A few days ago, I posted a story about a high school teacher in the Bronx who was annoyed because he felt compelled to teach his public school students a story in a textbook that celebrated KIPP and put down their neighborhood.
The story attracted a lot of attention, and the teacher Erik Means wanted to answer your questions in this follow up post.
On August 25th, you linked to my Counterpunch article, which criticizes HMH for publishing a pro-charter essay in its 12th Grade Collections textbook. In part because of comments that a few of your readers posted, I feel obliged to make some clarifications:
When a school such as mine purchases HMH Collections, they buy textbooks for Grades 9-12, as well as electronic resources and supplementary materials – including a 180-day pacing guide. A set of scripted, Common Core-aligned questions follows each text. You buy these books because they are Common Core-aligned, and because they feature an array of shorter fiction and non-fiction texts that will help students practice for the Regents exam.
My administrators expected me to stick to this textbook, and use few “outside texts,” for these reasons. If I raised an issue with any text, they would tell me to teach it alongside a “counter-text” that provides a differing point of view. (I wrote the Counterpunch piece, in part, to create such as “counter-text” – since none really existed to suitably counter Gladwell’s claims and omissions).
To their credit, my administrators allow me to script my own questions. They respect me, my colleagues, and our academic freedom. They are also hard-working, good-hearted professionals who care deeply about the students and teachers in our building.
Do they require me to teach “Marita’s Bargain?” Given that they expect me to make my way through the textbook, as the year progresses, and only exclude certain texts because of time constraints, the answer is “yes.” You do not omit the first text in a textbook (it appears on pages 3-14) because of time constraints.
But the major reason why I teach “Marita’s Bargain” is because it is so glaring, in a literal sense. Throughout the year, all of my students will eventually leaf through the textbook, and see, in prominent letters, on page 5, “Just over ten years into its existence, KIPP has become one of the most desirable public schools in New York City.” They will see a photo of blighted South Bronx buildings on page 9. And they will see “Our kids are spending fifty to sixty percent more time learning than the traditional public school student” in prominent letters, on page 12.
My students would rightly wonder why I am skipping an article about schools in their community, when it appears as the first text in our textbook. If they read the most salient parts of the article, they might even suspect that I am skipping “Marita’s Bargain” because I am a self-interested public school teacher who wishes to obscure the miracles that KIPP charter schools are performing in their own community.
Thus, the fact that “Marita’s Bargain” appears so early in my textbook demands that I address it in some way. And if the text were not so prominent, I would not teach it; not in 100 years.
For my own part, I guide my students through “Marita’s Bargain” as critically as possible. But anyone who suspects that HMH would encourage teachers to do so can read its scripted questions, and judge for themselves (see pages 15-16):
Click to access maritas_bargain.pdf
Moreover, although most NYC ELA teachers are excellent, few of them are as knowledgeable about education reform as I am. “Pushing back” against Gladwell, as I do in class, requires a certain esoteric knowledge that many teachers lack – and this hardly discredits them as ELA instructors.
In this letter, I have written more about myself and my school than is my wont in a public forum. I have done so in order to make clear that my administrators acted, more or less rationally, in purchasing HMH Collections, and defensibly, in expecting me to teach most of its texts. I do not believe that they deserve much blame.
In my Counterpunch piece, I wrote primarily about the flaws and omissions of Gladwell’s piece itself. I attempted to demonstrate that the text failed to achieve a certain standard of quality, and that by deduction, HMH must have selected it for propagandistic purposes. This text should not be in my, or any, textbook, unless it is to be used as an example of certain defects. HMH did not wish this latter, if its scripted questions are any indication. I fault HMH for including the text in its Collections textbook, and for selling it to many schools throughout New York City. I fault Gladwell, to a lesser extent, for writing it in the first place.
Sincerely,
Erik Mears
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“Moreover, although most NYC ELA teachers are excellent, few of them are as knowledgeable about education reform as I am. “Pushing back” against Gladwell, as I do in class, requires a certain esoteric knowledge that many teachers lack – and this hardly discredits them as ELA instructors.”
I dunno, I think I have to argue with you on that. Any educator who doesn’t understand what’s going on with rephorm is, well, in for a world of hurt if nothing else. I guess I wouldn’t entirely go so far as to say they are “discredited” from teaching, but if you’re unaware of the environment in which you’re teaching, how can you teach your students to be aware? All you’re doing is passing on the propaganda that you’re being fed. I think it’s incumbent on teachers to be aware of the political forces under which they operate so that they don’t become simply a vehicle for transmitting those forces unexamined to their students. Sadly, I’m aware that few teachers in this country are this knowledgeable. Welcome to America. I guarantee every teacher in Mexico understands the political forces they work under.
The political forces behind so-called education “reform” have created a carefully, skillfully calculated disguise for years — the new civil rights movement and all, hiring people with liberal credentials to be their pretty faces. And wven my politically savvy friends view education policy as too inside-baseball and booooooring to pay attention to. I’m sure that’s true of many teachers too, especially if they’re in a position where they don’t see that they’re directly affected.
Meanwhile, Gladwell’s KIPP chapter illustrates a corrupting influence in journalism, which is simply the pressure on the writer to produce what an editor expects. Follow the money — even when it’s the modest money paid non-celebrity journalists, in other situations. The two of Gladwell’s books I’ve read (“The Tipping Point” and “Outliers”) are based on the notion that there are simple answers to complex problems, and he has to produce a certain number of anecdotal examples. Among points he has forcefully declared in other chapters are that people whose birthdays fall early in the year are more likely to be successful, and that the educational TV show “Blue’s Clues” would increase literacy in low-income communities of color and ease the achievement gap. It’s oh so simple!
“baseball and booooooring to pay attention to.”
Obviously then, they have no clue as to the historical background of baseball, its ties to American culture, and the subtleties of the games within the game. Pretty sad to know people are so taken in with glitz, glamour (as the powers that be in MLB have tried to add, totally mistaken said glitz and glamour for substance) instead of substance and subtleties.
Just more of Americans being ignorant in accepting bling over substance.
Duane, I’m sure you know this, but in case anyone’s confused, I didn’t literally mean baseball, just the term “inside baseball” as a metaphor for “too much detail about an issue that’s not of interest to the multitudes.”
People are falling for bullsh*t because they don’t think the issue is worth their close attention, just as they always have.
I think there are tons of teachers who don’t understand what’s going on with rephorm. They are mostly younger. Teachers are so inundated with what they have to get done every day/week in the classroom and then go home to do more work and then tend to their own family and personal life that they are oblivious of the surrounding mess. The only teachers that seem aware are veteran teachers….and they are being given buyouts to retire. So you have disengaged parents due to economic factors, overwhelmed and distracted teachers, and wrap around services that are shrinking and this is where everything goes down the rabbit hole to hell. Propaganda will flourish and no one will notice…wink wink… that’s the free market spin.
I think this comment about younger teachers is entirely untrue. Many of us got into education in the first place as a political act in addition to acting on the love we have for children and learning. While it is, of course, true that the workload is overwhelming…a great deal of us are acutely politically aware, engaged, and working the cracks in our respective systems. Try not to undercut whether or not someone is woke based on our birth dates. It merely creates an additional and unnecessary division.
Incidentally, this: “I fault Gladwell, to a lesser extent, for writing it in the first place.”
Why “to a lesser extent”? If he hadn’t written it, it couldn’t have been included in the book. Although, honestly, I fault Gladwell’s publishers most of all.
Before he became a bestselling vehicle for broadcasting conventional (i.e. Overclass) wisdom, Gladwell was a shill for the insurance-medical industrial complex’ efforts to repel health care reform.
His arguments can always be relied upon in some way to validate those with money and/or power.
From a 2012 alternet article about Gladwell, Is Malcolm Gladwell America’s Most Successful Propagandist and Corporate Shill?
“Propaganda works best when it is not perceived as propaganda, but works more subtly. The master of this nuanced approach is Malcolm Gladwell.: “One of the more obvious and disgusting examples: In 1990, Gladwell published a rank scare-article arguing that any moves to cut Americans’ smoking habits could “put a serious strain on the nation’s Social Security and Medicare programs”–meaning that high levels of smoking was helping keep America’s social safety from going bankrupt, since so many were dying before they could collect.”
Link for the alternet article about phony baloney Galdwell:
http://www.alternet.org/story/155770/is_malcolm_gladwell_america%27s_most_successful_propagandist_and_corporate_shill/
I agree, and it makes me sick when people cite Gladwell as if he is a legitimate source.
If I had to teach this KIPP piece to my students, I’d definitely include the “Igon Value Problem” (Google it…) in my teaching as one of several critical literacy components.
Thanks also to Joe for posting the alt net link. I look forward to reading it.
Think about all the standardized test questions that are not released. They contain brainwashing material that makes students think in a certain way. My daughter comes home and tells us about some of the questions. All standardized test questions (for profit and non-profit*) must be released to the public.
*I’m finding that all non–profit education has a for profit component.
YEP and YEP, especially to your last statement.
Diane, have you seen this one?
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/41760-how-the-large-scale-privatization-of-new-orleans-schools-upholds-inequality
Many public school teachers maintain a complete lack of awareness about the effects of privatization on education. As a result, they sleep better at night.
You are describing the public system my children attend. Since it is small, solidly middle class, and not overtly challenged by charters, they and virtually all the parents don’t pay attention to privatization. I recently attended a school board meeting (a system of three elementary, one middle, and one high school) and found out that $800,000-$1 million annually is being drained out of our system to support students who opt to use electronic classroom scams, which the superintendent estimated could support 8-12 teaching positions. But time my community wakes up to this, it will be too late to do anything to stop it.
BINGO! Distracted parents, distracted teachers, diminishing wrap around services = disaster for public schools. People think I’m crazy when I tell them these things. Teachers deny what is blatantly obvious and I don’t understand how they can’t see what is going on around them? It doesn’t make sense to me and the only thing I can do is protect my own children. It will be too late by the time everyone decides to make an effort to protect the right of a free and decent public education for all children.
Erik,
If you haven’t already thought of it, I urge you to add this post to that lesson and include what you wrote here in your discussions with your students.
Then put together an easy-to-follow lesson plan for this KIPP propaganda in the textbook and how you dealt with it (include all the material and methods used) and share that lesson plan with your entire department and maybe every English teacher in the school district where you teach.
You might even think about filming the lesson and your discussions with your students if the administration would allow it and then post it on YouTube. In fact, invite your principal and/or superintendent to be part of that discussion with your students. If you filmed the discussion in every class, you could only use the best parts in a final production before posting on YouTube.
Excellent advice, Lloyd. I will use it. Thanks!
Help me gain a perspective, because in St. Louis the media demands that a very low level of education reporting serves the community best. There are so many St. Louis people I admire—but I have to wonder if one general attitude might be counter productive. Ten years ago, there seemed to be numbers reflecting that charter schools were part of the overall main public school system. Nowadays, I hear expressions of contempt for the charters, for various reasons, but mainly that they demand resources which leave the main school system weakened. I heard both the superintendent and a member of the state board say that they are on their own, running their own operations with their own boards. In no way are the more than 30 charter schools in St. Louis considered part of the overall system, though I have spotted some contradictions in the way numbers are added and avoided. One group of charters (confluence) had a problem with hacking into students’ and staff’s computers—the pd reporter wrote an account….it was spiked and did not appear in print, and a vague explanation of what had happened and how it would be handled was offered by the confluence website. My question is….are charters considered less of overall urban school systems in a lot of places than they were ten or more years ago, and does this protect them from full public scrutiny in exchange for the regular public schools to be able to quietly think—-good bye and good riddance?
Charters have always drained resources from public schools, so it was always bogus propaganda to claim that they were part of the overall main public school system.
bogus propaganda or not, ten years ago in st. Louis, when the schools were taken over by the board led by that GOP fund raising jerk from Branson named Herschends, the superintendent told that board something they didn’t want to hear….that it would be a terrible idea to have Texas Can install a charter on 4300 goodfellow. She was replaced by the new appointed board, and the can academy lasted 7 months, leaving hundreds of kids stranded. My point was……when the regular school had at least the responsibility to report how the charters were performing…..that might have been better than the present situation which allows them to hide a lot of information.
Talk about product placement!
Do start-up charter schools buy more new textbooks in a given year than public schools do? Maybe that’s why HMH feels they need to please the charter people.
Why would the district adopt a book that disparages the district? I agree with Erik that most teachers are probably not rephorm-savvy enough to parry the dubious claims of Gladwell’s piece. Thus they’re left in the very awkward position of teaching a piece that impugns them as public school teachers.