Mos Eisley spaceport: You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.
In today's world, we have apparently replaced the term "Mos Eisley spaceport" with "US public schools and public educators." How else to explain why teachers, and the teaching profession, are treated with such vile contempt from at least two quite different groups - politicians (primarily from the right wing), and the public at large.
Public education has been the bedrock foundation of America's success in the 20th century. The ability of every child to get a free public education in this country propelled us to great success and was a great socioeconomic leveler of the playing field. But now, instead of being bolstered and improved, this system is under attack. I'm not claiming it to be perfect, but I do think that many of the attempts by our elected leaders (on both sides of the aisles) are misguided, because they are trying to craft a one-size-fits-all business model onto the education system, and it does not, and can not, work as effectively as they would like.
First, politicians. Fairly or not, the Republican Party is perceived as being anti-public education. Republican pollsters have advised GOP candidates repeatedly in recent years to avoid calling for the end of the federal Department of Education, largely because it gives the appearance of hostility towards public education, which is thought to be an electoral loser for Republicans. Today, that's shifted; Republicans aren't just criticizing public schools, now, they're overtly calling for the institution's complete elimination. This isn't something they're embarrassed about; these GOP voices are stating the goal plainly, as if there's a genuine appetite among voters to scrap the entirety of the American public education system. To wit:
- Back in March, Rick Santorum brought his presidential ambitions to New Hampshire, and targeted (among others) public schools. "Just call them what they are," Santorum said. "Public schools? That's a nice way of putting it. These are government-run schools."
- At a home-schooling rally in Iowa, Ron Paul stated, "They start with our kids even in kindergarten, teaching them about family values, sexual education, gun rights, environmentalism -- and they condition them to believe in so much which is totally un-American."
- At that same Iowa rally, Michelle Bachmann said home schooling is the "essence" of freedom and liberty, adding, "It's about knowing our children better than the state knows our children."
All of this, comes against the backdrop of Republican governors slashing funds for public schools, and even the reinvigoration of the school voucher movement, which has been largely dormant for years.
I, for one, would like to believe that the GOP isn't out to privatize the entire education business. I have Republican friends who are public educators or the product of public educators. (I've even campaigned for a few Republicans.) But in the end, it's all about business. From a conservative/pro-business perspective, just think how much profit there is to be made if the US privatizes its entire educational system the way the states privatize prison systems. Corporations are always looking for big piles of cash to wrap their paws around. The biggest piles of cash left in this country are in our educational system, our highway system and Social Security. Two of these reek of that evil word "socialism" (and yes, US public education is, by any definition, a socialist enterprise; if you really need me to explain that concept, let me know, I will dedicate an entirely different commentary to that topic).
To a large degree, this has already happened with the standardized test industry. Let's look at Florida, since I happen to conveniently work in The Sunshine State, for such an example.
Florida's student standardized test is the FCAT - the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. The FCAT can trace its roots directly to the conservative agenda that brought us the "Contract with America" in 1994. In fact, in former Gov. Jeb Bush's failed first run for office, he sought to dismantle Florida's department of education and implement a statewide voucher program. But he lost.
By 1998 Bush was sounding more moderate, at least on the voucher issue; he made them peripheral, reserved only for students in the state's worst schools. The primary element of his school-reform plan was, and is, a school-grading system, which ranks schools based heavily on how well they do on the FCAT (which debuted in 1999). Schools that improve a grade from one year to the next, or get an "A," are rewarded with a per-student bonus. It's up to the school to decide how to spend the money.
The FCAT has been controversial since it started, and the litany of complaints about it are, by now, familiar: teachers "teach the test;" subjects such as art, music, history and geography aren't emphasized in class because they're not heavily emphasized on the test; and after-school programs have been replaced by FCAT-prep courses. Simply put, the FCAT dominates schools.
Supporters of the FCAT say standardized tests are the only way to account for the enormous sums spent on public education, that tests hold to the grindstone the noses of teachers, administrators and students while helping instill a climate of competition that benefits all sides. Opponents - including educators and education researchers - think increased standardized testing is the road to perdition, transforming education into a cookie-cutter technology based on manufacturing principles rather than the goal of fostering and fulfilling curiosity.
Regardless of which side you are on, one thing is painfully obvious: standardized testing is one hell of a cash cow. The Florida Department of Education is currently paying NCS Pearson $254 million over a four-year period (through November 2013) to administer the FCAT. This despite a history of delayed results and erroneous scoring during the previous contract between the two.
I'm not in the wrong business; I'm in the wrong aspect of the business!
As for the "public at large," read virtually any - and I do mean any - article that comes out about public education today. Articles about salaries. About test scores. About No Child Left Behind. Charter schools. College prep courses. Tutoring. Then, more importantly, peruse the reader comments at the end of the story. Odds are, you'll see comments like this on the "we hate education" side:
- When someone tells me she's a teacher, they may as well say "I make lots of money and benefits for babysitting." A teacher is NOT a real profession, and they are sucking the tax dollars out of the rest of us.
- Unions and other corrupt organizations like the NEA are nothing but a front for mindless teachers who don't give a rats ass for teaching, but how much more can I get paid and taken care of without working for it.
- It's funny how 30 years ago teachers made enough to live on and the teaching was better. Goes to show throwing more money at a problem won't fix it. It just makes fat and lazy people more lazy.
- If you want to save the school system, lower teachers salary!!! Teachers are overpaid and will run the system in the ground if not lowered. Under the guise of "what's best for the children" they are seeking HIGHER TAXATION so they can RAISE THEIR SALARIES. It's not about the children, it's about them.
- These slackers get a 10 week summer vacation and a 3 week Christmas break, as well as a 1 week spring break and several “in service days." Teachers work less than the average professional, who works at least 10 hours a day, takes work home, and gets two or three weeks vacation.
- Teaching, just an occupation for those who are too stupid to hold real jobs ...
And on the "other" (pro-education) side, you see these types of comments:
- Why bash our teachers? Why not be honest and just say, "Thank you for all that you do for our children." What happened to, "It takes a village to raise a child
- Until you walk in a teacher's shoes, you will not know what he/she does. And for every single penny the government does not spend on your child, but the teacher takes money from his/her own paycheck to pay for supplies or rewards, deserves something more than a "thank you."
- Teachers deserve better pay and better benefits. They're shaping tomorrow's future while putting up with all of the issues parents have pushed onto their children, and they're hardly allowed to correct bad behavior. I'd rather be dead than uneducated.
- I retired from education last year. I miss the kids, but I don’t miss the politics. When I read comments from the public, they think that I must sit around and count my million-dollar pension.
- The forces of fascism don't just go after control of the media. They discredit and attempt to marginalize intellectuals and teachers. Teachers disrupt the attempt to create a zombie class of non-intellectual slaves.
- In other countries, teachers are respected by students (and parents). In this country, teachers spend classroom time disciplining and trying to control classrooms – doing jobs that parents should be doing at home. That is why there is less accomplished. Parents have dumped their responsibilities on the teachers, instead of being responsible for their own children.
Many people pinpoint the "downfall" of American education with the 1983 report "A Nation at Risk." The past 30 years of increasing governmental intervention (and increasing control) has served to enculcate a system that is mind-numbing for all stakeholders. Testing, done ostensibly to raise standards, has paradoxically served to lower academic standards over the years! Tests (such as the FCAT) are developed by corporations, there is questionable oversight, and the results are most probably curved.
The truth is that politicians, teachers, parents, unions, school administrators, school boards, concerned citizens, and students all share the responsibility and the blame for an imperfect and disappointing public school system. Singling any one of these groups out for the majority of the blame guarantees that no progress will be made.
However ... "singling out" can sometimes lead to interesting and humorous media events. Such as the current hottest education-based viral video, that of actor Matt Damon shooting from the hip and scoring (in many people's eyes) a bulls-eye at a reporter and cameraman trying to single out teachers.
If you haven't seen it, a brief introduction: Following his keynote address at the recent Save Our Schools rally in Washington, D.C. Damon - whose mom is a Boston-area teacher - took offense when a TV reporter contended that, as opposed to the environment faced by teachers in a tenure system, the lack of job security in acting functions as an incentive for hard work. Damon's response:
You think job insecurity is what makes me work hard? I want to be an actor. That’s not an incentive. That’s the thing. See, you take this MBA-style thinking, right? It’s the problem with ed policy right now, it's this intrinsically paternalistic view of problems that are much more complex than that. It’s like saying a teacher is going to get lazy when they have tenure. A teacher wants to teach. I mean, why else would you take a shitty salary and really long hours and do that job unless you really love to do it?
After Damon's comments, the cameraman responded: “Isn't it 10 percent of teachers bad, though? Ten percent of teachers are bad.” After Damon's mom asked where the cameraman got his numbers, he responded, "I don't know. Ten percent of people in any profession maybe should think of something else."
To which Damon delivers a wonderful (IMHO) impromptu smackdown of a not-very-well-thought-out question: “Maybe you’re a shitty cameraman. I don't know.”
Here is Damon's give-and-take with the reporter and cameraman, with some analytical commentary from Anderson Cooper:
Don't mess with Matt Damon!
(Aside: I wish "they" (whoever "they" are) would define "bad teacher" ... is it a teacher who fails students who don't do good work? Teachers who pass everyone? Teachers who assign homework? Teachers who decide not to tolerate outrageous and disruptive behavior in their classrooms? Are we talking about teachers who don't stop and make sure every student has "gotten it" before moving on, or about teachers who do, slowing down and boring the brighter ones? Is it impatience? Inflexibility? Hard markers? Not knowing the material? If those are the ones deemed "bad" - well, isn't that the kind of characteristic-set those kids will be facing on the job? Shouldn't they learn how to cope with those kinds of situations as well? No one will admit to those being the definition of "bad.")
Sorry, I digressed.
It’s time for real, meaningful, LEGITIMATE discussion about the embedded cultural issues existing in our country today which negatively impact the successes of our students in the public education system. If people are truly concerned about education reform, they need to stop the finger-pointing and blaming, and instead start critical inquiry into these issues. They should engage educators (or multiple teachers) in a dialogue about the issues he or she finds in the system and in the classroom, and really listen. People can't pretend they know everything about the problem - they don’t (nor do I). Please don’t pretend to know how to get a classroom of 25-30 high school students to care about Shakespeare, poetry or comma splices. Talk to us. Despite the bad rap teachers get, the vast majority of us are hard-working individuals who give everything we can to our profession (and then some). We are more than happy to talk with you about our professional lives (sometimes to the point of talking your ear off). Ask questions, think about the responses we offer, and do something with what you get. Contact legislators and urge them to come up with a viable, serious plan that addresses the real problems. It’s the only way that there will every be a solution.
Sidebar: If you want to watch Damon's entire speech at the SOS rally, here it is:
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