to think about, because this small group alone, will have a difficult time making a difference. Just my additional thoughts.
Terry.

[Leo J. Fahey]

Terry (thebandguy),

Globally speaking, the industrial model of schooling begot industrial management-labor relations within public, and private schools, which have had, and continue to have, nothing to do with teaching/learning, or education. Thus, teacher unions like unions everywhere are constructed as checks against the power of the bosses. As much as I would like to say the teacher unions ought to be in the vanguard of school re-form, and revolution, they are conceived, structured and operate solidly within the current model/paradigm of conventional schooling and as such are severely constrained, to the point of impossibility, to act by way of a different model/paradigm.

Here in New York City, for instance, the United Federation of Teachers, inspite of having been authorized to run two charter schools, has fought against the entire charter school project because NY State Charter Law allows folks running the Charters to ignore union contracts creating a power imbalance within these schools the union was established to eliminate. Of course, the UFT has had no real power for decades as a former mayor, Ed Koch, "stood tough" and broke the union during a strike. Still, even if they had the power they had during their golden age in the 1960's, it would be against their very nature to go off into the wilderness of authentic alternative learning schemes, especially schemes like home schooling.

As far as money is concerned, well, one of the only public budgets most folks get to pass on is their local school budget. And with revenue for school budgets coming from property taxes, and property taxes always going up, especially to pay for school budgets, I don't think it takes a wiz to see how so many school budgets are voted down, resulting in sub-service to a district's children. Now, when it comes to state funds, the state houses and legislatures must balance job creation, meaning tax abatements and the like, against demands for human services, including Medicaid, public assistance and schools. The idea abatements, et al, is that sufficient tax relief to business will create sufficient income tax revenue from the jobs created and maintained to more than make up for the abatements, thus, enabling the state to fund human services. From my perspective, I do not think that is the case. But untill and unless there is another way jobs can be created within states, companies will in the end hold hostage the human services, including school funding, of each state in these United States.

As for federal money, well, for the last 28 years we have been under the ideology that education is a state matter and paying for it must belong to the states. It's okay to mandate stuff from the federal level, but it is equally okay to have the states be responsible for paying for it. Thus, funding has been pushed down to the states, and the states, balancing tax abatements and other incentive revenue losses with human services need, pushes school funding down to the local political districts which raise property taxs, which creates a property tax revolt which deminishes the quality of schools.

But, I will strongly argue, though, that you could throw a zillion dollars more at the conventional way schooling is organized and not make a difference. Yes, funding is a real problem, no doubt. But it is the foundational structure, the actually stuff that gets funded, which is the far, far greater problem. It would be great if with an expansive amount of funding that authentic alternatives to the conventional public school could be established. But that ain't gonna happen. As I understand it New York City Department of Education under the currently proposed stimulas plan would get 1.4 Billion dollars. Now, do you think any of that money will be invested in truly different ways of schooling? I strongly suggest not a penny will be used for doing anything else than more of the same. So, in the end, money without a committment to explore, to experiment and ultimately to accept the need for many different ways of being educated and schooled is, as is said so often, throwing good after bad. Money for doing the same thing won't work and is not the answer.

Leo

thebandguy said:

Both Jeffrey, and Leo, I could not agree more with what you were stating. However, I cannot sit idly by and let the public school system crumble either. Thousands of schools are closing, leaving students either without a classroom, or in a more crowded classroom. (More the latter now, but in the future, where are the kids going to go when their families can't afford private school?) Teachers are losing jobs. Jobs they love, have a passion to do, and want to be part of something greater than this country has ever possibly been able to fathom because education today does not have the support that it needs from the government, the community and the parents. The government said that "they don't have the money". Well, I find that hard to believe when we went to a war on a specific budget. When that money ran out, they came up with 87 Billion dollars-Just like that. When that money ran out, they came up with another 92 Billion Dollars-Just like that. When that money ran out, the government came up with another 83 Billion Dollars-just like that, and I could keep going. The government decided to fight a war that we could not win. It isn't about freedom, it's about religion. It isn't about bombs like they used as an excuse, it is about religion. How come we can find the terrorists that we have no idea what they really look like, yet we cannot find nuclear weapons that show up on radar from space, and a 6 foot Muslum on Dialasis? None of this makes any sense to me. Where is all that money coming from? Blego is being impeached because he crossed Madigan (the speaker of the house.) Most government officials don't know the first thing about educating a child, yet they pass laws all the time, that are not in the best interest of the children they are suppose to protect. I cannot sit idly by and watch it happen without putting up a fight. I agree, we need a clear vision, and we need to decide what would be our goal. However, the movement has started. Teachers are angry because they have to follow a law that doesn't make sense. Teachers are frustrated because they have to teach to a test that doesn't have anything to do with the children they are teaching. Teachers are concerned because students every day, because their students lack the critical thinking skills it takes to survive in any type of society and solve problems as an adult. Teachers are empathic to student needs, but because their curriculums are designed to aid in their scores on the test, the do not teach the necessary skills students will need as an adult. Teachers are thwarted by the fact they don't have the necessary materials to teach their curriculums. Most of all teachers are exhausted because they are trying to meet the standards, but feel as if they are treading water in the long run, especially if they have large class sizes. I for one, cannot sit by and watch this continue to crumble. I have written countless letters to my Senetors, Congressmen, and Representatives at the Federal and State Level letting them know of my concerns.

I hate to bring this up, but has anyone thought about joining in the fight with either of the major teacher unions? They have the money, the research, and the power to help make the change that needs to happen. It's just something to think about, because this small group alone, will have a difficult time making a difference. Just my additional thoughts.

Terry.

[Leo J. Fahey]

Yvonne,

Getting mad without "getting even", I suggest, is a waiste of energy. Now, I've seen in my area of New York City some parents getting mad, but they are niether wishing to get organized or looking to do anything that differently. First off, I've been for about five years attending our public school district's Community Education Council. (Under a reorgainization of the NYC public schools, the local district school boards, which in many ways were equal in status to other school boards around the state, were morphed into these "advisory" committees which have zero power to affect anything-still, they are a place where parents can go to petition for redress.) The numbers of parents who come out to these meetings is scandalously low. Still, what I've been given to understand through listening to those who show up is that when parents are upset they will take their upsetment to the principal but will go no further than that. And they will live with whatever the principal says and acts upon. Now, there are some who come to these meetings complaining about the principal's unresponsiveness. Yet, it seems from all that I could gather from talking with these parents that they have no wish to get together to do anything about problems which might be common, rather they are far more interested in getting their individual complaints resolved.

The other thing is that from all I have heard and as a consequence of almost five years of conversation with parents who did show up at these meetings, not a one wants to do schooling differently. Rather they want the principals to better supervise teachers to see that their children are being taught properly. And, of course, they want an end to the current standardized testing regime. The numerous complaints about testing are over the amount of testing children are now required to do, not about the high stakes nature of these assesments or testing as assessment in general. These parents are okay with conventional testing, just not as many and not as much instructional time taken in test prep. In the end these folks are okay with conventional school, they just want it done better so their child will have an equal opportunity for a happy and successful life.

Again, what I am pointing to is an attitude, a mind set, about schooling, something which seems to be impenetrable but which must as a social construct change if schooling is to be "on the side of the child". And this social thought world of our nation is where we need to be about working to change. And, again I say we need something, call it a think tank or whatever, something which can give organzational expression to the anger and a direction to propagating a different schooling paradigm

Leo


Yvonne Siu-Runyan (PANA) said:

Okay, I'll take a risk and be frank.

For me, what is really scary is that professional organizations and teachers are playing in the sandbox with NCLBers. Some say they have to play with the NCLBers to make change. Others are motivated by greed, and still others because of the need to fit in and others from pure fear. Also, consider that those in power don't like it when they are questioned. They want GROUP THINK!

Please go to the Coalition for Better Education's Web site. Don Perl and colleagues are doing great things in Colorado. CBE has put up billboards, have an interactive question and answer link about re: the CSAP, Colorado's high stakes test, and other items of importance. Other Web sites to send people are: Susan Ohanian's, Mothers Against the WASL, Fair Test, Educators Roundtable. Sign up for Susan Ohanian's, Stephen Krashen's, and Don Perl's posts. Then when you get posts from Ohanian, Krashen, and Perl. pass them on to others.

People need to get good and mad or the white elephant standing in the room will not go away.. There is too much money being made by the purveyors of high stakes testing. In addition, government and corporations, and other institutions really don't want a thinking citizenry. Hey Colorado's intent is clear. Colorado's State Dept. of Education is rewriting standards to INSURE THAT COLORADO STUDENTS ARE 21ST CENTURY WORKFORCE READY. To me, Colorado lawmakers, standardistos, and business folks want a citizenry who...Won't question, will just do as they are told. The politicos, standardistos, and business folks will just retool the citizens for their own purposes.

As far as I am concerned, the only thing one needs to be 21st, 22nd century or whatever ready is to question the status quo and authority. But, those in charge don't really want this to happen.

Another point, extortion is going on in schools. School Boards, school administrators, teachers, and any one in an official capacity in education should have to sign a "Conflict of Interest" contract. Marketers abound everywhere I look. It is sickening. Sheez...tell me how do marketers add value? Our students should be learning about the propaganda techniques being used on them. Ever notice how there are advertisements about the TV news every few minutes? Newscasters don't just report the news anymore, they spin the news. BBC is just about the only news I watch on TV anymore.

In the meanwhile, sports heroes make hundreds of thousands of dollars per game. Some even make a million dollar a game. Citizens tax themselves to build a stadium, and won't fund schools. It is all so upside down. Be wary of corporations that produce "so-called" learning software and programs. Their CEOs would like us to think they have the solutions. All we have to do is sign up for their programs. They are merely wolves in sheep's clothing.

Terry is right about the money. There always seems to be enough money to bail out the corporations, Wall Street, and wars. They don't seem to be held accountable. And those same people who hand out money to failing corporations, Wall Street, and the war machinery, want educators to be held accountable for things over which we have no control, such as poverty and parenting, and other ills of society.

This is why people need to get good and mad. So, write letters to the editors, place information re: the travesties of NCLB and high stakes testing in places where people will pick them up and read them, wear anti-NCLB buttons, and inform your friends and relatives, and ask them to do the same.

Yvonne



thebandguy said:

Both Jeffrey, and Leo, I could not agree more with what you were stating. However, I cannot sit idly by and let the public school system crumble either. Thousands of schools are closing, leaving students either without a classroom, or in a more crowded classroom. (More the latter now, but in the future, where are the kids going to go when their families can't afford private school?) Teachers are losing jobs. Jobs they love, have a passion to do, and want to be part of something greater than this country has ever possibly been able to fathom because education today does not have the support that it needs from the government, the community and the parents. The government said that "they don't have the money". Well, I find that hard to believe when we went to a war on a specific budget. When that money ran out, they came up with 87 Billion dollars-Just like that. When that money ran out, they came up with another 92 Billion Dollars-Just like that. When that money ran out, the government came up with another 83 Billion Dollars-just like that, and I could keep going. The government decided to fight a war that we could not win. It isn't about freedom, it's about religion. It isn't about bombs like they used as an excuse, it is about religion. How come we can find the terrorists that we have no idea what they really look like, yet we cannot find nuclear weapons that show up on radar from space, and a 6 foot Muslum on Dialasis? None of this makes any sense to me. Where is all that money coming from? Blego is being impeached because he crossed Madigan (the speaker of the house.) Most government officials don't know the first thing about educating a child, yet they pass laws all the time, that are not in the best interest of the children they are suppose to protect. I cannot sit idly by and watch it happen without putting up a fight. I agree, we need a clear vision, and we need to decide what would be our goal. However, the movement has started. Teachers are angry because they have to follow a law that doesn't make sense. Teachers are frustrated because they have to teach to a test that doesn't have anything to do with the children they are teaching. Teachers are concerned because students every day, because their students lack the critical thinking skills it takes to survive in any type of society and solve problems as an adult. Teachers are empathic to student needs, but because their curriculums are designed to aid in their scores on the test, the do not teach the necessary skills students will need as an adult. Teachers are thwarted by the fact they don't have the necessary materials to teach their curriculums. Most of all teachers are exhausted because they are trying to meet the standards, but feel as if they are treading water in the long run, especially if they have large class sizes. I for one, cannot sit by and watch this continue to crumble. I have written countless letters to my Senetors, Congressmen, and Representatives at the Federal and State Level letting them know of my concerns.
I hate to bring this up, but has anyone thought about joining in the fight with either of the major teacher unions? They have the money, the research, and the power to help make the change that needs to happen. It's just something to think about, because this small group alone, will have a difficult time making a difference. Just my additional thoughts.
Terry.

[Yvonne Siu-Runyan (PANA)]

The parents need someone who will direct them to resources. They like our teachers have "learned helplessness." There are resources out there: Fair Test, Susan Ohanian's Website, Stephen Krashen's Web site, the Coalition for Better Education. Mothers Against WASL and even peruse NCTE's Web site. Each of these places have tons of information they can share with others. They probably don't know what to do with their frustrations.

They can join our EFHG Ning as well.

Yvonne

Leo J. Fahey said:

Yvonne,

Getting mad without "getting even", I suggest, is a waiste of energy. Now, I've seen in my area of New York City some parents getting mad, but they are niether wishing to get organized or looking to do anything that differently. First off, I've been for about five years attending our public school district's Community Education Council. (Under a reorgainization of the NYC public schools, the local district school boards, which in many ways were equal in status to other school boards around the state, were morphed into these "advisory" committees which have zero power to affect anything-still, they are a place where parents can go to petition for redress.) The numbers of parents who come out to these meetings is scandalously low. Still, what I've been given to understand through listening to those who show up is that when parents are upset they will take their upsetment to the principal but will go no further than that. And they will live with whatever the principal says and acts upon. Now, there are some who come to these meetings complaining about the principal's unresponsiveness. Yet, it seems from all that I could gather from talking with these parents that they have no wish to get together to do anything about problems which might be common, rather they are far more interested in getting their individual complaints resolved.

The other thing is that from all I have heard and as a consequence of almost five years of conversation with parents who did show up at these meetings, not a one wants to do schooling differently. Rather they want the principals to better supervise teachers to see that their children are being taught properly. And, of course, they want an end to the current standardized testing regime. The numerous complaints about testing are over the amount of testing children are now required to do, not about the high stakes nature of these assesments or testing as assessment in general. These parents are okay with conventional testing, just not as many and not as much instructional time taken in test prep. In the end these folks are okay with conventional school, they just want it done better so their child will have an equal opportunity for a happy and successful life.

Again, what I am pointing to is an attitude, a mind set, about schooling, something which seems to be impenetrable but which must as a social construct change if schooling is to be "on the side of the child". And this social thought world of our nation is where we need to be about working to change. And, again I say we need something, call it a think tank or whatever, something which can give organzational expression to the anger and a direction to propagating a different schooling paradigm

Leo


Yvonne Siu-Runyan (PANA) said:

Okay, I'll take a risk and be frank.

For me, what is really scary is that professional organizations and teachers are playing in the sandbox with NCLBers. Some say they have to play with the NCLBers to make change. Others are motivated by greed, and still others because of the need to fit in and others from pure fear. Also, consider that those in power don't like it when they are questioned. They want GROUP THINK!

Please go to the Coalition for Better Education's Web site. Don Perl and colleagues are doing great things in Colorado. CBE has put up billboards, have an interactive question and answer link about re: the CSAP, Colorado's high stakes test, and other items of importance. Other Web sites to send people are: Susan Ohanian's, Mothers Against the WASL, Fair Test, Educators Roundtable. Sign up for Susan Ohanian's, Stephen Krashen's, and Don Perl's posts. Then when you get posts from Ohanian, Krashen, and Perl. pass them on to others.

People need to get good and mad or the white elephant standing in the room will not go away.. There is too much money being made by the purveyors of high stakes testing. In addition, government and corporations, and other institutions really don't want a thinking citizenry. Hey Colorado's intent is clear. Colorado's State Dept. of Education is rewriting standards to INSURE THAT COLORADO STUDENTS ARE 21ST CENTURY WORKFORCE READY. To me, Colorado lawmakers, standardistos, and business folks want a citizenry who...Won't question, will just do as they are told. The politicos, standardistos, and business folks will just retool the citizens for their own purposes.

As far as I am concerned, the only thing one needs to be 21st, 22nd century or whatever ready is to question the status quo and authority. But, those in charge don't really want this to happen.

Another point, extortion is going on in schools. School Boards, school administrators, teachers, and any one in an official capacity in education should have to sign a "Conflict of Interest" contract. Marketers abound everywhere I look. It is sickening. Sheez...tell me how do marketers add value? Our students should be learning about the propaganda techniques being used on them. Ever notice how there are advertisements about the TV news every few minutes? Newscasters don't just report the news anymore, they spin the news. BBC is just about the only news I watch on TV anymore.

In the meanwhile, sports heroes make hundreds of thousands of dollars per game. Some even make a million dollar a game. Citizens tax themselves to build a stadium, and won't fund schools. It is all so upside down. Be wary of corporations that produce "so-called" learning software and programs. Their CEOs would like us to think they have the solutions. All we have to do is sign up for their programs. They are merely wolves in sheep's clothing.

Terry is right about the money. There always seems to be enough money to bail out the corporations, Wall Street, and wars. They don't seem to be held accountable. And those same people who hand out money to failing corporations, Wall Street, and the war machinery, want educators to be held accountable for things over which we have no control, such as poverty and parenting, and other ills of society.

This is why people need to get good and mad. So, write letters to the editors, place information re: the travesties of NCLB and high stakes testing in places where people will pick them up and read them, wear anti-NCLB buttons, and inform your friends and relatives, and ask them to do the same.

Yvonne



thebandguy said:

Both Jeffrey, and Leo, I could not agree more with what you were stating. However, I cannot sit idly by and let the public school system crumble either. Thousands of schools are closing, leaving students either without a classroom, or in a more crowded classroom. (More the latter now, but in the future, where are the kids going to go when their families can't afford private school?) Teachers are losing jobs. Jobs they love, have a passion to do, and want to be part of something greater than this country has ever possibly been able to fathom because education today does not have the support that it needs from the government, the community and the parents. The government said that "they don't have the money". Well, I find that hard to believe when we went to a war on a specific budget. When that money ran out, they came up with 87 Billion dollars-Just like that. When that money ran out, they came up with another 92 Billion Dollars-Just like that. When that money ran out, the government came up with another 83 Billion Dollars-just like that, and I could keep going. The government decided to fight a war that we could not win. It isn't about freedom, it's about religion. It isn't about bombs like they used as an excuse, it is about religion. How come we can find the terrorists that we have no idea what they really look like, yet we cannot find nuclear weapons that show up on radar from space, and a 6 foot Muslum on Dialasis? None of this makes any sense to me. Where is all that money coming from? Blego is being impeached because he crossed Madigan (the speaker of the house.) Most government officials don't know the first thing about educating a child, yet they pass laws all the time, that are not in the best interest of the children they are suppose to protect. I cannot sit idly by and watch it happen without putting up a fight. I agree, we need a clear vision, and we need to decide what would be our goal. However, the movement has started. Teachers are angry because they have to follow a law that doesn't make sense. Teachers are frustrated because they have to teach to a test that doesn't have anything to do with the children they are teaching. Teachers are concerned because students every day, because their students lack the critical thinking skills it takes to survive in any type of society and solve problems as an adult. Teachers are empathic to student needs, but because their curriculums are designed to aid in their scores on the test, the do not teach the necessary skills students will need as an adult. Teachers are thwarted by the fact they don't have the necessary materials to teach their curriculums. Most of all teachers are exhausted because they are trying to meet the standards, but feel as if they are treading water in the long run, especially if they have large class sizes. I for one, cannot sit by and watch this continue to crumble. I have written countless letters to my Senetors, Congressmen, and Representatives at the Federal and State Level letting them know of my concerns.
I hate to bring this up, but has anyone thought about joining in the fight with either of the major teacher unions? They have the money, the research, and the power to help make the change that needs to happen. It's just something to think about, because this small group alone, will have a difficult time making a difference. Just my additional thoughts.
Terry.

[David Wolinsky]

Okay, right now this thread has the thread. And Jeffrey's question IMHO is the question. Watcha got? Got jazz? Got (ugh) baseball? Cultural paradigm shift is NOT about education per se.

And the union/parent thing is a good marker of our fighting non-status. We already have won the declarative/documentation war -- in terms of the correlation of forces THERE. i.e. One Ohanian, one Krashen are more valuable than all the execs and Duncans in existence..

or would be, if reason were just a little more decisive than it actually is. So back to the fight:

UNIONS, ARE INSTITUTIONS, like the Presidency except unfortunately profoundly smaller. Real institutions are where the good guys sleep with the bad guys. Don't like it? Get thee to a nunnery. Otherwise you need people as smart and tough as Susan or Alfie IN UNIONS, strengthening the good guys, encouraging , educating and armtwisting the undecided -- and waylaying the mofos. Same elsewhere. Parents can be transients, warrior-angels, or troops. Is there a single, non elitist approach to parents? Of course not... unless you forgot that you are a teacher. Don't complin that parents --or anyone -- do not understand as much as you. And of course some are way ahead of us.

I haven't done the homework, but sounds like in Colorado our co-thinkers have picked a fight and are fighting -- and maybe incidentally modelling for the rest of us. There are those among us who are going to fight as well as we can -- we don't need the best practice -- we don't (probably) even need the Magna Carta of education. We just need momentum in an agreed-upon direction. No quibbles, please, about for example NCLB. In the realm where paradigm and praxis meet, NCLB is the friggin' enemy. It's just that "defeating" it, would only be a good step forward, on the road to something that right now we give the inspired and/or ridiculous name EHG.

I think more inspired, because of the terrific dialogues Lynn Phil et al have provoked. But now that we have named so many friends and enemies, I think we must pick real fights... maybe even w/Obama via Duncan -- remembering, of course, the untapped practical power of jazz, counterpoint, and what most people like to forget -- the potential in every child ...until we abandon or sell them.

ANybody wanna bring our happy thoughts and faces into, uh, Organizing for America? I suggest following the energy rather thn the money or even the ideas...

[Cooper Zale]

David... say more about "Organizing for America" and/or give us a link. Is this another online community, like change.org and Daily Kos that we should be "infiltrating" and trolling for supporters?