Howard Katzoff doesn’t understand why the commentators at MSNBC are so ill-informed about education issues. With the exception of Ed Schultz and possibly Chris Hayes, the commentators at MSNBC have swallowed the snake oil of corporate reform. Although they are usually out front on social and political issues, they sound like Fox News on education. When Education Nation opens in September, all of NBC turns into a cheerleading squad for the non-educators who paint by numbers (test scores).
In this post, Mr. Katzoff reminds Chris Matthews what education should be: it should be about educating the whole child in the liberal arts and sciences. It should not be a race for higher test scores or a process dominated by fear of failure.
Mr. Katzoff remembers when he started teaching:
“Look at our educational system from the point of view of well-meaning adults who use their academic knowledge and interpersonal skills with kids every day— and you will see that the whole discussion about American Education is framed from what Society needs, rather than from who children are.
“That is what is wrong with American public education.
“When our generation came into teaching in the mid-1960′s, it was typical for a Superintendent of Schools to make a speech at the start of the school year to inspire idealism among the staff, especially among the first- year teachers. Educational leaders would inevitably quote Socrates and the classics, alluding to the higher purposes of our jobs.”
But consider how things have changed:
“When I attended my last early September motivational meeting before I retired, the new regional superintendent came to our school to tell us we were in danger of getting a failing grade from the New York City Department of Education. Then she proceeded with graphs and charts to show exactly how we could move last year’s test scores to her projected scores for that year.
The instructional culture within American public schools has radically shifted from the classical Liberal Arts and Sciences or Humanistic tradition which emphasizes all the Arts, Sciences, Literature, History, Physical Education, Hand Work, Civics and Community Service— the paradigm of EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD.”
Our leaders are obsessed with numbers and data, not children or learning. That’s backwards.
Chris, can you help us? Rachel Maddow, can you?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The “paint by numbers” metaphor is precise. It very neatly encapsulates what’s wrong with this philistine, technocratic, Big Data approach to the humane undertakings of teaching and learning.
Reblogged this on Middletown Voice.
an outstanding piece
Chris Matthews doesn’t stop talking long enough to listen and learn. He consistently thinks he’s the smartest person in the room, which is rarely the case. He also appears to have a crush on Michelle Rhee.
Chris also has a crush on Sarah Palin, repeatedly talking about her good looks, and he treated Eva Moskowitz with deference, saying something like “you know I love you; I’m just playing devil’s advocate.”
I used to watch Matthews. One day I was watching and he was talking about the future of the Democratic Party. He was showing a clip of the Dem Convention and bashing how many teachers there were in the convention. He said, “teachers” over and over in a very negative way and then going along with some bs privatization person who was trashing public ed. I never watched him again. MSNBC is the biggest charter school propaganda channel. We all know NBC’s Education Nation is a propaganda clown show.
Seriously?
Someone can’t understand why a mega-corporation is stumping for corporate ownership of education?
Socrates received no funding from the Athenian state so (up to a point) he could teach as he pleased. If the state funds you you must do as they say. Such is the nature of power.
“..so (up to a point) he could teach as he pleased.”
Yeah, up to the point they killed him. But other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?
I don’t particularly like it but I have no choice. It doesn’t matter what I like or don’t like. Reality doesn’t care.
That’s strange, I thought that in a democracy, the state is supposed to be responsive to the public.
Silly me, that’s so 20th century. I forgot that in the 21st century, it’s serf’s up.
Six corporate entities own all the media, and ‘news’ about education is carefully spun.
How else would the lawless assault on the professional teachers be hidden for two decades. Over a hundred thousand of our veteran teachers, experienced, educated, talented and dedicated were deprived of due process and spit out of the public schools and no one that I meet, anywhere, knows about this first step in taking down public education, even though it is ongoing across the nation, and in full swing in the second largest school district LAUSD, in Ca.
We are in step 2 now, Diane. Now that the real teacher-practitioner is gone, and bottom-up practice has been replaced by top-down anti-learning mandates and agendas, the schools are failing. So, replace them with private charter schools… and then…tell the public lies… that these are the new public schools. I watch the ads in astonishment… but then I am cynical and ensured to lies after listening to the GOP.
Also, I read (or listened to the audio on a recent road trip) Al Franken’s “Lies, and The Lying Liars Who Tell Them,” and that was written before Fox news began to alter reality as it does now. “I am currently reading his book “Truth,”
As for your statement that “Our leaders are obsessed with numbers and data, not children or learning” I say, we have no leaders, just toadies who do the bidding of the corporate elite and oligarchs who KNOW that ending real learning in the schools is the first step to creating an ignorant citizenry that cannot tell truth from lies, and believes the altered versions of history that they ‘teach.”
But what do I know… I am a mere teacher.
“…and oligarchs who KNOW that ending real learning in the schools is the first step to creating an ignorant citizenry that cannot tell truth from lies, and believes the altered versions of history that they ‘teach.” ….”
Susan,
So TRUE!!!
Susan,
You certainly spell out the vast control that corporations have. I have come to realize that multi-national corporations control everything. Media, governments, and it follows that our national education system would follow down this cul-de-sac called the reform movement.
The reform movement has one thing in mind: privatization.
I am wondering if National Public Radio might be an accommodating media outlet…
Don’t expect much from Ms Maddow.
You’re right. Ms. Maddow knows little about public education. Her focus seems to be on D.C. politics, the military, foreign affairs, orientation issues, etc.
I want to be clear about what is occurring in the media!
Matthews or Maddow’s programs are much like the popular news everywhere — on tv and in cyberspace! It is ALL about HOT topics — and education ain’t hot…it is ice cold –dead– killed by a plethora of voices, none of whom are TEACHERS! Killed by the torrent of punditry and static that sows confusion and outright falsehoods drowning out the voices of those who genuinely discuss the complex issue of learning.
You cannot be that naive that you expect Matthews to be different. The conversation in this country is never about the most insidious processes that subverts education. In fact, education does not inspire commentary or readership.
Particularly absent is the voice of the authentic, experienced, professional teachers, like those I read here..The choice of topics which pass as “the news” is the same list that dominates the headlines everywhere in the controlled media.
http://www.perdaily.com/2011/08/subverting-the-national-conversation-a.html
Even on the site where I write, despite my pleas to the publisher to make genuine education news prominent, few headlines are about education. One would know very little about the way that the charter movement is being fed by big money and at this moment is pushing out what remains of public education with a campaign of lies, and the prommotion of legislation in many states that undermines public schools.
Genuine narratives and conversations about education, like one find’s on Diane site, are few and far between in the popular news media — everywhere, even on line, — and authentic educators will never be featured in front page articles that describe the reality of what it takes to enable learning. Except when there is a disaster or something amiss —falling test scores or incompetent teachers, — there is no media covering authentic teacher’s BEST practice.
I use the word “authentic” and “genuine” a great deal, if you read my commentary anywhere that I write.
At Diane’s site the genuine voices of authentic teachers are loud and clear, and I am joining them, a bit late, because I have been busy taking photos and writing elsewhere…something I did to recover my wits after I was harassed out of my career –just as I earned a reputation for something extraordinary that I had accomplished.
You won’t hear anywhere,, the terrible tale of loss that I and thousands experienced at the end of successful service. This topic is forbidden, not just on Matthews show. Even when education IS the conversation “du jour” !
Why? BECAUSE -upon hearing the reality of what actually occurred– everyone immediately asks: “But how could this happen?” And, the ANSWER to THAT is a very unpalatable truth. Dan Rather asked me that very question, 14 years ago, and I understood his incredulity, because at that time, I was just as shocked.
Who will ever explain CLEARLY to a clueless public, why the schools were made to fail, OR how it was accomplished by easily removing the professionals– OR why ending veteran teacher practice was only a first step? The ‘education blogosphere is following the CHARTER SCHOOLS takeover, but it was that first step that made it possible for the private sector to co-opt the conversation.
How indeed, in America, could so many thousands of Americans be removed from their workplace by slander and false allegation? Who represented them? How is that lawlessness enabled in the educational workplace. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfNxj-O1DiI
The answer to THAT question spells the truth, and must be addressed before the current, dedicated leadership of the unions can move forward to remedy the flaw… the one that brings no accountability to ADMINISTRATION in the educational workplace, and allows failed human beings to do their thing, willy nilly, to dedicated professionals. We saw what lack of accountability did to the financial markets. It is the way it works in the schools.
http://www.speakingasateacher.com/SPEAKING_AS_A_TEACHER/No_Constitutional_Rights-_A_hidden_scandal_of_National_Proportion.html
All of us who bit the dirt, know the unpalatable truth about the abandonment we experienced when top-down administration came gunning for the tenured teacher, ….but that story is for my diary at Oped.
I am not a teacher-abuse activist, and have no site, although I think they are brave, passionate ‘keyboard warriors’ who deserve a voice. I write about learning, what it looks like, and how to facilitate it in a classroom. I am a mere teacher who knows what has happened, because I was there, and I have a story to tell, with characters that —as the playwright I am— could not invent, engaged in a plot that I could never have imagined. Where are you Chris Matthews when you are needed?
There must be a reason that Rachel Maddow never talks about education, but I can’t figure out what it is. Some in NYC say she is a friend of Eva Moskowitz, others say she is a friend of Cory Booker. I have no idea but it can’t be an oversight not ever to discuss education.
Chris Mathews’ daughter went to Georgetown Visitation Preparatory, a Catholic girl high school in the Georgetown section of Washington DC (median house price $1.1 Million). The tuition for this year is $25,500.
She is a big fan of Cory Booker (who is outdoing even the now reform-saturated Dem party by taking the first step toward toppling the last standing sacred cow – vouchers. He likes them.) She may also be pals with Moskowitz. Whatever it is that motivates her avoidance of all things education reform (or just education, since that would lead to the reform topic), her silence is shameful. Especially when she finds hours and hours, day after day, to breathlessly rehash the most minute and overplayed details of GOP scandals none too small for a half hour of her attention (eg, anything Christie), as if Dems winning future elections were the only issues that need concern us. She deviates to reporting on issues rather than party fluffing only when they are issues that are safe to at least a large chunk of the Dem party.
The only MSNBC hosts who dare to show a bit of independence here are, from my observations, Chris Hayes and Melissa Harris-Perry, who have actually had anti-reform guests at the table on the rare occasions when they take on the issue, and give them equal voice and respect. Ed Shultz also speaks up for teachers’ unions, but he doesnt really take on these odious reform issues … maybe he has since I stopped watching most MSNBC shows, including his… just got tired of watching FOX for Democrats.
Marcella, Cory Booker was chair of the hedge fund managers’ organization called Democrats for Education Reform. It supports charters and privatization.
Nice! I’d assumed all of MSNBC was a lost cause to the public education side whether because of unthinking loyalty to Obama or because of some corporate ties (does MSNBC’s parent Comcast have business ties to people making money out of “reform”? I don’t know). I was gratified to see Ed Schultz’s take one day but he’s on too early for me. A shame they moved him out of prime time, maybe stuff like this is why.
Keep up the pressure.
By “she” in my prior post, I was responding to Diane’s, but I should have named her:
Rachel Maddow.
Education is and always has been completely OFF the Maddow Menu. Shameful.
(She also spoke up very little against major corporate intrusion and domination (victory!) in the forming of ACA/Obamacare – Obama’s
broken campaign promises about no excise tax (against union members’ plans), drug reimportation, public option, etc – the adulteration of what could have been a far better healthcare law. When that was a hot topic, she often gave it short shrift or no attention at all. I just don’t see her as the liberal voice/champion many claim she is.)
We need Rachel in this fight. Please send her an invitation.
https://www.facebook.com/therachelmaddowshow
http://www.maddowfans.com/
rachel@msnbc.com
Mr. Katzoff gets to the heart of what I think is one of the main problems with our educational system. We tell the students what they need. We don’t let them discover their interests and abilities. Then we wonder why students are not excited about learning. When learning is about what someone else wants the child to do, the power is taken away from that child. Those goals may not mean anything to the child, either.
Wrong. Read *The Seven Myths of Education* by Daisy Christodoulou. She has a nice article in this month’s American Educator. The latest research debunks every claim you just made.
I think you misunderstood what I was trying to convey. I am not saying students should only have discovery learning, which seems a theme in the book, based on a brief google search. School needs to be relevant to kids. Keep tech ed and family and consumer sciences. Don’t spend so much time on reading and math because of the tests. We should have a system where students can choose what kind of education they want for high school, more like in Europe, and apprenticeships after for those who want a trade.
So glad you brought this up. I am a “loyal” MSNBC viewer….except for turning off the insufferable Joe Scarborough on many mornings…..and I have been shocked at their turning their backs on the plight of public education. I have also come to accept that they are all quite wealthy and keeping corporate happy, and agreeing with corporate’s politics trumps all. I am hoping that Al Sharpton and Alex Wagner and Krystal Ball will start to draw attention on the crisis in public education. But , yes, the MSNBC crew seems to be enamored with charter schools. (as is the POTUS for whom I slogged through the soggy yards in Lackawanna County PA to help him get elected) I am going to send these folks hand written letters…because it really bothers and disappoints me.
Elaine Nagle, the one great friend of public education on MSNBC is Ed Schultz of the Ed Show.
DFER named Krystal Ball Education Reformer of the Month. She is also the founder of an education software company.
https://secure.actblue.com/partner/dfer
Rev. Al Sharpton’s $500G link to education reform, By Juan Gonzalez
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/rev-al-sharpton-500g-link-education-reform-article-1.359635
Can’t resist throwing in a criticism of Fox News. When will liberals appreciate that the majority of cable views choose Fox News.
And, incidentally, it is the Fox News viewers, YES….Tea Party folks who began the grass roots effort to stop Common Core.
Be respectful and be open minded enough to see large central govt. is something we all must resist…even MSNBC and Fox viewers.
If you hope your champion, whether Rachel or whomever, will see the light, then write them a letter. But change will only happen when teachers, students, and parents rise up and say, “No more!”
Remember the words of Frederick Douglass: “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has and it never will…The limits of tyrants are proscribed by the endurance of those they oppress…Men may not get all they pay for in this world, but they must certainly pay for all they get.” (West India Emancipation)
Any broadcasting enterprise dependent on advertising will have to toe the corporate line when push comes to shove, or be willing to go off the air. (Anybody remember Air America radio?) As another 19th century writer said (Thoreau, and I am paraphrasing here):” If you really want to do something about slavery, resign your office.”
It’s tough to resist when your paycheck is at stake. But “one plus one plus one makes a million,” as the old song says. Sing for justice, and don’t stop until we win.
It is certainly not just Matthews. Ed Schultz, who in many ways, first gave a national voice to the Wisconsin uprising, keeps giving its most conservative Democratic senator a megaphone. Lena Taylor is no friend to public education, is active with DFER, she is a buddy of Howard Fuller and has support from the Federation for Children. There are a range of other issues that take her out of the progressive camp too. This is the piece from the Schultz show. http://www.msnbc.com/the-ed-show/watch/conservatives-push-for-profit-chart-schools-209696323987