Dear Mr. President,
I have received your daily emails and phone calls – please take me off your lists.
I gave you some money in May, even though I didn’t want to – your phone volunteers are very persuasive!
I voted for you in 2008, and I will again in November.
What choice do I have? The alternative isn’t better, and probably worse overall. Though, I will vote for you reluctantly as I know your policies, and those of your Secretary of Education, like those of your predecessor, are destroying the profession I love and harming the students I teach.
I will instead be using my “$14 or more” to help fight childhood poverty. I will give one of my students a grocery gift card. I wish I had enough money to provide each of my students a healthy dinner at home with their families.
i will do this instead of donating to your campaign as you and many in the Democratic party will not acknowledge the devastating effects of poverty on children’s lives, and then blame teachers and schools.
Our schools need to improve, incompetent teachers need to be fired – as it is in EVERY other profession (including corporations and the financial industry – how is accountability working out there?)
But do not destroy public education because you will not tackle the real problems that face communities – violence, hunger, illness, homelessness…and hopelessness.
I know dealing with these issues is not as easy as a test score, and carrots and sticks. It would probably cost more money. Making education about winners and losers does not have a home in my classroom, and it is not good for our schools.
If our school had a library full of books (or digital readers), access to a full and holistic core curriculum, ability to enjoy art and PE every day, had adequate health care (and didn’t have to miss school for the free clinic), had a clean (and warm) place to live, were able to have a healthy meal, and were able to go home not worrying about having their basic needs met…it would go a long way toward improving student academic performance.
I had “hope,” I believed in “change,” now I’m a pragmatist when dealing with my elected political leaders.
It’s a Sunday night. I’ll go back to grading papers, giving my students formative feedback, and preparing lessons for tomorrow… trying to find one of my students a place to live in since she and her daughter were kicked out of a low income apartment (her income is too high now because of a new job), and secure childcare for another student so he can access an after school arts program. I will be organizing volunteers for a faith based organization trying to solve the issue of homelessness in our community, and will need to figure out which day I can volunteer for our Optimist club’s Christmas tree lot – all proceeds going back to our youth organizations.
I teach at an alternative school that keeps at-risk students and teen parents from dropping out. I see the effect of poverty each day. It’s tough for a teen mom who has been up all night with her own child to perform well on a one-time assessment, let alone graduate on time with the skills necessary to be successful.
As a parent, I am appalled by the 8 days of testing my 6 year old son will endure this year. I have excused him of all testing and data collection that does nothing but line the pockets of Pearson and ETS – The same folks who will be making a LOT of money off of the new Common Core Standards and ancillary products that will be peddled to our schools. Yes, I’ll sign him out of the new Common Core testing too.
If you’d like to talk some time, ring me up. I have many stories to share and ideas about how things could change for the better. Though, teachers are never asked what they think. Politicians and corporate donors get the most airtime – even though most of them have never spent a day in a classroom. I suppose it is because they have deep pockets. Money “talks” right?
Maybe if I had donated 10K or 100K to your Super PAC I could meet you and share my ideas. Perhaps if I started a non-profit that solicits money from corporate donors, then works to privatize schools you would listen to me. But I don’t have the money, and my ethics keep me from using public schools for profit…
Please consider the professional experience of your teachers in the trenches. It’s hard work helping our students achieve their dreams. We are willing to do it even after the bell rings at the end of the day. We teach because we believe in our students, our schools, and America.
I’ll be expecting the requisite form letter…so thank you in advance for listening.
Your constituent,
Ed
Ed-
As one who lives in a swing state and gets LOTS of calls from Obama, I love your idea of “using my “$14 or more” to help fight childhood poverty.” The next time I get a phone call from the Obama crowd (and I’ll probably get 5 today and Lord knows how many as the end of the month approaches) I’m going to use that line and make a contribution to our local homeless shelter and ask the caller to duly note that contribution….
Diane-
Ed’s got a GREAT idea! You should ask every reader who cares about poverty to do the same…. You have a bully pulpit to do this….
Wgersen: I agree that Ed has a fantastic idea. Maybe if enough of us follow his lead we will make the difference we were “hoping” would come when we voted for President Obama. I’m so, so tired of having to pick the better of two evils, which is a saying I hate. Since when is ANY evil better?
“I voted for you in 2008, and I will again in November.”
If I was Obama, or the aide reading this letter, I’d stop right there.
Exactly. All my emails start by making it clear that Obama doesn’t have my vote. I then lay out how he could earn it.
Not that that’s worked either….
I did that,too, and also recommended that others do it. If hundreds of thousands did it (and even more than that), it would have an effect.
But numerous people told me that was stupid, and acted as if I am
crazy.
Exactly. Which is why I’m voting for Jill Stein (Green Party). I’m tired of the “lesser of two evils” talk and the “throwing my vote away” guilt. I don’t even know that getting Stein into office would make anything different. I just can’t vote for either of the two parties and think I’ll be represented anymore.
Right on! Don’t forget to watch the debate Wednesday on DemocracyNow!, which has arranged to include both Stein and Rocky Anderson, so that they will answer the same questions as Rombama-Obamney.
I too have written the president with similar concerns about education and have gotten the form letter back. I too get a million e-mails asking for $3 or $5 for the president’s campaign. It is frustrating that it all comes down to money.
Romney doesn’t support Common Core and called them a mistake. While I see little difference between the two parties, why on earth would you vote for Obama which means a GUARANTEE of more attacks against teachers via Common Core/RttT?
This makes no sense to me.
The biggest reform effort that targets teachers came from Obama.
Tell us exactly how you envision Romney handling education.
In addition to education, how will he deal with the myriad of problems accumulated over the past twelve years? I’m waiting and I’m all ears.
I like Ed’s idea to use the amount asked for by the Obama campaign to help feed students in need. But there is strength (and fairness) in numbers. Here in Montgomery County, MD, a nonprofit called Manna Food Center sends 2,000 school children in more than 50 high-poverty elementary schools home with a “Smart Sack” of food to help them through the weekend.
Manna says 94% of donated money goes to food distribution.
Thank you, Ed, and thank you Diane for sending this along.
That’s a beautiful letter. I hope it gets to the President’s desk.
If someone has the energy to organize us enough to get a response from the White House [similar to getting enough signatures to get the White House to release the beer recipe], I’d sign up.
OK, I’ll bite.
Long on pathos, ethos, and hyperbole; not so much on the logos. Stripping it to its logical core, I got three propositions: 1) End poverty; 2) Spend more on in-classroom resources; 3) Don’t test so much. I also got a tacit concession that Obama’s apparent desire to break union intransigence over firing policies is actually a good thing.
Ending poverty would be nice, but hardly Obama’s fault. Spending more on education would be nice, too, and I am waiting to see if any politician will take on the military-industrial complex and transfer some of that spending into education. Both sides are punting on the budget at the moment so hard to assess this point. Of course, federal money comes with federal conditions and goals, so the letter writer is arguing against himself a bit here.
What is most interesting about the letter is the argument against NCLB/RTT/Common Core testing. I agree these policies do seem to profit testing corporations (anyone check political donation stats?), and that it is touted as “the next big thing” that will somehow cure what ails us. But surely standardized tests have some place. Remember, standardization is meant to fix the gaping hole in NCLB that lets each state come up with its own tests and therefore fudge the results. If we are going to have a school system, we have to have some sort of universal testing to compare schools nation-wide.
Really, at its core, this letter rails against our capitalist society and its short-sighted and ultimately disingenuous assumption that all students should be in school from k-12, take math, science, english, etc., and then be in a position in 12th grade to enter college and become part of a vibrant middle to upper-middle class. This reality is why political sound-bites will never address the root of educational problems in America. If we are going to keep our capitalist system, we should own up to the fact that it will require a good percentage of kids to choose a route other than K-12-College. (Of course no politician will say this.) Military & trade schools at the moment seem the best bet. Schools for at-risk kids need to dump the standard 6 periods a day and focus on character building, real-life / marketable skills, confidence, goal-setting, empowerment. Of course this is what many innovative charter schools are doing at the moment…
Thanks Andrew, Ed here.
You are right… my letter is “Long on pathos, ethos, and hyperbole”
Though, that’s all I’m getting from the endless stream of fundraising emails from our president, so that’s what I replied with. It’s the only thing we are hearing from our candidates and policymakers as well.
Though, I wanted to write the letter because it is true. All of it.
I agree with you on your last paragraph – and so well stated. Unfortunately, even though our school is set up to address the needs of at-risk students, we really are just continuing to push them through the same curriculum and classes – albeit at a modified pace and/or in a modified environment.
Our school used to offer quite a few options such as vocational certification, internships with local businesses, work study, and applied math and sciences. All of that went away due to NCLB and the carrots and sticks that accompany the policy.
I’m not sure we all agree what the goals are in education today. Is it to go to college? Make a lot of money? Get technical skills for a vocation? Build an informed and engaged Democratic society? All of the above? The problem is that picking one of these things hinders the others.
I’ve been reading about this in Labaree’s book, Someone Has to Fail: The Zero-Sum Game of Public Schooling.
A fascinating book, though his argument is summarized in a paper he wrote. I’ll try to find the link and post it.
FWIW, I already received about 5 emails back from friends and have raised over $200 for grocery gift cards for my students!
Here’s the paper that summarizes the gist of Laberee’s argument – more detail and expanded in the book.
Click to access Consuming_the_Public_School.pdf
Diane, have you read the book or spoken with Labaree? Thoughts? I’m still about halfway through. Interesting history and descriptive evidence of his arguments so far.
It seems to me that these are big questions that need some answering for us to make headway on school reform, etc. Brings back thoughts of “Tinkering Toward Utopia” and other books in a similar vein.
thanks for posting. I have not yet read the book.
Re: traditional academic education not being for everyone.
Thanks, Ed, for posting the link to the article.
It has always puzzled me that we have compared the “results” of our public high school system to countries where there is a “weeding out” process for high schools, consisting of entrance/aptitude exams administered in adolescence that determine the student’s future path in school. When one strives to educate only the students with a demonstrated interest/ability/potential for success, of course results will be better. This all predated NCLB, and I never understood why this wasn’t highlighted. This, of course, begs a question about whether or not this is consistent with the AMerican legend about any child having the opportunity to “make it”, which is why things are the
way they are. NCLB only served to exacerbate that narrative. Vocational education has been, at best,
(Whoops, I lost my comment area…) an unappreciated stepchild of public education, but, time and time again, one hears of amazing success stories of disengaged students finding their niches in a more “real world” setting (often improving academic performance, too!). Thanks to Andrew and Ed for bringing this up.
I’ve come to see the same theme over and over now. Inequality is at the root of social ills and most US people don’t understand that. That’s why it’s hard for a lot of US people to understand the success of Finland’s education. Finland set out with the goal of creating equality in schools(food and health care included) and the side effect (not goal) was ranking #1 in education world wide. In the US every path understood and supported by our leaders leads the wrong direction toward more inequality, not less. Unfortunately we have become too good at creating inequality in the US. I hope for change that our system seems hopeless to provide.
Dr. Jill Stein, running for president on the Green Party ticket, has the following education platform:
– Provide tuition-free education from kindergarten through college, thus eliminating the student debt crisis.
– Forgive existing student debt.
– Protect our public school systems from privatization
– End high-stakes testing and stop punishing students and teachers for failures of the system in which they work.
– Stop denying students diplomas based on tests.
– Stop using merit pay to punish teachers.
Believe it or not, you have more than two choices in this election. Realistically, Dr. Stein will not be receiving enough of the vote to capture delegates, but capturing 5% of the vote ensures receiving funding and publicity for 2016 and lasting change!
And that is why she is getting my vote in November.
The Green Party would be much more persuasive if it would get to work building the bench in state and local races first. I’m tired of the Hail Mary passes disguised as presidential runs. But the only decision I’ve made so far is that I WILL NOT vote Romney. I think I may delve into their partisan work here in Colorado and see if I can help.
“We the People” is a way to try to get a response from the White House.
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/how-why/frequently-asked-questions
My question is Who is watching the watchers? Literacy Coaches applaud you for teaching curriculum we have been trained for by district and data to support progress. However, administrators, who are not in compliance with state core standards for adminisrtators as outlined by the CT Dept of Ed. They don’t have the knowledge of your goals and progress, but still review classrooms, the lack of training is evident in progress reports. They ignore data proven progress and are arbitrary in their reports without consulting Literacy Coaches This does not compromise teacher’s position or tenure, but demonstrates that they are getting their information from CNN rather than superiors. Instead of supporting our work and progress, they demean something that they don’t even understand the reasoning or curriculum being taught due to lack of interest and drive to justify their own positions.
Hi all,
A friend sent me the link to this blog. She’s been listening to my frustrations about public education for years and was probably hoping I’d feel better after having written about it in a more public way. I think it’s great to have a place to vent and opine about our own individual takes on the state of public education. But sadly, this won’t get us further down the road of change unless a wider audience sees, reads and digests what these many articulate writers have written. What I am longing for, and searching for and hoping there are others who feel the same, is a forum for action. Sort of like an “occupy public education” movement, but with more focus and staying power. Is there such a thing? And if not, anyone interested in helping to start something?
As a retired teacher long frustrated by these worthless standardized tests, I agree with you, Mai, I would be very interested in an “occupy public education” movement. I had taught in the Detroit Public Schools for 40 years.