Irving Hamer, who has had a long and storied career in urban school districts, has started a blog to describe what he has learned over the course of his years in the schools.
One thing he learned is that education is impossible without the arts.
Schools must be filled with the artwork of great artists and student artists. Music must ring out and fill the students’ and teachers’ ears. Dancing would curb the obesity crisis. Schooling without the arts is not education; it may be basic skills, it may be testing, but it is not education.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.
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Looks like it’s time for some renaming.
For example, not “The Kennedy High School”, but “The Kennedy Real High School” (if there is on and it is), and “Success Training Academy”, “Basis Training Academy”. If considered more appropriate the word “Camp” could be put to use somehow.
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Aside from the thesaurus abuse, not too shabby. I advocate soft music instead of bells.
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What is “thesaurus abuse”?
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Because the powers that be want indoctrination; not education. You don’t need music to learn to obey!
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And, since the ability to learn how to read music, to sing the notes written onto a page, and to use instruments correctly has been compared to the mental work necessary for learning a new language, can we afford to let these students (who are meant only to obey) have music classes?
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I think that’s all great, but Irving Hamer was the Assistant Superintendent in Memphis City Schools for a few years back when I was still teaching there. Perhaps he has changed, but one of the reasons I rejoiced when this blog (Diane’s) came out was because of the way we were treated in those high needs, high poverty schools by him and the other leaders there. He held a lot of power and I remember crying one afternoon when I received an e-mail chastising us for not making two or three years of growth in one year and demanding we attend an after school training session led by him so he could explain to us what we were doing wrong. It was the most mean-spirited e-mail I think I’ve ever received. Our value added scores weren’t high enough. He rescinded the “invitations” when teachers complained of the ugliness of the e-mail and its public nature. Names were on it in the form of our e-mail addresses, so it was clear who had the lower TVASS scores. My score was based on the school’s score that year, so I had a 1 at the time. It was humiliating.
I would say that under Dr. Hamer’s rule the arts suffered in favor of testing and computer based practice programs. He was deeply unpopular and synonymous with the reform movement to most of us. He appeared to have been a fan of TFA, had a reputation for firing and demoting principals who disagreed with him, and everyone spoke of him in fear. I don’t think you’ll find anyone from Memphis who wants to read his blog. I think if you asked teachers who worked under him you’d hear some shocking stories.
After being accused of sexual harassment (again) and very publicly, he left. My family went out the dinner to celebrate. The teachers and principals high fived each other in the halls. Too bad Memphis lost so many great employees during his time with us.
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Thanks for the scoop from Memphis.
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Looks like a change of heart now. Wonder what happened.
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My heart goes out to you when you note that the abuse you experienced was based not on anything you had done, but on the “school’s score.” I repeat the idea of being school-score-identified over and over in my own writing, hoping that it might become recognized as one of the more horrific forms of a test-score/school-reform abuse.
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Irving Hamer was hired as a consultant right after a new superintendent started working in my school district. Hamer wrote a devastating critique of the school district by only looking at district documents. He did not visit and observe any schools or programs since it was the beginning of the summer. He did not interview any teachers or administrators. He did leave with a nice fee in his pocket. I would suspect his recommendations even though I highly value the arts in education.
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Seems like he may have written himself a new business plan now. Power of the interwebs to out malefactors!
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The “arts” includes Philosophy and History and no one is genuinely educated without knowledge of them. Our Founding Fathers were steeped in Philosophy and History and that philosophical and historical knowledge led to our Declaration of Independence and Constitution. Today, universities churn out well-trained people — trained in engineering, medicine, law, finance — who aren’t educated. Today’s “education” is all about churning out people who can serve as cogs in the machinations of The Great God Economy to whom we have become enslaved and Who governs us through His high priests who hold forth in the great temples on Holy Wall Street.
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