Sara Stevenson, one of the heroes of this blog, reads the Wall Street Journal regularly, and she gets outraged every time the paper writes an editorial or publishe an article blasting public schools. That occurs frequently, as the WSJ supports privatization, not public schools.
When Sara read an article by a charter teacher in his second year of teaching, she wrote the following letter. In what other field would a person with so little experience pretend to expertise?
She wrote:
Dear Editors,
Almost daily you publish pieces lashing out against public schools. You give prime print real estate to a second year teacher, Nicholas Simmons– something you would never do for a newbie in any other profession.
I am grateful that you have published some of my letters through the years, but I am requesting a bigger platform. I would love the opportunity to write a short piece, along the lines of Mr. Simmons’s, about the selection bias inherent in high-flying charter schools and elite private schools. I’d also like to discuss the demoralizing effect your barrage of education bashing has on those of us working daily in our nation’s public schools. If you don’t want to hear from me, although I have twenty-two years of teaching experience (eleven as a public school librarian and ten as a private, Catholic high school teacher), please consider publishing a piece by Perrin-Whitt ISD superintendent, John Kuhn. I stayed up late last night reading his fabulous book: “Fear and Learning in America.”
Here is a review of his book that I posted on goodreads.com this morning.
John Kuhn, of the famous Alamo letter and rallying cry at the Save Texas Schools Rally in 2011, has written a book that will completely confirm or convert you to the cause of protecting the great democratizer, public education, from its assault by government, business, and so-called reformers. If I had used a highlighter to mark significant passages and hard-hitting barbs, every page of this book would be permeated yellow. The book is that good. It’s also highly personal with stories about how this good ole Texas Baptist farm boy woke up to the attack on teachers and public schools and how current policies play out in real children’s lives. This is the most important book to read on what is happening in education in this country. Get involved. Save our Schools! Read this book!
I am having a difficult time holding onto my WSJ subscription, which I have had since 1991. I love your reporting, your Personal Journal and other features. Your editorial pages are a trial for me, but I force myself to read them and respond. I know I can’t change your minds, but please listen to us. Give the other side a voice. I am not a union teacher. I’m in Texas, where we have no unions, no tenure. I’m 54 and just now passed the $50,000 salary threshold. I love my work as a middle school librarian. I am passionate about inspiring my children to become lifelong readers, who make the best citizens. On the other hand, I am disheartened by your editorial board’s continued assault on public schools.
Thank you for listening.
Sincerely,
Sara Stevenson
O. Henry Middle School librarian
Austin, Texas
512-414-6998
http://www.ohenrylibrary.com
P.S. If you wonder why I’m able to write this during work hours, it’s because my library is shut down for the third day this week for state testing.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Thank you Sara Stevenson!!
Who owns the Wall Street Journal? There’s your answer.
Good grief, no teacher unions or tenure in Texas, I had no idea it was that bad.
Yes, but why should that stop them from being blamed for whatever afflicts the schools?
We don’t need no stinkin’ facts!
There are teacher organizations such as Association of Texas Professional educators (ATPE) and Texas State Teachers Association (TSTA), that monitor legislative actions and report back to their member, but, like teachers themselves, they have no legal clout. The best reason to join is for the legal support they offer and in these contentious time you never know when you might need that.
There is a teachers union in Austin called Education Austin, but it is powerless against the Dark Side.
And yet cutting tenure and crushing unions is supposed to fix all that ails public education…Tell that to the schools in the Deep South that have neither and have absolutely abysmal test scores (even before NCLB brought about the testing regime).
Follow the money…always.
I only read the week-end edition of WSJ. I applaud this effort to get some space. Your eriting is clear. The last line is telling. I’d like someone to compile information on the number of hours kids are spending in test-prep and testing. Great assignment for a grad student or retired person.
Laura, It would be easier to compile the hours the Texas kids “don’t” spend in test prep or testing. You could count those hours on your fingers!
Sorry. Forgot the spell check, again.
Sorry? Here I thought “eriting” was a take-off on “e-mail”, as in
electronic writing…DUH…
In WSJ’s defense, public schools do stink. Maybe not academically to the extent claimed, but just look at the “zero-tolerance” policies over stupid things like gun-shaped PopTarts and “finger guns,” the lack of enforced discipline (e.g., students cussing-out teachers with impunity), and a dedication to procedure and rule-following that would make any Nazi proud.
Then you’ve got situations like this one where school administrators are basically forbidding teachers from giving failing grades:
I hate Common Core, and I’m no fan of vouchers and charters, but let’s not gloss over the fact that our public schools are pretty awful, too.
The only public schools I’ve been in that stink are usually due mildew build up due to lack of building maintenance funds. BTW, the recent “finger gun” incident was because the kids were getting out of hand with the gun gesture at other student’s heads. If you’ve dealt with 5th/6th graders you would understand how these things escalate. It could have been armpit noises with the same result. And the principal did send out warning letters to parents.
Assuming you are not a troll, I do believe your post reflects what teachers are up against.
I’m not referring to just one incident. The problems with zero-tolerance policies are pervasive and well-documented.
And the zero tolerance and silly grading policies are the result of legislators and superintendents, not teachers or even schools. Often the teachers or building administration have little to no say in these matters. Lay off.
Yes. The federal government’s intrusion into schools has the schools powerless.
I never said the teachers stink — if you will notice, my comment about discipline problems specifically notes that teachers are not allowed to discipline the kids, and I also alluded to the fact that the teachers get no support from the administration in this regard.
As for who is to blame, it really doesn’t matter. The public school system is a product of the combined efforts of teachers, administrators, superintendents, on up the chain. Who made a stupid rule or policy makes no difference to the child it victimizes.
“The public school system is a product of the combined efforts of teachers, administrators, superintendents, on up the chain.”
Wrong! It’s not from the bottom up. It’s from the top down.
The public school system is a product of the legislatures in each state and Washington DC in addition to the results of court cases. Each state writes its own ed code and Washington adds to that. When a major court case makes a ruling that effects the schools that also is responsible for the final product.
District administration implements the ed code and followed any edict from a court ruling. The only thing teachers “might” have a say in is how they teach a lesson. That’s about it.
Lloyd — My comment was not intended to imply that things worked from the bottom up; it was just a list, not a hierarchy. But again, my point is that whoever is responsible for the end product, the end product often stinks.
The end product is made up of two elements: teaching and learning.
Teachers teach and that includes a whole array of strategies, methods and assignments. In California, teachers never stop learning what those are. To keep a credential in California, teachers must continue to take classes from a list of approves courses, seminars and lectures to improve and learn new methods—and the teachers have to prove it. If you teach for thirty years, you are learning the latest methods and techniques for thirty years.
Kids learn or they don’t learn
Usually those who don’t learn, don’t do the classwork, the homework, read the assignment, or read for pleasure
The Coleman Report was clear that teachers were only responsible for about a third of a child’s education and the rest was from outside of school—most the family’s values, home and community environment. A more recent study out of Stanford focused on the impact teachers had on standardized tests scores and that number was even lower—about 9 to 12%.
I absolutely agree with you, Lloyd. That’s one reason I cringe whenever someone says we can make all public schools great schools where nearly all kids succeed. That’s just not realistic because of the baggage so many of these kids bring with them.
But again — really not trying to be a broken record here — that does not excuse the public schools for the really dumb things they do. Things like zero-tolerance for some things while simultaneously enforcing no discipline for others (can’t make the school look bad in the press by having a bunch of suspensions) undermines the ability of the teachers to teach and hurts the very students who DO want to do the work and DO want to learn. It helps make kids hate school… and for good reason.
And what are YOU doing, sir, to improve the situation? Instead of railing on the defenseless people, contact those in power and get the situation changed.
There are two sets of standards — one for charters and one for public schools. Charter school select their students and administer curriculum and behavior as they like. Public schools live a different universe because of the laws that dictate their choices. Not trying to be confrontational, but if the public schools are so awful, we need to fix them not select a few special children to get the education everyone deserves. The remedy (high-stakes testing) that was supposed to improve education is toxic and contributes to its decline.
I mostly agree with what you said here. But that doesn’t get public schools off the hook for their rampant stupidity. Sending kids to public schools these days is borderline abusive.
Oh, Jack. There are excellent public schools. I always warn my students about hasty generalizations and other fallacies of logic. Yet you seem to have fallen into that trap. We need to neuter the rabid charter worshiper because at the root, what many value is the profit made not the life changed.
Nimbus — Used to, I would have agreed with you, but I don’t know that I can anymore. Given the sheer number of public schools out there, I will allow that there may be some here are there that are still good. But between Common Core and all the other rampant asininities that have swept the country, I have not seen a really good public school in a long time. My own kids’ public schools used to be excellent and are still considered “good” schools by much of the public, but the multiple cancers infecting the system nationally have taken their toll, and my wife (a teacher herself, by the way) and I are now forced to consider other options for our kids. Talking to friends around the country, they are seeing the same things in their own “good” schools.
So Jack, you have noticed a change for the worse over recent years. I would argue those changes are coming as a result of the advent of the top down dictatorial style of management that has pervaded the educational system in recent years in combination with a punitive system of accountability. While I will agree with you that there have always been some weaker schools, predominantly in lower income, under resourced communities, the public school system as a whole was not broken until the deformers moved in and broke it. I think they have angered enough people now who know how to fight back. I would encourage you and the parents in your community to start fighting for what your schools used to be. Go to your school board meetings and listen to what your administrators are saying to your board and how your board is responding. Look into who is on your board. Find out how your administration manages your schools. Are the teachers respected? Are their voices heard? (You may have to get to be friends with a few teachers to really know.) How about the custodians and lunchroom personnel? I was privy to a lot of what went on behind the scenes through conversations with the custodians who cleaned my room. If you want good schools, you had better fight for them.
“. . . that does not excuse the public schools for the really dumb things they do.”
Quite correct, Jack. Really dumb things like “grading” students, believing that the teaching and learning process can be “quantified” through grades, like labelling students as “failures” which becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, like sorting and separating students through standardized testing and rewarding some and punishing others, like insisting that all students can be evaluated with the same “metrics” thereby devaluing individuality.
How many more “dumb things” are there???
Great article in the NY Times about charter school refugees today.
I am a librarian, though not a school librarian. Almost every school librarian I know has complained about the number of days their libraries have been closed due to testing. Commissioner King may say there are only such-and-such number of days of state-mandated testing, but he is being disingenuous. If any school wanted their APPR plan approved, they needed to include lots of additional testing, which in many schools is done on computers. What is the only place that has enough computers for an entire class in many schools? The library. One of our school libraries was closed for 20 straight school days this year due to testing, although it was made available to students before and after school.
Ironically, much of the CCSS is best taught by a knowledgable school librarian who has the expertise and training in research and study skills, yet is one of the first to be cut back or even laid off.
It always seemed counter productive to me to close the LMC for testing and/or require the librarian to proctor. Their role as both teacher and librarian must confuse administrators who forget there is more to the job than providing a break for the teachers.
Perhaps consistent access to a large collection of books selected specifically for children would improve reading skills better than prepping for an inappropriate exam which does nothing but beat down morale for the participants.
Librarians are trained to provide information on all points of view. Too bad the editors at WSJ don’t feel obligated to do the same. Thank you Sara for speaking out.
And Jack, denigrating all public schools based on frivolous reasons denigrates your spouse and others who are working teachers. The issues are more complex than simple discipline policies – even ones which appear silly to an outsider. There are many excellent public school systems out there, but even those who are not up to state dictated standards are trying their best to educate their students, often inspite of governmental interference. There are very few teachers or administrators who don’t want their students to be successful in the learning process. (They must care, they definitely aren’t willing to take all the abuse for money.)
Jack – You need to find the best situation for your children, but make sure you don’t chuck the baby out with the bath water. You might make a switch only to discover the grass isn’t always greener on the other side. I feel your time would be better spent fighting for more funding, smaller class sizes, and less testing for the public schools you seem to reject. Remember, it’s not all about you and your family. You need to see the bigger picture. We are all in this together. Best of luck!
I am surprised that Dr. Ravitch let Ms. Stevens’ ad hominem attack against Nicholas Simmons go unchallenged. We need to remember to a attack the arguments, not the person making the arguments.
Ron, let me know when the Wall Street Journal prints an article by a medical resident or an intern about how to reform the medical profession.