“I came to the conclusion that
NCLB has turned into a timetable for the destruction of American public
education. I had never imagined that the
test would someday be turned into a blunt instrument to close schools – or to
say whether teachers are good teachers or not – because I always knew
children’s test scores are far more complicated than the way they’re being
received today.” - Diane Ravitch ( http://www.npr.org/2011/04/28/135142895/ravitch-standardized-testing-undermines-teaching)
Keeping Them in the
Box (or “love you just the way
you are”)
Idiom: In Pulitzer Prize winning author Tony Morrison’s
The
Big Box, several “unruly” children from various backgrounds find
themselves placed (incarcerated) into a Big Box complete with toys, articles of
clothing, food, furniture – all of it to remind them what would be best for
them if they were to conform to what society expects of them. In fact, although not directly stated, they
have been placed in the box for behaving/thinking outside of the societal norms
by which they should be constrained. If
you’re a teacher or nurse or public servant, it’s worth a read. Pull up a chair at your local Barnes and Noble’s and give it a good look. You’ll find it in the children’s section.
Rules of Conduct for Teachers – 1915
· You will not marry during the term of your contract.
· You are not to keep company with men.
· You must be home between the hours of 8 PM and 6 AM
unless at a school function.
· You may not loiter downtown in any of the ice cream
stores.
· You may not travel beyond the city limits unless you
have permission of the chairman of the school board.
· You may not ride in carriages or automobiles with any
man except your father or brother.
· You may not smoke cigarettes.
· You may not dress in bright colors.
· You may under no circumstances dye your hair.
· You must wear at least two petticoats.
· Your dresses may not be any shorter than 2 inches
above the ankles.
· To keep the classroom neat and clean you must sweep
the floor once a day, scrub the floor with hot soapy water once a week, clean
the blackboards once a day and start the fire at 7 AM to have the school warm
by 8 AM when the scholars arrive.
(New Hampshire Historical
Society) (http://www.nhhistory.org/edu/support/nhgrowingup/teacherrules.pdf)
Given these
historical circumstances, we’d hardly expect a governess/educator to demand
anything - much less a living wage. Pity
the Ichabod Crane, Mary Poppins, Miss Crabtree, Anna [The King and I] – were
they to shed their timidity for a sudden temerity and request deserved respect
and compensation. That would be out of
character and totally unacceptable. They
might even lose their heads?
Teachers,
nurses, police, firefighters, and public servants are taught through hammering
stereotypes and reiterated imagery that their professions’ nobility is derived from
the following: practiced compassion over
personal reward, good works over self-interest, and graciously granted respect
for the sacrifices each profession makes.
We illuminate our minds with these strobe images of the dignity of
penury through self-sacrifice.
But those once admirable
stereotypes have changed recently, haven’t they, my educator friend?
Anyone familiar with the print
media (in Chicago especially) is aware of the persistent vilification of the teaching
profession, the new emphasis on privatization of the schools, the demand for
testing as a measurement of teachers, not students. And with those angry new caricatures we have
at times come to doubt ourselves and our work – and I might emphasize – our
value. See the teacher shortages in Indiana as a direct result of years of bashing the profession.
For decades, any real threats
by public servants demanding respect, seeking appropriate compensation, or
calling for a voice in their respective professions have been countered with
the media’s cynical rejoinder that they are coldly willing to hurt kids, or patients,
or crime victims, or the populace. The
economy, destroyed by speculators; retirement savings, drained to less than
half their value; foreclosures, still rising unabated – we look at our pension
and feel – of all things – guilty.
“Honestly,” one teacher
whispered to me at a recent gathering, “I feel scared when people ask what I do
for a living. They’ll either hate me or
feel envy. So I make up things.” It won’t get better.
In the new world or the “new
reality,” our discomfort will be enhanced with the media’s consistent call to
simplify the process – teach measureable skills only, reduce the scope of class
choices, or just add more time. And be
paid accordingly.
In academics, they (public
servants) are often reminded to remain in their domesticated positions as
governess, tutor, nanny, baby-sitter, or hired help “in a feudal system of
corporate masters and serfs” (Chris Hedges).
Our job is simple: teach to the test.
Replacing real teachers – the ones who educate children to think
critically or inspire them to reach for their potential – the privateers now
seek those who design curriculum that can objectify and assess basic skills at
the expense of insights, gifts, or desire.
“Passing bubble
tests celebrates and rewards a peculiar form of analytical intelligence. This kind of intelligence is prized by money
managers and corporations. They don’t
want employees to ask uncomfortable questions or examine existing structures
and assumptions. They want them to serve
the system…They reward those who obey the rules, memorize the formulas and pay
deference to authority. Rebels, artists,
independent thinkers, eccentrics and iconoclasts – those who march to the beat
of their own drum – are weeded out” (http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/why_the_united_states_is_destroying_her_education_system_20110410/).
Here’s a peek into the
corporatist’s future educational model.
And No – this is NOT from The
Onion.
Bill and
Melinda Gates’ Foundation has been throwing more than $1.4 million into a
scientific plan to create a biometric wrist band (called a pedometer) that will
measure the emotional engagement of students in a classroom. In other words, the student’s response –
excitement or ennui – could be demonstrably identified and graphed for a class
period and thereby allows a charting of student-to-teacher response. Voila, we have a way to measure a student’s
interest/learning – or – do we have a measure of how a teacher is doing in
exciting a student or all the students for that matter? It doesn’t take much to realize the
ridiculousness of this attempt to reduce and codify instruction like we would
review an electro-cardiogram. But the
Gates Foundation is serious enough to drop a ton of money on this project. In fact, additional money will be spent this
year to begin testing the device in middle schools this fall (http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-06-12/news/sns-rt-us-usa-education-gatesbre85c018-20120612_1_gates-foundation-veteran-english-teacher-teachers-feedback )
The company spearheading this
project, Affectiva Inc., states in all seriousness that such data could be used,
for example, after watching a film in order to ask students questions about
scenes in the film that aroused them. That’s
just one example. Forget theme, symbol,
holistic response, personal response – just what aroused you. I personally spent most of 8th
grade sitting next to the Susie Wettergren and would have been in a constant
state of excitement, so I guess I would have been identified a great student –
or my teacher would have been considered exceptional.
One persistent
problem with asking the educated to educate is that those who deliver the
academic experience are not mindlessly obedient like the drones that function
at basic levels of existence in third world labor shops. And in fact, their greatest danger is in
educating those in their charge to think independently, or outside of the box,
if you will. Despite the historical
costume of subservience, real teachers provide or nurture a student’s further passion
for learning, most especially in the intangible areas of art, music, dance,
acting, etc. Like real teaching, these qualities
are not measureable test outcomes. They
are not subject to a single curve of improvement of failure; they grow in
spurts of discovery and momentary drops of frustration, failure or confusion.
On the other hand, corporate entrepreneurs
and business-model-minded people like Bill and Melinda Gates, Arnie Duncan,
Michael Noble, Rahm Emanuel, Penny Pritzker, etc. are trying to shift that
timeless paradigm of education to a measureable, data-driven curriculum
concept, one that tabulates basic improvement in a student’s achievement as
easily as a good or bad business quarter, an electrocardiogram, a simple test
score. That’s placing both students and teachers in
the box. That’s wrong-headed.
Respect yourself. Respect your good work. Fight back. Refuse to sign the contract with Pearson PARCC this year!
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