A reader, Karen Taylor, sent the following reflections about her life as a teacher today:
Titanic, 2014
I am finishing the eighth week of my twenty-seventh year of teaching in public schools.
Today I had a startling insight- that somehow I have been given the task of saving the sinking Titanic. Public schools are the Titanic, run aground against icebergs of state-mandated test scores and the failing family structures of our children.
I’m instructed, prodded, encouraged, and held responsible for saving all the students who may have little or no support. And there certainly aren’t enough life rafts or life preservers to meet their needs. There are no other sturdy crafts nearby to rescue them.
I alone am responsible for this future generation.
And the band plays on deck with strains of, “No Child Left Behind”, “Higher Order Thinking Skills”, Hands-on Learning,” and “Data Driven Instruction.” I hear “Key Academic Vocabulary” and “Learning Objectives” played between each set.
And though I hum and sing and dance with all the rhythms, the deck still capsizes. Children are still struggling to hang on until I can reach them.
Believing that “all children can learn” is our lighthouse. All children can learn, as the beam pronounces. Yet as it circles I remember……they can’t all learn in the same way or on a state-mandated timeline.
The lives I save are measured by “my scores”, while in reality, the scores are very faulty life-preservers for our children. Those scores reflect a single moment in time, like a tiny ripple in the ocean of their lives. And many children perform unbelievably well when the reality of their tsunami-riddled lives are filled with abuse, neglect, alcohol, drugs, and hunger, with very little room left over for worry about a test score.
But they hang on, and they try to hum and sing and dance and move, except for when they are distracted by the memory that their dad gets out of prison next week and their mama needs them to babysit tonight because she has to work late.
So I inflate their little life vests with a hug, a joke, a smile. I give them a pencil and read them a book and we laugh, and for a moment, the ship is stable. And they read a book in English for the first time, and we celebrate, and I pretend that the iceberg has melted and we will sail again.
Because I love this big old ship and all the passengers it holds, and I treasure the message of the lighthouse. But the reality of the iceberg is not just sinking our ship. It is bruising and battering those of us who serve it and seek to save our children.
Excellent piece.
My opinion of why the ship is sinking is school curriculum’s are designed to teach every subject under the sun except what is needed most for a student to succeed in life, wisdom.
Regards and good will blogging.
Very appropriate.
And while the Titanic was unsinkable, the current “wave” of corporate con/re/deform should have been unthinkable!
Beautifully written.
The students in your class receive a gift that philistines and oligarchs like Bill and Melinda Gates, John Arnold, et al, will never be able to understand or appreciate.
Teaching in a classroom with your kidlets is such an isolating experience. You become very close, care about their joys and struggles, and worry when life is tough for them. Today’s teachers have so much more stress, pressures and harassment from the Top and from the CorpEdReformers, that their own reserve of resilience is on Empty.
Reading Titanic 2014 makes me incredibly sad.
The real reasons for Education and Teaching are slipping away where many teachers and students are harmed for years to come.
I also want to slap the folks who want to teach ‘Grit’! I can’t think of having more Grit, whatever that may be, than showing up day after day, providing the best educational environment for your students, while you know the Stazi are outside your classroom door.
H.A. Hurley: you nailed it.
And Titanic 2014 puts me in mind of two thoughts.
Charters and vouchers are for a few in steerage who are promised an escape from the sinking ship.
And as for the children of the leading charterites/privatizers and their edubully enforcers and educrat enablers and edufraud defenders: THEIR OWN CHILDREN were never put on that ship they ordered directly into the iceberg. They were ensured safe passage all the way.
Just a few examples:
Link: http://www.lakesideschool.org [Bill Gates]
Link: http://www.lakesideschool.org [Michelle Rhee]
Link: http://www.sidwell.edu [Barack Obama]
Link: http://www.delbarton.org [Chris Christie]
Thank you for your comments.
😎
I know this sounds really, bad but who is going to pay all the unemployment for all the teachers they seem to want to get rid of, with all these ridiculous hurdles? It really seems like they want to get rid of everyone with 10 years+.
In most states we do not qualify for unemployment, we are on our own. That is the case here in Nevada.
For those of us who had to watch the “captains” (school administration) steer the ship straight into the “iceberg” it was too nightmarish not jump off and forewarn others of the dangerous waters ahead.
Excellent comparisons.
We have all been bruised and battered. I feel that way all the time. I am still swimming and am trying to get the ship upright so our children can prosper. KC
You speak for all of us. I am a retired Philadelphia school teacher with 32 years of experience. I am dismayed and disheartened with what is happening within our public schools. I can really only speak for Philadelphia.
We taught our children. They loved to learn. We evaluated where they were, and moved forward. It was never one size fits all. I had some wonderful principals who allowed us the freedom to teach from our hearts. We followed the curriculum, but we were “teachers.” Our children succeeded. Our school succeeded. And then we saw it start to disintegrate.
My final years were in Head Start. We were growing and thriving. Early Childhood certified educators, with a 4 year degree, were hired to teach our preschool children. I don’t know if any other districts use certified teachers. I know in this area Phila is the only one paying Teacher salary for preschool jobs. We had training and experience. We continued our education and had Master’s degrees plus 60 credits making us Senior Career teachers. Not to boast, we did a great job with our children. They were ready for Kindergarten. When our school posted the names of the honor roll students, many were Head Start children. I am writing this because last year Phila gave away half of its Head Start classes to private enterprises. I’m an outsider now, but what is happening? Day Care is not Head Start. Who are the providers that took over our classes and even whole buildings? And, was Phila trying to balance the budget by firing the certified teachers and teaching assistants in the Head Start program? Something horrible is happening to the Philadelphia Public School System. The SRC supports Dr Hite, our Mayor and our Governor.
Many years ago, as a Kindergarten teacher, we were exploring the many jobs people did in our school. My friends and I made a list of all of the things we did: teacher, nurse, publisher, social worker, cook, painter, counselor, musician, athlete, baker, game show host, author, friend, handy woman, liaison, cleaner, mother, confidant, fund raiser, playground coordinator, advisor, mentor, florist, communications coordinator, tour guide, psychologist and role model! We loved every minute of it.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx I am with you, Phila. One of [many] moments when I was ashamed of POTUS & Duncan was last autumn, when Phila was so underfunded they had to start ps one month late, all the while making it clear they had no $ for basic supplies, let alone counselors, librarians or nurses (soon a child died for lack of a nurse)– simultaneously, 23 schools had been closed & local parents weren’t sure where to send their kids. A clear ongoing crisis in the city which birthed the US, & nary a fed onboard to provide direction or hope.
But I also want to say that things must have been going in this direction for quite a while in Phila– perhaps since NCLB– or even before? My middle son’s gf had to transfer to Phila from a top-notch NJ school 9 yrs ago, due to single parent’s job transfer, & $ need to locate inner-city. She & her brother tried out the local ps, which was overcrowded & violent. Both were able to proceed apace at a charter academy, where their superior prep qualified them not only as students but as tutors to struggling students.
Correct me if I am wrong– I’m suspecting that Pa (unlike NJ) has not shared taxes with low-income areas? It seems clear that the current mayor has simply doubled-down on previous policies which call underfunded areas ‘failing’.
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education.
I was a public school teacher for 34 years in the states of Ky and Kansas . This essay states so well the feeling I had that for many of my students during those years,the classroom was their lifeboat, and within our walls they were safe and secure, accepted and loved. I have been retired for the past two years, and it saddens me to think that there are still so many good teachers out there now, fighting the good fight and struggling to make their voices heard against the rising tide of “corporate reform”.
I can’t remember where I read it, but the children you are talking about were in steerage on the Titanic. Nobody tried too hard to save them. Perhaps that is a good analogy for today. Those who teach steerage children will “sink” with them.
Thank you very much for making me feel less alone!
The ship has become so difficult to steer
and yes, the children will sink, and soon
we won’t be able to save them, nor ourselves.
They keep telling me the ship is a submarine, but I keep telling them to close the screen door or surface for air. I will find as many life jackets as I can and will grab them from the grifters as I can. I have my own monthly parent meeting at school and since I also teach many of the parents of my second graders in G.E.D. classes after school they are becoming active in protesting to our representatives in our state legislature regarding tests, their costs, and their uses. They are declining to take our computerized second grade tests, I have refused to give them by not signing up for a computer lab period. I sent the parents all the American Pediatric Society recommendations regarding young children and computers. I have no assigned lab time, so they take the kids from P.E. and Music to test them. My class has refused. I do not think they will be any more enthusiastic in third grade. I will be teaching special education next year, I will attempt to have my parents opt their children out. I have almost 20 years in, I can afford to start a small revolt. If I am not willing to do this I will have to quit, I’d rather make them tell me to leave.
beautiful.
I met a friend for lunch today. She was a colleague with whom I taught, up until last year, before I moved to another school within our district (an urban Title I District which serves a demographic of primarily Hispanic, English Language Learners). As we talked, we both discussed our disenchantment with a broken system and mused about moving to a mythical place where we would be afforded more creative freedom to teach in way that was deeply impactful and meaningful. We talked about how our anger had turned to apathy, and how we feared getting lost in the oblivion of bitterness and burn out. We talked about how the instruction of our students had been reduced to district directives putting our students at the mercy of mind-numbing computer tutorials and scripted skinnarian intervention programs. But mostly, we talked about how, through all of this, we have been slowly and systematically robbed of the relationship we have with our students.
Let me explain how I came to know this colleague. She is a middle school social studies teacher and, hands-down, one of the finest teachers with whom I have ever had the pleasure of working. I have drawn from her strength, as I witnessed her question the “status quo”, stand up against arbitrary policy, and show a depth of understanding for each and every student that crosses the threshold of her classroom. I was the special education teacher who supported the identified students on her team, for which she was the team leader. Never, in my twenty-four years of teaching, had I heard so many students express such a love of social studies, or a specific teacher, for that matter. When I would ask why, the response was generally the same. “I don’t know, she just makes it fun.” Or, “It’s just really calm in her classroom and you want to learn.” Or, “She just cares about us.” This came from Middle School Special Education students, many of whom were reading between a first and third grade reading level, but nonetheless, experienced success in her classroom.
So, why is this story significant? This year our district has taken Special Education and intervention to new heights. We have been directed to pull out our lowest twenty-five percent during science, social studies, and elective classes when providing support. Consequently, many students get one day per week in the classes that many typically thrive in and enjoy the most. We are over-dosing, yet essentially depleting, our most vulnerable, struggling students. When I questioned my administrator on this directive last year before leaving, her response was something like, “Well, who really needs social studies in life? Who needs to know where this country is on a map? It’s just not that important.” After attempting to recover from her flippant, uninformed comments, my response to her was, “But it’s the only class many students like and she teaches reading and writing through her content. Plus she is masterful at meeting the needs of every level of student.” She hemmed and hawed and finally conceded that that was just the way it was.
Now that I think about it, I believe the students just like my friend and feel safe in her classroom, regardless of what an excellent teacher she is. They are learning despite themselves. This, my friends, is not quantifiable. This is about relationship. Yet, given the new teacher evaluation mandates, she will be measured and evaluated on the progress of students who spend eighty percent of their week in front of a computer or being read scripted questions, verbatim, which must be answered on the cue of a bell or clicker; pre-packaged programs which, by their very nature, prevent inquiry, creative thinking, and most importantly, a relationship with a trusted teacher.
“Where do we go from here?” we asked each other. I don’t know. I do know that we have both found ourselves mourning a profound loss. Then my friend shared her own personal insight. “It’s like when you are in a bad relationship”, she said. “You start to compromise who you are. First, you let go of this. Then you let go of another thing. Pretty soon you realize that you just can’t go on because you aren’t being true to yourself anymore.” I am glad I met my friend for lunch, because she continues to give me the courage to find my own voice. She once said to me that people who have a gift for teaching urban middle school students have a moral obligation to continue the work. Now I see her wavering, not because she does not love her students, but because she cannot be true to the relationship, and ultimately herself. I am terrified that this will be yet another a piece of the carnage left behind in this battle–just one more casualty soon forgotten in the sweeping, dispassionate corporate take over of our American Public Education System. But even more, I am soul sick for the students who may never have the opportunity to cross the threshold of her classroom.
Disillusion.
Demoralization.
Burn-out.
Carnage.
More notches on the belts of the so-called reformers…