David Gamberg, superintendent of schools in both Southold and Greenport, New York, is an educator who cares about the whole child. He knows what matters most. He knows that test scores are not what matter most in the development of a healthy child.
In this post, he describes the music classes in second grade in Southold. He sees the joy that the teachers and students share.
And he can’t help but reflect on teachers and schools and districts that have been hurt by budget cuts; on schools that have lost their teachers of the arts; on teachers who are testing their students–not teaching them to sing or dance–so as to be evaluated themselves.
In this reflection, we are briefly reminded of what education is about and how lost our national and state policymakers are.
Let us all hope they find their way. And if they can’t, let’s hope they listen to David Gamberg and educators like him.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
happy Christmas Diane! Jorge
The second time I was asked, at a job interview for a MUSIC position, “How does data drive your instruction?” I knew it was time to get out of public music teaching. My school district used to be so highly-regarded in terms of its arts and music offerings and accomplishments, but the music administrators who made that happen have since retired and their jobs no longer involve actively observing and working with the teachers. The last position I held before I went into labor with my first child was 4 days a week and has been cut to 2-1/2 and now I believe to 2 days, in a HUGE school where I barely had time to eat lunch because there were so many students to teach; the cuts are THAT severe. There is no place for teachers like me here any more. :’)
I’m sorry that it came to that. In my kids’ school district, like most, there is a tendency to want data for every decision. As a parent, I make the argument that the data of interest for a music program is enrollment by students who represent the broader demographics of the district. There is typically under-representation among students who are English Language Learners, lower income (Title I), special ed students, and some racial/ethnic groups. I have been collecting enrollment and demographic data on the music program here for about ten years, and will likely continue to do so for another 6 years, while my youngest child is still in school.
In our district the music program is entirely elective. As such participation depends on students and parents having enough information about music education, what students get out of it, what it means for the future, and how it integrates with other student learning outcomes. It is the administration that has fallen short on providing that information to the parents and in having those broader discussions. And structurally, it is impossible for certain groups of kids to participate fairly in music. For instance, in the secondary grades, many ELL, Title I, and special ed. students have their electives taken up with remedial/intervention classes and programs (because of sensitivity over low standardized test scores) that prevent their accessibility to participate in music. And all this just isolates “at risk” groups even more. One of the promises (outcomes) of music performance is social integration of students from diverse backgrounds. Well, structurally, that’s often impossible. Another casualty of high stakes testing.
Anyway, if anyone reading is a music teacher in that situation, then that’s the data I recommend responding with, and use that data to push the administration to do right by all kids.
I teach at a center school for the lowest 1% of the student population and I teach music. My evaluation tool (thanks to my state government) makes me rate students each time they come. It has more to do with their disability than anything else. 1 = total physical support, 2 = partial assistance, 3 = totally independent and demonstrating understanding of the learning goal or ability to perform the skill taught, and 4 = totally independent and using higher level thinking. Even though I may be working with a class of what we used to call profoundly mentally handicapped students I have to provide for active participation and higher level thinking skills every time even though the access point curriculum may require students to attend, expolore, or to resond to the music. I have advanced certifications to work with students like this and never learned that providing higher level thinking skill opportunities is a best practice. It takes me hours to put lessons together because I also have to provide ways for students to resond meaning I create a universal communication board with the answers for them to tough or to have a staff member assist them in doing so.
Reblogged this on Roy F. McCampbell's Blog.
Merry Christmas, Dr. Ravitch! I thank you for this blog and what you are doing for education. You also helped me understand that I was a good teacher. That I am not the only one who was bullied and persecuted. That I am not the only one who loves and cares about our children, especially our most neediest children. I am going to continue to work to bring you to Arizona. Our state is so far behind due to charters and all the other garbage. I will never be able to thank you enough. Please take care of yourself and have a wonderful holiday.
President Kennedy Never Would Have Supported the Common Core
Human creativity is every nation’s greatest treasure. Creativity is not some-
thing some people are born with. It can be taught and encouraged or it can be
stifled. In NY State, our students’ creativity is being sacrificed for the standardization of our education system. Our children are being subjected to a hurried implementation of an experimental set of standards known as the Common Core. Students are being harmed because imagination and play is being removed from early childhood classrooms and an open ended quest for the truth is being abandoned in the upper grades. Our public schools are being transformed and the teaching profession is being destroyed. This is being done at taxpayer expense for the purpose of enriching charter school and test prep vendors and fulfilling the agenda of ideologues like Bill Gates.
The Common Core is being touted as a necessary and amazing reform that will
ensure our students become “college and career ready.” The media has been paid
by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to produce “reports” slanted to show
the failure of our public schools to prepare students for college. Rupert Murdoch
owns a monopoly of media outlets that regularly spew erroneous information
making it sound as if all students everywhere have been profoundly failed by
public education. There are deep pockets of poverty in the U.S. where students
ARE failing. In these neighborhoods a new economic policy could be bringing
employment and wealth to the people who live there if our politicians chose to do
so. Students actually succeed based on their zip code in this country; their failure
is not based on schools or teachers.
As we are remembering the 50th anniversary of the day we lost a beloved president, John F. Kennedy, it is instructive to consider his vision for our nation and
his stated mission: to land a man on the moon, to eliminate war, and to eliminate
poverty. Kennedy promoted classical culture and was the first president to include a poet at his inauguration; he chose Robert Frost.
“I asked Robert Frost to come and speak at the inauguration because I felt he
had something important to say to those of us who are occupied with the business
of government, that he would remind us that we were dealing with life, of hopes
and fears of millions of people. He has said it well in a poem called “Choose
Something Like a Star.” – JFK, 1961
“Choose Something Like a Star,”
“It asks little of us here.
It asks of us a certain height.
So when at times the mob is swayed
to carry praise or blame too far,
we may choose something like a star
to stay our mind on and be stayed.”
There is no way that Kennedy would ever have allowed a system like the Common Core to be pushed into public schools. I do not mean to glorify Kennedy to the
point that he does not resemble the earthly man that he definitely was. However,
it is valuable to contrast Obama’s embrace of the Common Core with Kennedy’s
insistence that a nation without classical culture is incapable of progress. Classical
art is the means to solve problems that are not yet known. We cannot limit science
to what can be seen. I shudder to think of what the Common Core Science Standards will look like when they are published next year. Kennedy spoke in poetry
and he edited speeches others wrote for him to be poetic because poetry can be a
vehicle for truth that does not hit you over the head but rather requires you to think
and arrive there on your own. Language can be easily acquired by reading and
reciting poetry. The Common Core takes a completely different approach in which
most poetry and classical literature is removed from the classrooms and replaced
by “informational texts,” a travesty based on zero research and no evidence.
My point is that our public schools are being led down a dangerous path by a
bunch of unscrupulous investors out to make a quick buck off of the Common
Core with no regard for the future of our children or our nation. As parents,
teachers and concerned citizens we will have to fight to remove this blight from
our public schools. Al Graf has introduced a bill in the NY Assembly to stop the
Common Core and remove NY from Race to the Top mandates. It has 34 cosponsors already. Please call your assemblyman and ask him to cosponsor A.7994.
The art teacher across the hall forwarded me this silly Christmas card today:
http://www.ox.ac.uk/subsite/christmas_cards/christmas_cards/xmas2013.html
Yes, Oxford seems like a long way away, till you look at the artwork collected there, and the art our students make … and realize what holds humanity together, and how close it brings us.
Thank you to all of you, who teach form and feeling and vision and song. Carry on, and pay no mind to the scoring rubrics and CC$$ metrics.
chemtchr: most excellent video!
You da bomb!
😎
I retired from teaching music in 1991. Also served as Music Coordinator for around 15 years. As music teacher, choral and general music, I will never forget the bond between students and myself, doing great music, the great composers and great folk music. As Music Coordinator we worked to implement the Kodaly philosophy, music as an academic subject in which children learned to read and write music etc. BUT most important was to develop a love of music and those things bigger than ourselves, to become totally involved in those things bigger than ourselves.
We had teachers from all over Northern Illinois and Indiana come to watch our teachers teach. Unfortunately our school board could not understand what we were doing – it was not what the “average” school did so of course must be wrong. I was removed as Music Coordinator and the following year EVERY music teacher in our system left except myself – at my age where would I go – and one other music teacher who stayed and tried to carry on.
Politics are killing education in the best sense of the word. This morning on the Diane Reymes show she interviewed a scholar who had written a book on Shakespeare and how he has and still does affect society. WHAT A BREATH OF FRESH AIR. I have often asked; who is going to run our schools: scholars and educators or politicians. Her show this morning gave even further insight into the tremendous importance of the arts in human development.
So much of “education” today is focused on science and math. Important to be sure but humankind has 2 halves to their brain. One I would call scientific and the other concerned with beauty etc. The most important book on this subject for me is: “I and
Thou”, by the Jewish philosopher, theologian, Martin Buber. How do we perceive the world: as objects etc or as spiritual entities. Using only one half of the brain makes for “half wits” in my book.
TRAGIC in my view and something for which if the politicians continue to hold sway we will pay an horrific price down the road.
Some state & national policymakers don’t understand the value of art & music. Others are big fans. For example, Dick Cohen, the chair of the Mn Senate Finance Committee has worked skillfully and successfully at the state & national levels to promote funding for the arts
Here’s a newspaper column I wrote about a terrific music teacher:
http://hometownsource.com/2013/09/04/joe-nathan-column-mr-hardy-student-couldnt-sing/
Mr. Hardy & a student who couldn’t sing
As we start a new school year, I recall that there may be few people more miserable than a seventh grade boy, whose voice is changing, in a choral music class – the kind of class where youngsters are expected to sing every day. That’s the situation I found myself in many years ago at Robinson Junior High School in Wichita, Kan.
Fortunately, James Hardy was the teacher. He adored music. He wanted everyone to love it. And he would not give up on me, although the “notes” coming out of my mouth were always unpredictable and often awful.
Hardy produced incredible music with seventh- and eighth-graders. I remember listening on the risers during our concerts. Mr. Hardy and I agreed that I would stand and mouth the words on most songs. I rarely “sang.”
There were exceptions. One was the “Little Drummer Boy,” generally sung around Christmas. “Come, they told me – pa rupa-pa-pum – our new born king to see – pa rupa-pa-pum. Our finest gifts we bring – pa rupa-pa-pum – to lay before the king – pa-rupa-pa-pum.”
We sang it in four parts. For some reason, my vocal chords did OK with the notes in this song that represented the drum. Singing that song is one of my favorite memories. It produced huge applause during our “Christmas concerts.” We had four of them, two for other students, two for families. (Here’s a version from the Harry Simeone Chorale that shows how beautiful the song is, and the drum part I sang: http://bit.ly/dFMDnH.)
This was many years ago, when students in Wichita and some other public schools began each day with “The Lord’s Prayer,” drew pictures of “the baby Jesus” and sang Christian songs. But that’s a subject for another day.
One of the things that I honor about Mr. Hardy is that he did not focus on what I couldn’t do. He helped me, and other guys whose voices also were changing, see what we could do. Smiling, he praised us for working hard and contributing to the concerts. He convinced me that he really meant it when he thanked me for working hard and being part of the choir.
Yes, he praised the youngsters whose voices were great. He helped some of them win statewide awards. His concerts were well-known for their beauty and creativity. Our concerts drew many people, not just the families.
What I remember most, however, is not just the beautiful music he helped immature seventh- and eighth-graders produce. What I remember most was his kindness and enthusiasm.
After 12 years at Robinson Junior High, Mr. Hardy was hired by Wichita State University. He became chair of the WSU Music Education Department. He died five years ago, at age 84.
Some might say Mr. Hardy wasted his time at Robinson, that he should have been at Wichita State much earlier. I disagree. I had a chance to see and thank him many years later.
“Some of my best work was at Robinson,” he recalled. I agree. He did what many great teachers do: He encouraged. He didn’t solve all my problems or anyone’s problems. He did help young people accomplish far more than they thought possible.
Here’s a drum salute to great teachers.
Joe Nathan, formerly a public school teacher and administrator, directs the Center for School Change. Reactions welcome, joe@centerforschoolchange.org.