Wesley Null on the Power of Teachers

August 24, 2018 //

Wesley Null, teacher educator and Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, reflects on that feeling you get right before school starts, a feeling of anticipation and a new beginning. He takes this opportunity to remark on the importance of teachers in the lives of children, something to think about as politicians complain and comment about a profession that they don’t appreciate or understand.

Categories Education Reform, Teachers and Teaching

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drext727 says:

August 24, 2018 at 12:22 pm

Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.

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Duane E Swacker says:

August 24, 2018 at 12:35 pm

“To the army of heroes who will step into classrooms this August and face another set of nervous students, I offer this: When the classroom door is closed and it’s just you and them, give your students who you are and what you know. Not half of it. Not some of it. All of it. Nothing else matters.”

While I agree with the author’s statement beginning with “When the classroom door. . . “, too bad so many teachers live in so much fear of their jobs and don’t do exactly that. But they don’t, they will dutifully give the “baseline tests” and/or implement other educational malpractices as mandated by the system and violate the student’s being in the teaching and learning process.

And there is no “army of heroes” of teachers. How can a teacher that implements educational malpractices be considered a hero? I’d say there are maybe a handful of true teacher “heroes” who do not implement those malpractices.

Tis sad, very sad.

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- Lloyd Lofthouse says:
  
  August 24, 2018 at 2:15 pm
  
  “And there is no ‘army of heroes’ of teachers.”
  
  I disagree. How big is an army? In the U.S. military during World War II, an army was made up of 100,000 to 150,000 troops.
  
  http://secondworldwar.co.uk/index.php/army-sizes-a-ranks/86-army-units-a-sizes
  
  “Public school systems will employ about 3.2 million full-time-equivalent (FTE) teachers in fall 2018, such that the number of pupils per FTE teacher—that is, the pupil/teacher ratio—will be 16.0.”
  
  https://www.google.com/search?q=how+many+public+school+teachers+in+the+United+STates&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-1
  
  Conclusion. with 3.2 million full-time teachers, there is room for more than 32 armies.
  
  I think that there is more than one army out of that 32 or more potential armies that are willing to step up and fight back.
  
  We don’t need all of the teachers to win this war. Just enough willing to shake the crap out of the greedy, lying, fraudulent, corporate pirates attempting to disrupt and hijack public education in the US.
  
  For instance, the Continental Army that George Washington led during the Revolution was estimated to number 200,000 troops at its high point. The total population was almost 4 million.
  
  Washinton won with 5-percent of the total population.
  
  It has also been estimated that there were about 400,000 loyalists to the British Crown or 16 % of the white population during the American Revolution, and George Washington still won even with the numbers against him … with some help from France and Spain.
  
  I think all we need is 5 percent(or more) of the 3.2 million teachers (160,000 or more) to be willing to speak out and fight back to become that army of heroes to win this war to save traditional public education.
  
  And … only 33% of teachers approve of charter schools. That works out to more than 2.14 million teachers that do not approve.
  
  https://www.educationnext.org/public-support-climbs-teacher-pay-school-expenditures-charter-schools-universal-vouchers-2018-ednext-poll/
  
  It is obvious to me that there is already one or more armies of teachers out there willing to be those heroes and many of them are already actively protesting.
  
  USA Today reports: ‘Tired of begging’: Teacher rebellion shuts down Oklahoma, Kentucky schools
  
  https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/04/02/teacher-strikes-shut-down-schools-across-oklahoma-kentucky/478102002/
  
  Teacher Walkouts: A State By State Guide
  
  Arizona
  Colorado
  Oklahoma
  Kentucky
  West Virginia
  
  https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/04/02/teacher-strikes-shut-down-schools-across-oklahoma-kentucky/478102002/
  
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  - Duane E Swacker says:
    
    August 24, 2018 at 3:05 pm
    
    “I think that there is more than one army out of that 32 or more potential armies that are willing to step up and fight back.”
    
    Potential means nothing. I look to see what has happened over the last two decades and only see a handful of us who bore the brunt of the challenge and suffered personally, professionally, monetarily, etc. . . . I look at the results and they haven’t been there, thus my condemnations of the current teaching force.
    
    While I agree that it wouldn’t take all or probably even a majority, the fact is damn near every teacher is more concerned with their own ass and not the well-being of the children in their charge.
    
    “Should we therefore forgo our self-interest? Of course not. But it [self-interest] must be subordinate to justice, not the other way around. . . . To take advantage of a child’s naivete. . . in order to extract from them something [test scores, personal information] that is contrary to their interests, or intentions, without their knowledge [or consent of parents] or through coercion [state mandated testing], is always and everywhere unjust even if in some places and under certain circumstances it is not illegal. . . . Justice is superior to and more valuable than well-being or efficiency; it cannot be sacrificed to them, not even for the happiness of the greatest number [quoting Rawls]. To what could justice legitimately be sacrificed, since without justice there would be no legitimacy or illegitimacy? And in the name of what, since without justice even humanity, happiness and love could have no absolute value?. . . Without justice, values would be nothing more than (self) interests or motives; they would cease to be values or would become values without worth.”—Comte-Sponville [my additions]
    
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  - Duane E Swacker says:
    
    August 24, 2018 at 3:07 pm
    
    And those teacher walkouts are seen by many to be self-serving by the teachers (yes, I understand that the teachers’ working conditions are the student’s learning conditions). But when have the teachers, when have the teachers’ unions called for a walkout in boycott of implementing educational malpractices that so dominate the public school teaching and learning process?
    
    NEVER, that’s when!
    
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  - Lloyd Lofthouse says:
    
    August 24, 2018 at 3:53 pm
    
    “And those teacher walkouts are seen by MANY to be self-serving by the teachers”
    
    Easy to allege “MANY” but not easy to prove. Trump does it all the time.
    
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  - Duane E Swacker says:
    
    August 24, 2018 at 4:40 pm
    
    The not so subtle bash doesn’t work, Lloyd. Hell, the tRump craps everyday and so do you. Does that put you in his league?
    
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  - Lloyd Lofthouse says:
    
    August 24, 2018 at 4:47 pm
    
    Wait a minute, how do you know that Trump takes a dump like everyone else does?
    
    We have no idea what’s hidden by his baggy pants. If anything, his tiny rectum probably spits out dry, brown string or he is so constipated from his fast food diet that he hasn’t taken a crap for years.
    
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- RageAgainstTheTestocracy says:
  
  August 24, 2018 at 3:09 pm
  
  Realistically, the vast majority of teachers cannot afford to refuse to administer the state math and ELA tests required by law. But that’s ok. The tests are not the real problem. Four days of testing can come and go, almost unnoticed. Just like back in my, Iowa Test of Basic Skills days.
  
  What teachers can and should do is stop talking about the tests; stop pre-testing and benchmark testing; stop all test-prep; stop scripted lessons; stop adhering to micro-management of Marzano/Danielson rubrics; stop posting learning objectives (if your kids don’t know what they should be learning your in the wrong line of work); stop data walls; stop test rallies, chants, and songs; stop worrying about accountability; stop the dog and pony shows during observations; stop all the BS and teach your children well.
  
  Every day of the school year you face rooms full of the best evaluators of your teaching skills and management skills. Just listen to them.
  
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  - Duane E Swacker says:
    
    August 24, 2018 at 4:36 pm
    
    “Every day of the school year you face rooms full of the best evaluators of your teaching skills and management skills. Just listen to them.”
    
    Exactly Rager, exactly!
    
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- markstextterminal says:
  
  August 24, 2018 at 3:47 pm
  
  Nicely put, Duane. You’ve pretty much captured my mood as I prepare to return to my classroom next month.
  
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- Roy Turrentine says:
  
  August 24, 2018 at 8:05 pm
  
  Are you saying that we (I am still teaching) should individually quit if we agree with your stance on testing? I fear that would mean only those who feel comfortable with the testing approach would be left in the classroom.
  
  Are you saying we should band together to fight this “malpractice?” Perhaps, but organization is difficult, and competing interests get in the way.
  
  Perhaps the best defense is the passive response given to tyrants when there is no avenue of resistance. Passivity ruined the Soviet Union. Passivity has ruined many a slave driver, dictator, and straw boss.
  
  I have never felt comfortable with being a hero, as Null suggests in his essay. Movies that depict hero teachers are just as pernicious as those that project incompetence on us. We are just folks who like to have intellectual relationships with people in the community. I am tempted to suggest what Candide told Pangloss: let’s just cultivate our garden.
  
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  - Duane E Swacker says:
    
    August 25, 2018 at 2:43 am
    
    “Are you saying that we (I am still teaching) should individually quit if we agree with your stance on testing?”
    
    No, not saying to quit, but to not comply.
    
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  - Duane E Swacker says:
    
    August 25, 2018 at 2:45 am
    
    And as far as “banding together”? If that is what it takes, sure, but at the same time each individual can make that decision for themselves. Unfortunately at this point is seems that most don’t consider refusal a choice.
    
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  - carolmalaysia says:
    
    August 25, 2018 at 8:02 am
    
    Duane: “Unfortunately at this point is seems that most don’t consider refusal a choice.”
    
    I remember when I was a single parent working in Illinois. I was terrified at the thought of not getting a paycheck. I obeyed all the rules and they weren’t as horrible as what teachers have to endure these days.
    
    It’s one thing to in theory resist but it is another thing to live with no paycheck. I am also retired and that is why I write letters to the editor and regularly send protest letters to my state and federal congress members.
    
    We who are retired need to speak out against the injustices that pervade education. We won’t get fired.
    
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  - dianeravitch says:
    
    August 25, 2018 at 8:16 am
    
    There are four groups of people who can speak out without fear:
    
    1.Students
    2. Parents
    3. Retired educators
    4. Those who don’t work for schools
    5. College professors
    
    To expect teachers to risk their careers and pay checks is u reasonable.
    
    Teachers can act only if they act in union, which is why those who hate teachers also hate unions. They want teachers to be voiceless and powerless.
    
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  - Roy Turrentine says:
    
    August 25, 2018 at 7:56 am
    
    I think Rage has the best approach. For the individual, that is. No matter how invasive and ridiculous administrative requests might be, we can do what we want to do and fill out the paperwork. Paperwork does not prove anything except in the eyes of a particular type of administrator who,wants total control. I know principals and teachers who fill out their paperwork to make it look like they are in compliance, then do,what they need to do,for the children. This passive response to the system keeps good people on the job until some other wind blows down the “pike.”
    
    When all this reform stuff happened, we were warned the the things we objected to were nothing like what was “coming down the pike.” That had particular meaning for me, since our small rural school sat next to a pike. In Tennessee at least, a pike attached to a road name means that the road was once a private toll road which was taken over by the county or state as the age of the auto came to be. The antiquated private system gave way to a governmental solution that assured that you did not have to stop and pay toll to drive five miles to town. The pike that connected us to the superintendent’s office was a literalized metaphor in my mind, one which flowed with everything but proper funding.
    
    The pike, you see, is always busy. Those not in the classroom brim with wonderful ideas, some of which might be good. Unfortunately, the good ones are overshadowed by the ones that are ridiculous or unfunded. The cry of “wolf” rings solidly through every attempt to change the way we do things for the better, for good ideas are always drowned out by silly ones like weighing the cow every fifteen minutes to see if she is producing milk.
    
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- Joe says:
  
  August 24, 2018 at 8:12 pm
  
  Whoopee, more teacher bashing. As if teachers don’t get demeaned and swift boated enough by the school privatizers. If you don’t care about your career and livelihood, by all means refuse to give the tests, refuse to do the practice tests and resign yourself to being written up and possibly dismissed, especially if you are a non tenure teacher. Chris Christie said that teachers were selfish and greedy and not concerned about the kids. I think that most teachers are heroes, they really do try their best to help the kids and they do make all kinds of daily sacrifices in service to the kids. Even within the framework of all the insane testing mania imposed by the privatizers.
  
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  - Duane E Swacker says:
    
    August 25, 2018 at 2:46 am
    
    Can’t agree, Joe.
    
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- Threatened Out West says:
  
  August 24, 2018 at 9:32 pm
  
  Give us a break, Duane. I got in significant trouble two years ago for trying to stand up–the principal almost got my license revoked. No one else would stand with me. We can’t all be you and do and say whatever. We have families to support.
  
  Be gentle. We’re not all “GAGA” educators. We do our best to change our little corner of education, but we also need to have a job.
  
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  - dianeravitch says:
    
    August 25, 2018 at 12:19 am
    
    Duane is retired. No one can fire him.
    
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  - Lloyd Lofthouse says:
    
    August 25, 2018 at 12:17 pm
    
    When I was still teaching, I was an outspoken critique. I fought back for decades and was warned by friends that knew what was going on that district administrators wanted to get rid of me, fire me, and I was on the short list of teachers to be removed, if possible.
    
    One principal was hired to get rid of us on that elimination list and he ended up losing his job because he went too far and union lawyers become involved. In fact, that principal went so far he caused a scandal that reached the national media. That embarrassed the elected school board so his contract was canceled with three years left on it. They were willing to pay out more than a $150k to get rid of him.
    
    I survived to finish out 30 years and retire without being fired.
    
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  - Duane E Swacker says:
    
    August 25, 2018 at 2:47 am
    
    Nope, can’t be gentle. Until one refuses one is a GAGA teacher. So be it.
    
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  - Duane E Swacker says:
    
    August 25, 2018 at 2:51 am
    
    Fought against the deforms for years before I retired and paid a price. Not a good argument, Diane.
    
    I know, I just don’t play nice, and that’s fine with me.
    
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  - Akademos says:
    
    August 25, 2018 at 12:17 pm
    
    There are personal views and then there are rational strategies.
    
    We are all in very different boats.
    
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retired teacher says:

August 24, 2018 at 12:37 pm

As much as ” teachers need a lifeline. They need a rope that will never break. They need a foundation that will never crumble.” Our young people, particularly our most vulnerable young people, need stability and investment too. Market driven education provides nothing but instability and chaos. Our young people deserve more than being some grandiose social, educational experiment that continuously fails to deliver improvement, but like the terminator appears in another form with no better outcomes. The wealthy should not get to repeatedly toy with the lives of students and teachers because they make campaign donations to certain political campaigns. What ever happened to the responsibility of government to respond to the needs of the people?

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carolmalaysia says:

August 24, 2018 at 6:09 pm

Subject: Tell DeVos: Arm Schools with Resources, Not Guns

I signed a petition to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.

Will you sign this petition? Click here:

https://petitions.moveon.org/aft/sign/devos-arm-schools-with?source=s.imn.em.cp&r_by=1432174

Thanks!
Carol

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LeftCoastTeacher says:

August 24, 2018 at 8:15 pm

Thank you. I am all in. I will give everything I have this year. That includes standing up against test prep and as tactfully as possible encouraging my colleagues to do the same. (It gets easier to convince them with each test and with each victory by privatizing fund suckers.) Teaching includes standing with and walking out, unafraid, with my union as we prepare to protest constant, unwarranted budget cuts with a strike. But most of all, it includes believing in my students and in my public school. I am all in.

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Roy Turrentine says:

August 24, 2018 at 8:24 pm

We have been back at school for three weeks. Reason? All across Tennessee, schools are racing to get in as much teaching as they can before end of course testing begins a full month before the end of school. Right now I do not feel like much of a hero. I do appreciate the compliment from Mr. Null, and I bet he supports the same political forces I do. He even supports me by a nice essay. But I do not feel like a hero. I feel like I should be doing more to help the children, but then there is my own child and a host of other things pulling at me.

I wonder if Mr. Null teaches statistics? He should really be good at setting up the null hypothesis. Sorry, names are a fascination. We had an undertaker in a nearby town named Deadman.

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- Threatened Out West says:
  
  August 24, 2018 at 9:37 pm
  
  Could be worse. In Utah, the entirety of fourth term is devoted to testing. One quarter of the year. It’s not that every kid is testing every day, but many kids are testing each day (our ELA test alone is 6 days). We can’t even use the library (there are computers in there) for the entire fourth term. I have been known to check out every book on a subject from the library, move it up the stairs, and out the door to my portable trailer, and up a curb and eight steps to get the books into my room, just so my students can do research fourth term.
  
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  - bethree5 says:
    
    August 25, 2018 at 4:31 am
    
    Now that IS heroic!
    
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- bethree5 says:
  
  August 25, 2018 at 4:34 am
  
  My mother used to claim there was a funeral home in her childhood town called Dye & Berry.
  
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  - Roy Turrentine says:
    
    August 25, 2018 at 8:17 am
    
    I have a good friend who is not a lawyer. Her name is Sue Quick. She might have been. Dr. Payne practiced dentistry back in the day when dentists inflicted pain as a professional duty. I was once kidding with a student named Rob, telling him he should be a burglar. The kids told me he had just faced adjudication for that very act. Needless to,say I did not make that joke again.
    
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Amy Hicks says:

August 25, 2018 at 12:45 am

Right now thousands of teachers in Washington state are anticipating a strike instead of the first day of school . Sadly, it’s largely ignored except for local news. My district’s strike date is the 29th.

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- ciedie aech says:
  
  August 25, 2018 at 2:09 pm
  
  a crucial point: more and more our national media outlets tell us very little about certain subjects, one of them being teacher strikes
  
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Akademos says:

August 25, 2018 at 3:12 pm

We should all be conflicted (and leading examined lives) if we are teaching according to ways that conflict with our own principles. Then again, most initiatives (at the school level) can be implemented in a mostly beneficial way for students. It is an honest and serious question, how do we each best protect and educate children?

The testing regime is insane, yet I suspect it exists in part due to our collective and individual competitive natures.

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