David A. Gamberg, the superintendent of schools in Southold, New York, wrote these reflections.
Adam Lanza had high test scores, presumably the kind of student that would help a teacher be rated as “effective,” but so what? Something was missing. A heart? A soul?
Gamberg understands that the values of our society are warping our schools. He writes:
“…barely said a word, but earned high marks.”
These are the words of a classmate of Adam Lanza. A very bright educator once told me that no one goes through high school unaffected, and that our job is to realize the impact that we have with all of our students.
The unspeakable horror of the events in Connecticut is beyond both words and comprehension. It is far too early to know the root cause, let alone the reason for such a heinous act of violence against the innocence of beautiful young children. There will undoubtedly be a careful re-examination of how we need to look at gun violence in America. The need for this conversation is long overdue. Others will point to enhancing the security of the schoolhouse, rather than enhancing the awareness of one another.
There will, however, be no way to secure the future of kindergarteners through technical fixes—be that increased security of elementary schools, or ways to measure the outcomes of our students attending our middle and high schools who are being called upon to race to the top of the world. Enhancing civility, and restoring our humanity to the ways we live our lives is not a measurable commodity.
The pervasive and intense focus on testing and accountability in education today comes with a very hidden price—it draws our attention away from the broader agenda for educating our youth, to create the conditions necessary for more than just tolerance; but also the aspiration to build a society of thoughtful, civil citizens who help one another, not because it is part of a rubric, but because it is the right thing to do.
Somewhere in the equation of what we must do to prepare our children for their future is to help them experience a deeper sense of discovery as to who they are, and how we each find a unique pathway into the world, inclusive of but not exclusively through a vigorous academic experience. Caught in the vise of competing against one another to win the competition for the highest score on teacher evaluations and push our student to obtain better results, we forget to take the time to listen to those students who “barely say a word.”
Brilliant. Every teacher should have a boss like this. Every student should have a man like this running their schools.
I agree.
This was a fresh perspective on the issue, I enjoyed reading it. Certainly, we have a huge problem with the education system at the moment in that its very core is about conformity, both with standardised exams and with a homogeneous set of cultural expectations. We see fit to use the school system to churn out economic drones, and it is no wonder that people will slip through, and yet all people can do is point to the most introverted among us and mock – we have to teach people to embrace difference and think outside the arbitrary boundaries that we have set ourselves.
The Colorado mass murderer was a PhD student. Others were also college educated. I am sure they all tested well and made their school’s scores look good. These are the students who get no services at all because you cannot refer them for academic intervention. And the days of writing up a referral for emotional reasons are being tabled. The very first school I taught in had 2 guidance counselors for the one elementary school. Those days are over. They were the first to be cut. You are lucky to have one part time counselor now.
I agree. We need to teach students how to learn who they are and accept themselves. There is not one mold for all. Conversation with students is necessary and important. Smartness is not a ticket to well-bring. This is not about the schools and their accountability. It is about guns, violence and social emotional well-being.
Wow. Thanks for your brilliant thinking.
What if we encouraged our children to sit quietly during state testing time and not take the test?
Would this be okay for telling my child that? How can I support such testing for my child?
It’s not reasonable or appropriate or research based.
How can I honestly tell them to do their best when the state is not giving its best???
And STEM does NOTHING to address any of this. The humanities are where we find our humanity and wisdom and ways to solve the real problems of the world.
Yes, I agree. And discussion and seminar are methods used less and less. We need to talk, together, face to face, not just read personal favorites and write reports.
We have two guidance counselors at our middle school of over 1,000 students. With lunch duties in the cafeteria, and covering for lunching secretaries, there isn’t much time for individual counseling. Overworked and bashed educators cannot fix society’s ills. Too many children arrive already damaged and in the care of damaged parents who have surrendered to them.
Correction of this direction needs to begin at the basic societal unit, the family.
A few years ago, a female student was raped by a number of students with no onlookers aiding the victim. It made national news for a while. One of the things that one of the students interviewed said when asked what was good about their school is that they had high test scores.
Marijane should not bash all STEM faculty. Women in STEM fields have problems similar to women in male dominated portions of the military. I would guess that most of the clergy guilty of clergy abuse of congregants don’t have STEM degrees.
I think my comment regarding STEM was misinterpreted. My concern is that the humanities are being pushed aside. Philosophy departments are being closed and graduate assistantships are shrinking in non-STEM related fields. Too high an importance is being placed in schools right not on only Science, technology, engineering, and math. Those fields are not capable of solving societies problems. Psychology, sociology, history, philosophy, and other like fields, are where human issues are explored and where solutions can be found.
In the state where I live in elementary/middle school the state standardized tests were only for English and math. It seemed that anything that wasn’t English or math got pushed aside.
The study of philosophy is the only way we can pass along the wisdom of those who came before us and keep us in awareness of the truths of human existence so we can secure a future based on thoughtful and common sense values. The same logic applies to reading the classics in literature. Through story, we learn who we were and who we can become. All the science, technology and math in the world cannot replace that kind of human resource.
ABSOLUTELY!
I wish every superintendent in the country could read this and then take action to put theory into action by teachers. They could use some relief from being forced to commit to irrational mandates and inittiatives that aren’t in the best interests of the students, educators and parents.
As a high school teacher, I experience the increasing test emphasis and a near worshiping of technology. When our value, and the students, is reduced to a test score we all lose–except for-profit charter schools, that is….
Mr. Gamberg strikes me as a wise leader. I am grateful that he did not imply that students who keep to themselves (and get high scores) are necessarily troubled or suspect. I have read such suggestions here and there, in various news reports and comments.
Some violent and unstable people are highly gregarious; some reclusive people are gentle and thoughtful. A reserved temperament is not in itself the problem.
As Mr. Gamberg suggests, part of the problem lies in a system that focuses on the wrong things and thus lets individuals (of various temperaments) remain unknown to others and themselves.
Mental illness, like cancer, like diabetes, is not be cured or helped by thoughtful and responsive educators. It will not disappear if testing it abolished. It is beyond the scope of a school district to deal with. Until we can recognize and acknowledge that the school districts can’t cure these illnesses then we will never be able to get the funding and resources made available to the families who are caring for their ailing children and siblings.
As a former educator I enjoyed and agreed with your your insight…….
below you will find a link to my thoughts on the matter, and what you have to say is very much a part of the not so pleasant conversation we will need to have very soon. IT will be of many components.
Sadly, I don’t think all was rosy in Newtown. As a parent with a child in special ed and based on experiences I have had with our district, I could not help but think there was something going in the the young man’s associations with the district, that we will never know about. While I in no way condone what he has done, I can’t help but wonder if he suffered something within that school. A google search of special ed, due process hearings and local news articles with comments revealed quite a bit of information with parents complaining of abuse, discrimination and a whole host of other problems including time out rooms for students with disabilities. These are issues that are rampant across the country but it does seem like in Newtown, the problems lie with administration and not teachers. Many of these problems are the result of budget issues and discrimination and using the special ed students as scapegoats. I wish a reporter would look into this situation but I am sure we will never know the truth. I just wish something could be done about these issues because they are just as important as an stricter gun control and mental health support. I shed tears for the students, teachers and the principal of the school along with the Lanza family. It is a tragedy that is not black and white.
And sometimes people just crack and do horrendous things with no apparent explanation. . . while it certainly seems that acts of violence of this sort (i.e., gun rampages in schools, theaters, malls) are on the rise, I wonder if they really are – when one takes into consideration population increases, etc., as well as instantaneous media coverage. Historical sociologists, weigh in. Regardless, it is a necessary conversation to have. How can we make our schools safer? What can we do to identify those individuals who are most at risk of cracking? How do we put in place systems to react immediately and keep kids safe when these events do occur? For today, let’s hold our loved ones a little closer. Let’s thank our teachers for the work they do. Let’s pay attention to the kids who may be silently hurting. Let’s think about our need for a savior. Let’s make the world we live in a better place while we are here.
I couldn’t agree more. We are caught in the worldwide game of numbers and forgetting that real live humans are behind all these numbers.
I recently did a blog post on this myself: http://mrsleung.edublogs.org questioning the value of what we are actually testing. It is time to #bethechange and let the number crunchers know we will not stand for it anymore.
While philosophy and great literature create a moral sensibility in young people–and the need for ethical sensitivity as part of the curriculum and part of the school structure as opposed to test-prep is more than a little apparent–the mental health/availability of dangerous killing machines, is more applicable to the Newtown atrocities. If a paranoid schizophrenic procures weaponry, he will kill random people. It’s an absolute equation. Were people not noticing him? Were programs for the likes of him not available? Was his poor mother (who paid dearly) not focused on her son’s problems because she was too busy collecting a horrifying array of death-dealing merchandise. For what? Was it like collecting antiques for her? The mind boggles.
Not one word written will bring one precious child or one magnificent education
professional adult murdered in Newtown, Connecticut, back to their families or to the world in which they made a difference and had so many dreams. Instead, they are free of the pain felt by those that loved them and others who care. A nation will now collectively have to grapple with the reality of the crime and the dissection of how to make sense and enhanced changes for the living. All that can be offered for the grieving are condolences and the hope they can survive this tragedy.
There is a commercial on television that illustrates that Depression is painful. It is
isolating and numbing. One of the worse ways to hurt another person is to ignore
them and humiliate them. As an advocate for the disabled, especially the mentally
ill and neurologically challenged, I see how they are taunted, ignored or isolated,
bullied and punished by the presumably normal and supposedly higher level
people, by children and adults alike throughout their lives. Often those that
are different are shunned and endure the insult of life filling them with hurt,
sorrow, sometimes rage and lots of pain.
This transcends from mild to severe disabled whether identified or not.You can be in a crowded room and be alone, especially if there isn’t anyone trained to identify the struggling learner or worker. Compound that with a brain wired without social intelligence or empathy, and yet an intellect that can learn content and absorb information, and you have the potential for a tortured and misunderstood individual. Not understood by normal family or community but asked to survive as though they are like everyone else. They are not.
Over and over I read where there were quotes about, Adam Lanza, the young man
who murdered so many, that he could not feel pain either physically or mentally.
This is a presumption unknown to anyone else other then himself and by his very
act denotes that he either was filled with pain and wanted to enact pain on others, or wanted to kill them to take them out of the world filled with pain as he may have known it. The guns gave him power to do either and also brought him recognition. We will never be able to know what was in his head (unless he wrote a journal). But we
know what he did and we should be alerted to the needs of the mentally challenged.
Reading the varied quotes and conversations about this nightmare by others from all types of backgrounds has been illuminating. From civility to insanity, the rage of some to the forgiveness of others, the pain of all palpable. The most disturbing are those who want to find blame by punishing others and being sanctimonious and presuming to speak for and through God. In nature things can go wrong and altered brains and
behavior can and will continue to happen. How to divert or help minimize these
tragedies is now the question and finding the answer should be the quest. Whether
it is a mass murder, or where the numbers grow by building one on one through
street crime (like where I work in in an Urban environment), and people are maimed
and lives changed, we need to change. There are enough gun laws to sink a ship and that need to be enacted, However, there is not enough information, services and resources for the mentally ill and their families.
Inclusion before readiness was in my opinion, the stepping stone to open
the door towards an abandonment of the public school system for the market
share corporate initiative of the Charter school movement. Corporate and
government are looking for the value added learner without problems as the
global worker for both. The golden days of special education identification and accommodation are gone or near gone, and the why is a simple matter of follow the money and the change in a badly or deliberately manipulated economy where the money has evaporated or been moved to other uses. Schools have always kited
special education funds to other uses within their needs and it has always been grossly underfunded by the Feds and the states. Ignoring the tsunami of neurologically involved citizens, whether children on the Autistic Spectrum or Vets
returning from global wars, we would be fool hearty not to put funding back towards helping and working with these human beings. Community should demand for the protections and human dignity of every person that we proceed with reasonable
and measurable goals and objectives when looking for answers to violence and
reasonable societal behavior. Some fail safes are still possible but there will never
be a full safe world to live in. That is reality. For now we ache!
As a fairly recent college grad looking to change careers to teaching, this post speaks a lot to me and it’s something I’ve felt for a long time, even while a student myself. I have always been a firm believer of a teacher’s ability to shape a student’s character and produce model citizens. This is one of the main reasons I would like to go into teaching. I believe in education reform, but something just isn’t right. The focus on rote learning and “teaching to test” is making us lose critical thinking ability and real world skills, both in professional and personal applications. Thank you for this post!
I wish you well in your life quest. You have chosen a path and legacy that can hopefully
create or influence a better life for some and world for others. I have taped next to
my computer this quote by Margaret Mead- “Never doubt that a small group of
thoughtful committed people can change the world. Indeed it’s the only thing that ever has”. Remember, there will always be a plan unknown to you from behind your
knowledge and trying to shape someone else’s vision. But you have the power to
focus, think without assumption and with information, find partners for progress, stay
true to yourself (not easy), and come to the end of your days knowing you tried to be
the best of who you know yourself to be and what you wanted to accomplish. Have no
regrets. Remember always to Do No Harm. Best of luck.
As a teacher of several decades, I have observed education pass through many stages of change. The latest changes have allowed educators to feel extreme pressure readying our students to compete in the global market place. Acknowledging and extending intellectual aptitude is a worthy goal but in many ways, we are doing so to the detriment of the whole child. Some students deserve the kudos they receive for intelligent responses and high test scores but people are not all capable of producing the same. By exploring, discovering and challenging the whole child we can uncover some brilliant folks who excel in many other arenas doing things that cannot be measured by a test score. Educators can not change where a student comes from but can often influence the way in which that student goes forth. With attention solely on academia, those other talents and gift may never present themselves and the owner of those abilities may become bereft and feel there is no place for a person such as him/herself!
My goal was to always make the classroom a place where students want to reside for the length of a school day and each person is able to find what makes him/her feel good about who they are. Even having nothing more than a great sense of humor has its place in this world. . . Just ask Letterman or Seinfeld! There truly Can be a place that is appropriate for everyone. Even those on the Autism spectrum or who show signs of mental disability can find peace in a place where others are taught respect, loyalty and genuine caring. Education…especially with so many working parents, needs to involve all aspects of a child’s person! We can no longer put all of our emphases on the world of academics!