EduShyster posted an article by Amy Berard, who taught sixth grade in Lawrence, Massachusetts, where she became trained in what was called “No Nonsense Nurturing.” She had to wear a wireless earpiece and receive instructions from three coaches who sat in the back of her classroom, telling her what to say, how to act, how to respond to students, how to stand. She eventually left the district. She was “not the right fit.” Apparently, she got the idea that she was a professional, a human being with thoughts and feelings, and that what she was asked to do was unprofessional and dehumanizing.
It is a shocking article. This is how it begins:
“Give him a warning,” said the voice through the earpiece I was wearing. I did as instructed, speaking in the emotionless monotone I’d been coached to use. But the student, a sixth grader with some impulsivity issues and whose trust I’d spent months working to gain, was excited and spoke out of turn again. “Tell him he has a detention,” my earpiece commanded. At which point the boy stood up and pointed to the back of the room, where the three classroom “coaches” huddled around a walkie talkie. “Miss: don’t listen to them! You be you. Talk to me! I’m a person! Be a person, Miss. Be you!”
Last year, my school contracted with the Center for Transformational Training or CT3 to train teachers using an approach called No Nonsense Nurturing. It was supposed to make us more effective instructors by providing “immediate, non-distracting feedback to teachers using wireless technology.” In other words, earpieces and walkie talkies. I wore a bug in my ear. I didn’t have a mouthpiece. Meanwhile an official No Nonsense Nurturer, along with the school’s first year assistant principal and first year behavior intervention coach, controlled me remotely from the corner of the room where they shared a walkie talkie. I referred to the CT3 training as C-3PO after the Star Wars robot, but C-3PO actually had more personality than we were allowed. The robot also spoke his mind.
If you’re not familiar with No Nonsense Nurturing or NNN, let’s just say that there is more nonsense than nurturing. The approach starts from the view that urban students, like my Lawrence, MA middle schoolers, benefit from a robotic style of teaching that treats, and disciplines, all students the same. This translated into the specific instruction that forbade us from speaking to our students in full sentences. Instead, we were to communicate with them using precise directions. As my students entered the room, I was supposed to say: “In seats, zero talking, page 6 questions 1-4.” But I don’t even talk to my dog like that. Constant narration of what the students are doing is also key to the NNN teaching style. “Noel is is finishing question 3. Marjorie is sitting silently. Alfredo is on page 6.”
My efforts to make the narration seem less robotic—”I see Victor is on page 6. I see Natalie is on question 3″—triggered flashbacks to Miss Jean and Romper Room. All that was missing was the magic mirror. But even this was too much for the NNN squad in the corner. “Drop the ‘I see’ came through my earpiece. All this narration was incredibly distracting for the students, by the way, to the point where they started narrating me. “Mrs. Berard is passing out the exit tickets.” “Mrs. Berard is helping Christian.” “Mrs. Berard is reviewing the answer to question 4.”
Read it all. It is frightening. Some organization is being paid many thousands of dollars to turn teachers into robots who will treat the children as standardized widgets. Who dreamed up this absurd and insulting program?
PS: This program has the endorsement of an officer of the Gates Foundation, presumably speaking for the Foundation.
It’s very sad that this is happening (can’t say unbelievable because with school “reform”, absurdity knows no bounds), but it would make a hilarious movie.
Maybe they can get Jack Black (aka Ned Shneebly) to play the teacher again.
They’d have a sure blockbuster.
Center for Transylvanian Training?
Ha ha ha ha ha
“Stepford Teaching”
Sounds like BROADCAST NEWS, where the handsome but stupid anchor Tom (William Hurt), is turned into a virtual ventriloquist dummy worked by his producer Jane, (Holly Hunter):
There’s an even funnier bit just prior to where this clip starts. Aaron (Albert Brooks) is watching at home, feeding questions and comments to Jane, who then relays them to Tom.
I understand why the robotic voices are stressed, but that’s not the way to get any kids to learn! The more traumatized a group of students are, the more they need consistency, but a good teacher provides that by infrequent absences and lots of positive strokes. If I am having a rare bad day, I’d better let the kids know the minute I walk into class… they will go out of their way to help me out because I have respected them when they have their own bad days! If I’m “cranky” due to family illnesses & responsibilities or my own physical limitations & I haven’t let them know what’s going on, I will have the day from hell & rightfully so – these kids need to feel loved, not like they are a “problem” – so many have absent parents & have been told “I wish you were never born”…
“I understand why the robotic voices are stressed. . . ”
Please explain why. TIA!
I don’t agree with it, but I think the reformers believe it will “calm” the kids as well as keep all teachers on the same page – of course, it would be impersonal & boring as hell! (And sorry, but I could NEVER do it!) If you’ve ever been in a classroom where the teacher has a boring monotonous voice, it’s hard to stay awake (let alone cause trouble) for many kids…
Anyone who espouses this educational malpractice should never be allowed within 500 ft of a school, should be neutered so they don’t do this to their own children, and then cast off on a deserted isle. Hey, at least I’m suggesting letting them live.
it is not calming; if you take a course in language development; or if you work with parents who have children with severe disabilities.., you learn to guid the child through the next stage of development… you expand and elaborate on the chid’s suntans… you don’t repeat back a “telegram” of commands to them.
Please check out a good book on language development (not “discipline” )
I think the reformers believe it will “calm” the kids as well as keep all teachers on the same page
jeanhaverhill@aol.com
Jeanne & Duane –
Jeanne says, “Please check out a good book on language development (not “discipline” )”
I say, “We’re on the same page!” Duane asked me what I meant, and I explained what I THINK the reformers think, not what I think… I said, “That’s no way to get kids to learn!” It IS educational malpractice!
(Don’t know what “chid’s suntans” are though!)
My reply wasn’t directed at you formercheesehead, just as a general statement.
By the way why the “former”. I always thought once a. . . . always a. . . . ?
I was abrupt with that comment because I had made so many other comments; instead, I would like to refer you to the Settlement Agreement; this is what should be taking place in Lawrence as well as in Boston….. the students in Lawrence need more of these resources and instructional environments… (so my point was the books on “discipline” are not going to address this issue).
Please look at the requirements for Boston school as arrived in the settlement agreement and how these same requirements would most likely be helpful in Lawrence (for example, one is implement SIOP — etc)
Contact: Education Department, (202) 401-1576, press@ed.gov Justice Department, 202-514-2007, press@ed.gov
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Education with the U.S. Department of Justice reached agreement with the Boston School Committee, the governing body of the Boston Public Schools today to ensure that English Language Learner (ELL) students in Boston receive the services and supports they need to overcome language barriers, as required by the Equal Educational Opportunities Act of 1974 and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This agreement [is addressed to providing for those students] improperly excluded from the district’s ELL programs [to be ] promptly assessed and provided services.
Here is a summary of the Department of Justice/Boston Public Schools settlement agreement. It is more in line with professional judgment of what is needed — for example in Lawrence Public Schools…
Department of Justice Implement different grouping modes derived from data-basedresults and best instructional practices. Align curriculum and instruction with standards and WIDA (eel testing). Develop instructional models and classroom observation toolsfor ESL and SEI. Update curriculum for ESL aligned with WIDAEvaluators trained (RETELL is the M.D.E. teacher training program ) Provide SIOP training (SEI) (sheltered) Emphasize building academic language. Complex text training (blend academic language instructionwith content instruction) Explicitly teach academic language (subject matter)Deconstruct complex sentences (etc.)
Boston Public Schools Agreement
jeanhaverhill@aol.com
Duane –
Tee hee! Haven’t lived there for a long time – Walker has soiled so much of what I loved about Wisconsin – I’m no longer proud of my native land, & I can’t believe how many fell for his words… it’s really sad…
What is an “urban student”? Isn’t that just code for African-American students? This whole project smacks of thinly veiled racism, not unlike some other parts of the reform movement. Don’t urban students deserve the respect of being spoken to in full sentences?
CCProf,
Yes. “Urban student” is a synonym for African-American student. This method is akin to “no excuses.” Clear rules. Straight lines. No deviation. Obey. Conform.
In other words producing a slave mentality.
yes, an obedient slave. It is like the cop in TX who told Ms. Bland to put out the cigarette; they would like all of the students to respond to the commands. That is the purpose of “telegraphic speech”…. Parents in the home with a child with severe developmental disabilities might (MIGHT) find a use for telegraphic speech in command mode at SOME times: (for safety etc. ) It is similar to , when your two year old runs in front of a moving vehicle you might suddenly grab them and spank at the same time. Haim Ginot has told parents for years how to avoid that reaction and get some “teaching” into the lesson.
It reminds me of the movie with Ed Harris (as psychiatrist) in the Truman Show ; (except I am just crazy enough to fall in love with Ed Harris)…. trying to get a little humor in here as I know Duane sometimes responds to…. Other than this humor, I find the practice abhorrent…. what they are doing to kids in Lawrence (with state funds I might add being lavished to create a showcase for Arne Duncan)
a slave mentality.
jeanhaverhill@aol.com
Unfortunately, Jean, I don’t understand the references to be able to get your humor. Never have been much of a TV/Movie person.
Hopefully, my attempt at sardonic humor below will not be deleted.
I get your sardonic humor; the movie is about a man who is a salesman and he gets “conned” by his wife who is in cahoots with the psychiatrist Ed harris and all the time the salesman thinks he is living the good life he is being manipulated (it is different from cuckolded — which is not in the movie)…. but it is a theme of when he thinks he is in a legitimate , authentic real-life situation he is actually on a “TV reality show” but with sinister motives (as portrayed in neutral tones by Ed Harris — which made me appreciate his acting)… I’m not much of a movie- goer either only one or two a year and I don’t have any movie stations on my TV…..
jeanhaverhill@aol.com
Thanks for the explanation. Makes sense now!!
Duane Swacker:
“In other words producing a slave mentality.”
Ya has dado en el mero centro del blanco/You’ve hit the target dead center.
😎
Combine this with EngageNY and you COULD have computers teaching classes with an avatar on the screen. It would surely save milllllions of dollars that could be used to make the rich richer….
Debbie R, you are exactly right: scripted curriculum, robotic teachers: what a cost savings!
We have the same in the federal legislative body, only they wear a wireless earpiece and receive instructions from ALEC, which sits behind closed doors, telling it what to say, how to act, how to respond to constituents, even how to stand . . . .
}:-(
Diane, these gimmicks are more in a long line of “teacher-proof” methods (remember Madeline Hunter?), which reveal a deplorable contempt for the art of teaching. Once more, the wheel is invented, with no sense of the failed attempts of the past 40+ years. The very concept of formula instruction flies in the face of actual teaching experience. Does inflexibility succeed anywhere? I think not.
If you give them virtual reality goggles they wouldn’t even have to leave home. Billions in cost savings.
And the students will be having virtual sex so that “they” don’t reproduce, even more savings.
Duane: Touche!
Right on, Margeret Nolan! “…a deplorable contempt for the art of teaching.” Thank you.
I piloted a program for reading for special education high school students. The administrator at the time had an extensive background in special education and understood that I would have to mold the program to the needs of the students based on my expertize and their IEPs. While it could have been delivered as a scripted program, all the training I received emphasized the professional role of the teacher, which was particularly important since many of the students did not meet the program entry requirements. Enter new administrators who got the company spiel of miracle cures if only the program was followed exactly to the letter. Needless to say my students still did not meet the requirements, and the physical environment and instructional resources did not come near to resembling what the program called for. After two years of positive reviews from qualified special ed supervisors, all of a sudden I was not following the program with fidelity. If they could have had little voices in my ear, they would have. What educator in their right mind would believe that such a delivery enhanced “educational outcomes?” If they want a computer program, then buy one instead of turning teachers into them. I loved the kids reactions encouraging the teacher to just be herself.
Fido follows fearlessly with Fidelity.
That’s what these idiologues (purposely misspelled) demand, and if not well, once again it’s the teachers* fault.
*That is those lazy greedy union thug ones.
IMHO, the purpose of this (and other) “reforms” is not to turn the teacher into a computer, but to make teaching so unbearable that the teachers quit (and potential new ones stay away) so that teachers can be replaced with computers.
It’s really hard to believe that folks like Bill Gates view NNN as anything more than a short term strategy to drive teachers out of the classroom.
“We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile.”
Did you see this endorsement from Gates?
Outrageous…..
—————————————–From: “Diane Ravitch’s blog”
To: Cc: Sent: Thu, 23 Jul 2015 13:01:05 +0000 Subject: [New post] EduShyster: Can a Teacher Learn to Act Like a Robot?
dianeravitch posted: “EduShyster posted an article by Amy Berard, who taught sixth grade in Lawrence, Massachusetts, where she became trained in what was called “No Nonsense Nurturing.” She had to wear a wireless earpiece and receive instructions from three coaches who sat in “
You know, I have always wondered whether Bill Gates actually is a robot.
Now I don’t have to wonder any more.
Thanks!
Remind me to never attend the institution that gave this Shalvey cat an Ed.D..
His PhD thesis must be full of sentence fragments and illiteration (“No Nonsense Nurturing”)
This “PD” indoctrination of both students and teachers is endorsed by the Gates Foundation.
So Mr. Shalvey will be sending his own kids to KIPP, right? (Or encouraging his kids to send his grandkids there.)
We know the answer, and no, Mr. Shalvey, like the Gates, Arne Duncan, the Obamas and Rahm Emanuel will, or have sent their children to schools with low pupil to teacher ratios and the teachers are treated and paid as professionals. NNN is their preferred model for the rest of us, so that children are trained rather than educated. After all, to work at a minimum wage job, you simply need to follow directions/orders.
This is simply appalling;and while the Gates Foundation funds and promotes this kind of educational abuse, Nicholas Kristof of the NYT is fawning over Bill and Melinda Gates as if they are the saviors of humankind.
Shalvey probably wouldn’t even recommend that his relatives send their kids to “Aspire Public Schools,” which is the charter chain he established with school board hater Reed Hastings, owner of Netflix, according to Google searches. Based on info I found, Aspire is one of those charter chains that focuses on test prep and claims a 100% rate of acceptance to 4 year colleges, but they won’t give kids a diploma unless they are accepted. No wonder over 800 colleges don’t require ACTs or SATs now.
Diane et al,
The title of your article says, “Can a Teacher Learn How to Act Like a Robot?”
But with all the Technocrats, including but not limited to the bloated, narcissistic, horrible Bill and Melinda Gates, who want to bombard education with technology to make it more efficient and lower cost, the question you should be posing is
“Can a robot learn to act like a teacher?”
I think that is a more serious and seminal issue.
NO!
Well. . . . maybe “act” like one, but to be one. . .
NO!
Sorry, Due-ane, my good friend.
(I had a best friend as a high school and college youth named Duane for many years. I am sorry I lost touch, because he’s a good guy and a talented lawyer.)
You have to read the short story AI (Artificial Intelligence) or see the utterly brilliant and seminally sad and densely poetic movie by the same title, co-directed by Stanley Kubrick (his last film,) and Stephen Spielberg.
Japan is already taking the lead in developing interactive androids. . . . . . We will have to evolve a whole set of humanoid and android ethics, codes, and laws to parallel this new technology and form an umbrella of scrutiny over it, otherwise the Bots will end up dominating the Peeps . . . . They already are in the manufacturing industry.
Robert: in one chapter in his book, this author puts some limits on what the robots will actually be capable of……
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/09/books/review/michio-kakus-future-of-the-mind.html?_r=0 this book is interesting as well as entertaining
He certainly knows a lot about Hollywood and moves
jeanhaverhill@aol.com
I saw the original yesterday and sent you a link and some links to NNN. Who? Who I ask dreams up this nonsense? (Did they work for the company or DIA ?) It’s past being abusive; it borders on criminal. Yikes! I hope parents take note and oust these fools ASAP. They haven’t a moment to waste.
At a special education staff development yesterday we (SPED teachers) had a young trainer show us a video of this “method” and extolled the use of this cruel “nonsense”! A “special education” trainer/teacher!
This is classist and racist! I couldn’t imagine the children of Arnie Duncan, Ralm Emanuel, Billy Gates, President Obama or any other Ivy League educated reformster, foisting this ridiculous nnn”nonsense” upon their own privileged precious children! This feels like an effort to conform these children so they’ll be more cooperative when they are incarcerated in privatized prisons.
This certainly is frightening. Yet more and more schools are subjected to these programs courtesy of weapons states use against public schools. New York’s “receivership” model is the latest attack on “struggling” schools. And companies like those named in the post are sniffing around for their next opportunity to cash in. In Buffalo, one of our schools slated for receivership has been under an outside EPO for several years – the EPO, “Research to Practice” was imposed thanks to the “persistently low achieving” round of labeling schools a few years back. So what has Research to Practice done? Watched class sizes grow – over 30, including mostly ELLs (September’s 1st grade class sizes planned to be 37 and 38.) Meanwhile, their superintendent lives in Arizona, so in addition to collecting a hefty salary and consultant fees – there’s also a nice sized travel account and “fringe.” Another perfect example of where the dollars go…and why they never reach the classroom.
http://b-loedscene.blogspot.com/2015/06/school-6-besieged-by-carpetbaggers-put.html
http://b-loedscene.blogspot.com/2015/07/larry-quinn-declares-eagle-has-landed.html
The Massachusetts state takeover of the Lawrence Public Schools has been no better than
state interventions in New York and New Jersey.
“. . . triggered flashbacks to Miss Jean and Romper Room. All that was missing was the magic mirror.”
Oh, there are plenty of “mirrors”. Three of them were sitting in the back of the room. Talking mirrors, only able to refract back what they were told to say without nary a reflection of thought as to what they were doing. The students picked up on the bullshit right quick didn’t they?? Oh, the inhumanity of some people who “know” what is best for everyone else without any critical enquiry into the malpractices. Soulless, inhumane robots themselves, and all for what they consider big bucks.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Common-Core-Forum/672876542769094?fref=ts please go over to this Massachusetts site and offer some support to the parents who are writing there who say this is wrong!!!!! A lot of my neighbors will just say “I don’t care as long as my tax bill goes down”…. I have lived and worked in the lawrence area for 40 years. The other districts even the professional administrators and school board members treat lawrence like “we don’t want them in the club because they will bring us down”. We have our own apartheid in MA; it is not just in the south. Thanks for everything you do here (I left them 3 or 4 comments this morning) in support of the parents
this is not “nurturing ” in any way” they are mimicking an early developmental stage in language that is called “telegraphic speech” and the “robots” are using it to issue commands. It is similar to what a kid would get in boot camp, in a “state hospital” (euphemism) and it is based on a pejorative view…. I have been in IEP meetings with parents to say “This child needs language development; he does not need applied behavior analysis” but the administrator will “miss the boat” on that and bang a fist on the table and say “this is what the budget will allow” and control the teachers in the IEP meeting that way. I am furious that this is happening in MA; it is because (a) Obama and Patrick were friends and Patrick wanted to support the President (as I believe we should support our president) (b) and their lock step march with Sir Michael Barber and Gates. They chose the right techno-educrat in Chester to become President of the United States of PARCC but I think they are down to 6 now (with D.C.)
You have reached CT3, press 1 for History instruction, 2 for science instruction, etc. robotic teaching for robotic people!
Yes, teachers will have to learn to teach like a robot if they want to keep their jobs—especially when the labor unions are gone and so are due process job protection rights.
If administration tells you to do it and you don’t, then admisntra6tion can fire you for insubordination.
This is what I was told by CTA lawyers when I was ordered to force my journalism students to print a retraction in the student high school newspaper as if they were guilty of libel for a story that ran about ballot box stuffing during ASB elections. The principal, the superintendent, the assistant superintendent for the secondary schools in that district and the districts lawyers ordered me to do that even though the student reporter who wrote the story had notes written and signed in front of witnesses from about a dozen students who witnessed the boyfriend of one of the student candidates sitting at a table filling out ballots by the dozens and stuffing them in the box he was in charge of.
The CTA lawyer told me that I had to watch every word I said to the district people or they could fire me. I could not refuse to do what they had ordered me verbally.
Instead, I talked to the student editors of the high school paper and told them what was going on and that the only way I could avoid being fired is if they did what the district wanted them to do or decided to stop production of the paper and refuse to continue until the issue was resolved.
It didn’t matter to district administration that the international, national, and regional award winning student newspaper that had been features in the local newspaper had not missed a monthly issue for six years. It didn’t matter that the paper even had a Spanish language edition for students who only read Spanish. One of the high schools Spanish teachers translated the entire paper and we ran a small number off in Spanish. It didn’t matter that we distributed the English version of the paper to the two middle schools that fed the high school so seventh and 3ith graders could read about the high school they were going to attend one day. None of this mattered.
When administration was told about the signed statements from a dozen student witnesses, the principal laughed at us and said a judge would throw those out and we would lose in court.
To avoid court, the district compromised with the students and a correction was run in one of the last issues of the paper—-but not a retraction. Soon after that, my wife said she could see the price I had paid in the stress to my health.
She was right. The price to my health was not worth it. The anger. The lost sleep and all the rest of it.
I quit as adviser and the paper died. I also requested a change from teaching English to Reading, and I finished my last two years teaching in the school’s reading lab working with the kids who had the lowest literacy skills. There were no standardized tests or state standards that applied to the computerized reading lab.The pressure and stress from administration dropped 99%.
All the new tech equipment used to produce the paper—paid for by nonprofit grants I filled out and submitted and paid for out of my pocket and paid for from money the kids raised from selling eds in the paper—vanished into storerooms or other classroom.
Recently I read that the high school paper came back with a new name but is more of a feel good newsletter than a real newspaper. When I was the journalism adviser, I actually taught my students real journalism and held them accountable for the quality of the paper and also let them decide what the stories were the published. The students were in charge. All I did was read and edit the rough drafts to see if the standards were up to real journalism. The student editors were in charge of accepting the final drafts. They were in charge of the paper’s design. They were in charge of every step of production and I was there with them in the classroom sometimes from 6 AM in the morning to as late as 11 PM.
The state and administration at the time was more interested in scripted lessons that were linked to the state standards being developed in California. You see, California had its own Common Core and high stakes tests starting back in the late 1990s.
Schools that did not show dramatic improvement on those tests could be taken over by the state and all the teachers and administration fired—I recall that the unified school district in Compton was taken over by the state, but that didn’t boost scores, and Compton went through one state appointed dictator after another (some left because they feared for their lives—I remember reading in the paper that someone took shots at one of the state appointed superintendents because he was too rigid and demanding. Compton was a rough community with a lot of poverty and street gangs). This was going on in California before NCLB. The only thing different at the time was that in California there was no mandate that every 17 or 18 year old in the state had to graduate on time and be college and career ready. The only mandate is that the schools had to show steady and constant improvement and the pressure never let up.
The scary thing is that the attitude of many students was that it wasn’t their fault they weren’t doing anything to learn. Everything was the fault of the teachers, the schools fault. If a child didn’t want to read, it was the teacher’s fault. If a child misbehaved and the parents offered no support to improve that child’s behavior, it was always the teachers/schools fault. If a child didn’t do the work in class or at home, it was always the teachers/schools fault, and then when that child’s test scores didn’t improve, it was still the teachers/schools fault.
I don’t think anyone could measure my anger at Bill Gates, the Walton Family, Eli Broad, Arne Duncan, David Coleman, Jeb Bush and all the rest of the RheeFormers. That anger is so far off the scale that there is no scale.
Lloyd, your anger resonates through my very being.
I can certainly empathize…”I don’t think anyone could measure my anger at Bill Gates, the Walton Family, Eli Broad, Arne Duncan, David Coleman, Jeb Bush and all the rest of the RheeFormers. That anger is so far off the scale that there is no scale.” I have a few I would like to add; mostly they are in powerful positions but they have squandered R&D funds; or , my own specific experience with John Barranco (one of the “superintendents” with “white hats” on the board members) who siphoned off over 30 million dollars from special ed funds. I am not saying the money is equal to what was done to you on a personal level but i can certainly empathize and I know the wrath when there is no scale. I want to look up a quote and get right back to you.
here is the quote (meant to communicate empathy for the teacher who supported journalism)….”There was a storm, as there always is, an adverse wind bringing disorder… a crushing Da Nihtige. [This] storm is not so easy. The storm produces a deep sense of helplessness and even loneliness… you cannot measure it with your wind instruments.”
Walter Brueggemann
“If administration tells you to do it and you don’t, then admisntra6tion can fire you for insubordination.”
If the teacher doesn’t tell the administrator to shove his NNN up his. . . . .
. . . . well that teacher shouldn’t be teaching to begin with and needs to be removed anyway.
Lloyd,
You can not be angry at a robot like Bill Gates.
Only with the one who programmed it: Paul Allen
And even then, I think this is a classic case of the robot rejecting the ethics and good sense of the creator and running amok (the Allenstein monster, as it were)
I can see the students fighting back with a song about that NNN: Nigga Nears Nihilation
(hopefully folks take the post in the fashion it is intended, as a statement about how creative and perceptive students can be using their own words in denouncing what is happening to them)
For years teachers have struggled to serve the neediest students in problematic schools, and corporate America took no notice of the plight of urban schools. Now that they have figured out how to profit from the situation, they can pitch bad ideas from the ridiculous to the absurd. None of it has any foundation in reality or research. George Orwell is laughing at them somewhere.
Is this a charter school?
No – it is a public school. Chilling.
it is a public school “taken over” as part of the states authority in the SIG (School Improvement grants). Deutsch29 has had 2 or 3 other good reviews of the schools this past year and she has kept up with the “receivership” of Lawrence. Anoher woman who comments here frequently is Tracy Novick and she is on the school committee in Worcester MA and she wrote at least one post on her blog about Lawrence…. she usually can get to the heart of the matter and describe what actually happened when the state did a “take over” and appointed the guy who is now in charge in the city. Granted, there was local corruption but forms of corruption are not any better to live under as part of these “ancient domination systems” that prevail.
No.
This is precisely what I find most concerning about the entire situation. The MA DESE has placed the Lawrence Public Schools under receivership. (The city of Lawrence has had enormous problems of corruption through all aspects of governance, not only the schools). The NNN program is being introduced to the public schools under the auspices of state control.
Presumably, if a parent chooses to enroll their child in a KIPP or other no excuses charter, parents can expect these kinds of classroom practices and actually actively choose them.
But public schools traditionally have depended on trained educators with knowledge of child and adolescent development and psychology and research-based policies based on real research, not ideology. Imposing this kind of faddish product on the public schools as a whole is beyond the pale. As a MA taxpayer, I am beyond outraged that the MA DESE is flinging money to support the demeaning, racist, classist control of students and their teachers.
Just poked around their website and their guru is Lee Canter. Anyone out there old enough to remember him? His “assertive discipline” methods have been around since the 70s. He has written lots of books. I bet his organization got an infusion of Gates dollars and is undergoing a transformation of its own. Talk about re-inventing an old wheel!
The thing about all these rigid, scripted methods, (say this, gesticulate that, nod head spasmodically, raise eyebrows up and not down, do a Linda Blair neck swivel) is that they are impossible to sustain over time. You only ever see them in staged video clips, never in real-time reality. What a bunch do BS! I truly feel sorry for these young, untrained dilettantes killing themselves trying to adhere to so many inflexible directives. What a nightmare!
Egads, don’t people have the good graces to slink away to obscurity when it’s well-documented that their life’s work is full of —-? The only good that Lee Canter has ever done in his life is to provide excellent fodder for Alfie Kohn.
Assertive Discipline is a zombie. I’ve seen it rear its ugly head a number of times in recent decades. Can’t stand it anywhere, but it has also popped up where it’s most inappropriate, in PreK.
It’s very disturbing for an ECE professional who knows effective and respectful methods of positive guidance and discipline to see this going on in PreK. It’s horrible to watch a 3 year old have his chair taken away as punishment, so that he has to eat lunch at the table standing up, and who is just learning to recognize his name in print but must also learn that when it goes up on the wall in the front of the room for all to see, that means he’s “bad.” Grrr .
Reteach –
I’m cringing at the thought of a tiny child treated that way! Was this a public program?
And your thoughts on narration and authoritative style are spot on. The reformsters, lacking any real background in child development and ed psych, have made a mishmash of this and that odd or end of educational theory and proceeded to implement it so there is no rhyme or reason or overarching guiding understanding.
Teaching – it’s not for amateurs.
Christine, In my state, most publicly funded PreK programs for children at-risk have long been situated primarily in private child care centers, which school districts use as subcontractors, and the example I provided of the 3 year old I saw was in one of those schools, where I was supervising a student teacher. As it happened, the student teacher didn’t realize there was a problem with that. I then discovered that Assertive Discipline was extolled in the textbook on classroom management adopted by another professor, who was teaching the seminar for the course and who hadn’t taught PreK herself. I recommended that students not be placed in that center again and convinced her to adopt a different book.
Also, when our Archdiocese hired me to train their PreK teachers, I discovered they had adopted Assertive Discipline in their preschools. I tried to tell the powers that be why that was inappropriate and instructed them on alternatives, but they wouldn’t change so, ultimately, I resigned.
congratulations on having some success with colleagues and administration …. on the college campus the “canon wars” are entrenched…. they get furious at times….
I then discovered that Assertive Discipline was extolled in the textbook on classroom management adopted by another professor, who was teaching the seminar for the course and who hadn’t taught PreK herself. I recommended that students not be placed in that center again and convinced her to adopt a different book.
jeanhaverhill@aol.com
His “assertive discipline” methods have been around since the 70s…..” yes, Monica. And it has been a push in Lawrence since Canter’s day. The “boss” would come to a teacher and order the teacher read “Dare to discipline”…. and the original shaming of students by writing names on the board with some kind of symbol etc. these methods have been around for some time and they come out “of the woodwork”…. It is the “rat psychology” or “pigeon man” psychology. Unfortunately, the American schools of psychology went over board with Pavlov while completely ignoring the cognitive psychology of Vygotsky that would have more to do with language development, development of attachment (child/adult; Bowlby etc ) or even the works of Haim Ginot, Alice Miller, Guntrip, Winnicott (which seem to be more prevalent when you read in the U.K. journals )
I remember one administrator in Lawrence who came into the room of a teacher and flashed the lights out in the dark (first grade to control them ) and of course scared them. And another administrator, visiting a special education class, when asked for a hug by a child with severe developmental disabilities said “teachers don’t give hugs.”…. It is as someone above here a way of “colonizing” a population of people you believe to be untermenschen (like the Richwine dissertation — cf. Heritage ….. where he no longer works)
It’s more Skinnerian than Pavlovian. Pavlovian is more passive – reactions that naturally occur to stimulus (such as salivating to the smell of meat getting transferred to salivating at the sound of a bell). Skinner’s behaviorism is much more about actively controlling behavior through rewards (“reinforcers”). Giving pigeons food pellets for pecking certain buttons. Giving schoolchildren stickers for completely their assignments.
I guess reformsters don’t train TFAers or other teachers on the most effective child management method, the authoritative approach, which comes from one of the three primary parenting styles originally identified by Baumrind, because only the authoritarian approach meets with their approval. It’s disgusting how they try to put a positive spin on the authoritarian methods they use, too.
Self Motivated Kids – How The Authoritative Parenting Style Increases Academic Success: http://authoritativeparents.weebly.com/index.html
Surely those that mandate such worst pedagogical practices for OTHER PEOPLE’S CHILDREN know firsthand what they are and ensure that the same sort of humorless “rigor” and teeth-grinding “grit” are inflicted on THEIR OWN CHILDREN?
Hmmm, an officer of the Gates Foundation approves…
Well, that’s all the segue I need.
From the speech of Bill Gates to his alma mater, Lakeside School, 9-23-2005.
[first excerpt start]
Our foundation’s work in high schools is based on principles that happen to be deeply ingrained in Lakeside’s culture. We call them the new three R’s—the basic building blocks of better high schools.
• The first R is Rigor – making sure all students are given a challenging curriculum that prepares them for college or work;
• The second R is Relevance – making sure kids have courses and projects that clearly relate to their lives and their goals;
• The third R is Relationships – making sure kids have a number of adults who know them, look out for them, and push them to achieve.
When I first heard theories of school reform based on these principles, they made intuitive sense to me. They are what make Lakeside a phenomenal school.
[first excerpt end]
He builds from, as I see it given the tenor of his speech, from least to most important.
[second excerpt start]
Finally, I had great relationships with my teachers here at Lakeside.
Classes were small. You got to know the teachers. They got to know you. And the relationships that come from that really make a difference. If you like and respect your teacher, you”re going to work harder.
Gary Maestretti really inspired me to learn physics. Fred Wright really inspired me to learn math, and was a great mentor in the computer room in McAllister Hall.
Ann Stephens got me to sign up for drama. I didn’t have to do drama. I didn’t have a lot of skill in that. But she had built a strong relationship with me, and she made me want to give it a try.
She gave me the lead in a romantic comedy that I still know all the lines to. The only downside is that I invited my co-star to our real-life prom, and she turned me down. She’s here tonight, and I want her to know: I recently got over it.
[second excerpt end]
Link: http://www.gatesfoundation.org/media-center/speeches/2005/09/bill-gates-lakeside-school
But, but, but, where’s the robotic teachers? Bill the G must have been deprived of what he needed to be successful, right? “If there had been no Lakeside, there would have been no Microsoft. And I’m here to say thank you.”
Evidently the robots are not in the schools attended by the heavyweights (and offspring of same) of so-called “education reform.”
What are the chances of that?
😎
Why am I not surprised? He understands full well that relationships are key to academic success. This was his educational experience which so wonderful that he wanted for his own children. How despicable that what he wants for our children is just the opposite. Presumably with opposite results…
still waiting for the rebellion….
I bet No Nonsense Nurturing would work great with babies too:
narration
“Baby Johnny is crying”
johnny is dribbling
Johnny is pooping”
Command:
Give him a warning: Shape up or no booby!
Give him detention; Solitary Crib confinement
Sounds like a recipe for failure to thrive babies. H-m-m.
Narration, or the use of play-by-plays, is actually an effective method of promoting language development in young children. Higher income parents often use it and ECE teachers are frequently trained to implement it. However, it’s nothing like how NNN mangled it, and commands, threats and punishments are not included.
Lloyd,
In the language of the Tour de France, your anger would be Hors catégorie –
“the French term used in bicycle races to designate a climb that is “beyond categorization”, or an incredibly difficult climb. Most climbs in cycling are designated from Category 1 (hardest) to Category 4 (easiest), based on steepness, length, and how far into the stage they are encountered. A climb that is harder than Category 1 is designated as hors catégorie. The term was originally used for those mountain roads where cars were not expected to be able to pass.” (Wikipedia)
In this instance, it was you who was fighting an uphill battle “beyond categorization” that you “were not expected to be able to pass.”
My sympathies.
But I escaped. I reached thirty years and retired. If the RheeFormers put a loaded pistol to my head and said I had a choice to die or go back and teach in schools they controlled, I’d tell them to pull the trigger, but most people would do as they were told.
I say this all the time here and it’s easy for me to say because I’m not a teacher, but teachers should do much, much more of this.
No one outside education knows what goes on. Everyone thinks they knows because we all went to school but describing this stuff in action is so powerful.
It doesn’t matter if you’re biased or have opinions or favor one approach over another- of course you do. Just tell the story anyway, because we don’t know and if we don’t know we’ll rely on experts and pundits.
I cannot thank you enough for this comment and so many others on this blog—
Except by saying that when a comment has “Chiara” upper left, I always read it.
Excuse me if this seems impertinent, but I would add an observation by Jim Hightower:
“If you don’t speak out now when it matters, when would it matter for you to speak out?”
😎
Does anyone know if schools have to buy the training system and what it costs?
This is the program used at all of the big charter networks; you’ll notice the uniforms in the promotional video included with the original post. I am currently a teacher at one of these schools in Brooklyn, and the system is truly as absurd as it appears. There is clear, organizational logic to this approach — using a standard behavior management system allows networks to hire totally unqualified people as teachers and quickly “train” them in these “highly effective” techniques. The training takes about a day, when I went through it. This way, not only are networks able to “scale” — grow their number of schools quickly by filling them with new college grads with no formal ed background, but it also allows the network to manage its ranks of teachers, since we are all accountable to the same system.
This is obviously a soul-deadening process for many of the teachers (although an alarming number will sing its praises for the “consistency” it provides in the classroom), but the saddest part of this whole racket is the way some of the kids suffer in this dangerously homogenous system. Kids who struggle with the skills required to conform to mindless routine and authority from 7:30am-4:30pm (the elementary school day in most charters) have almost no options but to freak the hell out, since their teacher is required to just drone on like a robot instead of reacting to the individual needs of her students. Consequently, most classrooms have at least a few kids (sometimes as many as 5!) on individualized behavior management plans, which generally consist of sticker charts for good behavior. The point is, the teachers here are not trained to understand anything about children, so the teachers act like robots, and expect the kids to follow suit.
The “robot” language is a convenient comparison frequently used in the discussion of charter schools and teachers, but it’s actually a pretty dangerous phenomenon. This type of standardization totally dehumanizes students. You begin to view your entire class as a unit, and you are trained to assess how well you’re doing as a teacher by the percentage of your class “on task”. The mantra is: 100%, 100% of the time. That is, every single person in your class needs to be compliant every minute of the day. Approaching your teaching through this lens nearly strips you of the ability to empathize with students — children who are not compliant morph from humans with needs to a percentage point that must be corrected to reach the ideal.
The dehumanizing effect is so evident in the way that many teachers in these schools talk to their students — disrespectfully, and with palpable contempt. Students with certain types of skill deficits who struggle to adapt to the environment are viewed as pariahs who are “ruining” their vision of a “well-managed” classroom. I can’t really even begin to fully articulate the social dysfunction this system breeds, in terms of the way teachers understand their roles in relation to students and their families. When the media come in to report on our schools though, as if by magic, every teacher becomes a much calmer and more loving version of herself. Remarkable.
Brooklyn Teacher –
I agree withyour characterization of the full fledged dysfunction this must create.
But this is not a charter. These are public schools, under state receivership.
yes, that is why it is imperative that we assist the parents when they are speaking out; the teachers union cannot fight this alone… each teacher can get fired one by one…. look at the experience of Dawn Nealy Randall in her state (see what Lloyd explained yesterday)… the unions are not strong enough to work on this alone… we need a coalition of parents and teachers across the states. I sent an email to the governor about this yesterday; only about once a week do they give me any response; I also email the Secretary of Education and I get no response; one time I emailed the person in DESE and she said she brought it to the Chief of Staff who reports to the Commissioner….. not much satisfaction…. Keep the comments going into the newspapers
These are public schools, under state receivership.
jeanhaverhill@aol.com
Here are some noteworthy facts about the Lawrence MA school district as of the 2014-2015 school year, where the No-Nonsense-Nurture program and methodology from the Center for Transformative Teacher Training is being used to control teacher and student performance in the service of raising test scores and graduation rates.
LPS serves roughly 13,900 students and their families. The demographic breakdown is as follows:
Race/Ethnicity:
1.5% African American
1.6% Asian
91.3% Hispanic
5.2% White
0.4% Multi-racial, Non-Hispanic
English Language Learners:
70.0% First language not English
29.9% English Language Learners (ELLs)
Special Education:
16.9% Students with Disabilities
Low Income:
88.9% Qualify for free lunch
3.5% Qualify for reduced-price lunch
91.3% Total low-income
So in Lawrence, MA this is a program of choice for poor Hispanic kids, many still learning English.
The current marketers of NNN is CTTT or C3T short for the Center for Transformative Teacher Training. The website lists as CLIENTS a curious list of large metro school districts, many charter franchise schools, TFA and really weird—the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as a CLIENT. Here is the sales pitch information:
Our work has had a transformative impact on educators from a wide range of school districts, CMO’s, and educational organizations, including:
Achievement First Achievement School District Alain Locke Project Apple Academy Public Charter Schools Aspire Public Schools Academy for Urban School Leadership- Chicago Beecher Community School District Center City Public Charter Schools Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Chicago International Charters Cleveland Metropolitan School District DC Bilingual Charter School Denver Public Schools Alice Deal Middle School Friendship Public Schools KIPP Schools Leadership Public Schools Lighthouse Potomac Charter School MATCH Schools Mastery Schools NewSchools Venture Fund New Schools for New Orleans New Teacher Center Princeton City Schools Rocketship Public Schools Roosevelt School District San Francisco Unified School District St. Hope Leadership Academy Success Academy Charter Schools Syracuse City Schools Teach for America Uncommon Schools Urban Teacher Center Winton Woods Schools
Also listed as clients with logos attached are :The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Selby County Schools, District of Columbia Public Schools
So, Bill and Melinda Gates are CLIENTS?
I snooped around on the Internet. The general method of Assertive Discipline has been around since 1976 marketed by Lee Canter and Associates (Lee is one of the originators). That work was purchased by Sylvan in 1998 and resurrected in 2009 as CTT with NNN as one of the products. The co-founders, include Lee Carter and Kristyn Klei Borrero, who completed an ED.D in 2008 (educational administration). Prior to that Kristyn was CEO of Aspire charter schools, and key leader in developing the Reading Partner’s program with community volunteers paired with students. Her bio says she received a $60 million grant from the Gates Foundation but what that was for is not clear.
The website has a brief on “research.” It cites one study of NNN arranged by New Schools Venture Fund. The claim is that NNN was implemented in grades 3-12, with “urban students, 99.1% African Americans, 83% qualified for free/reduce priced lunches.
Result: “reduced off task behavior up to 55%.” This not a peer reviewed study. I have requested a copy of the study per the website invitation.
I have concluded that the promoters of this program think that “urban” schools should function as boot camps where strict compliance with rules is job one, along with on-task and on-time compliance with assigned tasks. The school has one major purpose–transmitting text-based knowledge with teachers functioning as task-masters.
The program assumes that teachers are incompetent, even if well-intentioned. Precisely because teachers are most likely to be white, female, from suburban and privileged backgrounds, they need to learn how to treat students who attend schools in urban settings where self-discipline is in short supply, and students must be told what to do, when, how, and so on.
The stereotyping is thick and deep. The “nurture” in this program is designed to make critical and independent thinking unlikely. It is perfect prep for troop training. The teacher training program is bizarre but attractive to TFA amateurs.
But one of the biggest advocates for the idea that black children need a different kind of instruction than whites, including strict, specific instructions, is a black educator, Lisa Delpit. I read her first book, OTHER PEOPLE’S CHILDREN and I have to admit I was left rather baffled. I certainly am in no position to tell black people what their experience is or should be, but I just can’t quite get my head around a black educator arguing for what amounts to (a) segregated education and (b) power-and-control behavior management. I should note, however, that if you read the whole book, you’ll find it more nuanced than these sorts of “training” programs, and she’s even a bit contradictory with herself, as if she knows the pitfalls of what she’s saying. Well worth reading, not because you’ll necessarily agree with it, but because it gives somewhat of a better idea where blacks may be coming from when they argue for things that seem inherently abusive.
Those who support authoritarian discipline, including the young teachers trained in NNN who spoke in the video, act as if the only alternative to that is being permissive. Most don’t seem to know about authoritative discipline or the research indicating it’s the most effective approach to child management. If anyone would like to learn more about authoritative techniques in the classroom, I suggest reading Dan Gartrell, as well as this: http://www.ernweb.com/educational-research-articles/authoritative_parenting_style_model_for_school_discipline_style/
Though research indicates low income parents can be very warm and loving, many use authoritarian discipline, regardless of race, so it’s not a huge stretch if they don’t have a problem with that and seek it out in schools.
In Hart and Risely’s study that revealed a 30 Million word gap in the language heard between low income and higher income kids by age 3, just as alarming was the lack of encouragement kids in poverty were getting from their parents during their early life experiences. Children in poverty were “accumulating five affirmatives and 11 prohibitions per hour, a ratio of 1 encouragement to 2 discouragements. In a 5,200-hour year, that would be… 26,000 encouragements to 57,000 discouragements.” That’s twice as many discouragements as encouragements, while in comparison, middle income kids got the opposite, twice as many encouragements as discouragements, and higher income children received six times as many encouragements as discouragements. (See: http://www.aft.org/sites/default/files/periodicals/TheEarlyCatastrophe.pdf)
I have heard some black teachers say about authoritarian discipline “our kids really need that.” However, in my classroom teaching experiences, this was not a “need” and authoritative techniques worked very effectively. I could go on but I don’t have time so, in summary, I think the last thing poor children need is cold teachers who do not provide encouragement and act as drill sergeants spouting commands.
I read her book too, awhile ago. It was nuanced. Maybe I’ll look through it again this summer. I also agree with Jean Haverhill, it’s important to me as a teacher to read widely. The first few years I subbed, I read and re-read Haim Ginot each summer. I also read Alice Miller, Mary MacCracken and Torey Hayden in the early years- in other words, I read whatever the public library offered. Each of us has to find our own way to re-new and keep learning.
Also, I think that I watched the Assertive Discipline video during a prep period while I was subbing in middle school. Is that the one where he says that old style discipline is “Don’t smile until Christmas”? That brings back a lot of memories!
Anyway, it took awhile to find my place in education. Subbing in elementary school was never easy for me-it would have been a nightmare to be micromanaged.
Amy Berard sounds like a great teacher. It’s difficult not to have a steady job, but I bet the next one will be even better.
NNN and CTTT ?
N-cubed and C T-cubed?
Well, that explains it…cuz only a blockhead would support this stuff.
Reblogged this on donotmalignme and commented:
Robot teachers in Lawrence. I’m sure that will work well.
Here in Las Vegas they are experimenting with robotic bell hops and room service in the hotels. They also plan on self check in via computer. Tell me again about all the high paying jobs we will have to replace the lost jobs all you economists….We all know there will not be enough jobs for everyone.
And eventually, the corporations will automate themselves out of existence when there aren’t enough customers left to keep them in business.
I can see the CEOs and oligarchs flying in their jets to a conference in the Bahamas to discuss what happened, and what they can do to survive. Hopefully, at least one of them will have enough brains and common sense to say we have to get rid of the robots, hire flesh and blood people to replace them and pay them a livable wage so they’ll have money to spend and we’ll have customers.
I believe this began in Memphis after the Gates Foundation came to town–their idea of teacher effectiveness. I thought it was so ridiculous it wouldn’t go anywhere.
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/local-news/lend-me-your
Ha…Ha..Ha…Ha… Is it April Fools Day? This is what it has all come to. This article made me laugh and laugh. I now clearly see that things could be worse! 😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁
The New Teacher Center is behind this madness with The Gates Foundation donating more than 10 million dollars. This is sickening, when will the people wake up?
As I’ve commented elsewhere, this approach to “education” brings us one step closer to the approach to education in Isaac Asimov’s “The Fun They Had.” http://visual-memory.co.uk/daniel/funtheyhad.html
My initial response was that of Sad Teacher; this can’t be for real.
What a farce! It is too ridiculous to respond to. Whoever is programming the robots haven’t a clue what discipline is about: anticipating problems and diverting attention to something positive; being attentive to those students who are complying to commend them with a nod, a smile, or verbal compliment; a look or standing next to the disruptive student is enough to curb misbehavior… Above all, interesting, meaningful discovery, and challenging but not impossible activities is a must. Discipline is too individualistic for a robot. Discipline needs instant action be it ignoring or addressing- no time to listen to a robot. Honest praise goes a long way.
Folks might want to take a look at the comments on EduShyster’s page again. There is now a long winded defense of this garbage, and of the typical No Excuses demand, “100% on task, from 100% of the students, 100% of the time,” from a teacher at that school, “MrEd,” towards the bottom of the page. Of course, they already tried every other possible alternative and this is THE magic bullet: http://edushyster.com/i-am-not-tom-brady/#comments
Actually, it’s a teacher COACH and another one who prepares teachers jumped on board with praises for the program as well. All hail the source of their paychecks cuz that supposedly means you “Believe in Kids.”. .
That’s what “high tech” means now?
The drone teacher barks commands fed from walkie-talkies?
Hah!
Walkie-talkies with idiots at the other end who have little or no educational training or understating of how children work and come in a variety of packages from a wide diversity of home environments. To the idiots barking the commands, all kids are the same and eager to learn and easily controlled and automated.
And when the Rheeformers find out the reality, what do they do, they dump the kids they can’t control or automate in an attempt to create a fantasy environment at their fraudulent, for profit corporate school with the goal to cut corners to boost profits.
Did anyone else notice that, in the video, the young female Asian teacher who said she learned that methods used with middle class students don’t work for low income kids is no longer there? It looks like they edited her out!
Did anyone happen to save the original video to their computer? Google cache and the Wayback Machine only go to what’s on youtube now, not a previous version.
A number of us remember that clip and had been struck by the inherent racism in making such a claim. I’ve heard before that this is told to fast-track “teachers” like TFAers etc. but hadn’t seen it on tape until first watching the original version of this video.
Deleting that segment from the video was malicious scapegoating of Amy Berard, and a covert attempt to divert attention away from the fact that this program demonstrates how Learning While a Child of Color evokes the same racism, lack of respect and inequitable treatment as Driving While Black.
Reblogged this on Creative Delaware and commented:
OMG! The day I have to wear an earpiece to teach is the day I quit! Please read this crap! And this is happening in the USA! God help us!