Larry Lee reminds one and all that what matters most in education is not what happens in the State House or the think tanks or the conferences, but what happens when teachers meet students.
He writes:
All the battles we wage in the legislature, all the money spent to lobby, all the grand schemes we import from distant think tanks, all the paperwork we choke principals with, all the talk about “data driven”, all the hand wringing because we are not ranked number one in such and such.
Then I visit a school and the world I have just described is a million miles away. A room of fourth graders could care less about what may happen in the statehouse. Neither does their teacher. Once again I am forcefully reminded that there are no classrooms at the state house, in the state capitol, in the think tanks or in the Gordon Persons building that houses the Alabama Department of Education.
I am reminded that education is all about what takes place when a teacher and her students interact. It is just that plain and simple.
Unfortunately we have hordes and hordes of folks who seem to have forgotten this. Or did they ever know it?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Of course! GREAT article by Lee.
Thanks, Diane.
LikeLike
“I am reminded that education is all about what takes place when a teacher and her students interact.”
Teachers definitely know that. They are the experts and too often politicians, who know everything, don’t care what teachers think and belittle them for not solving all of society’s problems.
The wealthy would much rather blame teachers than admit that money spent on smaller class sizes for all schools and increased enrichment/wrap around services for poor is what is needed. They do not want their precious money spent when teachers can be blamed for no cost.
LikeLiked by 1 person
and ironically that ‘free’ teacher blame ends up in kids and schools and neighborhoods doing more and more poorly, ultimately creating a huge cost of one kind or another for society
LikeLike
I teach fourth grade in a low income inner city
school. It’s seems to me that, while what happens in the classroom matters a lot, what happens at home matters the most. Without the support of a parent the relationship of teacher and student is often like a tail that wags the dog. The tail being the student, and the dog being the teacher/ school.
LikeLike
Jonathan, you never know what you have said or done that has resonated with a student, so don’t despair.
LikeLike
Teachers have a wealth of information and understanding at their fingertips. It is unfortunate that arrogant billionaires see them as the enemy. It is also unfortunate that so-called reform is a false flag designed to undermine public schools in order to impose privatization on them.
I have collaborated with many teachers during my career. Collaboration is a great way for teachers to share insights that improve instruction. Deform has marginalized the practitioners that know their craft. Instead, deformers have tried to put teachers maze of useless testing and cyber applications in public schools. These counter productive plans are the will of the 1% and complicit politicians. Neither of these improves education. In frustration, some teachers have walked out of classroom to clearly show their dissatisfaction with slashed budgets, charter and/or voucher expansion, and erosion of pay and benefits. Real teachers know that what is important is what happens in the classroom during the teaching/ learning continuum.
LikeLike
Well our education leaders have believed in technology for rich white children and tainted water in falling down school houses for the poor. Those same leaders supported nasty ignorant individuals like Ms. Rhee because it was fashionable just like Trump supporters, go after nonsense, they enjoy putting children of limited means down. Diane, you have had many blog postings supporting the misguided notion that zip codes don’t matter and in support of Arnie Duncans misguided hedge fund supported education theories. His allegiance is to Wall Street. Somehow children who watch their parents get arrested on bogus charges in the morning or expected to pay attention in school with no social services to support there needs . Remember when President Obama stated that public school in Rhode Island should be closed because the public school teachers were ignorant? He was listening to Wall Street, he didn’t care about students, with those phony Race to the Top games.
Minority candidates like Corey Booker who received donations from the Trump family and Betsy. He doesn’t care about students, he cares about getting votes and plays at being black that’s it. The only time people care about race is when it can help them get votes. Norman Rockwell and Teach for America never helped minorities. Bill Gates is just like Bloomberg a white man who knows nothing about anyone who is not in his class. If he really wanted to do something why is his education plans like his science programs in Africa a failure?
Frankly I am tired of hearing about this mythical concerns in regards to education. Nothing is ever in favor of minorities and this hand wringing is offensive.
Troll me if you want, I see to many people suffering to believe in this myth and see all of these all minority and not equal schools..
LikeLike
You write, “Diane, you have had many blog postings supporting the misguided notion that zip codes don’t matter and in support of Arnie Duncans misguided hedge fund supported education theories.”
Please identify even one post on this blog that supports what you wrote.
LikeLike
Beat me to the punch on that one, Diane.
LikeLike
Diane has consistently proposed that zip codes are crucial to understand student achievement, school financing, and school outcomes; zip codes are codes for class and race inequality. Diane has often blogged that poverty is the root of the poorest performing students.
LikeLike
I am saddened by this kind of myopic thinking. What matters is ALL of it – the classrooms, union halls, district offices, statehouses, etc. The work carving out a conceptualization of what public education in a democracy should be was not done in classrooms, and that work counts! If we are to preserve/restore a vibrant commitment to public education, those efforts will take place all over the place, and not just in classrooms. Seeing what goes on in classrooms is a precious and essential component of understanding learning and teaching, but let us not over romanticize the sweetness of children interacting with a caring teacher. While it is a beautiful thing, it is NOT the only thing that matters.
LikeLike
Of course, it is not the only thing that matters… but I have taught 2nd and 3rd grade for decades and then moved to seventh grade… and I am very clear about what learning to think involves… motivating a child.
When I was the Pew NYC cohort for the New Standards research on the Principles of Learning (Resnick/Harvard)..those things that must be present in every classroom where authentic learning takes place; WHAT LEARNING LOOKS LIKE was the conversation from Day one (in the seminars the LRDC gave to NYC teachers when I was chosen).
Seeing what goes on in a “genuine classroom practice” is more than precious, it holds the crucial lessons for engaging the young human mind. It IS the only thing that matters. Anyone who has ever tried to get a kid to do anything, knows that motivation is key. it begins every lesson plan for a ‘real’ teacher.
The Lesson’s ‘AIM” may be:”Learner will be able to write a coherent sentence about the issue of…(fill in the blank) but getting the child to do the work –the thinking to do this– depends on the ways in which the professional teacher facilitates that goal.
LikeLike
What happens when teachers meet students?
An interdependent relationship forms, with teachers learning and students teaching, and out of the relationship emerges not just education but authentic education.
At least that’s how wish to see it.
LikeLike
I think we should send every elected representative (and everyone that works for them even TFA volunteers) back to a K-12 school where real teachers will teach them how to think and be human instead of being a corporate and/or special interest tool.
LikeLike
“A room of fourth graders could care less about what may happen in the statehouse. Neither does their teacher.”
But the teacher NEEDS to care what happens in the statehouse, because it will directly impact her/his classroom and students. Fourth graders don’t need to care about what happens in their state legislature, but by seventh or eighth grade, students can and do care about what’s happening, because they know their classrooms are impacted by what legislators do, and mostly don’t do.
I’m truly tired of teachers who, “aren’t political,” and won’t do anything “political” to make their classrooms better–such as contacting legislators, marching for rights, etc. I’ve heard every excuse in the book from teachers who “don’t want to get involved.” They don’t seem to understand that they ARE involved, and that their silence just allows legislatures to ignore classrooms.
LikeLike
I’ve talked to some retired teachers that were like this when they were still teaching and even retired they do not want to get involved.
LikeLike
Makes me CRAZY, especially in a state like Utah, which has shortchanged teachers and classrooms for decades. Every one of those teachers who say that they don’t want to do anything “political” just sit by while the state happily spends less and less every year, teacher pay stagnates, and class sizes explode (I’m talking 38-45 students per class).
LikeLike
Threatened Out West: I believe teachers should speak out, especially by joining in a strike. However, I also believe that many are afraid of loosing their jobs if they say anything against the administration or speak against the politicians. Making a wave is not often appreciated.
This is why retired teachers must speak out loudly and regularly about the abuses that are taking place in public schools.
LikeLike
Don’t jump on me when I point out that the reason so many teachers are not combative is that about 77-percent of K-12 teachers are women, and it has been my life experience that most women are not as combative as men. All of the retired teachers I referred to that I know are women. The few men I know are active and combative.
I was combative. Even being a former Marine and combat vet helped me because, I was told, even district administration worried about how far I might go if they pushed me to become “postal”.
Just look at the ratio of men vs women who are involved in mass shootings. I’m not sure I have ever read that a woman was responsible for one of the mass shootings in this country.
Men are volatile like explosives while women tend to be more like a calm lake with peacful ducks floating around on its surface.
LikeLike
“A room of fourth graders could care less about what may happen in the statehouse. Neither does their teacher.”
PLEASE. Get this expression right: COULDN’T care less. Think about what makes better logical sense.
LikeLike
“PLEASE. Get this expression right: COULDN’T care less.”
Drives my husband nuts, too. 🙂
LikeLike