Time to MARCH!

Teacher Sabrina posted this at the Save Our Schools March and National Call to Action web site.

When the teachers, parents, and students who know and care the most about public education are treated as “special interests” in our own domain; and people who’ve spent virtually no time studying or practicing education, or even being inside of public schools are viewed as “experts” (who then try to ignore or minimize those of us who dare to publicly disagree with them), it’s time to MARCH!

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SAVE OUR SCHOOLS MARCH AND NATIONAL CALL TO ACTION

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More responses...

Two days ago I posted this about Secretary of Education Arne Duncan's Open Letter to America's Teachers.

Then I found another good post and and added it in the comments section. Since that time I've found more...so here goes. First, the one I added to the comments on May 3 -- from markgarrison:

I do not believe that your rhetoric, however clever, can erase from consciousness the fact that Race to the Top is anti-democratic — imposed through bribery using taxpayer money. It is an open agenda for privatization and the elimination of any last vestiges of democratic governance of and purpose for schooling. Wall Street and various monopolies are attempting total control through for-profit charters, anti-worker legislation, publishing and testing companies, private foundations, and of course, a national curriculum and privately managed testing regime aimed at workers compliance.

Anthony Cody who writes the Living in Dialogue blog for Education Week had these questions (among others) in a post titled An Open Letter from an American Teacher to Secretary Duncan.

• What does it mean to say it is unacceptable for a single student to drop out, or for students with disabilities to fail, when the funds that support these students have been slashed to bits?
• How is it that your Department of Education continues to fund programs that place poorly trained interns in urban classrooms, and supported legislation that circumvented a court decision that ruled such interns are not "highly qualified"?
• If you agree with us that it is unfair when "teachers alone are blamed for educational failures that have roots in broken families, unsafe communities, misguided reforms, and underfunded schools systems" why did you support the firing of the entire staff of teachers at Central Falls High in Rhode Island last year?

Justin Hamilton, Arne Duncan's press secretary, said, referring to Sabrina Stevens Shupe's response, "It’s disappointing to hear that someone feels that way, but we don’t think that’s how the broader teaching community feels about it."

That got a response from The Reflective Educator who wrote in a piece titled, Dear Justin Hamilton, Have You Met Any Teachers?

• Most teachers, believe it or not, have learned that experience in the classroom matters, and that turning the profession into a glorified temp job will do little more than provide "life support for a system of injustice and exploitation..."
• Most teachers, believe it or not, would prefer more support over more money.
• Most teachers, believe it or not, would like some means of...control over charter schools as a means of protecting teachers and students from predatory, for-profit snake oil salesmen.
• And most teachers, believe it or not, probably have a more informed perspective on how to go about meaningful change in the classroom since most teachers, unlike Secretary Duncan, have taught students.

I wonder if anyone's listening?

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SAVE OUR SCHOOLS MARCH AND NATIONAL CALL TO ACTION

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This is Teacher Appreciation?

It's Teacher Appreciation Week (in fact, today, May 3, 2011, is National Teacher Day) and the Hypocrite of the Week for this week is none other than the US Secretary of Education himself, Arne Duncan. He has written an Open Letter to American Teachers and has tipped his hand in the first sentence.

I have worked in education for much of my life.

Yes, he worked in education. He went right from his private school education in Chicago to Harvard to play basketball and study Sociology. He has been a school administrator, heading the Chicago Public Schools by appointment from Mayor Daley. He has worked in education...but he has never taught in, was never an administrator in, in fact, has never even attended a public school. This is the man who is responsible for the nearly 100,000 public schools in the United States.

This is the man who we're supposed to trust. Sabrina, in her Letter to Arne Duncan, reminds us that Duncan has

Praised the mass firing of all teachers in certain ‘failing’ schools...

Promoted questionable school reform policies embraced by powerful non-educators over the express opposition of many teachers (and public school parents, for that matter)...

Undermined the teaching profession by:

• frequently elevating the views of non-educators over those of educated, experienced professionals
• supporting programs and policies that continually lower entry standards into the profession
• increasing the instability of the profession (and our schools) by promoting policies that tie teachers’ evaluations and continued employment to flawed value-added measures based on flawed tests

...and...

elevated and increased high-stakes tests that are hastily scored by temporary employees and/or machines over classroom-embedded assessments designed and evaluated by teachers...

I've said it before (and I did once again above) but it's nice to see someone else repeat it, too...again, Sabrina...

More fundamentally, your very presence in the role of Education Secretary reflects a level of disrespect for our profession not found in others. Our Surgeon General is a career physician, who earned a full MD before going into family practice. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is a career naval officer, who studied at the Naval Academy before participating in combat operations aboard a destroyer. Yet despite “working in education” for a while, you never studied education, and you’ve never taught in a public school classroom. Working in non-profits, playing basketball, and being a political appointee are not substitutes for classroom experience.

She adds...

I can say firsthand that my beliefs about educational failure changed dramatically when I went from “working in education” to actually running a classroom of my own. Classroom teachers have to contend with far greater “accountability” while having far less flexibility or control over how, when, what, and with what we teach. Meeting the academic, cognitive, and social needs of 20 (or 30 or 40…) students simultaneously is very different from working with small groups or tutoring one-on-one. Until you have navigated that, it is very difficult to fully appreciate just what teachers are up against.

Schools are places where all of society’s issues—all the ‘isms, all the politics, all the everything—play out. Ideally, the person in charge of our whole school system would, at a minimum, have seen all aspects of it firsthand (as a student, as a scholar, as a teacher, as a parent, as a school leader, etc.) before ever being entrusted with overseeing it. We need leaders who can combine in-depth knowledge of education policy and history with practical experience at all levels of the public education system, and a proper respect for the perspectives of those doing the work every day.

And if we can’t have all that, then at the very least we need someone who is humble enough to admit what they don’t or can’t know, and defer to the those who do and can—instead of seeking the counsel of those who know even less.

I started my teaching career when Duncan was in Elementary School. I was still teaching when he was playing basketball in Australia. I'd like to see Sabrina's last question answered as well...

So what do you plan to do to prove you respect, value, and support teachers? And when can teachers expect your apology letter, for the disrespectful and destructive policy choices you’ve already made?

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SAVE OUR SCHOOLS MARCH AND NATIONAL CALL TO ACTION

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