Language can still be an adventure if we remember that words can make a kind of melody. In novels, news stories, memoirs and even to-the-point memos, music is as important as meaning. In fact, music can drive home the meaning of words. " (Constance Hale. The Sound of a Sentence. New York Times. [Opinionator]. Retrieved June 13, 2012 from http://nyti.ms
I enjoyed reading this beautiful post by Constance Hale on writing, creative expression, and language. What we fail to understand in this maddening world of "tests, tests, and more tests" is the frightening realization that our expectations for learning revolve around multiple choice responses. It reminds me of the Pavlov Dog Show for Humans, so that ignorant politicians can brag their test scores are proving something.
But, what of creativity? How do we foster imagination and kindle that spark of inspiration that only a child will develop in wonderment?
In the HBO series "From the Earth to the Moon" an interesting episode on the aftermath of the Apollo I disaster was presented. All the greatest minds in the country were investigating how this horrific fire could have occurred killing three astronauts. It wasn't until the end of the episode when Astronaut Frank Borman was being questioned by a congressional oversight committee that the true reason for the cause was revealed.
According to Astronaut Borman, we lacked the imagination that something could go wrong. We did not want to consider that something could happen that would prevent us from being successful. We lacked the imagination.
The same can be said in our schools and classrooms if we continue to allow the political demagogues work against the creativity and expression of our students. Children need to spend time each week in role playing, creativity scenarios, and expressive writing. These skills must be cultivated alongside the test-taking skills, and the rote memorization that certain people mandate.
Our failure to work on these skills will be our failure to imagine the future.
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Bagger Vance and School Leadership
One of the things I have learned since being retired is to work and focus on something to keep my mind and body active. I could have done this by writing and consulting, but I began to remember that life is too short to change the minds of people caught up in their own delusions. So, I took up the goals of getting physically fit, writing a novel, and improving my golf swing, all things that I could do something about. The physically fit stuff is fine, even though I sweat and smell awful to keep active, life is good. Writing a novel has been fun, but mentally challenging.
The golf swing, and playing golf so much has taught me much about the things and problems that I have had in my career as a school administrator, such as the APPR, the state education department, and dealing with red tape and insurmountable problems day in and day out- much of what most administrators do everyday. As you play an 18 hole round of golf, each hole is beset with all sorts of issues, obstacles, challenges, and obstructions to your progress of playing the hole in as few shots as possible, and moving on to the next hole. There may be a sand trap- or two, or three- a water hazard, bushes, trees, and other environmental hazards, but the goal will always be the same, getting the ball to the hole in as direct and efficient manner as possible.
While it took me many years of golf to be able to finally smell the roses and learn to enjoy the game. When I play now, I focus on my swing, carefully, consistently, and rhythmically, practicing, and practicing often, and managing each hole with a consistent, relaxed, and focused strategy.
Since the goal of playing golf is to compete against yourself, and improve while doing it, being a school administrator is a similar game to being a good golfer.
In the words of Bagger Vance, "Yep... Inside each and every one of us is one true authentic swing... Somethin' we was born with... Somethin' that's ours and ours alone... Somethin' that can't be taught to ya or learned... Somethin' that got to be remembered... Over time the world can, rob us of that swing... It get buried inside us under all our wouldas and couldas and shouldas... Some folk even forget what their swing was like..."
Don't let the water hazards of the APPR, the SED, or the sand traps of ineffective teachers, crazy parents, unruly children, deter you from staying in your game with an efficient, and consistent strategy. And when the game is over, the day is over. Go home, live your life. Find joy in your life, your family, and do it all over again tomorrow (something I wish I did more of as a school administrator).
For your homework I sincerely request you watch the movie "The Legend of Bagger Vance" with a glass of wine, and no distractions. I challenge you to find the analogies to being a great school administrator, and you will find that all of these hazards are just temporary distractions from doing what you do best...providing a quality education for each child in your schools.
The golf swing, and playing golf so much has taught me much about the things and problems that I have had in my career as a school administrator, such as the APPR, the state education department, and dealing with red tape and insurmountable problems day in and day out- much of what most administrators do everyday. As you play an 18 hole round of golf, each hole is beset with all sorts of issues, obstacles, challenges, and obstructions to your progress of playing the hole in as few shots as possible, and moving on to the next hole. There may be a sand trap- or two, or three- a water hazard, bushes, trees, and other environmental hazards, but the goal will always be the same, getting the ball to the hole in as direct and efficient manner as possible.
While it took me many years of golf to be able to finally smell the roses and learn to enjoy the game. When I play now, I focus on my swing, carefully, consistently, and rhythmically, practicing, and practicing often, and managing each hole with a consistent, relaxed, and focused strategy.
Since the goal of playing golf is to compete against yourself, and improve while doing it, being a school administrator is a similar game to being a good golfer.
In the words of Bagger Vance, "Yep... Inside each and every one of us is one true authentic swing... Somethin' we was born with... Somethin' that's ours and ours alone... Somethin' that can't be taught to ya or learned... Somethin' that got to be remembered... Over time the world can, rob us of that swing... It get buried inside us under all our wouldas and couldas and shouldas... Some folk even forget what their swing was like..."
Don't let the water hazards of the APPR, the SED, or the sand traps of ineffective teachers, crazy parents, unruly children, deter you from staying in your game with an efficient, and consistent strategy. And when the game is over, the day is over. Go home, live your life. Find joy in your life, your family, and do it all over again tomorrow (something I wish I did more of as a school administrator).
For your homework I sincerely request you watch the movie "The Legend of Bagger Vance" with a glass of wine, and no distractions. I challenge you to find the analogies to being a great school administrator, and you will find that all of these hazards are just temporary distractions from doing what you do best...providing a quality education for each child in your schools.
Friday, May 18, 2012
Graduation or Masquerading?
Many things change in education as times goes on, but some things always remain a constant. One in particular is the idea of graduation, the proverbial ceremony when academic degrees and diplomas are symbolically given to students that have passed the tests, ran the obstacle course of programs and studies, and have successfully made it across the finish line of knowledge.
There was a time when this honored ceremony was a sacred moment in the lives of students and parents, as well as the faculty and trustees of the academic community bestowing the diploma. The official donning of academic robes may just be a vestige of medieval characteristics and circumstances but it did stand for something at one time, and for some people it still stands for something time-honored, serious, and special.
Unfortunately, colleges and high schools have let this tradition wallow in despair and disgrace when standards are cheapened. For instance, allowing students to walk through the ceremony even though they failed the program. Or, allowing students to denigrate and deface their academic attire to display their personal mockery of the ceremony and it's traditions.
For some of us that have accrued the robes and adornments of advanced college degrees it is insulting to witness this aberration and abomination of something that is held so highly esteemed as a graduation ceremony. It would be better to have people opt out of attending if that is how they truly feel about the process.
To graduate is to move on. I can only hope moving on is worth more to people then tuning out.
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Stop Changing the Rules
I had a friend growing up that cheated at everything he did in order to gain the advantage over others. He loved to make up some new rule or scoring procedure for every game we played, including baseball, football, poker, and monopoly. Unfortunately, he found out the hard way that life does not allow people to take such liberties and he is now serving time for just such behavior in his adult life, if you know what I mean!
In many respects, I think there are parallels to my friend's story and the debacle of public school testing and assessment. For awhile, I have disparaged the concept of assessment in our schools, and I loathe at the macho, political verbosity of our elected leaders- and others- that cry for more of it to satisfy some inner ambition to foster competition in our schools, our children, and our "way of life"!
This morning in Florida, the state is reeling from the release of the state's FCAT writing scores. The revised grading system was more rigorous than previous years and the results were a blow to the schools, the administrators, teachers, students, and parents of Florida as many below-acceptable scores were released. Schools that have been struggling to improve under the former scoring systems and beginning to make progress were thrown for a huge blow to their progress. All in the name of "Every Child Left Behind" and Racing to the Bottom.
The same thing happened in New York State last year, when the gurus of state testing, under the continual cattle prod of a maniacal governor- were told to make the assessments more critical and more rigorous in scoring, under the false premise to make it harder for people to pass, only to throw the state's testing model into a tailspin. Cries of "foul", and "revert to the other model", or "throw the tests away" were raised there as well, as they are throughout the state of Florida this morning.
And still, I think about the lonely classroom teacher that is struggling to help and excite a handful of struggling readers and doing everything she can to inspire them to keep trying, only to to realize she is a pawn in a greater chess game than we will ever know.
Someone keeps changing the rules to the game. And what we learn from my friend, who did that throughout his life, people are held accountable for that kind of behavior.
By the way, it's time to send him another birthday card since he will be spending another anniversary away from his family in a jail cell out west!
In many respects, I think there are parallels to my friend's story and the debacle of public school testing and assessment. For awhile, I have disparaged the concept of assessment in our schools, and I loathe at the macho, political verbosity of our elected leaders- and others- that cry for more of it to satisfy some inner ambition to foster competition in our schools, our children, and our "way of life"!
This morning in Florida, the state is reeling from the release of the state's FCAT writing scores. The revised grading system was more rigorous than previous years and the results were a blow to the schools, the administrators, teachers, students, and parents of Florida as many below-acceptable scores were released. Schools that have been struggling to improve under the former scoring systems and beginning to make progress were thrown for a huge blow to their progress. All in the name of "Every Child Left Behind" and Racing to the Bottom.
The same thing happened in New York State last year, when the gurus of state testing, under the continual cattle prod of a maniacal governor- were told to make the assessments more critical and more rigorous in scoring, under the false premise to make it harder for people to pass, only to throw the state's testing model into a tailspin. Cries of "foul", and "revert to the other model", or "throw the tests away" were raised there as well, as they are throughout the state of Florida this morning.
And still, I think about the lonely classroom teacher that is struggling to help and excite a handful of struggling readers and doing everything she can to inspire them to keep trying, only to to realize she is a pawn in a greater chess game than we will ever know.
Someone keeps changing the rules to the game. And what we learn from my friend, who did that throughout his life, people are held accountable for that kind of behavior.
By the way, it's time to send him another birthday card since he will be spending another anniversary away from his family in a jail cell out west!
Friday, May 4, 2012
ECLB: Every Child Left behinds
Common Core Standards...Issue of Control?
As part of the ever tightening desire of political power players to control public education, in recent years we have been given the mandate of the Common Core Standards for Schools. Alfie Kohn describes this movement as another attempt to tighten the noose around accountability and assessment, ensuring that one size, indeed, fits all.
It's frustrating to witness this debacle in motion, for in the past forty years we have all lived through this movement of politically mandated- dare I say_ corporate driven- attempts to jam every human being into some kind of a die-cast mold of achievement and accountability. As I have pointed out in a recent post, the big winners here are not the students but the corporations such as Pearson and others that are demonstrating their ability to achieve and reap big profits in the name of global competition.
"It's rather like the effort to reframe vouchers as "choice." They've also been very shrewd this time about co-opting the education organizations by soliciting their counsel. These groups are so desperate for a "seat at the table" of power that they've agreed to confine the discussion to the content of the standards rather than asking whether the whole idea makes sense for children."
The "one size fits all" model of education has been around for a long time, but the requirement for differentiated learning will never go away. How do the Core Standards equalize differentiation? Do we then begin developing an individualized stat such as a golfing handicap to balance the players in a future endeavor? Let's bring back the old SRA reading groups when to be assigned to the PEWTER group means you have been cast in the debtors prison of a Charles Dickens novel, with no way to get out of jail and be with your friends in the GOLD reading group.
Somethings don't change, but children and their learning styles do change,and until the government get that straight, the boondoggle of Core Standards and other things will certainly leave all of us behind.
As part of the ever tightening desire of political power players to control public education, in recent years we have been given the mandate of the Common Core Standards for Schools. Alfie Kohn describes this movement as another attempt to tighten the noose around accountability and assessment, ensuring that one size, indeed, fits all.
It's frustrating to witness this debacle in motion, for in the past forty years we have all lived through this movement of politically mandated- dare I say_ corporate driven- attempts to jam every human being into some kind of a die-cast mold of achievement and accountability. As I have pointed out in a recent post, the big winners here are not the students but the corporations such as Pearson and others that are demonstrating their ability to achieve and reap big profits in the name of global competition.
"It's rather like the effort to reframe vouchers as "choice." They've also been very shrewd this time about co-opting the education organizations by soliciting their counsel. These groups are so desperate for a "seat at the table" of power that they've agreed to confine the discussion to the content of the standards rather than asking whether the whole idea makes sense for children."
The "one size fits all" model of education has been around for a long time, but the requirement for differentiated learning will never go away. How do the Core Standards equalize differentiation? Do we then begin developing an individualized stat such as a golfing handicap to balance the players in a future endeavor? Let's bring back the old SRA reading groups when to be assigned to the PEWTER group means you have been cast in the debtors prison of a Charles Dickens novel, with no way to get out of jail and be with your friends in the GOLD reading group.
Somethings don't change, but children and their learning styles do change,and until the government get that straight, the boondoggle of Core Standards and other things will certainly leave all of us behind.
End of Week Tweet
Alfie Kohn (@alfiekohn)
Posted at 9:37 AM May 4, 2012 on Twitter
"If kids were forced to memorize the phone bk, wkshops would pop up: “Best Practices for implementing the new 21st century PB assessments”"
(Sent from Flipboard)
Monday, April 30, 2012
Antiquated Models Go Flying By
It was a clear blue sky last week when I saw the unusual sight flying over my home. One vessel carrying another that is being laid to rest somewhere for others to visit and admire in a museum, somewhere, though it doesn't work anymore, and will never take off again. For those of you that think I am talking about the space shuttle Discovery flying on a modified Boeing 737, you are wrong. I am describing the antiquated model of what once was referred to as the public school system that promised a quality education to every child based on a fiscal foundation that guaranteed solvency and support from the government.
All too often in many localities this time of year, complaints about taxes that are too high, the ineffective school system and the overpaid teachers are the culprits responsible for this mess. Or, you will see and hear the attacks on teachers and their unions, unable to understand how they can selfishly accept contractual increases while everyone else is suffering.
If you live in NYS, you would also be confronted by the "bully-in-chief" in the form of the Governor of the State, that has never attended a public school, and acts as if his goal is to eliminate funding in schools permanently from the NYS budget.
Despite the great recession of 2008, funding for schools has always been an issue in this country, and with the suggestions and mandates to reform funding by judicial departments, the matter is still bedraggled, and hesitantly attended to.
Maybe it is time to aggressively consider a new model for public funding of education. One that is attuned to the message received from Washington DC about more competition, and more student achievement. What that model would officially look like, no one can say. But, all we have to do is wait and look for antiquated models flying piggy-back on the public sentiment and governmental control to figure out, this current plan is not working any more.
All too often in many localities this time of year, complaints about taxes that are too high, the ineffective school system and the overpaid teachers are the culprits responsible for this mess. Or, you will see and hear the attacks on teachers and their unions, unable to understand how they can selfishly accept contractual increases while everyone else is suffering.
If you live in NYS, you would also be confronted by the "bully-in-chief" in the form of the Governor of the State, that has never attended a public school, and acts as if his goal is to eliminate funding in schools permanently from the NYS budget.
Despite the great recession of 2008, funding for schools has always been an issue in this country, and with the suggestions and mandates to reform funding by judicial departments, the matter is still bedraggled, and hesitantly attended to.
Maybe it is time to aggressively consider a new model for public funding of education. One that is attuned to the message received from Washington DC about more competition, and more student achievement. What that model would officially look like, no one can say. But, all we have to do is wait and look for antiquated models flying piggy-back on the public sentiment and governmental control to figure out, this current plan is not working any more.
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