Archives for the month of: December, 2013
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Teacher: Child Abuse in My Classroom

By dianeravitch
December 26, 2013 //
69

Mark Naison, co-founder of the BATs, sent me this story by a teacher:

The Child Abuse Imposed by Testing:

By Bronx Teacher Chris Whitney

I had a student leave my classroom in an ambulance last year during the middle of a practice test. He was having an asthma attack brought on by panic. He kept saying, “I can’t do this.”

As his teacher, I knew him. I knew that “school” was hard for him and he was trying his best. We all were trying our best to support him: his mom, brother, teachers old and new, staff at school, and the class… his community. Yet, it was not enough that day. I encouraged him to take the test, to keep going, but to what end? To engage with something I knew that he, and many other students were and are not ready to do?

Except, the “expectation” is that all students must take the state exam by third grade – just 8 years old – and the “rigor” and “standards” keep going up every few years. More is expected from an earlier and earlier age. So, it becomes “necessary” to begin practice testing in second grade to “get the kids ready.”

We do not need to be holding each other accountable, instead, we should be finding a way to support each other. Federal education policy right now is punitive, developmentally inappropriate, and in the case of my student above – downright abusive.

Carl Jung said, “It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”

I do not want to be the kind of teacher that “gets kids ready” for “college and careers.” I want kids to feel the joy of being alive, I want kids to sing out in the middle of class “just because,” I want kids to laugh, cry, and hold each other when things get hard, I want kids to know that they are not alone, and I want kids to feel love. Most of all, I just want to teach the joy of living… and state testing does not have any place in that vision.

School is hard for the students, families, and those that work there. Mothers say goodbye to their own flesh and blood, trusting that they will be safe and that they will come home at night. Many mothers then go to work to try to provide for their child. Work, lack of sleep, lack of time… repeat. Mother and child. Work. Rigor. Evaluation.

Teachers work 12, 13, 14 hour days with little time to do much else besides plan, grade, teach, observe, collect data, enter data, communicate, set expectations… repeat. Forget it if you are BOTH a parent and teacher. Then, you have no time for yourself. Does it have to be this hard? No. A different world is not only possible, but it is necessary.

Mark D Naison
Professor of African American Studies and History
Fordham University
Co-Founder, Badass Teachers Association

Categories Students, Testing

An Interview with “District Administration” on the Privatization Movement

By dianeravitch
December 26, 2013 //
13

I do my best to explain the assault on public education. It is unprecedented in American history. Public schools have always had critics, but never has there been a calculated effort to replace public schools with privately managed schools. And let’s be frank: that movement has succeeded because of bipartisan support and the availability of hundreds of millions–or billions, if you include Race to the Top–in government and private funding to undermine public education.

Here is a new interview, this one with “District Administration.”

Make no mistake. We can stop this movement if we recognize what is happening and unite.

Join your local or state group to support public education.

Contact the Network for Public Education, and we will help you find a state or local pro-public school group.

Categories Ravitch, Diane, Supporting public schools

Humor from Chicago: How to Spot a Corporate Reformer

By dianeravitch
December 25, 2013 //
14

Here is a new blogger–at least new to me.

A Chicago teacher–or teachers–is employing wit and satire to portray the out-of-touch socialites who are devoting their time to school reform in the Windy City.

Humor can be a powerful tool when combatting the failed ideas of the powerful.

Categories Humor

Fred Smith: My Bronx Christmas Memories

By dianeravitch
December 25, 2013 //
12

Fred Smith, a testing expert who advises anti-testing groups and is quick to spot testing errors, sent me his Christmas memories.

Diane,

Thank you for your warm Christmas reminiscence.

My father, Max, was born in Russia—Proskurov in the Ukraine in either 1912 or 1913. No one knew for sure and whatever records were kept were never computerized. He came with his older sister (Rivka = Becky) and mother (Sarah) to New York by ship in 1920, where the three met up with my grandfather (Samuel) a tailor who made women’s dresses.

The name on their traveling papers went from Smeet (pronunciation of the name as spelled in the Cyrillic alphabet) to Schmidt as they passed through Germany to Smith in England, from which they sailed for America. Many people refuse to believe that story—figuring a long Russian name was shortened by some lazy government worker on Ellis Island – responsible, no doubt, for changing (i.e., Americanizing) the names of thousands of East European immigrants in order to save himself work. They figure that either Smith was bestowed on us that way—or the other guess is that my grandfather changed the name in order to pass, as what – A non-Jewish tailor who spoke Yiddish?

The best I could tell Grandpa Sam was not observant, although he and Sarah had the most wonderful Seders each year in an over-crowded Bronx apartment exploding with cousins and food. My Uncle Harry (m. Becky) did the Motzie(?). Pop went to all-boys De Witt Clinton HS, graduated and went to work in the garment center.

My mother (Bessie, which became Bette by her choosing) Weisburd was born at home in Brooklyn in 1916, the only child of Joe and Fannie, both of Kiev. She was part of what we now call an extended family—a Yiddish-first speaking family—that included an aunt (Esther) and uncle (Sam), cousins and a revered grandmother (Baba) who lived to be 106 and had a shot of schnapps every day.

We didn’t know to call her the matriarch. I remember going to synagogue year after year on the High Holidays to kiss her and see her praying in the woman’s section. She did the mystical Shabbos candle lighting every Friday. I was responsible on occasion for going down to Leitner’s candy store and bringing her back a copy of the Forwards. But for the most part, that side of the family was not religious/observant. Socialists, yes and unionists (as was my father).

Max and Bette met at a Christmas party in 1932. Depression-scarred, finding and holding a job was paramount. Mom got a commercial diploma from all-girls Walton HS, where she learned to be an excellent bookkeeper. First date was a movie—King Kong. They married in 1937. I was born in 1943—I don’t know what they were waiting for?! Mom’s a spry 97 and back in the Bronx via Florida, where she lived with Pop after his retirement.

When I was a kid I believed in Santa Claus and loved the feelings of Xmas. I asked once or twice if we could have a tree like the other kids in our mainly Bronx Irish neighborhood (Kingsbridge – St. John’s parish). Mom said “we don’t do that.” But I managed to get vicarious joy to the world.

Went to nearest synagogue—an orthodox shul, the Kingsbridge Center of Israel—made friends with other Jewish kids, learned to read Hebrew without comprehension, learned Old Testament stories and some history, learned about the holidays—passed the high-stakes Bar Mitzvah final exams needed to graduate and came out feeling good about being Jewish.

And I so appreciate your vivid recollection of having to learn Christmas songs—and humming some awkward words. We must have had a sense that they didn’t apply to us: “Christ, the Savior, is born.” What Savior?? I remember the words to Hark the Herald Angels Sing. etc. to this day. At each Christmas assembly the vice-principal, Miss Flannely, recited the 23rd Psalm. Don’t know exactly why. Tradition!

Finally, I remember starting every school day (PS 7) with the Pledge of Allegiance and singing Our Father’s Guard to Thee which, for some inexplicable reason, never failed to move me with the words “land where my fathers died.” Still can’t figure that one out

As you said: It is Christmas. It is a time to celebrate peace and joy and goodwill towards all. We can all share those hopes. Amen and L’Chaim.

Fred

Categories Education Reform

“All I Want for Christmas Is….”

By dianeravitch
December 25, 2013 //
9

A post from the wonderful Jan Resseger:

A Special Christmas Wish for What Children Need This Year: Quality Teachers

The Rev. John Thomas, the former General Minister and President of the United Church of Christ, is now a professor and administrator Chicago Theological Seminary. His wonderful blog post for this Christmas is about the importance of quality public school teachers: All I Want for Christmas.

“While the old holiday song suggests that children might want two front teeth for Christmas, this year I’d like to suggest an alternative: “All I want for Christmas is a teacher.” Sunday’s New York Times reported the stark impact of the recent recession on schools, namely, the massive loss of public school teachers since 2008. According to Labor Department statistics, public schools across the country employ 250,000 fewer people today than they did prior to the recession. Meanwhile, pupil enrollment has grown by 800,000 students. To maintain pre-recession staffing ratios, public schools nation-wide would have had to add 132,000 jobs.

“What does this look like in the classroom? In Coatesville, Pennsylvania, a declining steel town forty miles outside of Philadelphia, the professional workforce of 600 prior to the recession has been cut by twenty percent. This means that some of the thirty students in one fourth grade class sit halfway into a coat closet. In a middle school social studies class one teacher handles twenty-five students, ten with special education needs, four who know little or no English, and several others who need advanced work to stay engaged. He used to have two aides to help; not any more.”

Thomas concludes by sharing the story of the public school music teacher who composed the song, “All I Want for Christmas.”

He wrote:

“This year many of our children, whether they know it or not, want – and need – a teacher for Christmas. But unless our priorities change, unless we radically rethink how we allocate resources for all of our public schools, and unless we begin to recognize the real value of highly trained, well paid, experienced teachers, many of our children will find little more than the proverbial coal in their stockings.

“By the way, the song “All I Want for Christmas” was written in 1944 by a public school music teacher who had asked his second grade pupils what they wanted for Christmas. He noticed that almost all of the students answered with a lisp because they had at least one front tooth missing. Chances are Donald Gardner wouldn’t be teaching these days. More and more school districts are laying off their music and art teachers, their guidance counselors, librarians and nurses. Local property taxes simply won’t provide this crucial component of a full education. And programs like Obama’s “Race for the Top,” on which much federal funding is based, don’t test whether children are learning how to sing or play a musical instrument. That’s more than sad in this merry season.”

Categories Budget Cuts, Class size, Teachers and Teaching

Some Stunning (and Shocking) Facts to Reflect upon This Christmas Day

By dianeravitch
December 25, 2013 //
90

This is a mind-blowing video about wealth inequality in America today.

These are facts to reflect upon this Christmas Day.

Inequality is huge and growing in our beloved nation.

A tiny proportion of our population owns a vast amount of our nation’s wealth.

Wealth inequality, like income inequality, has grown dramatically in the past generation.

There really is a 1% that owns an unbelievable amount of the nation’s assets.

Those who live in poverty have next to nothing, a statistical blip, and the share owned by the middle class is small.

Sometimes, I am inclined to think that all the ink spilled on “school reform” is misdirected.

Maybe our attention is being purposely diverted from far more important issues, like inequality and poverty.

Why are we indifferent to the fact that nearly a quarter of our children live in poverty?

Why do “reformers” insist that poverty doesn’t matter, that “great teachers” can overcome poverty, that charters can overcome poverty, that a certain curriculum can close the achievement gap?

Why do they refuse to acknowledge that poverty is the single most reliable predictor of low academic performance?

Why are we not embarrassed that we have more child poverty than any other advanced nation?

(The studies of inequality say that child poverty is higher in Romania, but Romania is a desperately poor nation that emerged from a harsh Communist dictatorship only twenty-five years ago.)

Do the big corporations support charters and TFA as a way of diverting our eyes from the singular cause of low academic performance?

Think about it.

Categories Economy, Poverty

Pope Francis on the Dangers of Poverty and Inequality

By dianeravitch
December 25, 2013 //
21

I am not in the custom of quoting religious leaders, being a secular Jew, but I am nonetheless impressed by Pope Francis’ advocacy on behalf of the poor and his critique of the unfettered market.

To clarify, I understand and believe in the values of a free marketplace of goods and services, but at the same time, I think that society has an obligation to make sure that the market is regulated sufficiently to prevent extremes of inequality.

A healthy society requires a balance of the private and the public sector. A society without a public sector would be (in my eyes) mean, nasty, and brutish for all except those at the very top of a pointy pyramid, for all, that is, except the top 1% or 10%. A society without a private sector concentrates far too much power in the hands of those who rule and fails (as we saw in the instance of the Soviet Union) to permit enterprise, individualism, and personal freedom.

And it is in that spirit that I here cite a short article about Pope Francis, who has emerged as a powerful voice on behalf of the world’s poor.

Pope Francis, the author writes, is critical of “a world that is about “competition and survival of the fittest.” It is a world “where the powerful feed upon the powerless.”

He questions “a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power.” He is concerned that this culture has produced global indifference. Society seems content to believe that poverty is somebody else’s problem. For him, the poor are not only exploited but excluded. They have become “the outcast, the leftovers.”

He hammers the injustice of growing inequality. He sees this income gap as a “result of ideologies which defend the absolute autonomy of the marketplace.” He speaks of the “sacralized workings of the prevailing economic system.”

He also speaks of growing world-wide corruption which is at least tolerated as the world eagerly seeks to serve the “interests of a deified market which become the only rule.” He specifically mentions “self-serving tax evasion,” and “the thirst for power and possessions,” as examples of the harmful corruption that abounds and knows no limits.”

As I reflect on the growing inequality in our society, where a very small number of people enjoy vast wealth while a vast number of people live in poverty, the words of Pope Francis ring true.

Yes, we need a marketplace where people buy and sell goods and services. But the marketplace should not make us indifferent to the losers, to those who cannot succeed in the competition to buy and sell.

A healthy society takes care of all its children and builds a culture where love, kindness, and compassion are valued more than the goods we acquire.

I guess that sounds radical, but I am no radical. I just want a better world for my children and grandchildren and yours too.

Categories Economy, Poverty

The Christmas Spirit: A Dirt Road in Alabama

By dianeravitch
December 25, 2013 //
7

This is a beautiful story by Larry Lee about what happened when he told the story of a woman and her children living in a mobile home in rural Alabama.

It is a story of kindness and the spirit of Christmas. Our country should not have so many people eking out a bare existence. There shouldn’t be such glaring inequality. But in the meanwhile there is spontaneous kindness.

Lee begins:

“Don’t you believe them. Not for even one minute. You know, those folks on TV cable news sitting there in their makeup telling us how terrible the world is. Those faceless voices on talk radio that rant and rave that no one in this country cares anymore and that the end is just around the corner.

“They don’t have a clue. Their world is so focused on gloom and doom and blame that it’s unlikely they would know a good deed if they saw it.

“Why do I know they are wrong?

Because I’ve been down a dirt road in Clarke County.”

Read on.

Categories Alabama

My Memories of Christmas in Texas

By dianeravitch
December 25, 2013 //
22

As you may know, I was born and raised in Houston, Texas.

I am third of eight children.

My parents were both Jewish, as am I.

Yet every year we celebrated Christmas.

Is this puzzling? It wasn’t at all puzzling to me and my siblings.

Every Christmas, the family bought a Christmas tree, and we all joined in decorating it with lights, ornaments, and tinsel.

Every Christmas morning, we woke up like a noisy tribe about five a.m. and rushed to discover that we all had presents under the tree.

Why did our Jewish family celebrate Christmas?

To begin with, my parents had been born into observant Jewish families. My father was born in Savannah, Georgia, where he was the youngest of nine children and the only boy. He was spoiled rotten, left high school without graduating, and tried (but failed) to make it in vaudeville as a hoofer and comedian. My mother was born in Bessarabia and came to America at the end of World War 1 as a nine-year-old girl with her mother and little sister. They traveled on a ship (the “Savoie”) loaded with returning American soldiers, then made their way to Houston to meet my grandfather, who was a tailor and had come to America before the war broke out.

What my parents wanted most was to be seen as “real Americans.” My mother was especially zealous about wanting to speak perfect English (she arrived speaking only Yiddish). She was very proud that she earned a high school diploma from the Houston public schools. In her eyes, real Americans celebrated Christmas. So, of course, we had a tree, and we believed that Santa Claus brought the presents. There was no religious content to our tree and our gifting.

We went to public school, where we learned all the Christmas songs. We went to assemblies and sang “Silent Night,” “Joy to the World,” “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” and all the other traditional songs. I knew I was Jewish, and I usually hummed certain words instead of saying them, but nonetheless I loved the songs and I love them still. I was never offended by singing Christmas songs at public school. It was what we did.

Of course, my siblings and I went to Sunday School at the synagogue, and my brothers were bar mitzvah. I was “confirmed,” which was a ceremony that occurred at the end of tenth grade, when we read from the prayer book as a group.

I should add that we started every day in public school with a short reading from the Bible, over the loudspeaker, followed by a prayer and the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance.

I was okay with the Bible reading, the prayers, the Christmas songs. I was also okay with our family putting up a Christmas tree while belonging to a synagogue and practicing our Jewish rituals and holy days.

I committed one major faux pas as a result of my upbringing in two religious traditions. On one occasion, when I was about 12, the rabbi at my reform temple invited me to join him on the altar and say a prayer. I said “The Lord’s Prayer,” the one that begins, “Our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name” prayer, and there was some awkwardness afterwards. I had no idea that I was saying a Christian prayer, drawn from the Gospel of Matthew, in the synagogue! I had heard it hundreds of times in school. I think I was forgiven my error. After that, the rabbi was careful to propose a specific prayer from the prayer book for children who were invited to speak from the altar.

Many things have changed, and I understand that. But when I go with my partner to midnight Mass on Christmas Eve at the Oratory of St. Boniface in Brooklyn, I am glad I know the words to the songs. I learned them in public school in Houston. I look around and am not surprised to see a fairly large number of other Jews from the neighborhood, also joining in singing the songs with the choir. It is Christmas. It is a time to celebrate peace and joy and goodwill towards all. We can all share those hopes.

Categories Personal

Chiara’s Christmas Gift to Others: Honesty and Courage

By dianeravitch
December 24, 2013 //
21

Chiara de Blasio, the 19-year-old daughter of the Mayor-elect of New York City, released a video describing her struggles with alcohol and drug dependency, as well as depression. She very honestly addresses how hard it was to seek and find help, how much it meant to have the support of her parents and to engage in therapy.

She is honest, open, and direct. Her candor will make it easier for others to seek help and to admit to their problems.

As I watched this beautiful young woman, I thought about the families who hide the problems of family members and think they will be humiliated if others find out. I also thought about my friends, how many of them have children and grandchildren who have similar problems.

I don’t know a perfect family. The challenge we all face is to deal honestly and openly with problems and to help those who need help.

This is Chiara’s Christmas gift to her peers and to adults everywhere. Face your fears, face your problems, and get help to solve them. She did it; it wasn’t easy. You can do it too.

Thank you, Chiara. Keep fighting and know that many are grateful for your courage.

Merry Christmas to you and your family.

Categories Education Reform
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