No Group is Ever Made Stronger by Division

America's teachers showed up to school on Wednesday morning just like they do every school day. They did their best to help their students make sense of the events of the previous evening.

In many classrooms teachers had to ease the worry of children who feared the backlash against tolerance, acceptance and understanding, and for misogyny, bigotry, and xenophobia. They used the election, as teachers have used elections for decades, as a teaching moment...to explain how our nation's version of democracy works...to focus on the obligations of citizenship...and to highlight the diversity that strengthens, and divides, the nation.

Like many others, history teacher Jim Cullen approached his Wednesday classes thinking about his response.

...necessity requires me to put aside my own unease and confusion as I try to help adolescents process an event that is necessarily unprecedented for them...

My role is to help them feel better as a matter of trying to alleviate despair, anxiety or indignation, but also to feel better in the sense of thinking more clearly, to bring their hearts and their heads into greater alignment...

Bringing hearts and heads into alignment is an often unconscious goal for many teachers. Below is an exchange between a retired teacher friend of mine and a former student (now adult) about the election. In her response, the teacher uses yet another former student's letter about the election. Both students express in their own way, how they have, as they have grown, aligned their hearts and heads. Both students have learned what every teacher hopes to instill in their students: Life is a series of learning experiences.

[Note: I have edited all three letters for brevity and clarity, and to remove identifying information.]

STUDENT ONE

...I have thought a lot about you this election season. Believe it or not, the unit we did on the election between Dukakis and Bush nearly 30 years ago taught me much and I wanted to thank you so very, very much. If not for you, I may have continued basing political views on just abortion. I'll never forget the day that you turned to me and said, "He's not FOR abortion. No one is FOR abortion!" I finally thought to myself, "she's right! Baby murderers wouldn't be wandering around the countryside. What the heck is this really about?" My parents had gone through such a bad spot when my sister had died 2 years before, abortion and euthanasia was all they ever discussed as far as politics during that time in my life. Thanks to you, my eyes were opened. Trade deals, global warming, social security, etc. – I had no idea those things even existed. I have made it my goal in life to learn as much as possible about issues and never accept the easy and emotional answers.

My family eventually healed and after we moved north...I started meeting friends from all over the world and expanding my views...

Today was painful for me, like many Americans. One of my best friends is Syrian and her family is stuck back there. She is terrified that even though she is an ICU doctor at a major university, she is going to be deported. Today I comforted a mother who was terrified that if Obamacare is repealed, her 4-year old son with leukemia will never qualify for insurance again. One of my students asked for permission to leave early so that she could go marry her girlfriend because she is afraid she will lose that right. I'm lucky - I'm an upper, middle class white woman with a doctorate. [The results of this election] will not have much impact to my life. But thanks to the seed that you planted nearly 30 years ago, I can see how devastating this was for others...thanks for teaching me a big part of what has made me who I am!

TEACHER

...Thank you so much for writing.

I tried to keep my own political views to myself when I was teaching, especially the election units. It seemed important to present things and let you students do your own thinking. But it pleases me no end to see that you took what we did and became a person with not just a strong mind but also with a big and good and loving heart.

I am trying not to panic or to prophesy. I have lived through many disappointing elections and this feeling, while deeper this time, is familiar. People talk trash during a campaign and while it sets a tone, their promises aren't easy to keep. I do believe in the power of our Constitution and its checks and balances. I do believe that there are plenty of good people in Congress who will not just sit there and let everything fall apart. He (can't say his name yet) passed the first test with his victory speech. That wasn't at all like the ugly campaign talk. It was rather...Presidential.

My heart goes out to the people you talk about in your last paragraph...the Syrian doctor, parents of sick kids and also kids with disabilities, gay people. I am hoping and praying that these fears stay only that – fears but nothing more.

[Another former student] wrote something yesterday that helped me. Here is what she said...

STUDENT TWO

I have mulled over my thoughts and feelings all day, and while I feel political posts are kind of just white noise at this point, I feel I must say my piece (perhaps if only for a little bit of peace for myself.) No group is ever made stronger by division and there are lessons to be learned in every situation. Yes, I voted for Hillary, this is no big surprise, but I am coming to terms with the Presidential race outcome and starting to open my heart and mind to what can be learned. I think that what we can learn is that we have a long way to go as a country. I think if HRC had won, it would have eased our "liberal minds" to think that change is upon us, but now, the tolerance of intolerance that America feels has light shed fully upon it.

When I think about those who voted for Trump, I have been digging deep to understand how so many people that I know and love, work alongside, and get along with, could look the other way at such a blatant display of negativity towards women, both in action and words, minorities, poor people, the LGBT community, immigrants, and on and on... and it is hard not to take it personally. You have to get to the core of WHY a compassionate, caring person could look the other way and choose someone like Trump as a representative for them, for their country. And the core issue that I have heard time and again is something I can whole-heartedly agree with – change in the political arena...desperate times call for desperate measures. Those that chose to vote for Trump are just so disenchanted with the way politics are run in this country, they were willing to overlook the other issues with him as a candidate.

And I get it, in a big way, I get it...I understand the desire for some change, some big change. And I am going to try to keep an open mind, as HRC and President Obama have encouraged. I am looking for silver linings and I am going to revel in the opportunity to talk about changing what we are tolerant of, to think about what ugliness has surfaced and to have respectful discussions with people about this topic. I am not naive enough to think that there weren't some people who did in fact vote for Trump BECAUSE of his racism and misogyny. And it's time we deal with this elephant in the room, bring it to the surface, because that is the only way we will ever weed it out for good.

...So, while the outcome was not what I wanted, perhaps it was actually what we needed as a country to grow and learn. Don't threaten to move away from the country if the outcome isn't what you wanted...threaten to stay and make a change. For now, I will try to continue to spread love, and compassion, and a thirst to understand my fellow man without judgment. I think we are all a lot closer the middle ground than we think we are and it is time we stop letting the media divide us with fear and finger pointing, and portray all politics as "us vs. them". It is time that we engage in more civil discourse to try to compromise and learn. I love people for their differences as well as their similarities. Life would be boring if we all held the same beliefs, so I want to embrace differences while working towards kindness. Always working towards more kindness...

TEACHER

With former students like you two, didn't I have the best job in the world? You are such a dear. We can do this. Thank you.

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A Dozen Quotes for the Morning After

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Benjamin Franklin

A lady asked Franklin: "Well, Doctor, what have we got—a Republic or a Monarchy?". Franklin replied: “A Republic, if you can keep it.”

Thomas Jefferson

...experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms, those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny; and it is believed that the most effectual means of preventing this would be, to illuminate, as far as practicable, the minds of the people at large... [emphasis added]

Abraham Lincoln

The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise -- with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.

Arthur O'Shaughnessy

We are the music makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams;—
World-losers and world-forsakers,
On whom the pale moon gleams:
Yet we are the movers and shakers
Of the world for ever, it seems.

J.K. Rowling

“But you know, happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.” ― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

John Holt

The true test of character is not how much we know how to do, but how we behave when we don't know what to do.

Elie Wiesel

There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.

Anne Frank

Despite everything, I believe that people are really good at heart.

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Sagan Day, 2016

"Carl Sagan Day is a celebration of the life and teachings of Carl Sagan..."

Sagan Day isn't until Wednesday...but with the current focus on the poison that is American politics, I thought it would be nice to share this early. Here, then, is a little perspective from Carl Sagan.

To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.

On Human Humility

The Milky Way galaxy is, in fact, one of billions, perhaps hundreds of billions of galaxies, notable neither in mass, nor in brightness, nor in how its stars are configured and arrayed. Some modern deep-sky photographs show more galaxies beyond the Milky Way, than stars within the Milky Way. Every one of the is an island universe containing perhaps, a hundred billion suns. Such an image is a profound sermon on humility.

The Pale Blue Dot

“Consider again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.

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Random Quotes – November 2016

SHARED ACCOUNTABILITY

What’s Scary to Kids: Having Dyslexia and Being Held Back in Third Grade!

In my post last week, Taking Responsibility for "Failure", I discussed the fact that policy makers have an impact on student achievement, but are rarely, if ever, held accountable for how poorly or how well students achieve in public schools.

"Reformers," like Secretaries of Education Margaret Spellings, Arne Duncan, and John King, have little (King) or no (Spellings and Duncan) experience teaching in a public school. Yet these same people have no problem dictating policies which affect students, teacher, schools, and school systems.

Local "reformers" are no different. Here in Indiana, legislators and politicians like Mitch Daniels (an attorney), Mike Pence (an attorney/radio talk show host), Robert Behning (a florist), David Long (an attorney) and Dennis Kruse (an auctioneer), have set the same sorts of policies.

Teachers are given directions as to what to teach, how much to teach, how to test, what to test, and are not allowed to deviate from assigned roles, yet they and the schools they work in are given complete responsibility for the achievement of our children.

When a large number of children in a particular public school fail to achieve academically (so-called "failing" schools), all stakeholders in the community must share in the responsibility. Attention must be paid to out of school factors which affect academic achievement, such as

• infant birth weight
• drug and alcohol abuse
• environmental pollutants
• medical care
• nutrition
• community and domestic violence
• mental health care
• housing
• absenteeism
• pre-school availability

Schools and teachers have no control over a child's environment, medical care, and medical history. Those who do must accept their share of the responsibility for children's education.

by Nancy Bailey

Politicians and those from business, and other outsiders who know little about children and how they learn, have taken control of public schools, including the classroom, for the last thirty years. Isn’t it time they be held accountable for student failure? Why should they be allowed to continually “trick” the American people with policies that fail?

THE REAL PROBLEM

Three Years Is All It Takes

In this article, John Merrow discusses the research that led to the "three great teachers" theory which claims that three great teachers in a row can make the difference between achieving academic success and falling further behind. New research shows that, when the effects of poverty are overcome, achievement improves.

by John Merrow

Three consecutive years of quality nutrition, medical care, housing, clothing, and emotional support at home and in school does even more than having three great teachers.

PRIVATIZATION: CHARTERS

Charters are on the ballot this election year in Massachusetts. Here are some items arguing against turning over public education to charter "edupreneurs."

The voting public should read carefully about what has happened in Chicago. Public funding ought to go to public schools.

We should worry about where chips will fall once charter cap is lifted

by Michael Zilles, President, Newton (MA) Teachers Association

When the veil is lifted, we could find ourselves among those children with severe special needs, those with social or emotional disorders, or those who are just learning English — precisely those children underserved or rejected by charters. We would find that, once this cruel experiment in market competition has played itself out, we are left with chronically underfunded public schools, school closures, disrupted lives, and an ever more unbreakable pattern of segregation, inequality, and poverty.

Vote ‘no’ on charter schools

by Jonathan Kozol

...setting up this kind of competition, in which parents with the greatest social capital are encouraged to abandon their most vulnerable neighbors, is rotten social policy. What this represents is a state-supported shriveling of civic virtue, a narrowing of moral obligation to the smallest possible parameters. It isn’t good for Massachusetts, and it’s not good for democracy.

PA: State Rep Compares School Boards to Hitler

by Peter Greene

Education seems to be the only field in which people suggest that when you don't have enough money to fund one facility, you should open more facilities. Charters are in fact a huge drain on public schools in the state. If my district serves 1,000 students and 100 leave for a charter school, my operating costs do not decrease by 10% even if my student population does. In fact, depending on which 100 students leave, my costs may not decrease at all. On top of that, I have to maintain capacity to handle those students because if some or all come back (and many of them do) I have to be able to accommodate them.

an analysis of student performance in chicago’s charter schools

by Myron Orfield and Thomas Luce from Education Policy Analysis Archives at Arizona State University

...after controlling for the mix of students and challenges faced by individual schools, Chicago’s charter schools underperform their traditional counterparts in most measurable ways. Reading and math pass rates, reading and math growth rates, graduation rates, and average ACT scores (in one of the two years) are lower in charters all else equal, than in traditional neighborhood schools.

PRIVATIZATION: VOUCHERS

This is an argument against vouchers, but works equally well against all forms of privatization.

Voucher Schemers Show Their Contempt for Public Schools

By Charles Johnson of Pastors for Texas Children

Market forces such as competition and cost benefit analysis simply do not apply in the formation of a human being. A classroom is a holy place of learning—not a marketplace of financial gain. To make commodities of our kids and markets of our classrooms is to misunderstand—and profane—the spirituality of education.

INVESTING IN OUR FUTURE

Who will be running our nation in twenty-five years (assuming it lasts that long)? How are we as a nation preparing for our future? How does it help us if we under invest in our schools...especially those schools with low income students?

What lessons do we teach in devaluing our schools?

by Eva G. Merkel, Superintendent of Lakeland School Corporation, Indiana

Good public education comes at a cost, but it is an investment in our future. If we don’t want to kill public education, it is time to understand how it is being undermined. It is time we demand that our schools are funded well, that public dollars remain public, and that those who chose the noble profession of teaching our children are treated as the precious resources they are. We don’t need a study commission to tell us that we have beaten public education to the ground. Do we want our local public schools to die?

See also

• Rich-poor spending gap on schools hurts kids, report says

• In Public Education, Edge Still Goes to Rich

• U.S. Rare in Spending More Money on the Education of Rich Children

• Why America's Schools Have A Money Problem

• The gap between rich and poor schools grew 44 percent over a decade

STRESS ON TEACHERS AFFECTS STUDENTS

Teachers working conditions are the same as student learning conditions. Improving the treatment of teachers will increase student achievement.

The Disproportionate Stress Plaguing American Teachers

by Timothy D. Walker in The Atlantic

“High levels of stress,” said a 2016 research brief by Pennsylvania State University, “are affecting teacher health and well-being, causing teacher burnout, lack of engagement, job dissatisfaction, poor performance, and some of the highest turnover rates ever.” Does teacher stress affect students? "When teachers are highly stressed,” the authors noted, “children show lower levels of both social adjustment and academic performance.” They identified, amidst other findings, that high turnover rates have been to linked to lower student-achievement and increased financials costs for schools.

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