Peter Greene has noticed that reformers are in love with order. They love it wWhen students wear identical uniforms and walk in straight lines without a word.
He writes:
“The Cult of Order believes in blind, unthinking devotion to Order. Everything must be in its proper place. Everything must go according to plan. Everything must be under control.
“It is not new to find cult members in education. We all work with a least a couple. Desks must be just so. The surface of the teacher desk must be pristine and orderly enough that bacteria will avoid it and others will either stay back in awe (or experience a near-uncontrollable urge to violate it). Students lose a letter grade for putting their name in the wrong corner of a paper. In high schools, they believe that even seniors would benefit from going class to class in neat and orderly lines.
“But reformster members take the Cult of Order to new levels.
“They were bothered by the chaos of the crazy-quilt state standards, each different from the rest. They are alarmed at the possibility that individual teachers might be teaching differently from other teachers. Order, predictability, uniformity– these are qualities to be pursued, not because they are a path to better outcomes of some sort, but because they are in and of themselves desirable outcomes. Standardization and a national curriculum that gets every student in every classroom on the same page at the same time– this vision is good. Don’t ask “Good for what?” To the Cult of Order that’s a nonsense question, like asking about the utility of a kiss. For them, controlled, orderly standardization is as beautiful as a sunrise.
“The Cult of Order is all about fear– fear that some sort of dark, menacing chaos lurks just beyond the borders. There’s a horrible monster waiting just on the other side of that white picket fence, and the only way to keep it at bay is to make the fence just as neat and orderly as possible.
“And yet, we know this is not how the world of human beings works. Human relationships are messy, wobbly, unpredictable, hard to plan. At first flutter of your heart, you cannot know how that story will end. Friendship may grow or wither, and no amount of orderly control can change it. And on the large scale, throughout human history, the dream of perfect order always travels hand in hand with aspirations of totalitarian despots.”
The Cult of Order never succeeds. In this country, for sure, it won’t. We are too diverse, too varied, too rambunctious, too independent, ultimately too non-conformist for it ever to succeed, not here, not now, not ever.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I share the writer’s concern over schools that create an authoritarian nightmare where creativity is drowned in an atmosphere of adherance to hierarchical compliance.
That said, I disagree with respect to the value of school uniforms.
When a school has uniforms, the arms race on who can spend the most on apparel is eliminated. Some otherwise great schools become undesirable when the students lose their values in a overt race to see who can accumulate the most desirable clothes.
With uniforms, it becomes very difficult to differentiate students from radically different economic strata, particularly in cultures in which the coolest are those with the rattiest uniforms.
Our son was fortunate enough to be part of such a school and it was impossible to tell the difference between the many full scholarship boys and those from middle class or exceptionally affluent homes.
As uniforms are outgrown by students, they are donated to the school for use by financial aid students and all works out well.
Our son took great pride in his ability to don some of the rattiest uniforms on campus, a badge of honor in this among the very best schools in the nation.
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I can assure you that, uniforms or not, all the kids know who the scholarship kids are and who the rich kids are.
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Allow me to write for the students:
Uniforms suck!
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At my gifted school we nixed the idea of a uniform to allow children creativity in their choice of clothing. And some did express themselves in unique ways which would not have been possible with a standard dress code.
Also, my friend went to parochial school and had school uniforms, but once a month they had a day set aside for regular outfits. She needed a new one for each month – and since it was just one, she wanted to make her choice count. Ka-Ching!
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I agree that both Amazon and Walmart Stores are virtually totalitarian.
By no means do their protocols represent the best managed companies who could not compete if they implemented the authoritarian protocols of either of those.
The creative class wunderkinds that put wind under their wings would walk out never to return.
Incidentally, if you thought that you knew Walmart Stores, read this uber-compelling piece in the New York Times Sunday Magazine for a better comprehension of what it is like to be an entry level Walmart Stores employee.
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Yes, the obsession with order is akin to many totalitarian ideas. And we know that in New York State, Cuomo is wholeheartedly embracing these horrific ideas. So, please come to this important forum on September 10th in Brooklyn!
CUOMO IS DESTROYING OUR SCHOOLS
THE GREEN ALTERNATIVE
Millions are fed up with Governor Cuomo and his disastrous education and labor
policies. Brian Jones, the Green Party Candidate for Lieutenant Governor, joins
parents, teachers and students to discuss an alternative vision for public
education in our city and state. The time is now to bring together anger and
organization. BACK TO SCHOOL, BACK IN ACTION!
featuring
BRIAN JONES is the Green Party Candidate for Lieutenant Governor
KAREN SPROWAL is a Harlem based activist and former charter school parent. She recently led a
successful campaign against InBloom, a Bill Gates funded student data collection company.
PRIMI AKHTAR is a student activist, recent HS graduate and organizer with the NYC Student Union*
ROSIE FRASCELLA is a teacher and activist with the Movement of Rank and File Educators
(MORE)* and the New York Collective of Radical Educators (NYCoRE)* She recently led a successful testing
boycott at her school.BRIAN JONES is the Green Party Candidate for Lieutenant Governor
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10
AT THE COMMONS (388 ATLANTIC AVE, BROOKLYN) 6:30PM
SPONSORED BY: THE BROOKLYN COMMITTEES FOR HOWIE HAWKINS FOR GOVERNOR CAMPAIGN
*Organizations are listed for identification purposes only
**************
Sent by Daniella Liebling
Parent of a 4th Grader and the
Brooklyn New School
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I’m looking forward to the upcoming primary. I hope Cuomo understands our votes. Unfortunately, teachers are not the only group he has ticked off.
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Interesting that the reformsters require “order” in their school yet promote chaos in communities and districts!
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An extremely important point: public schools are destabilized, reorganized, “disrupted,” to use the current faddish term, so that a new “order” is put in place.
That the real beneficiaries – Gates, Broad, TFA, the Walton family, vulture capitalists and many others – of this new (dis)order are rarely mentioned in polite discourse is intentional. The kids, whom the so-called reformers always claim it’s all about, are collateral damage,along with their teachers.
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Dumcan is a Quaker
It seems he is saving children ala the Quaker vision.
Table spacing for Quaker meals is quite important.
There is a long list of rules posted at Quaker Houses to keep worshippers in line.
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I don’t think you understand the members of the Society of Friends (Quakers) at all. What are you trying to say, and could you not bash someone’s religion while you do it?
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As I recall, some of my most memorable classes were the messy ones. I often had my ELLs working in cooperative groups to create or explain or support whatever we were learning. When 4th graders were learning about the three branches of government, we divided into the three branches, voted, repealed laws and had the Supreme Court decide if the law was legal. I guarantee that they will always remember how the three branches work. For the younger student, the constructivist approach works best, and you can still teach skills and big ideas while the kids learn social skills and self regulation. That’s why a heavy dose of rote or CAI with elementary kids falls flat. If I were teaching today, I would feel like I was wearing a straight jacket.
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CAI = ???
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CAI= Computer Assisted Instruction
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“a heavy dose of rote or CAI with elementary kids falls flat.”
I would guess that a heavy dose of the CIA would also flat 🙂
I taught secondary science and the most memorable classes I ‘taught” were ones where I didn’t really ‘do” anything.
The students were so absorbed in the activity at hand that they basically forgot i was even there.
Such classes tended to be very “messy”, but were well worth the extra time to set up and clean up afterwards.
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Hands On beats out Direct Instruction the majority of the time. (Notice I didn’t say 100%)
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Examine the strategy of this as a deliberate detour away from professional obsession with elegant learning provocations, a beautiful sequence of equations or a sensuous poem rendering.
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I do agree that there is this comparison to totalitarianism within schools in NYC. I do think uniforms would be a good idea, however that only works if the school culture is restructured to emphasize the sense of “dressing to look professional.” Often times last year, everything had to be a certain way. Bulletin boards had to be posted and required a fair amount of items that really did nothing to promote engagement and learning. Data reports had to be sent periodically. Rooms had to look a certain way. As a History teacher I often draw comparisons between one civilization and another. Last year, it was quite easy to get across the idea of totalitarianism.
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The irony is at the same time these cult of order reformers are standardizing, they stand next to CEO’s/entrepreneurs who loudly proclaim they look for employees who think out of the box.
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Teaching square dancing and hosting marching band is a much better way to bring about this coveted order. At least then there is music.
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And when these children are adults, will they become frustrated by a world that does not operate with this type of uniform order? What will they do then? Will they attack those who are not in sync with them? Will they consider that the norm for good living?
Scary thought.
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“Standardization and a national curriculum that gets every student in every classroom on the same page at the same time– this vision is good. Don’t ask “Good for what?” To the Cult of Order that’s a nonsense question, like asking about the utility of a kiss.”
“…the utility of a kiss.” That comparison just cracked me up because it is so true. I cringe at the thought of all 4th grade teachers in a district teaching the same math concept at the same time. Do they synchronize their mandated differentiation as well? H-m-m-m.
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” Do they synchronize their mandated differentiation as well?’
TAGO!
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It’s synchronized in square dancing. . .
and ladies to right, and gents to the left, now circle right. . .with a right hand’s cross and a “how do ya do?” and a back to the left with a “how are you?”
promenade your corner. . .and do-si-do your partner.
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One of my uncles could call a mean square dance. It was great!
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There is a profound disconnect between reformers and teachers.
Many reformers operate at Kohlberg’s Conventional level of morality (which emphasizes following rules to maintain order) — and some even operate at the Pre-conventional level (self interest, punishment avoidance) while most teachers operate at the Post conventional level ( social contract, universal ethical principles )
And never the twain shall meet.
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They will never meet if the Deformers have political and economic agendas, and their goals are a top down dictum, rather than a true reformation. They are just looking for good robots to obey. Real reformation has to come from the field, by those that truly understand the teaching-learning process and have respect for those that dedicate their lives to teaching.
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COMPLIANCE with the rules and judgments of authorities cannot be earned by the most powerful forms of influence–belief in the legitimacy of leaders and their requests, respect for their expertise, and the most powerful force, love–a feeling of oneness with those who speak and take action. The latter is the hallmark the work that keeps teachers going, and it is increased when teachers are, in turn, respected for their expertise, and treated as persons who are professionals, not incompetent, uncaring, and unloving.
.
A pathological emphasis on control of education in the first decades of this century is real.
Control is necessary because the underlying policies being forced on workers in public education are not the product of thinking by educators but the insular thinking of economists and profit-seekers, The policies are not credible. They are not respected as legitimate methods for addressing the education of children and teens who are NOT “human capital” but wonderful human beings and capable of subtle perception, nuanced understanding, and curiosity about their world–all worthy of reciprocal attention from adults, especially their teachers.
Control is necessary because the alphabet soup of policies forwarded in NCLB, RttT, TIF and CCSS, and PARCC tests and SMARTER tests, and VAMS and SLOS, have no edibility. They are so bad that they need to be marketed, spun into fully paid for PR systems “public relations” campaigns, professionally crafted “messaging systems,” cosmetic treatments to get “buy-in.”
Control is combined with constant spin. The central message is all of the spinning to support horrific policies is this: “It is all about improving student learning.” The explicit or implicit companion message is: “You are unprofessional if you say otherwise.”
Control and spin are needed because the policies are not based on the informed consent of those who are expected to act upon them. The systematic misrepresentations of the origin and virtues of the CCSS, the practice of making testing the central determinant of the the arc of a school year; the billionaire-bought ratings of curriculum materials for verbatim COMPLIANCE with the CCSS; the pseudo science of VAM; the farce of SLOs; the failures of pay-for-performance; the corruption in charter schools–all are among the known frauds–but they are still being marketed as “the solutions” to educational problems.
Control is necessary because teachers see, understand, and live with the consequences of these frauds. They are being exposed to some truths beyond the professionally contrived spin from USDE, from the American Legislative Exchange COuncil (ALEC), from Achieve and the Council of Chief State School Officers, from billionaire-funded marketing campaigns some with scared-y-cat “anonymous donors.”
Control the messaging system is needed to beautify failed and flawed policies. The proliferation of spin and “reframing” efforts by well-funded, arrogant, ignorant, control-freaks may be a good sign. Those who created and advocated truly dangerous educational policies know they are in trouble.. The spin masters and control freaks are needed because the pushers of terrible policies are running scared. They are afraid of informed and justified criticism of their policies, especially from people who are angry as hell and who understand when someone is trying to sell them junk and junk science.
Enough already…(not from NY, not Brooklyn, but vintage NYU-er).
An aside, my opening remarks about the power of love, expertise, and legitimacy versus carrots and sticks is derived from the work of French and Raven on social influence–vintage 1960s.
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If one is content to have individuals who are incapable of working in any organization nor hierarchical in nature, lock-step educational organizations might be an optimal choice.
Wealth of nations evolves from innovation. Innovation is possible only in an
environment of creativity, with the optimal environment being in an IDEO sort of environment.
The US has a large portion of college graduates who are incapable of doing work requiring a critical mass of independent thought, and are destined to fill jobs such as folding clothes in a mall store or driving taxi cabs, jobs normally filled by high school graduates.
If you seek to have a work force devoid of critical thinking, the ideal environment to develop such a work force is a teach to the test, high stakes standardized testing environment.
If you have such an environment, you had better be prepared to see the quality of living decline substantially in future generations in the US as compared to what you have seen in the past couple of generations.
How the massive indebtedness of over $15 trillion can get retired with a suboptimal work force remains a question for public policy makers. I do not have the answer.
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Tour de force comment, Laura! I was dismayed yesterday to hear Dana Goldstein pronounce the CCSS “good” on “Fresh Air”. She’s a smart journalist, but she’s not a teacher. And while the CCSS seem inoffensive on their face, the curriculum materials based on them are largely mutant curriculum –Goldstein should look at those. Would she like to attend a school serving up such stultifying fare? I understand the leaders’ desire for control –the system seems a huge, wobbly, unmanageable mess when viewed from above. But there is a sort of order down here in the weeds, and it’s a better order than what they –in their ignorance of education –are able to imagine.
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Typo on “edibility” is almost as good as intended “credibility.”
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“policies forwarded in NCLB, RttT, TIF and CCSS, and PARCC tests and SMARTER tests, and VAMS and SLOS, have no edibility. ”
don’t forget the bad Apples (LAUSD iPad bid-rigging)
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It’s always seemed to me that corporations are totalitarian regimes, essentially akin to Communist China’s or any other nasty regime out there. The CEOs love that model and want to impose it on education. What if we call the CEOs out on their resemblance to Mao, Castro and other anti-American, anti-democratic regimes? Let’s call them “workplace dictatorships”. What if we in education start demanding that corporations be more like the education sector? That they respect their workers more, allow them a seat at the table, let them collectively bargain, etc.? Let us be as expansionist and imperialistic with OUR model as they are being with theirs!
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If Ponderosa would examine the corporate culture of those companies that lead each of the industries, s/he would find a virtual void of totalitarian regimes.
Certainly there is a critical mass of hierarchical organizations, but top-down management is probably the least effective mode of management.
If you examine the Tuck School at Dartmouth College study of the relationship of customer satisfaction with increases in stock market capitalization, you can quantify that totalitarian management is not the way to run a business.
If you look at the root causes that prompted the demise of the Big 3 Detroit auto makers, especially GM, you will see the difference between having conflict among management, labor, suppliers and customers and more enlightened companies that manage to have customers for life.
Alex Hailey’s “Wheels” provides a good profile of what is wrong with Detroit. “Ioccoca” also supplies some valuable insight, particularly the environment that Chrysler had when Lee Ioccoca was brought in to salvage the company.
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Amazon is not totalitarian? Walmart?
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This need for extreme order I believe started with Zero Tolerance and has continued to the point where kids cannot even be allowed to choose what they wear to school. But of course that is mostly poor kids, with the excuse that there will be less bullying if everyone dresses the same. Of course the kids know who only has one or two uniforms. They come to school wet in the winter time when the radiator isn’t working. They know who has “charity” uniforms and who proudly buys their 5-7 outfits from a department store because they announce it in class. Next, they will be putting uniforms on teachers. Oh, I forget, Atlanta Public Schools. King Middle, 1998. Principal tried to put us in blue jumpers or pants and white tops. THE TEACHERS! So the kids would get used to the idea! The whole thing has cresendoed into the testing mentality, charter schools, Core Curricula written by someone who is not a teacher and machine graded essays.
School administrators freak out over a lack of “order” and have lost the ability to tell the difference in learning noise and out of control noise. They just go along with the program and forget about the teachers and the students. So the slow ones drop out physically as soon as they legally can, mentally by the 6th grade, the teachers retire as soon as they are allowed and are replaced by Teach for Americas who will only work for two years so it doesn’t matter anyway. And the only ones who raise cain are the special education parents when the principal wants their children to wear uniforms and they can’t because their saliva will stain the white shirts beyond the hope of even name brand Clorox and they will eat the buttons.
I am not for chaos, but it seems to me that kids ought to get practice in decision making and self expression before college. It’s no wonder they drink and party until they are thrown out. Normal freedom is something they have never experienced.
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“…the difference in learning noise and out of control noise.”
That is an important difference to note. When I go to my daughters’ progressive school, rarely is it quiet (except just after lunch when most classes have shared/group reading time), but never is the noise alarming or indicative of chaos or lack of learning. Now if I go to a school that is completely quiet, it raises my hackles more than all but the most chaotic clearly out-of-control noise.
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A colleague of mine had the misfortune of having one of these law-and-order types as her next door neighbor at school. Her class was presenting skits (in French) one day, and one group was so funny, the kids were nearly rolling in the aisles with laughter. The door between the classrooms suddenly was pushed open by the affronted party (whose classroom was empty of students during that period). My friend looked up and asked in her best imposing teacher voice:
– Can I help you with something, Mr. T?
– I wanted to see if everything is alright in here.
– Why would you think it wasn’t?
– Well, I heard a lot of laughter…
– So laughter led you to believe I needed your help?
Honestly, if you can’t tell the difference between joy and chaos, you have no business in a school.
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There was a school in Buffalo that had an “unofficial” dress code (there is no official dress code for teachers in the contract) for teachers consisting of black and white clothing. It was “softened” a little to include grey. If you didn’t agree, then you didn’t have to work there.
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Control is about money and power, just as book promotions and pop psychology.
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“Both sides now” (apologies to Joni Mitchell)
Common Cores of billionaires
And funding initiatives in the air and student triumph everywhere
I’ve viewed reforms that way
But now they only block the fun
Harass and stress-out everyone
So many things I could have done
But tests got in my way
I’ve viewed reform from both sides now
From Ravitch and Rhee, but still somehow
Reform intrusions I recall
I really don’t like those at all
“Race to the Top” and “charter schools”
The dizzy dancing way you feel when every fairy tale comes real
I’ve viewed reform that way
But now it’s just another show, you leave ’em testing when you go
And if you care don’t let them know, don’t give yourself away
I’ve viewed reform from both sides now
From give and take and still somehow, it’s endless testing I recall
I really don’t like that at all
VAMs and DAMs and Billyan Errs
And Common Chores and ed softwares
And Pearson testing everywheres
I view reform that way
So now old “friends” are yanking waivers
They shake their fist, withdraw their favors
well, something’s lost but something savored in sending them away
I’ve viewed reform from both sides now
From dollars and sense, but still somehow
Reform confusions I recall
I really don’t like those at all
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Almost perfect! SomeDamPoet – you’re the “most”!
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TAGrO!!!!!
Agree with Ellen! I sang the words to the song and it fits perfectly. (not that anyone would want to hear me sing, just ask my kids)
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For those who don’t know the original:
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Standardization and a national curriculum that gets every student in every classroom on the same page at the same time– this vision is good. Don’t ask “Good for what?” To the Cult of Order that’s a nonsense question,” — Peter greene
Actually, standardization makes perfect sense if you wish to make and sell software to deliver curriculum and test the outcome.
In fact, standardization is by far the most effective way to accomplish the latter. Without standardization, it’s a nightmare because you have to write (and maintain) custom software for each different district (or perhaps even each school).
it’s no accident that Bill Gates is behind Common Core and other aspects of the push for such standardization — or that Microsoft is collaborating with Pearson to effectively cash in on the standardization.
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Greene and others should read “The Authoritarian Personality” , by Theodor Adorno, which gives a far deeper understanding of the phenomena he observes,, as well as its larger apolitical implications.
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This line of discussion brings to mind the classic video clip of robotic compliance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axSnW-ygU5g
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I would argue that assigning any student that happens to live at 559 Maple street to the same school is a huge part of the cult of order. Move to 608 Maple, and you automatically are transferred to another school. Each student is treated as a street address.
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But school “choice” ends up working the same way anyway. Kids may not be “assigned” to schools based on their address, but they still end up in the same kind of school based on their family’s income – they just have to travel further to get there, and they may not be able to go with their siblings. Explain why that’s better.
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Dienne,
I don’t think what you describe is likely to be the case in districts like my local public district. In my district there is an elementary school with a little less than 20% of students eligible for free and reduced price lunch and another elementary school with a little over 70% of students eligible for free and reduced price lunch. The rest of the schools are in between, so if students at the high poverty elementary school were to attend any other school they would be among students who are on average, less poor than their assigned school.
My district tries to use assignments to reduce SES segregation, so many students are assigned to junior and senior high schools that are further from their home than the nearest school. School choice would allow parents and students to choose the closer school over the more distant school the residents of that street address are assigned to attend.
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Back in the 90’s I did a research paper comparing Japanese and American education. We were looking at adopting the Japanese model at the time. I concluded that Japanese education works there because it is a product of and reinforces the culture. Sounds like you are referring to the same folks who want order and discipline at the expense of creativity. I just wonder how much destruction must occur to reach a tipping point? American education succeeds when it supports and reinforces our highest cultural values even when, especially when they are messy.
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And this is why the reformers hate all those who disagree with them. They hate the idea of democracy because it is messy. But that is its beauty. Freedom is also messy. But with freedom comes creativity. I will always accept the mess made by freedom and democracy because the alternative often has lead to the death of millions. If the reformers love order so much, they should be inspired by the order of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.
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Liberal,
The orthodox opinion here is against messy, at least when it comes to allowing students to choose a school and if teacher pay is anything other than step/lane determined. I suppose messiness is in the eye of the beholder.
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What now little man? You pick at posters perceived inconsistencies as if you were picking nits. Your postings, with their surface rationality and calm, are ‘put downs’ signifying nothing; they are your verbal tics. The sadness is that posters waste their precious time responding to you as if what you write has meaning and is of consequence. I realize that I am but one more poster who has wasted space responding to you. But, alas.someone has to write what is obvious.
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John a,
Any thoughts on the content of my post? It seems to me that Peter Greene is making a general claim about “reformers” for which it is easy to find counterexamples in the “reform” movement and examples of the general claim in traditional public schools. Do you think that I am incorrect about this?
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TE,
I have followed your postings for ever so long; actually, too long I ‘ain’t’ gonna get sucked into one more of your apparently substantive, but actually empty posts. No doubt other poster, thinking you an intellectually honest poster, will engage you to their frustration and detriment.
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john a,
Certainly no one need respond to any posts here.
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Möbius strip ride…
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Deb,
Not a Möbius strip at all. I am arguing that Peter Greene is incorrect that those interested in changing traditional public schools are “in love with order”. I give reasons for my positions. Perhaps it is the giving of reasons for a position that folks find unusual here.
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TE,
Indian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan, or Bangladeshi???
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Duane,
I don’t understand the point of your post.
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I must say, if the Cult of Order had been enforced while I was teaching, I would have been in trouble plenty. I am a serendipitous person that has order in my mind, but not as evidenced by my desktop. I can find what I need in the so-called “chaos”. But, I can’t follow a “plan” to the letter. It just never works for me. The best learning/teaching moments I experienced were the outgrowth of something unplanned or tangentially spawned from what we were discussing.
I cannot even imagine in my wildest dreams following a script and getting great outcomes. It makes no sense. If you have 25 kids, you have 25 slightly different responses to every event. If you have a classroom that has disruptions from coughing, falling, laughing, a wasp in the room, an ant carrying a tiny chip of a Dorito marching across the floor, the SmartBoard needing re-synched, a firedrill, a tardy student, a sick student, a crying student with problems at home, a hungry student, etc. you must simply deal with it. And, this stuff isn’t on script.
Another thing I found ridiculous was the idea that every learning goal should be posted for students to see. In elementary, there are times when you have 7 subjects in a day, and for each subject you may have an overlap of several goals, even interdisciplinatry goals. Sometimes you don’t realize ALL the goals and objectives until you get into the teaching because it isn’t always apparent as you write your lessons. But, the expectation is that this information must be posted as a “best practice”. Funny thing was, in my last classroom (and in all the rooms in the school except art and music, we had ONE white board on which to write. And, it was covered by a SmartBoard And even though the building was renovated to accommodate the projectors for the SmartBoards, when the door was opened or shut it made the projector become unstable, and the SmartBoard shook. Fun times.
If you really need to post all these standards and objectives, try using a Document Camera to flash the thing up on the wall when an observer walks in … There isn’t enough room to post these things. And, the kids don’t read them repeatedly. Besides with 250 per subject … hmmm, that is a lot of writing to prepare in advance.
So, yes, I had a lot of time to keep my desk in perfect order, ready for the white glove test. Sure. Oh, and I didn’t care.
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A couple years ago (not too long after I started reading this blog) I visited my two favorite teachers from high school, along with a friend from high school who is now a teacher herself. The three of them started talking about having objectives written on the board as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Neither of those teachers ever wrote learning goals on the board when I was there – they would have thought (rightly) that it was the most idiotic thing in the world. I was really surprised that they both accepted it so casually – one especially was always a rebel/rabble rouser (whom I credit with my own authority questioning ethic). It’s almost scary what becomes accepted as “best practices”.
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If a high school teacher is writing one objective and has the space to do so, it isn’t such a big deal. But elementary teachers don’t teach one subject or course. I have no problem.with listing a topic or outline. But objectives aren’t written using elementary level terminology. Some things have just become obsessive.
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How do all the Montessori and Waldorf charter schools fit into the cult of order? I did not see a uniform on a student in the Community Roots charter school in Brooklyn and they don’t appear in the videos I have seen of the Walton Rural Life Center charter school.
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