On Teaching/Chapter 12

As the coursework in this program draws to an end, we can reflect on how we have changed. As this chapter reiterates, we have become increasingly sensitive to the multidimensional backgrounds of our students. We have also learned that we, as teachers are social justice workers. We have become aware, in the words of John Dewey, “that every individual becomes educated only as he has an opportunity to contribute something from his won experience”. This must be the focus of our child-centered teaching/learning. That learning is mutual ~that school are dynamic places ~ and that democracy should be alive in both.

Assessment/chapter 6

Oh my! Diagnostic batteries are something special educators know well and learn  how misguided it is, very early in one’s career. Tests give us very little information about a disability in a child. My colleagues and I often joke, that we know more about a child from talking with him/her in five minutes than 5 hours of testing. Yet we often have to make the poor child undrgo the testing in order to serve his needs. And how cruel it is to make an autistic child sit through CRCT testing! For what good is that?! I was once again reminded in this chapter how words like intelligence, and mental ability are really reified concepts. It is good to be reminded of such.  And of Gardner’s points that IQ is not a predictor of future success in life. And on page 218 the book pointed out that France originally asked Binet to design a test to increase students chances of succeeding in schools. But America imported the test and misused it, looking for educational efficiency, not with sentiments of helpfulness or fairness.    There used to be an expression about the early days of computer programing. It was GIGO – it stood for Garbage In, Garbage Out. That’s what this era of testing reminds me of. We are placing data into our students and they are putting it out. No processing involved. No connections made. GIGO. Thanks, NCLB<>

Community/chapter 10

Especially because of what we are learning in Olga’s Play class, we know now that schools may be the only place that people gather as a community. For fear, whether real or perceived and because of the appeal of screens, Americans are hibernating in their homes. Schools are the only potential communal force in our society. We as teachers must obligate ourselves to create socially just environments. There were excellent points made in this chapter about over-involvement and how misguided parents can undermine opportunities for students of color. I was also impressed by the explanation of the difference of charitable giving and empowerment.  I believe, Paul Gorski referrred to this as the Savior complex. When we do just enough to make us feel good. It also leaves us feeling powerful over the ‘less fortunate’ or deficited. We are in charge- we can give and take as we please. We are the omnipotent.  But on page 397, the book explains a bridge method of giving. This acknowledges a two – way flow.  That both parties are at the receiving end.  And that both parties actively shape their own destinies.     I was also left with an overwhelming sense of ‘how much do they expect us to do?” Visiting homes was upheld over and over as the ideal. And yet every teacher that did it was a first year teacher. My guess is that none had a family of their own. None had other pressing obligations.  When faced with time restraints- visit the home of a student or go to your own child’s science project presentation – guess what most of us would and should chose. And it seemed so sexist. Add to the list of things a woman is expected to do. Would they ask a professional man to visit the homes of his clients? I am not saying that is bad- I am just asking- why is okay to keep adding to our responsibilities? Should our days start at 6 and end at 8 every night for little pay, no respect and little appreciation?

School Culture/Chapter 9

Because I started my career as an itinerant Speech and Language Pathologist, at last count I have worked at 12 different schools. So differences in school culture is something I can speak about with experience. School culture is the prime reason that I chose to leave one school and stay at another. It is so true that at one school the parking lot empties with the bell and one school the teachers stay til 6. And the one who’s teachers stay til 6 is not necessrily the better school. I just left a school literally because no one said “‘Good Morning!” The principal would avert her eyes rather than greet you when walking down the hall. I love the school that I am at because of the school culture. It has it’s flaws, but the teachers are upbeat and caring. The principal creates an atmosphere of positive professional growth. She values our time and appreciates our contribution. The teachers respect each other and there is a prevailing sense of accomplishment that eminates from the teachers to the children. This chapter reminds me of the book, What’s Worth Fighting For by Michael Fullan. I was also fortunate once, to open a new school, where the principal implemented Site Based Management. That was an exciting way to develop a school from the onset. I love this quote on page 349. “It’s not just tolerance. It’s understanding and a knowledge base that will translate into power and social action. Because when there is an imbalance of power, that creates the inequity.” The school that I work at reflects the imbalance of power in society right now. But because I have such a wonderful principal, she and I have been dialoguing about this for a couple of months. And now I have arranged a Cultural Sensitivity Workshop for our faculty for preplanning next year. I have found a fabulous speaker. And I have several teachers in the school who are ‘on board’ with me. I also found the points made on page 354, very significant. We must examine whether when we say to children that they can succed, we are saying “if you act like someone else”. “Students must see their cultural identities as itegral…..not as something to overcome”. This is the critical point. I also liked Deborah Meir’s comment -”when people ask how we train our new teachers, I say that the school itself is an educator for the kids and staff; it’s its own staff development project.” Isn’t that perfect? That would take care of Ruby Payne making ooodles of money – wouldn’t it? We would learn from ourselves! I have a question about this textbook…why are there so many quotes from First Year Teachers? Are the opinions of experienced teachers not valued? Are we perceived as burned out/tainted by the system/tired/worn/unknowing/not making a difference? On the last page of the chapter there is a chart of important principles. They are all wonderful, but my favorite two are Authentic curriculum and Adaptive pedagogy. I like these two because it ties right into physiological mind/brain science. You must latch on to something already in the brain in order to make a connection. Connecting is Learning. Making links. Building Neurons. So I went from making connections at schools to making connections in the brain. In the middle is making connections people to people. Administrator to teacher. Teacher to teacher. Teacher to student. Student to student. Student to data. Data to data. That tied in nicely didn’t it?

Post-Gorski

     Initially I was very excited by Gorski. His passion ignited me. But then honestly I got depressed. I feel old, and lonely. I feel like I have been fighting this battle for a very, very long time. And it’s not getting better. It’s getting worse. According to Paul Gorski, more people are poor, more people are being discriminated against. I wanted so much to be part of a generation of change. I have had two sleepless nights wondering where my generation went wrong. I can’t stop crying.  This is a sad blog.

Gorski

Sometimes ideas start as smoky shadows. Slowly they cement into real concepts in our minds. Such has been the activity in my brain lately. Gradually I have been able to transform from the deficit understanding to the cultural understanding of children. One of the things that has helped me is to change the word culture to heritage. Sometimes semantics means eveything. One would never say there is a Heritage of Poverty. But there is Black Heritage. And Apalachian Heritage. And Latino Heritage. And Jewish Heritage. And Native American Heritage. Each heritage is rich and beautiful- as is each culture-how can we possibly lump everyone together and call it deficited? The other piece that allowed me to examine my own prejudice was to look at my own family. I never considered my own grandparents poor. But I did consider my aunt/uncle poor. Yet technically, my aunt/uncle were a lot better off financially than my grandparents. My grandparents kept a clean, organized home filled with spirit and love. There was always food on the table that had been stretched with minimal meats and maximized with beans and vegetables. My aunt/uncle on the other hand, kept a house that was unkempt and there never seemed to enough of anything for their children. And yet my aunt was my grandmother’s daughter. And my aunt’s daughter grew up to be an teacher. I think Paul Gorski’s message to us is that ultimately Ruby Payne separates us from each other. And as teachers we have a social responsibility to reach across barriers, touch hearts, and open minds. Freire and Payne philosophies just don’t coexist. You have to pick one.

Addendum to below:CAUGHT!

Well, I guess it is sinking in – especially the one about screening books. I happen to love baseball. I grew up with a brother who loved baseball, and raised a son who breathed baseball. So almost every year, around spring training I reach for a book on Jackie Robinson. But this year, I noticed something. Many of the books, focus very little on the amazing courage, determination and talent of Mr. Robinson, but instead on the character of the white men that ’stood up’ for him- especially Branch Rickey of the Brooklyn Dodgers and PeeWee Reese. These are the books that won awards. I never noticed that before. What a glaring ommission  and what a powerful way to maintain the  stereotype. I am stunned.

Packet readings

Congratulations Rhina! I am reverberating with emotion from these readings. Just when I thought you couldn’t teach us anymore -POW! The two articles I will comment about are What if the Children in my Class are White and 20 Self Critical Things I Will do to be a More Equitable Educator. I chose those two articles because basically I underlined every word in both of those.

My first reaction to the ‘White’article was, what if we all were one race? Wouldn’t that be boring? Or would we find some other reason to discriminate against each other? I noted with pain, the cost of becoming ‘white’. “To gain the privileges of racism, many non-speaking European ethnic groups gave up their languages and ethnic traditions by ‘melting’ into the dominant Anglo culture…”From my own background an entire language-Yiddish- has been lost. A language so rich, that it’s few remaining descriptive words have made it’s way into American pop culture (shlep, shrek, yente, kvetch, shlump, shmootz, toochis, kishke, farklempt to mention a few*).  Millions of Italian Americans, Greeks, Portugese, etc. have sacrificed their ethnicity in order to be ’more White’. Having just finished reading Possible Lives, the lives of poor whites in Appalachia was culturally highlighted for me. And so although, the privilege of white is present for these people, the legacy of poverty is forboding, ever reminding us that cultural discrimination is deeper than race alone. The dominance of one group over another seems to be the key. When one group has power it will do anything to maintain its power. This is clear to us when we look from the outside. We look at Cuba and say – Oh Castro is passing the Presidency on to his brother- nothing will change. But do we embrace and welcome change? Or do we ridicule or terrorize anything that looks new? I like the way the article notes that children notice race and that we should stop pretending it doesn’t exist. This came up in the book discussion this week. As a Jewish woman, I kind of have a foot in both doors- a white woman and a non-white woman. I could pass/ but sometimes I get kicked out. I know the pain, but I also know the privilege. I want so much to be part of a solution. To be part of a generation that says ENOUGH! I want to share my privilege, and erase the pain. I want to- like the article says- grow children who will strive for a just society and celebrate a multi- cultural/ a multi-everything world!

There will now be 21 self critical things. The 21st thing will be that I will read the list every day and remind myself  of the first 20 things every day. This list envigorates me in a unique way. I want to make copies for every teacher I know. It made me rethink the time that I mistakenly Anglosized a child’s last name. It made me fully acknowledge that I am not colorblind. It made me take responsibility for any unintentional hurt and it’s impact. It made me want to pay attention to any underrepresented child or group. It made me want to look at my own experiences as a student and examine its impact on my teaching. It made me want to build further coalitions with teachers that I am unfamiliar with. It made me want to celebrate (not feel guilty for) my role as social activist on this good earth. I will affirm and model all kinds of intelligences in the children I teach.  ( I am pretty sure we all have #6 covered- never stop being a student). I LOVE THIS LIST! And I am also really looking forward to hearing Paul Gorski speak.

*anyone who wants a translation of those Yiddish words see me!

TTCTW Chapter 7

Many years ago, an excellent school couselor introduced me to a classroom management system called Love and Logic. It was developed by a man named Jim Fay. It gelled with my natural way relating to the students and I have been using it ever since. This chapter would have called Jim Fay a progressive democratic thinker. His philosophy is that you have to make the child ‘fall in love with you’! If they love you- then they will learn for you. So he encourages teachers to greet every child personally, talk to each one about their families, and spend time building loving relationships. He uses humor generously, and uses a technique he calls “brain dead empathy” to diffuse emotionally charged situations. He encourages teachers to share control of their classroom by giving children lots of small choices (would you like to take the test with black ink or blue ink?) and he gives responsibility for behavior back to the children. I have heard him speak at GSU twice. Here is the website if anyone is interested in the books or DVDs. He is very entertaining to watch and listen to. http://www.loveandlogic.com/.

Just a side note:I am having a difficult time with the words traditional and progressive,now- because in our play class- traditional ways ( allowing more play – less/ academics)seems to be more desirable!YIKES!

I would like to make one more point. When we read about schools and the progression of pedagogy it is almost like we are reading about a stagnant entity. We forget that children move through the system quickly. That children are usually the recipient of several political movements throughout their educational career and many, many teachers. That children that started when NCLB was enacted will be in High School next year. Trends come and go. We always move as a human race in spirals. Sort of like a slinky. We take two steps forward and one step back. Sometimes it feels like we are in the same place as we were before, but really we are above – on a rung over that one. It is a slow process, but it is a process. Education is a good process. It is about people. It is about children. And we are about caring for those people. Doing our best. Every teacher wants to leave a legacy of hope -I love the motto of the National Association of Colored Women, “Lifting as We Climb”. And really in the long run it is individual teachers that make the difference, not movements. It is teacher to student, person to person, that changes the world.

Addendum to the below

Even as I reread this I am worried that I have offended someone. If I have, I apologize.