If you read only one article today, read this one. Save it. Read it again. This is a must-read.
John Kuhn is superintendent of the Perrin-Whitt school district in Texas. He was the first person named on this blog as a hero of American education. If you read this, you will understand why.
A reader suggested I add John Kuhn’s great speech to the SOS March in Washington in 2011. It is here.
In this post, he nails the difference between charter schools and public schools. He agrees that much more is needed to help the students who are failing. But he explains exactly why the current crop of faux reform proposals is wrong.
A small example of the thinking in this brilliant essay about the lives of students and teachers and schools:
I believe fervently that Michelle Rhee and an army of like-minded bad-schools philosophizers will one day look around and see piles where their painstakingly-built sandcastles of reform once stood, and they will know the tragic fame of Ozymandias. Billion-dollar data-sorting systems will be mothballed. Value-added algorithms will be tossed in a bin marked History’s Big Dumb Ideas. The mantra “no excuses” will retain all the significance of “Where’s the beef?” And teachers will still be teaching, succeeding, and failing all over the country, much as they would have been if Michelle Rhee had gone into the foreign service and Bill Gates had invested his considerable wealth and commendable humanitarian ambition in improving law enforcement practices or poultry production.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Thank you for posting this. Everyone must read the linked article which contains this gem, among others:
“Poverty is water in the gas tank of education, but its apologists facilely condemn a pit crew of teachers who—not allowed to say the water won’t combust—are pushing sputtering lives, but not fast enough, around a track where youthful suburban rockets whiz by in their mall rat garb.”
He’s right on the money, except for one big thing. Where we are today is *intentional*. All this talk about “improving education for all” and “no excuses” is just food coloring to hide the real purpose of the “reform” movement. People recognize the effects of poverty and environment in general, they just don’t want their kid to have to deal with it (nor deal with it themselves). People – at least people who count, that is, middle and upper class people – *want* segregated schools. Not necessarily segregated by race (although sometimes, yes), but definitely by class.
We’re seeing charter schools that intentionally draw middle and upper class families (like the one where you could only get applications at the country club, and the one in Nashville that was turned down that expected an upfront “voluntary” contribution). Those will be the few charter schools that “out-perform” public schools, partially just because of the affluence of their clientele, partially because they’ll get plenty of resources (and I haven’t really looked into this, but my hunch is that these upper class charters don’t use the drill to kill methods of test prep). Other charters specifically target poor and minority families and that’s where you’ll find the drill to kill test prep in full gear. If it works for some kids who then go on to college (nevermind performance in college), then great, they can claim those as “successes”, proof of the efficacy of their methods. But if doesn’t work for most kids, and if the schools generally perform worse than public schools, that’s okay too, because, as Rahm tells us, 25% of (poor and minority) Chicago kids aren’t going to amount to anything anyway. It’s just proof that there’s no hope for “those people”, which is what middle and upper class people tend to believe anyway, which is why they don’t want their kids in with “those kids”.
I also think this “reform” movement is tied, at least in part, into increased immigration. Not only do we have ghettos full of scary poor black people, but we have scary illegal immigrants from Mexico, scary Muslims invading our country, refugees from all over the world washing up on our shores. A lot of these new immigrants are ending up places that aren’t exactly used to diversity. I grew up in northeastern Indiana and went to a 99% white school (we had two Asian families). There are now Mexican immigrants who were brought in during the heyday of RV production and immigrants from Yemen (I have no idea why they’ve ended up there in large numbers).
Americans have a kind of push-pull fascination/repulsion with foreigners. We like “exotic” people who can dazzle us with stories of strange lands, but we don’t like foreigners in general, especially those who don’t speak English. So this divided system is intended to allow in those who can easily learn our language and assimilate into our culture (generally the upper class people who have had access to good educations in their home countries), while shutting out the great unwashed masses of scary brown people.
Okay, one more thought, then I’ll go away (for now). I think it’s also a reaction to mainstreaming. The fact that charter schools don’t generally serve students with disabilities is also intentional. Most parents don’t want their kid to be in a class with a kid who needs so much help that she takes most of the teacher’s time, and they especially don’t want their kid in a class with kids with behavior disordered kids who take most of the teacher’s attention and distract from general learning. Parents of advanced/gifted students I think feel especially shafted when the focus is on the lower performing students while the higher performing students aren’t able to work at their level. To some degree, I think this is a legitimate complaint and perhaps schools need to consider returning more to ability grouping students (if that can be done without regard to race).
Don’t got away! Your comments are spot on. I think that all of us who believe so much in public education and the professionalism of teachers need to make the shift from being defensive and put forth concrete ideas to solve problems.
Here is John Kuhn’s memorable speech at the Save Our Schools march in Washington D.C. on July 31, 2011:
Would Michelle Rhee approve?:
Pallets for Pedagogues
from Students Last
http://studentslast.blogspot.com/2012/09/pallets-for-pedagogues.html
I love it, and the author.
If there is materialism, superiority, entitlement, narcissism, coldness, anti-intellectualism, vanity, laziness, or greed ensconced in the hearts of the parents or grandparents or neighbors or pastors or businessmen or family friends …
Sounds like the whole town needs a good course in high school civics. Any exemplary courses out there? Anywhere?
This is absolutely incredible. Oh how I wish President Obama would read this.
I see we’re both behind in our reading, but we’re on the same page. John Kuhn is definitely my hero.
John Kuhn gets into a disagreement in the above article with a Stuart Buck. Mr. Buck is a billionaire hedge fund manager, and works for the Arnold Foundation. One of the goals of that organization is: “Human Capital: Recruiting, training, measuring, supporting and providing incentives that encourage teachers, principals and other school system leaders to flourish in a competitive environment dedicated to delivering a superior education product effectively.”
http://www.erinproject.org/foundation/853/laura-and-john-arnold-foundation
In other words, to Mr. Buck, K-12 education is a competitive business. He’s no better than Bill Gates, and has just as big an ego.