There is this superintendent in a small district in Texas who is brilliant. His name is John Kuhn. He speaks like a giant. He writes like a dream. He says what teachers everywhere are saying, and he says it better than anyone I know.
Read this and thank John Kuhn for being a hero of public education, a hero of teachers, and a hero of students.
I will write about this every single day from now until October 17.
Please write your thoughts about what needs to change in federal education policy and send a letter to President Obama by that date.
You can write it now and follow instructions here.
Anthony Cody, experienced middle school science teacher and fabulous blogger, has offered to coordinate our campaign to write President Obama on October 17.
We call it the Campaign for Our Public Schools.
Our campaign is meant to include everyone who cares about public education: students, parents, teachers, principals, school board members, and concerned citizens. We want everyone to write the President and tell him what needs to change in his education policies.
Tell your friends about the Campaign. If you have a blog, write about it. Wherever you are, spread the news. Join us.
Here are the instructions:
You can send your letter to Anthony Cody or to this blog.
Or you can send it directly to the White House, with a copy to me or Anthony.
Anthony will gather all the emails sent to him and me and forward them to the White House.
1. Email your letters to anthony_cody@hotmail.com.
2. Or submit them as comments to this blog. You can respond to this post or to any other post on this blog about the October 17 Campaign for Our Public Schools.
All letters collected through these two channels will be compiled into a single document, which will be sent to the White House on Oct. 18.
In ADDITION to this,
3. You can mail copies of your letters through US mail to The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, 20500
4. You can send them by email from this page: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comments
If you choose to write or email the White House, please send us a copy so we can keep track of how many letters were sent to the President.
One more thought: when you write to the President, also write to your Senators and Congressman or -woman and to your state legislator and Governor. Send the same letter to them all.
Let’s raise our voices NOW against privatization, against high-stakes testing, against teacher bashing, against profiteering.
Let’s advocate for policies that are good for students, that truly improve education, that respect the education profession, and that strengthen our democratic system of public education.
Let’s act. Start here. Start now.
Join our campaign. Speak out. Enough is enough.
Diane
When President Obama visited Memphis, he was introduced by a handsome, articulate teen, Chris Dean.
Read what Chris wrote about his life after the President left town. Read about the details that the “no excuses” reformers dismiss.
This parent did not permit his child to take the state test. She opted out. But through a computer glitch (surprise, surprise!), the parent received a report on the assessment that his child did not take. As he looked at the component parts, he was reaffirmed in his conviction that the test is utterly meaningless.
The test was given in May, but the results arrive in September. What is the value of that? And there are no examples of test questions that a student was able to answer or not able to answer. In fact, none of the information on the report was informative.
His conclusion: Opt out. Don’t let your child take the tests.
Stephanie Rivera is preparing to be a teacher at Rutgers University, where she is a junior. Stephanie has her own blog. But what’s special about Stephanie is that she has strong values, she has guts, and she is articulate. As an activist devoted to educational equity, she rightly is suspicious of faux reforms sponsored by billionaires and corporations.
Stephanie attended Education Nation. This is her report on te various panels and town halls. It is well worth reading because Stephanie brings a fresh perspective to the issues and personalities.
This teacher won’t let her child participate in state testing but she cannot shield him from the test-prep curriculum. Perhaps if everyone opted out, it would change. She thanks the teachers of Chicago for taking a brave stand. So much more is needed to change the direction of education in this nation and to make it worthy of our children and our nation. What advice can you give her?
Second career, 14th year in the classroom, tears in my eyes… Having a child in our public schools has left me with more enemies than colleagues – within the District and our neighborhood.
I know in my heart my teacher friends want to be and do better for my son, and all of their kids, but can’t or won’t stand up to rage against the machine. Watching our kid suffer in order to stand up and speak out for public education, our kids, and our communities has been one of the most difficult things my husband and I have ever done. While we do opt out from State testing (and I wish EVERYONE would), that does not opt our son out from the dull-dry-dead test prep curriculum his teachers and schools are measured by – not to mention the loss of social status by not buying into the notion that performance bands are a valuable label of one’s humanity, for those not afforded the privilege to make their own labels.
I hope for a better day, and our Chicago brothers and sisters have been INSPIRATIONAL, but after spending a PD day on the common core today I am assured, more than ever before, that I can hope in one and wish in the other but neither will result in anything but disappointment and disgust and anger over an utter erosion of our precious democratic ideals – which for those with the means and wherewithall matters NOT ONE IOTA. Raised fist, big sigh…
Bruce Adams, a veteran teacher and artist in Buffalo, explains how to fix the schools in nine not-so-easy steps.
His recipe does not involve firing teachers or closing schools. It does not rely on standardized testing. It takes time.
Wall Street hedge fund managers, Eli Broad, and the Gates Foundation won’t like his plan, because he warns against expecting quick results. In fact, he says, “don’t expect overnight success.” That no doubt disqualifies him in the eyes of our impatient reformers, who can’t wait.
Adams writes:
We don’t give schools enough time to implement one educational philosophy before replacing it with a trendy new one. Radical improvement doesn’t occur overnight. If we overhaul the system tomorrow and remain consistent, we could expect comprehensive results by the time this year’s newborns reach their senior year. Seventeen years may sound like a long time, but if we had spent ten years transforming our system after “A Nation at Risk” identified the problem in 1983, last year’s graduating seniors would have provided the first cradle to grad results. Think long term, not quick fix.
Of course, it does matter if you implement sound ideas to begin with. If you impose bad ideas that demoralize teachers and turn children into test-taking robots, then seventeen years will be a hard and ugly eternity.
Here is an article written by a Texas businessman and former legislator complaining that young people in Texas are woefully underprepared for college or the workplace.
The answer: more testing and accountability.
He fails to note that Texas has been pushing that testing and accountability thing for at least 20 years. Remember Ross Perot? Remember the Texas miracle? The whole country is stuck with NCLB because of all the “Texas Brags” that turned out to be all hat and no cattle.
Some people say that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting to get different results.
I’d say that the definition of ideology is doing the same thing over and over again without regard to evidence or experience.
When your method fails, and fails, and fails, and fails, don’t blame the kids. Blame the method.
This student opposes the planned closure and privatization of 40 Philadelphia public schools. He realizes that the closures are concentrated in minority communities and have a harmful effect on the students and the communities. He notes that Governor Corbett wants to spend more on prisons and less on schools. This is ominous.
As I have said in the past, when students awaken, the reform game is over. There are all these billionaire-funded groups with names like “Children First,” “StudentsFirst,” “Stand for Children.” Put a “not” in front of them. Listen to students, not to millionaires and billionaires who claim to speak in their name.
Join this student tomorrow in the Journey to Justice in D.C. if you are in the area.
Who is hurting the kids? Reverend Jesse Jackson knows.
A lot of pious preaching came from reformers who opposed the Chicago teachers’ strike. They said, “You are hurting the children by keeping them out of school.”
We never hear them say that the Mayor and the school board are hurting the children by denying them small classes, decent facilities, a good curriculum, social workers, the arts, and well-maintained facilities.
The money’s all gone, the reformers say, but there’s always enough to give subsidies to developers and big corporations. The only time the till is empty is when the topic is public schools.
Diane Ravitch's blog 