Mark Naison, one of the founders of the Badass Teachers
Association, explains
in a few words the harsh truth that will not be
discussed at NBC’s Education Nation by its lineup of CEOs and
rightwing governors: The more teachers are scripted and rendered
voiceless, the less likely it is that talented people will want to
be teachers or remain in the classroom. Why can’t they understand
that they are destroying the teaching profession, not attracting
the “best and the brightest”? They may come for two or three years
while they are waiting to decide where to go to graduate school,
but meanwhile the profession as such will no longer exist.
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Reblogged this on Blog of an e-marketer by Main Uddin.
When asked to renew my membership to the local public radio station, I had to start saying no. They of course asked, “Why?” I said, “When you do a story on education, you never get a quote from educators. How many educators live in your listening area? How many colleges of education? How many education professors? When you do an education story, I always have to hear what some businessmen thinks (and it is always a man). I will start giving again when I hear you include educators in those stores. Or if I hear you invite educators to start commenting on business stories. Until I hear balanced coverage, I am done.”
I do not know if I would be considered among the “best and the brightest” – which phrase has an ironic meaning for those of us of a certain age (I am 67) given the Halberstam book on Vietnam of that title. It is especially ironic given TFA’s emphasis on backgrounds from ‘elite’ institutions of higher education and the background of those who so misled the nation on Vietnam.
I CHOSE to become a teacher, not a temp, giving up a successful career with computer as I approached my 50th birthday.
I chose to come out of retirement to again try to make a difference.
On my bad days, I am still a very good teacher.
The day someone tries to script me is the day I walk out the door – I will NOT to that to the wonderful young people entrusted to my care.
I am not alone.
If you want an automaton, hire Disney to provide a robot.
If you want a teacher, get the hell out of our way and let us teach.
Don’t worry, teacherken. If you teach in the “right” place, they will help you out the door. If you can’t follow the script, you are defective. I can’t figure out why they think they need the best and the brightest to teach a canned, scripted curriculum. Silly me, I thought I was supposed to make it relevant to the needs of my special ed students. NOT!
One has to wonder if the goal of the “reformers” really is to improve the quality of the teaching force. If I were to think critically about the situation, I would say that the real goal is completely replace the teaching professionals with temps.
I agree. They pay lip service to it, but the real goal is to cut labor costs by ending work protections and making the job so miserable that nobody stays beyond a couple of years.
At my school they started using “lesson pods” and “seeds” developed by the NYSED. The lessons are like 22 pages long, everything is completely scripted and teachers are just supposed to follow the script. They are only using these for freshmen so far. But next year, we use them with sophomores. The year after, with juniors. And so on…
The teachers who have used these hate them and say they take all the joy out of teaching, all the creativity, all the autonomy.
That, I think, is the actual goal of the education reform movement.
Just as they want to socialize students around the country to expect to have to work longer and harder doing stuff they hate for very little payoff (which are perfect lessons for what many adults experience in America these days), they want robot teachers who will pass these this harsh lesson along on a daily basis without mitigating through their own lessons.
Yes. It is possible – even probable – that driving out career teachers is a feature, not a flaw.
So-called reformers explicitly speak of students as products and assets, and it therefore follows that they see teachers as a factor of production.
It’s axiomatic that, no matter the industry, factors of production are to be minimized where possible, labor (in this case teachers) being the most elastic place to look for savings.
Hence the existence of TFA, E4E, StudentsFirst and all the other vehicles for turning teachers from quasi-professionals to political punching bags and contingent workers.
It also needs to be said that while Mark, Diane and others are right that so-called education reform is doomed by its internal contradictions (to say nothing of its rampant corruption), it does not conversely follow that public education will therefore be saved. Here in NYC, it will take many years of work to begin to undo the damage caused by Bloomberg and his blond-leading-the-blond apparatchiks at Tweed.
Is there going to be the financial and political support to rebuild and truly reform the public schools, as well the economic and social underpinnings (living wage jobs, affordable housing and health care, for starters) needed for those reforms to succeed?
Defeating the so-called reformers before they destroy any more of this priceless public resource, the immediate task, is an immense one; reviving public education, at least in districts where it’s been intentionally destabilized, is orders of magnitude greater.
I just read such a great article linked in the WP via Valerie Strauss that I want to “shout from the roof tops”… I feel just a bit more hopeful today about the fate of pubic education if only voices other than the “corporate ed reform” ones could be heard. We need a lot more “Badass” style teachers movements to get the word out to the public-at-large. But we also have to see the BIG PICTURE and it is a scary one. The author in the article linked below is basically seeing the problem with public education as a few trees in the forest. The larger problem is current “philanthropy” and how it is undermining the very roots of our democracy. She explains this beautifully. Education is the “canary in the goldmine”…. she explains very coherently with lots of factual support, how philanthropy is doing this via “the demise” of public education right now.
http://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/plutocrats-at-work-how-big-philanthropy-undermines-democracy
Thank you! I work in one of the four districts mentioned in this article. My stomach hurts just thinking we are leading this nonsense. I found page 8 of the imbedded link quite disheartening,
Click to access teaching%20first.1.pdf
I think Diane may want to consider making the dissent article and this link a separate post. These are disturbingly informative!
The article made me wonder how many of you watched the documentary, Schooling the World…..that has changed my views on education in general. It is on youtube
This will ultimately affect their own children and grandchildren. If no one wants to be a career teacher, the pool of teachers available for Independent schools will also dry up.
I have so many teacher friends–experienced/veteran teachers who have really honed their craft of teaching who are looking for work outside of education. They are tired of being beat up by politicians. They are tired of testing. They are tired of mandates and low pay. And they are tired of the Michelle Rhee types spewing crap at every turn…So sad…
That’s how it is in my building, which makes it hard to keep up a happy demeanor in front of young children when everyone is miserable and trying to get out. Worst part is that there is no where to go with the way the job market is now
1. GRASSROOTS DEMOCRACY
Every human being deserves a say in the decisions that affect their lives and not be subject to the will of another. Therefore, we will work to increase public participation at every level of government and to ensure that our public representatives are fully accountable to the people who elect them. We will also work to create new types of political organizations which expand the process of participatory democracy by directly including citizens in the decision-making process.
2. SOCIAL JUSTICE AND EQUAL OPPORTUNITY
All persons should have the rights and opportunity to benefit equally from the resources afforded us by society and the environment. We must consciously confront in ourselves, our organizations, and society at large, barriers such as racism and class oppression, sexism and homophobia, ageism and disability, which act to deny fair treatment and equal justice under the law.
3. ECOLOGICAL WISDOM
Human societies must operate with the understanding that we are part of nature, not separate from nature. We must maintain an ecological balance and live within the ecological and resource limits of our communities and our planet. We support a sustainable society which utilizes resources in such a way that future generations will benefit and not suffer from the practices of our generation. To this end we must practice agriculture which replenishes the soil; move to an energy efficient economy; and live in ways that respect the integrity of natural systems.
4. NON-VIOLENCE
It is essential that we develop effective alternatives to society’s current patterns of violence. We will work to demilitarize, and eliminate weapons of mass destruction, without being naive about the intentions of other governments. We recognize the need for self-defense and the defense of others who are in helpless situations. We promote non-violent methods to oppose practices and policies with which we disagree, and will guide our actions toward lasting personal, community and global peace.
5. DECENTRALIZATION
Centralization of wealth and power contributes to social and economic injustice, environmental destruction, and militarization. Therefore, we support a restructuring of social, political and economic institutions away from a system which is controlled by and mostly benefits the powerful few, to a democratic, less bureaucratic system. Decision-making should, as much as possible, remain at the individual and local level, while assuring that civil rights are protected for all citizens.
6. COMMUNITY-BASED ECONOMICS AND ECONOMIC JUSTICE
We recognize it is essential to create a vibrant and sustainable economic system, one that can create jobs and provide a decent standard of living for all people while maintaining a healthy ecological balance. A successful economic system will offer meaningful work with dignity, while paying a “living wage” which reflects the real value of a person’s work.
Local communities must look to economic development that assures protection of the environment and workers’ rights; broad citizen participation in planning; and enhancement of our “quality of life.” We support independently owned and operated companies which are socially responsible, as well as co-operatives and public enterprises that distribute resources and control to more people through democratic participation.
7. FEMINISM AND GENDER EQUITY
We have inherited a social system based on male domination of politics and economics. We call for the replacement of the cultural ethics of domination and control with more cooperative ways of interacting that respect differences of opinion and gender. Human values such as equity between the sexes, interpersonal responsibility, and honesty must be developed with moral conscience. We should remember that the process that determines our decisions and actions is just as important as achieving the outcome we want.
8. RESPECT FOR DIVERSITY
We believe it is important to value cultural, ethnic, racial, sexual, religious and spiritual diversity, and to promote the development of respectful relationships across these lines.
We believe that the many diverse elements of society should be reflected in our organizations and decision-making bodies, and we support the leadership of people who have been traditionally closed out of leadership roles. We acknowledge and encourage respect for other life forms than our own and the preservation of biodiversity.
9. PERSONAL AND GLOBAL RESPONSIBILITY
We encourage individuals to act to improve their personal well-being and, at the same time, to enhance ecological balance and social harmony. We seek to join with people and organizations around the world to foster peace, economic justice, and the health of the planet.
10. FUTURE FOCUS AND SUSTAINABILITY
Our actions and policies should be motivated by long-term goals. We seek to protect valuable natural resources, safely disposing of or “unmaking” all waste we create, while developing a sustainable economics that does not depend on continual expansion for survival. We must counterbalance the drive for short-term profits by assuring that economic development, new technologies, and fiscal policies are responsible to future generations who will inherit the results of our actions.
Ten Key Values of state and local Greens
There is no authoritative version of the Ten Key Values of the Greens. The Ten Key Values are guiding principles that are adapted and defined to fit each state and local chapter.
Taken from http://www.gp.org/tenkey.php
Is this Agenda 21?
We quit, THEY WIN.
I plan to watch Education Nation, mostly as a defensive move. Can’t hurt to know what they’re up to.
We’ll see how long I last this time. I watched several years ago. I had to turn it off, though, when they seated the governors in front of what was a University of Phoenix ad. The impression was they were endorsing the for-profit college, which I assume was the point of seating them in front of a banner ad.
We’ve seen hundreds of people come through this law office with huge debt from for-profit, online colleges. The debt can’t be discharged in bankruptcy, and they’re all making 11 dollars an hour. It’s heartbreaking. They’re debt slaves.
But the University of Phoenix and NBC got paid, I guess. It’s stomach-turning.
He who has the gold gets the credit.
From a cartoon strip many many years ago:
The Golden Rule: He who has the gold makes the rules.
$tudent $ucce$$ anyone?
😦
In Indiana the lady who was running for Lieutenant Governor when appearing here locally made the comment that in Indiana, as she talked to the education departments of our colleges and universities, that fewer and fewer students were entering the “education” field for these and other similar reasons. WHY would anyone in their right mind wish to get into such a field IF they really care about education and have any idea of what is going on in that field now? Most especially if they have an IQ over 100.
“Why can’t they understand that they are destroying the teaching profession”
I think that is their goal.
http://www.buffalonews.com/city-region/education/forum-on-testing-reform-draws-2500-vocal-teachers-parents-and-administrators-20131002
Just read this link……Buffalo is awakening! This is starting to remind me of Horton Hears a Who…….every who in Whoville had to shout…..they weren’t heard until the smallest one let out a great big yop
What I’m not really understanding (and I’m still in the middle of your newest book Diane) is why the universities who are going to be educating Education majors aren’t fighting this? Where are they? Aren’t they worried that people won’t choose education degrees if they know they will be paid Walmart wages by the greedy edu-business owners?
Also I’m not understanding why our teachers union (the CEA in Columbus Ohio) isn’t fighting this. When our Governor tried to get rid of unions in OH the teachers union was fighting it along with police and fire but now- nothing.
In fact, they seem to be going along with the move to shut down our “poor performing” (read: impoverished area) public schools and turn the buildings over to charter schools. What is going on with the union leaders here?
Our local politicians are way too supportive of charter schools but I understand their motives, it’s easier for them to play along with all the misinformation rather than get the public to understand what is really happening.
Also they are “New” Democrats which to me means that they are completely able to be bought off by promises of campaign funds (until we have election reform in this country I expect we will continue to see this sort of catering to the requests of the wealth owners rather than the masses or public interest). (I’m a progressive Democrat myself).
The feces has yet to hit the fan though since our public school buildings haven’t been closed and turned over the charter schools just yet. That move is still about 2 years off per our Senate Bill 316 (section 3302.042). When the doors of the neighborhood schools close I’m thinking people will be upset. Right now they don’t know this is coming.
Sadly, local reporters have only read the Cliff notes version of the (overly complex and maze-like) law. I don’t see any real motivation on the part of journalists to speak the truth (are they that insecure about their job?)
Probably the biggest piece of this that upsets me is that the very teachers who have chosen to try to make a difference in marginalized areas are the first ones to be targeted.
I just pulled the sample test that is being used to set these teachers up and it’s obviously a discriminatory ploy. Even children in our “better” districts are going to struggle with it. In high need areas it’s going to be almost impossible for most children to pass.
So these are some of my thoughts for the moment.
Michelle, the universities are running scared because Obama and Duncan want a Race to the Top for them. Imagine evaluating an art history professor or philosophy professor by VAM.
Really sorry to hear that. Operating out of fear is a lose-lose proposition.
Trying to wrap my head around this idea: I have not met (or even heard a rumor of) one single teacher or parent who is in favor the standardized testing (and all that come with it) approach to education. Not one. In fact, most are vehemently opposed to it.
So, where’s the revolution?
Makes me wonder just how deeply the NEA and AFT are beholden to the powers that be?
This is why it really is the time for the Flipped Classroom. Turn the teacher into more of a coach and have blended/e-learning deliver (innovatively, hopefully!) the required content.
We flipped training as long ago as 1982 – turning our single subject trainers/presenters into multi-talented coaches engaging with and challenging individuals one on one rather than just presenting to large groups. The institute really buzzed for both the staff and the students!
Isn’t that the goal? Facilitators of a scripted module? Low wage, non skilled worker… No pension… No union?
Why can’t the understand?
Louisiana Schools Chief John White provides the answer “An aggressive form of populism has asserted itself in the rhetoric of our day. I see it in a tone that is skeptical of reformers in the same populist way our country today is skeptical of authority generally. This is, I believe, greatly damaging for an education reform effort that has done good in America and that needs to be sustained. And it needs to be addressed, lest this generational effort wash out with the tide of the next administration.”
They don’t want to understand. They expect us to trust authority implicitly and totally. They want to privatize and destroy democracy.