Nancy Flanagan was a music teacher for thirty years in Michigan and a National Board Certified Teacher. She writes a smart blog at Education Week called “Teacher in a Strange Land,” which is an apt title for the disjointed and bizarre times we live in. Her perspective is rooted in her deep experience. I always learn something new when I read her posts.
Her current post is called “Sleeping with the Enemy.” She asks why can’t we all just get along? Can the lion and the lamb lie down together? She offers James Carville and Mary Matalin as a case in point. It can happen.
And she writes about the pent-up anger among so many teachers, who don’t understand why they are treated so abusively in the media and by the policymakers who have never taught a day or maybe taught for a few months or even two years.
Nancy is clearly conflicted. She can’t decide whether compromise is possible, whether there is a middle group between the corporate reformers and the nation’s battered teachers. Or whether compromise reveals a lack of moral conviction.
She ends with a story about a colleague who is attending a conference where he will display his best lessons, in hopes of being chosen to attend an international conference. And she wonders, as do I, why Bill Gates appointed himself to choose America’s best teachers. As do I.
She leaves us pondering that compromise, pondering what we give up and what we gain. And who really wins.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
There IS no middle. You are either for public education or you are against it. The “reformers” are opposed to the very existence of public education; therefore, there is no possibility of compromise.
My state school board is trying to remove science from the curiculem in public schools. If they are successful and I still have children in the public schools, I wii withdraw them from the public schools and find some alternative, be it private, charter, or home school.
I am for student learning, and on that there is no compromise. If public schools don’t help students to think rationally about the world, I guess I must be against them
I agree with you. I would fight to stop the takeover of the state school board by ideologues. When that happens, a whole generation is sacrificed. and everyone who can will run for the lifeboats and the exits. That’s unhealthy for society.
As a music teacher I’m grateful for a colleague (one of a vanishing breed) being included in the conversation.
The “reformers” take a grain of truth – we need to do something different in urban settings – every kid deserves a great education – and spin it into something for the benefit of a few.
The compromise will occur when we’re able to take the profit motive out of the conversation and actually focus on the education issues. Until then, there’s nothing on which to compromise.
I had a music teacher by the same name about 25 years ago. If you are he, thank you for a job well done!
More on topic, I think the grain of truth is a necessary ingredient of a successful FUD campaign. Any group who would behave so nefariously is not interested in a meaningful compromise.
There is money to be made in education. We are naive to think the deformers really care about education. They are making tons of money from bringing public education down. There cannot be any compromise when what is at stake is profits. Not For them. Doesn’t our vast income inequalities demonstrate this loud and clear?
Those who think collaboration is possible, are living in a time warp. They imagine that deformers want to improve education, and have our kids interests at heart. Isn’t this thinking a case of Freudian transference?
Did I mention that there is money behind this?
Do you think state and local school boards have the kids interests at heart when they make decisions?
Of course! Those people LIVE in these communities. Any wrongdoing that they are involved in is the result of misguided sentiment or propaganda from the deformers. They are not out to make money off the backs of kids.
You need to tell your people you need better talking points.
Why should teachers even consider compromising with people that have little or no experience in education!
at a certain point, “compromising” means selling out the last of one’s personal integrity;
unless people start from a basis of true equality, “compromising” really is code for “bullying”… and the weak are always being asked/expected to give in to the demands of the strong…
and yes, in some situations, on some issues, there is no middle ground…
Check out the response from the Gates Foundation on Anthony Cody’s Ed Week blog. The Gates rep, who does actually have an extensive background in education, brushes off the huge issue of Gates’ reliance on test scores as an accurate measurement of teacher effectiveness and stude
Is there a reasonably accurate measurement of student learning?
student achievement. That’s not an area for compromise.
“student achievement”
That’s already a compromise when one uses the deformers language. I don’t give a rat’s ass about “student achievement”. I care about my students LEARNING. “Achievement” focuses on the “output”-just what the deformers want, not on the process of teaching and learning.
agreed…
I have this crazy idea that everyone grows at a different pace; and that there are multiple areas of growth – physical, intellectual, psychological, spiritual etc…
and very rarely does it all happen in a synchronised fashion all at the same time; its not something to be controlled, it happens at its own NON STANDARD pace/rhythm – sometimes all of our energy is diverted to physical growth, sometimes to intellectual growth…. and there are times of plateau, to allow for integration…
for me, success, is the tiniest indication of moving forward, in whatever area… who the heck is to say that any measure of moving forward is not enough?
Duane,
This is a serious question. How do you know I’d your students have learned?
“How do you know I’d your students have learned?”
I don’t know. I can’t. It’s a logical impossibility to “know” what my students know. I can get hints, through visual, written and aural assessments that at best touch the surface of what a student knows but it is impossible to validly and reliably “quantify” such learning assessments. But I can tell you which students are on a “good path” to learning the subject matter. You see I teach Spanish and as such one never can “completely learn it” as it is an ongoing lifelong endeavor to learn a second language and being bilingual. I only hope to instill a base/foundation of Spanish with which, if a student chooses, can then continue on to a lifetime learning and living with it.
What it comes down to is that I focus on the process of the student learning to learn, and learning elementary Spanish and not on the outcome. My main “job” is to focus on the teaching and learning process and not the outcome as their is no way to definitively define what the student “should” know as learning a second language is an amorphous activity that can be approached from many different angles and methods-there is no “one right way”.
Focusing on “outcomes” is the businessman’s and economist’s way of looking at their enterprises (because ultimately it’s about making a profit to stay in business) but it is not appropriate to the teaching and learning process (which ultimately has “human” aspirations which cannot be “monetized” as its goals and not profit making).
Music teacher here in NYC. I was Excessed this year and finding a new job was tough because arts education is being given the short end of the stick where curriculums value state tested subjects (Math, ELA etc.). I finally found work in a special Ed school, which I fear is the final vestige for teachers who have a specialized teaching license such as music education. I am damn proud to be a musician and a educator, and that is why I got the specialized music education license. In today\’s high stakes testing environment, my license has been devalued because being able to read the treble staff fluently (a skill that requires math and ELA core curriculum standards) is not measured on state exams
I’m going to have to ask my Girls’ Latin School grad wife to explain ‘compromise’ – I sure as hell don’t think it is accepting MY t.v. back from the burglar who has a burglar van stuffed with MY stuff.
WHAT ideas have these DEformers come up with that help me help a kid in any period on any day, or help make a period run better, or a 6 period day run better, or a week run better, or a month run better?
They should develop some honesty and integrity, and go be management thieves in “health” insurance, or, sell MBS CDOs to firefighter pension funds, or wipe out jobs with RMoney at Bain, or, peddle barrels of rotten mean and substandard swords to the legions, I mean her Majesty’s Royal Navy, I mean … whatever.
HOPEfully you can click on my name on see prior comments – the DEformers are lying yuppie scum.
R.Murphy, Seattle
@Diane–Thanks for the highlight. @Mike–Hey! Nice to see you here–and the warmest welcome to all music teachers who are part of the national conversation on ed policy. I know music teachers who put their heads down, and think they’re going to ride this wave out, because their students aren’t tested. Shame on them.
I chose the word compromise deliberately. Compromise means giving something up to get other things that you want. On other sites, I’m getting pushback from The Chosen–recognized/award-winning teachers who have traded the hard work of building an exemplary practice for perks from the “reform” (always use quotes!) movement. They’ve given up independent thought and in some cases their integrity, for the spotlight, the money or the chance to see their good work shared. Compromise might be colluding or cooperating– going along to get along.
It’s hard for me to be harshly critical of the teachers who do this–teaching has been a flat profession, with no perks and little recognition for a long time. I understand why good teachers are willing to sleep with the enemy. But–none of this is about strengthening autonomous teacher professionalism, investing in long-term excellence.
When you say they have “given up independent thought and in some cases their integrity”, do you mean that they are under some sort of mind control or do you simply mean that these are people who have the qualifications and experience that suggests they know what they are talking about and it turns out they don’t agree with you?
I find that I learn a great deal from listening to thoughtful and experienced people, especially if they disagree with me. To simply say that people who disagree with you are liars and have no personal integrity does not enhance the credibility of your argument, but weakens it.
“Mind control” is your phrase. I have eminent qualifications and experience–and I have done what some of these folks have done: sold my good ideas and experience because I could. Terrific educators do that all that time: they write books, they create original resources, they speak to other educators–and they profit from that. (The nature of education is that they usually don’t profit much, unfortunately.)That’s not what I’m talking about here.
I’m writing about astroturf organizations that co-opt excellent teachers and use respected teachers’ names to build credibility for ineffective policies. I’m wondering why Bill Gates gets to pick and choose exemplars of practice that teachers honed in publicly-funded educational settings. I’m wondering how Michelle Rhee turned a couple of years of questionable classroom practice into a high-profile, fabulously funded policy organization.
I learn a great deal from listening to people I don’t agree with, as well. If you read the blog carefully, you would notice that I am simply wondering about these things– about friends who accept perks from organizations whose policies they don’t agree with, trading their ideas and values for recognition. Some teachers do sacrifice their integrity and commitment to a free, high-quality education for all kids, in order to make more money or have a more prestigious job. It’s the American way, no?
To me, the critical question is how we get more schools with the key attributes that we know succeed: schools that provide a quality education for all children with a safe and healthy learning environment, skilled and experienced teachers, adequate resources, involved parents and a school community as a center of learning. We all know what it takes to make great schools great — and there are certainly examples of those kinds of regular old public schools still going strong throughout the nation, despite all the challenges and hurdles they overcome daily. So how do we get more of these? And what if anything are the Corporate Neo-Reformers doing to help get us closer to that goal?