Here’s my letter I just posted this morning:

Dear Arne Duncan,

I am a teacher, a blogger, an author, a wife, and a mother. Before I go into what I think we need to do to help education, I want to acknowledge what you have inherited and how difficult it must be to fix a machine where so many cogs are broken. I know too that education feels like a black hole, an inherited problem for your administration, but it has been a culminating failure of multiple administrations, of a society who consistently votes against their own children, as well as a failure of the educational system, which has led us to where we are today.

But I need you to turn your face to us, the teachers in the crowd now, for advice. We need you and our leaders to listen to those of us who have been fighting alongside our children all along. For too long have we been left out of the rooms and away from the tables, and look where we are today. We are the ones you have to focus your attention on now: not the test-makers, not the textbook companies, us.

To simplify my thoughts so that perhaps they might be heard, I have honed in on four main components that I believe are deeply important for educational reform:

1. There is an equation of success for education. It is simple and it can only work with all variables intact and supported:

Student effort + teacher guidance + government funding + family support = school and student achievement

No longer can schools or teachers be solely held accountable for the failures of a broken system. Yes, I see in your blueprint that you are trying to acknowledge that there are elements outside of education that must be addressed, but this must be more aggressive and targeted for true change to begin.

2. Yes, teacher quality is an issue, but it is one that can be solved without villain-ising teachers as a whole. You cannot cut down an apple tree because of one diseased fruit. The systems you criticize: tenure, the seniority list, etc…we all understand your criticisms of them. But they do not define the majority of hard-working, talented, and self-sacrificing troops of experienced and new teachers out there who are dedicated to this profession.

Each of them talk about the complexities of these issues, complexities that you are overlooking, I assume, to appear strong to those who want to see a Democratic bicep. But just because many of your constituents do not understand the subtleties does not mean you need to cater to them, swinging an axe over your head, beating your shield. Change will show strength, Mr. Duncan. And change can only happen with teachers at your side and at your table.

3. The National Standards do not reflect enough the skills our students need for their future. Educational Technology is vital. A student cannot apply for a job without understanding some degree of Internet Literacy. Yet funding for Ed tech has been cut. You claim that students must be “College and Career Ready” but vocational funding has been cut, electives have been cut, student choice has been cut. And student choice and sampling of interests has long been the basis for professional taste testing in the K-12 system. A student who hasn’t tasted Speech and Debate or Woodshop, who hasn’t tried Home Ec or Orchestra, who cannot see through the sea of students in their AP class or cannot get remedial help in Reading will not be “college and career ready.”

4. Teachers, great ones, are always training. Just as students evolve, so must teachers. I understand somehow that education is unique in that you see teachers as the authorities who go through their prep programs and should, somehow, come out (cue microwave ding!) done with our own education. But to maintain the skills of our students’ futures, we ourselves must be proficient in an ever-evolving skill set as well as be brilliant and engaging communicators. Yet funding for our own training continues to be cut time and time again. There must be a shift in how society feels about what it means to desire current training. It is not a weakness, but a strength to be constantly learning. And while I don’t expect society as a whole to believe it, I do expect my Secretary of Education to believe it and support it.

The bottom line is this, Mr. Duncan: the very principals in your blueprint are degraded by the recent cuts and lack of funding. We need you to swivel your gaze back to those who know best. We are here, right in front of you. Our intentions are for the good of the student. We know our missive and we are living it every day. Listen to the teachers.

© heather for tweenteacher.com, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: arne duncan, budget cuts, education, Facebooks, letters to Obama, Social networking

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OK, I admit it.  I watched Glee last night on Fox after American Idol just because Ryan Seacrest told me to.

Stand aside Lean On Me, Teachers, Dangerous Minds, and Freedom Writers.  This new fall program, whose pilot aired last night after Idol, is the most accurate (and palatable) depiction of public school life that I’ve seen in a long time.  After all, who really wants to watch a show about teachers being taken advantage of, budget cuts, and student achievement?  Makes for some boring entertainment as we all found watching David Kelley’s 2000 drama, Boston Public.  Until now.

Humor, it seems, it mightier than the sob.

Basically, Glee’s A-story is about a teacher who offers to teach Glee Club and is told by all that it’s worthless.  His heart, however, says it’s not.  The B-story is about the kids who struggle to climb out of their adolescent roles and into something that actually means something to them.  It’s “The Breakfast Club” for geeks.

I know it’s cheesy and cartoony and full of dreams (I mean does your school have such vibrant wall colors?), but there’s something this show has captured that those dramatic movies only tell you they have: heart.  And heart is what abounds in every school, from the most privileged to the most challenged.  Jeesh, I sound like an ad.  

Best beats of the show include:

-Our lead shows up in the principal’s office to offer to teach Glee Club.  He’s told that’ll be 60 bucks per month.  ”Wait, and you expect me to pay for it?”  Not only is he told that he has to pay for it, but because of budget cuts, if he wants the elective he’s got to do after-school detention for free.

-Later, the principal tells him that AA wants to host their meetings in the Glee Club’s auditorium.  ”Lots of drunks in this town.  And they’re willing to pay me $10 a head.”  

-There are no glass coffee pitchers in the Mr. Coffee machine in the lounge.  Why?  Budget cuts.

-The teacher has to consider whether to pursue what he loves (teaching) or get a job with better money and benefits having just found out his wife’s pregnant.

-The monologue by Best in Show’s Jane Lynch.  When asked if some of her award-winning cheerleaders wouldn’t mind joining Glee Club, she responds, “OK, what’s you’re doing right now is called ‘blurring the lines.’  High school is a caste system.  Kids fall into certain slots.  Jocks and your popular kids: up in the penthouse.  Invisibles and the kids playing live-action-druids-and-troll-out-in-the-forest: bottom floor.” He asks, with trepidation where the glee kids are.  ”Sub-basement,” she replies.  

The list goes on. I’m not doing it justice.  But I tell you that compared to your typical, bad-kids-until-some-A-lister-comes-along-to-turn-them-on-to-learning-and-show-the-school-that-the-losers-really-do-matter flick, this show was brilliant.  

And don’t even get me started on the background collegiate a capella music as the soundtrack.  Sigh. Brought me back, let me tell you. 

The only negative thing I’ll say about Glee at this time (it is a pilot, after all, and character arch has yet to come) is the little scene in the beginning with the flamboyantly gay teacher brushing a student’s chest.  Although stereotypes abound in Glee in great even-handedness, portraying the homosexual teacher with the eyes for his student seems like there’s more at stake in the laugh than the dullard, bullying football coach character.  Plot-wise, it was a ploy to have the teacher fired so that our protagonist can move in and take over glee club.  Plot-wise it was also so that fired teacher could go off and make a living dealing weed, thus earning more than his mere teacher’s salary could ever garner him.  But could they not have gotten rid of this character in a way that doesn’t feed into the terror of the hearts of homophobic parents everywhere?  As my dear friend who brought this to my attention said, “Where was GLAAD in all this?  How did they let that through?”

It’s always wise to talk to many people, to get their perspectives, and to see through their eyes.  Despite this one line-crossing, however, we both agreed that Glee has the potential to earn our audience when it returns in the fall.

The pilot episode ends with our band of misfits singing, “Don’t stop believing.”  Their teacher, giving in to his own passion for teaching finally believes.  And we the audience cheers for the fall school and TV season to begin so that we might be gleeful once more.

© heather for tweenteacher.com, 2009. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: budget cuts, fox, glee, public schools, TV review

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