Whole Child Education?

A few days ago the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) released a report entitled "The Learning Compact Redefined: A Call To Action." This report, like the millions of other reports released by education think-tanks and commissions "commissioned" to study education, laid out a set of recommendations that apparently will fix the problems of education. While many reports are absolutely mind-numbing, this report seems to be on the right track. There are some very good observations that the group called "The Commission on The Whole Child" discussed. [ok, so can we stop calling these things commissions? can someone please pick up a thesarus, still available are: committee, authority, agency, official, board, administration, etc...]

Unfortunately, there are a few problems in their suggestions. I am of the belief that in education in order to make changes you need one part optimism and one part reality. Without both any efforts to make changes will either be too idealistic and not practical enough or vise versa. The Whole Child Committee [see how well that works] has plenty of the optimism needed, speaking in nice sweeping inspirational language "we challenge those responsible for learning and teaching to reshape education so young people learn not only that 2+2 = 4 but also 'who they are' and why each person is a 'marvel. (6)'" It almost seems like they hired former Hallmark card writers to write the introduction. However, the reality of the situation is where they fall short. First of all, the problems of education cannot be resolved in 36 pages. I know Tom Paine inspired a revolution with 46 pages, but the United States education problem is slightly more complicated than that little spat we had with King George a few years ago. Second of all, the problem with many of these reports is that they look at the dilemmas of education from the top down, much like a mechanic popping the hood of a car and attempting to fix it by simply replacing a belt or adding oil. Many of the suggestions are wonderful and I agree with virtually all of them, but we have to look at the problems of education from the bottom up. How do we fix education at the bottom of the ladder? Sweeping language and talk of looking at the child as a marvel is absolutely useless in inner city America. It's nice, but useless. I'm not going to get into the social problems with education here, but in order for ANY changes to happen of the sort that the ASCD writes about, someone has to get their hands dirty and look under the car, priorities must shift, and perspectives must change, and we all know how slow the dreaded 'c' word comes about in education.

To the writers of the Whole Child Report, I applaud you for making an effort to move into the right direction and get away from this accountability stuff, it's very positive, but let's try and take it to the next level and take those thoughts and make them universally practical. I would love to tell you that I know how, but I have no idea.

For reference, the report can be found here: http://www.ascd.org/ASCD/pdf/Whole%20Child/WCC%20Learning%20Compact.pdf

MDCPS: The Dysfunctional Family

Carl Hiaasen has made millions telling stories of the stupidities that are found in Miami-Dade County, either through the people that live here or the politicians that make dumb mistakes here. While all of his stories are fictional, they are couched in reality. I think when I retire; I'd like to join Mr. Hiaasen in telling stories about the "oddities" of our county. Here's one of them:

The Miami Herald reported recently that the Miami-Dade County Public School Board is engaged in a very intense legal battle. Not with others who wish to intrude on the rights of the school board or of the superintendent, not even with one of its own employees. Instead, our school board is spending over $100,000 in legal fees fighting with itself. It seems that Marta Perez, a school board member, is mad because she suggested that four items be added to the December 2006 meeting agenda and Rudy Crew, our omnipotent superintendent refused. (New York sending Rudy Crew was their cruel little joke intended at getting back at Miami for stealing Pat Riley, score settled.) This simple refusal outraged Ms. Perez and if you mix a little anger with a little spite and throw a few lawyers into the mix...voila! You have a lawsuit and 100K down the drain.

But in all of this there is a hero! No, not a school board member who talked some sense into Ms. Perez or the Supreme Commander of the School Board, the Honorable, Humble, Great and Gracious Doctor Rudolph Crew (that what he makes us call him, there's a little courtesy and salute that goes with it, ala President Scroob in Spaceballs, but I don't have time to go into details), no, no... in fact the rest of the school board members became co-defendants and hired their own lawyers...at the district's expense (what?!? you mean pay for it themselves, the horror!). Judge Ronald Friedman, the one person in this who fiasco saw the complete ridiculousness of this and called the lawsuit 'absurd' and limited lawyers to fifteen minutes to make their case and was flabbergasted when he saw that MORE lawyers were coming on board (at no less than $250 and at a max of $450 and hour, guess who hired the expensive attorney...one guess...that's right, the unstoppable force that is Crew). Judge Friedman, you're my hero, but unfortunately, there's always a court of appeals, and there goes more of the district's money. Never mind that Miami Carol City High School is falling apart OR THAT WE DON'T HAVE ENOUGH MONEY TO PAY TEACHERS!!!! We'll just spend a couple hundred thousand on fighting with ourselves because we didn't add an item to the agenda. Way to keep the interest of the students in mind, I congratulate you.

THE MORAL OF THE STORY: Teachers, next time you department chair doesn't want to add an item to the next meeting, sue their pants off!

Why This Blog?

As a student and practicioner of education, there are several things that drive me absolutely crazy. And while I may be late in jumping on the "blog bandwagon" I've decied to start this blog simply because I feel that in the United States we can do so much more with our education system. The complete decentralization of our system has led to chaotic and unmanageable education system and sadly, any efforts to correct our system have been led by politicians and not educators.

As an example, Florida recently passed legislation to award teachers a bonus between five and ten percent, according to the AP:

"The new program would continue to rely heavily on student testing -- at least 60 percent -- in determining which teachers and in-school administrators would qualify for bonuses. Assessments by principals, or superintendents in the case of administrators, would account for the remaining 40 percent."

Sixty freakin' percent based on standardized student testing! Can someone tell me why a social studies, music, art, physical education, or dance teacher would even care about this program? Thanks for the concession of forty percent, the leftovers for the non-math, english, and science teachers. In addition, does anyone account for the stress that it places on the administrators to say to their Social Studies teacher, "yes Sally, you're good enough, I have no real objective rubric to measure you by, but I think you deserve this money" and no to someone else? How do you distinguish a good educator from a bad one with one or two observations?

Teachers have given in to politicians and handed them over our profession and they have no idea what they are doing! That's why I've decided to start this blog. Not because I want to gripe about the faults of education, but because our educators need to take back their profession.