New Texas Teacher Evaluation System

Texas will implement a new teacher evaluation instrument and process in the fall of 2017.  A major difference in the new system compared to the current system is that 20% of the teacher’s evaluation will be determined by student outcomes, though districts have options regarding which outcomes they will use.  This is such a bad idea that I am not sure where to begin.  This idea is symptomatic of the current reform thinking in this country, and that thinking is bass-ackwards and totally off the mark.  OK.  Maybe that is where I should begin: how perhaps good-meaning folks are making the wrong rules for the wrong reasons applied to the wrong complex system.  It is a mental model flaw that we must fix ASAP.

Schools and the humans therein are a different type of organization than anything else you know.  Period.  They are not like a mom and pop sole proprietorship, they are not like an assembly line, they are not like a multi-national corporation, they are not like a doctor’s office, they are not like engineers or lawyers, they are not like country clubs or sororities or fraternities, and they are not like the army.  They are very different.  Schools, in my opinion and based on over 40 years of observing and participating in such, are much more like churches or families than any other organization, and they remain different in key ways from even churches and families.  Any strategy to reshape schools in the image of or using as a model any of the above listed organizations is doomed to failure and likely to undermine the very nature of the importance of schooling for the children of this nation.  To make schools more like the private sector dooms schools.  To make schools more like the army dooms schools.  And such efforts have been at the forefront of legislatures across this country for decades now.  As each reform effort or strategy is implemented and results do not change the solution by the implementers has been to do more of the same making everything much worse.  It is a though they are determined to have their mental model work and will stop at nothing to make that happen.  Going faster when one is lost is not helpful.  It is time we stopped and look at the map.

There are several critical attributes of schools that set them apart from every other organization.  First and foremost in my mind is the ongoing intense relationship between teachers and kids.  No other college degreed, certified professional spends as much time with patients or clients as teachers do with kids.  The interpersonal human dynamic of an adult in close proximity and tight quarters with children or young adults for hours each day is a dynamic few can fathom.  Doctors see patients one at a time and only briefly.  Lawyers likewise.  Engineers spend little time with people unless they are in a managerial role.  Not even moms and dads spend so many hours each day with their own children in a small room.  The variables in this relationship include all the vast varieties of human beings, both the teacher and the students.  Parents intuitively sense that the teacher of their child represents a critical relationship.  From the teacher’s point of view the mere numbers of children they work with is overwhelming.  No other organization in its right mind would assign one adult to supervise, monitor, teach and improve 20 to 45 children at a time.  The typical span of control in the private sector is around 8 subordinates per supervisor.  In schools it is 3 times that number.  Just keeping kids safe and engaged is a daunting task made more difficult by the diversity of the kids and their interest in the class and their manners and motivation.  Kids who are hostile or ambivalent to school and teachers become an almost overwhelming variable that is exceptionally difficult to modify.  Moreover, the teachers who have become battle-scarred, wounded and numb to the environment now created by legislatures and kids is a variable that is exceptionally difficult to modify.  I remain amazed that any teacher can avoid that perspective and pitfall.  Until one grasps this dynamic, this setting wherein a bell rings, 30 very different kids congeal in an 800 square foot room, and an adult assumes sole responsibility for them for hours and hours then one does not have a clue what schools are all about.  I recommend every legislator serve one day as a substitute teacher just to get a small taste of that reality.

The second critical attribute of schools is that schools are future oriented.  We are not talking the next quarterly report or even year-end profits.  The event horizon for schools is years and years.  Kindergarten teachers worry about their children when they become high school seniors twelve years later.  High school teachers worry about their students in the same way as they enter “reality” and seek to become productive people, husbands, wives and parents.  Teachers will tell you that one of the greatest rewards of teaching is the return of a former student to thank and praise them for lessons learned years ago.  The millions of kids in public school will someday take their place in our economy and our society and teachers feel that burden to prepare their kids as best as they possibly can.  It has always fascinated me that grossly underpaid adult professionals work their butts off to create the next generation of millionaires and reduce the number dependent on government safety nets to survive.  However, if the school’s orientation shifts from the long-term future of kids to the short-term spring test outcomes, then the school’s mission is thwarted and kids will pay the price in the long-term.

The third critical attribute of schools is the role they play in providing a vast array of services and programs to their students beyond the core curriculum.  Kids are bussed to school.  Schools serve two meals a day.  Schools have a large physical plant and grounds that must be maintained.  Schools maintain a clinic for sick or hurt kids.  Schools provide eye testing, hearing testing, spine testing, nutritional instruction, anti-drug programs, leadership development programs, and anti-teen pregnancy programs.  We provide instruction in music, physical fitness, home economics, foreign language, career education, speech and debate, theater, art and even robotics.  We offer programs for special needs kids, advanced placement courses, International Baccalaureate programs and gifted education.  We offer a vast array of extra-curricular opportunities including boy and girl athletic programs, band, cheerleaders, dance, orchestra, livestock husbandry, and choir.  We support an incredible number of student organizations from FFA, to science clubs, Spanish clubs, chess clubs, drama clubs, student councils, and honor societies.  Every one of these opportunities, and many more, involve teachers who are specialized and who spend many hours above and beyond the regular school day. 

So in this highly complex, multi-mission organization steps a lay person legislature who believes he or she has strategies to improve schools.  The gall of that step is truly amazing.  But when they inaugurate new requirements perhaps from noble motivation, perhaps not, they are killing schools,.

Every reform effort that opens the door to diverting public tax dollars from public schools to private sector profiteers is unethical.  Charter schools are funded by public dollars, cannot offer the programs public schools offer, are exempt from some of the requirements of public schools, and take money from the public school budgets to enrich private sector entrepreneurs.  Vouchers are worse.  They literally allow public tax dollars to be used by the wealthy to send kids to private schools depleting public school funds and saving money for those parents who need such savings the least.

Equally insidious are the so-called reform strategies that include the administration of high stakes standardized tests, accountability ratings for schools and school districts, and teacher evaluation systems that tie student outcomes to teacher evaluation.  It is this “reform” effort that triggered my pen to opine and I return to that specific strategy now in the context created above.

Perhaps it makes sense to evaluate migrant farm workers based on the number of bags of vegetables picked.  Perhaps it makes sense to evaluate assembly line work based on the number of widgets produced in an hour or a day or a year.  Perhaps it makes sense to evaluate sales people based on the number of thingamajigs sold.  But in each of the above settings the outcome used for the measured is inanimate.  Vegetables, widgets, and cars will pretty much do all that we ask of them as they are things, not living, breathing, thinking, feeling human beings.  I argue that anytime a person is held accountable for what another person does we have pushed the limits of reasonable accountability to the threshold of incredibility.  And yet we accept the concept of measuring teacher performance based on student academic outcomes as though that makes perfect sense.

If holding teachers accountable for student outcomes makes perfect sense to you, then would you support holding a preacher accountable if members of his or her congregation commit a sin or break the law?  Would you support holding an oncologist as accountable for patient survival rates as a plastic surgeon?  Would you hold a criminal trial lawyer accountable for every client found guilty?  Would you hold a nutritionist accountable for every obese client they serve?  Of course not.  That would be ludicrous.  And yet, we propose the same preposterous system for teachers.

Does the teacher make a difference in student learning?  Absolutely.  Are some teachers able to help kids beat the odds and perform well academically?  Absolutely.  But we fail to seriously discuss the kid variable in all this.  Kids from poor families do not do as well academically as kids from parents of wealth.  Are the teachers of highly successful wealthy kids somehow superior practitioners than teachers of low performing poor kids?  Absolutely not.  If we knew that, all we would have to do is leave the kids in place and move the teachers.  No one is recommending that.  All that gets recommended is removing the teachers and principal in a school where poor kids are low-performing.  I would argue that the teachers of poor, low performing kids are much more likely to be superior teachers than those who teach wealthy high performing kids because wealthy kids tend to arrive at the school house door so much better prepared with a huge support system and strong family commitment to the value of education.  Teachers of such kids can in fact coast and the kids will do well.  That is not possible for teachers of poor kids who must do all that they can to not only teach but to somehow seek strategies to overcome the lack of support, experience and valuing that more likely occurs at home.  Given this double duty for teachers of the poor any consideration of removing them for lack of student performance is totally unethical and immoral.

And do not even get me started on using the state mandated high stakes test to make any of these assessments.  The net effect of high stakes testing has been the reduction of learning for the sake of test-taking.  That effect impacts poor and rich alike.  To use such spurious data to hold professionals accountable is equally unethical and immoral.  (As an aside, I find it almost hysterical that those in the fossil fuel business tend to be adamantly opposed to collateral accountability for environmental demise while promoting such collateral accountability outcomes for teachers.)

Further, how in the world do we hold non-core curriculum teachers accountable using this same cockamamie logic?  We do not give tests in many of the subjects we teach.  I know, the state says, let’s use portfolios of student achievement.  Portfolios?  Do you have children?  Do you keep a scrapbook for each child?  Is it time-consuming?  Imagine doing the same for 150 kids in addition to your other instructional duties.  There are not enough hours in a day to create meaningful portfolios for non-core curriculum teachers. 

And none, absolutely none of these reform strategies actually addresses the root problem.  The strategies that would in fact make a huge difference would be to increase the support services for poor children including food, shelter, clothing, and health care.  Such strategies could reduce the impact of poverty on learning.  The implementation of pre-school programs for all kids beginning at age 3 would help dramatically.  Increasing the salaries of teachers on a sliding scale that is most likely to keep our best in the classroom would help dramatically.  Increasing the overall funding for teachers so that the teacher pupil ratio could be dramatically reduced.  Cut that ratio in half and more students will be successful.  Amazingly, the staunchest supporters of the reform movement strategies that have a net negative effect (high stakes testing and teacher evaluation based on outcomes, charter schools, vouchers, ad nauseum) are also the staunchest opponents of the strategies that would most likely have a positive effect.  One must ask why would elected representatives seek so faithfully to demolish the likely success of public education?

Should educators be held accountable?  Sure.  But the system used must value the professional practice not the layperson’s political theories.  We must first ask teachers what they need to be more successful and then provide those things.  We must find ways to increase the impact of teachers by reducing the number of kids each of them must see.  We absolutely should not, ever, ever use a system that is all punitive and fear generating if we really care about the human interaction between teaches and kids in the classroom.  No professional performs best in a state of fear and the subject of microscopic analysis.  It is in the classroom that learning occurs.  Clearly it is not on Capitol Hill.

Trump?

I am still trying to wrap my head around the possibility of a Donald Trump candidacy or worse, a Trump presidency.  I add this brain warp to the realization there are also people who support Cruz, Christie, Palin, and Huckabee and their ilk.  How in the world can the political party most known for high educational attainment and successful business practices have degenerated into such a quagmire of quacks and snake oil salespeople?  Perhaps I have lost my mind.  I prefer to think that those who support these folks are not using theirs.  This political season represents the largest step backward in the history of American thought.

Personal passion, fear, and anger rule the lives of too many.  Self-image is grounded in false beliefs.  While thoughtful commentators point out that Trump is a racist, a sexist and a bigot, Trump supporters have grown in number.  Why?  I believe it is because his supporters are racist, sexist, and bigots.  When his supporters say they support him because he tells it like it is what they are really saying is he tells it like they are.

How did this happen?  How could the land of the free and the home of the brave become rooted in this anger, this fear, this willingness to offend and attack everyone who does not fit the proposed model American?  How can Trump’s theme to make America great again happen in a nation with a proud history of the extension of human civil liberties to African Americans, women, belief systems other than Christian, sexual orientation other than heterosexual, and races other than Anglo?  Listening to Trump convinces me he wants to make America more like 1950 than 2016.  And that is very dangerous.

I think it happened because the Tea Party, reality shows, fear, anger, Fox “News”, Hannity, O’Reilly, Coulter, Limbaugh, et. al., are all anti-intellectual, anti-pragmatism, anti-secularism, anti-reason, anti-science, and anti-progress unless we are talking about the oil industry.  Thus Donald Trump, Cruz, Christie, Huckabee, Palin, etc., are perceived as viable options for the leaders of the most enlightened, powerful nation on the planet.  The ultra-conservative opinion shapers have for years been lambasting Obama, spreading false rumors, heightening fear, and stoking the anger.  The Republican Party is now reaping what these Neanderthals have been planting:  Donald Trump, a man with no experience in government at all, who has never held even a city council seat, never stood for an election for dog catcher, much less a governor, a senator or a representative is being seriously considered for the Presidency of these United States.  He is a naive rookie when it comes to politics, Washington and foreign policy, and that will be disastrous.  He mostly inherited his millions.  Many of his business ventures have failed.  He was great on “reality” TV when he got to say, “You’re fired!”, but that is not a pre-requisite skill for a President.  He is a racist.  He is a sexist.  He is a bigot.  His ideas are scary as hell:  A wall?  No Muslims in the US?  Kill the families of terrorists?  These are not strategies to return America to greatness.  These are strategies to send us back to the ideological Stone Age and away from our current greatness.  Sadly, that is part of his appeal to folks who do not know and do not understand the American political system or the grounding principles in our Constitution.  And it is part of the appeal to Americans who are also racist, sexist, bigots.  Trump is getting the Archie Bunker vote and the right wing media has helped develop more Archie Bunkers.

It is as though the Republican establishment is now awakening to the Frankenstein they have created.  For every fear tactic, for every stance that was anti-Obama even when the ideas were good if not great, for every threat to shut down the government and attack the resources that help the most needy Americans, for every position that was made for purely political reasons rather than what was best for the country, for every false rumor regarding guns and socialism and a world view the end result is an angry, fearful electorate.  That segment is giving us Donald Trump.

Can he be stopped on his road the Republican nomination?  I do not think so.  There is no viable candidate to take his place.  Cruz in many ways scares me more than Trump, and Rubio has all the charisma of Mr. Rogers.  Republicans are now Trumped.

It is my hope that three changes emerge from this.  First that the right-wing of the Republican Party begins to face the same scrutiny by mainstream Republicans that they use on Democrats.  These folks have been lying, exaggerating and spreading fear and anger for years.  Just as only Nixon could go to China, the only group that can stop this gaggle is fellow, thoughtful Republicans.

Secondly, we stop glorifying a past that in many ways is very embarrassing.  People owned people in this country.  Women could not vote or own property and their preferred position was barefoot and pregnant.  Bathrooms were segregated.   Schools were segregated.  Churches were segregated.  We had a poll tax to stop the poor from voting.  We did not serve children with special needs.  We did not inspect our food or our water.  We did not ensure that the workplace was safe.  We did not, could not, imagine Blacks, Hispanics, women, Muslims, atheists, etc. ascending to leadership roles.  Those were not the good old days.  If you think they were you obviously did a good job of picking your parents (Please read “I am So Smart” on this blog.”)

I saw a frightful video yesterday where student journalists stopped other students on the Texas Tech campus and asked them who won the Civil War.  Only one knew.  The others either did not know what the Civil War was, who fought or who won.  I am tempted to make jokes about TT, but I believe the same would be true on any college campus in Texas and elsewhere.  We have become totally ignorant of the social sciences (history, sociology, anthropology, economics, political science, psychology.)  Our conservative leaders have promoted the end of understanding the social sciences because if we understand those sciences we might abandon fear, bigotry and sexism.  We have standardized all the social studies tests so that only a certain array of facts must be known to pass the test and the elimination of actual learning in these areas that occurs with classroom dialog, exploration, and analysis, has left us with students who do not know or understand what the American Civil War was all about.  They do not get that it was principally about life-style and slavery.  It was also about federal oversight of state’s rights.  Both issues were settled after a terrible blood bath where everyone who died was an American.  Students do not know that the economic policies of Herbert Hoover, Ronald Reagan, and George Bush are identical:  what is good for business is good for the USA.  Each of these presidents led us to the brink of economic disaster because those policies do not work. 

I could go on and on.  The point is the third change that must begin to happen if this country is to remain great is that we must teach our students to think, not to pass tests.  They must understand governmental decision making, historical trends and philosophies, the differences in cultures, and the economic impact of each of the philosophies out there.   Those who do not want their children to learn such things promote anti-intellectual schools.  If students are only told of one way to think then they are not capable of thinking.  In Texas we actually have a Lt. Governor who waged war on a state curriculum because one lesson asked students to look at the Boston Tea Party from the British point of view.  This man is clearly not about learning, thinking, problem solving.  The result is non-intellectual students who have no clue about our history and how it relates to the current Presidential Race.  Our kids become Archie Bunker, uneducated, anti-reasoning bigots.

That, in my opinion, is how the Republican Party will end up nominating Donald Trump.  Reasonable, thoughtful conservatives should be scared to death.  I am.

The Grand Old Party and the Good Old Days

The primary election in Texas is over.  I voted.  I won’t shame those who did not vote, but I will tell you that the Australian plan of fining every registered voter who does not vote makes sense to me.  It also makes sense to me to require 18 year-old women to register with the Selective Service.  We are able for the most part to force the guys to do that and there is no reason other than sexism to not ask girls to do that as well.  It also makes sense to me that registration for the Selective Service should include an automatic registration to vote.  

By voting in the primary I joined a political party.  That is how it is done.  If I show up and cast a vote to help select the candidates for that party I become a member of that party, complete with more junk mail and solicitations for money.

And as I sit and watch the national news coverage of the Super Tuesday election several things are obvious to me.  First, very few Americans actually participated in this process.  That is beyond sad.  That is scary.  Affluent Anglos have the highest sense of political efficacy and confirm that with every election.  White folks who earn above the median income, and retired White folks consistently vote.  Women not so much.  African Americans not so much.  Hispanics nowhere near as much.  Hispanic voters outnumber Black voters, but more Blacks vote than Latinos.  If Latinos ever showed up at the polls they would control election outcomes.  It is really no surprise to me that rich White folks (whether they think they are rich or not) tend to vote Republican.  The poor, the minorities and women tend to vote for Democrats.  It angers me that the data shows that most women vote as their husband votes.  So if your husband is an executive in an oil company and you are a teacher making less than $50,000 a year you probably voted Republican with your husband even though it is very clear that the Republican Party in Texas is strongly against public education and strongly for keeping teacher salaries low, and teacher evaluations test score based, etc.  Remarkably, such folks vote for the party that will most harm their chosen profession.  I have witnessed crazy stuff, and this one is not the craziest, but it is the most consistently crazy trend for educators. 

I break it down like this.  The Republican Party for the most part thinks the United States of America is great and if anything they want it to be great again implying we are not nearly as great now as we were in the past.  Their definition of greatness comes from the past, from the Good Old Days for which they yearn.  White folks are scared, and that fear makes them angry at the people they fear.  They are scared of income re-distribution, industry regulation, registration of guns, and government structured health care.  They are equally opposed to the greatest American socialist program, public education.  The rising Hispanic tide is a good target for this fear and anger.  Influx from the Middle East and Southern Asia is equally scary.  To get the Republican vote one has to paint a very scary picture of where we are now, and glorify the days and heroes of yesteryear.  Do that bluntly and you can win.

The Democratic Party for the most part also thinks the United States of America is great, and if anything they want it to be greater.  Democrats tend to look at the current state and long for a different future rather than the past.  Democrats are willing to change stuff.  They are not enamored of the Good Old Days and will fight tooth and nail against returning to a time when a woman’s place was in the home, a minority’s place was in clearly defined subdivisions, schools were segregated, and special needs children were not served.  The Democratic goal is to never return to those days and to continue to march forward with ever new initiatives to improve the future lives of all citizens.  Democrats tend not to be scared or angry which I think makes Republicans more scared and more angry.

Yep, I’m a Democrat.  Among others, I have a degree in history, and there really is no time in the past I can think of that is better than what we have now, assuming the Garden of Eden was an allegory.  I want to go forward.  I want us to improve.  I support being politically correct because it took hundreds of years to get the bias out of our language.  To use such language now is the tool of bullies.  I do not want to change things for the sake of change.  I want to see a problem and address that problem with a solution that propels us to a better future.  I do not want to return to policies we know do not work, like the reduction of federal oversight of the market in 1929 and in 2008.  Those strategies did not work.  I do not want to see us engaged in military conflicts that sap our resources and kill and wound our young men and women.  I do want a military that stands ready to defend us against attack.  I do not want any more Korea’s, Viet Nam’s, Afghanistan’s or Iraq’s.  We have yet to learn from those mistakes in the past.  And, if you want to secure this nation for an oligarchy the first thing you would have to do is dismantle and belittle public education.  I see such efforts as un-American. 

So, there you have it.  Few people will have voted today.  Those few that did will shape the direction of the state which may or may not be where the actual majority really wants to go.  I see the Republican Party seeking a return to some greatness as defined in the past, and the Democratic Party seeking new solutions to old problems so that we may enter a future greater than what we have now. 

It is not called the Grand Old Party for nothing.  And there really are no Good Old Days.  Yes, I have romanticized images from my childhood.  But I also see the water fountains and bathrooms labeled “Colored”.  No one had a computer, no smart phone, no satellite or cable TV, etc.  We are living in the best of times.  And I believe we can still make it better.

About My Blogs

I write and post to three blogs.  The following describes those blogs and will be added to my profile as well.  

http://one-eyedbob.blogspot.com/

One-Eyed Bob is my home base where I discuss education and politics.  I am proud that I have won multiple awards from AASA for OEB and have a far-ranging audience.  I even occasionally review a movie or sound off on some current event so it is not just education talk.

http://one-eyedbobongod.blogspot.com/

One-eyed Bob on God is brand spanking new.  My faith has been shaky recently and I have been looking at what the theists, atheists, and the anti-theists have to say. I will put all that in one new blog.

http://tardybelle.blogspot.com/

My oldest blog and the one I have been most proud to write is Tardy Belle.  Yes, I am the author of Tardy Belle under the pseudonym Eileen Good.  The picture of Eileen on the blog is actually of my mother.  I began Tardy Belle as a public school superintendent.  If I had something that I felt really needed to be said and knew that it was not safe for me as a school superintendent to say, I wrote as Eileen and posted on Tardy Belle.  In this neck of Texas most folks are ultra conservative and have never even talked to a progressive.  While I was a superintendent all my progressive rants were posted by Eileen Good on Tardy Belle.  If you have read or followed Tardy Belle and feel deceived or betrayed I am truly sorry.  Admittedly I wrote on Tardy Belle out of fear of reprisal.  No more.  All such entries now appear on one-eyed bob and I do not intend to post to Tardy Belle again, unless of course circumstances demand it.  I will begin to move some of “Eileen’s” posts to one-eyed bob as the spirit moves me.  I will leave all the posts on Tardy Belle there for your perusal now that I have “come out.”  Eileen Good had a wonderful voice for me to assume and I shall miss her.

Thank you one and all for reading my blogs.  I love to write them and love your feedback.

I am so Smart

I’ve been blogging here for about 5 years, and it occurs to me that I have never shared why I think my thoughts merit posting.  Frankly, it is because I am so smart and I make wonderful decisions.  You should know about these decisions and why they indicate my brilliance.

I chose to be born to Anglo parents.  This was a hard choice as most of the people in the world are not White.  Only 18% of the world’s population are White so you can see why choosing a minority race was such a tough decision.  In hindsight, however, it was brilliant.  I have had every opportunity, I have never experienced discrimination by race, and I am not viewed as suspicious based on my skin color or dress.  This may be my most brilliant decision, which is good, because it is not reversible.

I chose to be born in the United States.  Again, a brilliant decision.  Americans represent 4% of the planet’s population and control roughly 30% of the planet’s resources.  Yep, this is the place to be.  Had I been born somewhere else and wanted to advance myself and my family by tapping into the incredible wealth of the USA then I would have to be an immigrant.  That is not a good thing these days, although every White person here was at one time an immigrant.  Birth in the US is a real entitlement desired by so many.  Once I chose to be born here I did not have to go through the arduous process of migrating here or having to pass the citizenship test which I hear is a real challenge.  I can be an American and remain totally ignorant of our history and founding principles.

I chose parents who speak English.  Whoa, any other choice could have been disastrous.  Learning English is difficult, but because I chose so wisely I do not even remember the process.  It just seems that I always spoke English.  That choice really helped me in school as the teachers only spoke English.  Worse, many are persecuted because they do not speak English so I avoided that experience as well.

I chose parents who are Christians.  Oh boy, there is no telling what mischief I would have gotten into had I chosen Muslim parents, or Hindu, or Buddhist or atheist, or whatever.  But because so many of the other Whites in this country believe our country was created as a Christian nation, once again I made a brilliant decision.  (Those folks who think the country was founded as a Christian nation could not pass the citizenship test and they are wrong, but I am not going to tell them for fear they may start discriminating against me!)

I chose parents who were financially stable.  I never suffered from hunger, I never suffered from lack of clothes, and I never suffered from a lack of shelter.  And, we always had health insurance coverage!  I was not forced into early childhood labor nor were my parents ever engaged in illegal activities to secure funding.  I might have been OK had I not chosen financially stable parents, but life sure was easier not having to worry about food, shelter and clothing.  Once again, a brilliant choice.

And perhaps my best decision was to choose parents who were emotionally and psychologically stable.  There was no addiction in my house.  There were not fits of rage, no child abuse, no drunken parents, and no parents who were high on drugs.  I had emotionally stable parents who loved me and cared for me, punished me when I deserved it, but never abused me.  I see others who did not choose so wisely who spend the rest of their lives trying to outgrow their childhood.  Thank God I was smart enough to avoid all that.

I will confess to making a strategic error in all these choices, however.  I chose a family that promoted thinking rather than simple adoption of opinion.  That was a mistake.  As a result I have become intolerant of those who made the same wise decisions I made but have chosen to punish the victims of poor choice, that is, people who chose to be born elsewhere, or to parents of color, who were poor, non-English speaking, poorly educated with few marketable skills, dependent on others for food, shelter and clothing, and in need of health care.  So, yes, those folks made very poor decisions.  But, I remain convinced that those of us who chose so wisely have an obligation to help the folks who chose so poorly.  It seems to me to be the least we can do.  The very last thing we should do is seek to punish the victims of such poor decisions.

That is why I think I am so smart and why I think you should read my blog as I articulate ways in which I believe we can advance the quality of life and promote the pursuit of happiness for everyone in our country.  That is a much more noble cause than seeking ways to secure my own wealth at the expense of others who we blame for their poor choices.  

Political Game Playing

I grow weary and fearful of the political games, more so because supposed adults continue to play.  For instance:

The “blame” game:  if I can show that this “bad” event is somehow your fault then that should exalt me.  Not true, of course.  International events are so complex and include so many random variables that blaming someone for a North Korea bomb test is the same as blaming someone for the weather.  Surely adults see through such things, and yet, candidates continue to play.

The “I’m more Christian than you” game:  If I can convince Christians I am one of them with the same faith and the same belief system then surely I will get their support.  Not true, of course.  At least not true for thinking Christians.  Jesus had something to say about the following:  It is very poor form to stand on the street corner and in front of multiple reporters publicly display one’s faith.  It is very poor form to claim a life devoted to Christ and enter the realm of politics opposing basic New Testament commandments.  It is very poor form to question an other's faith.  And it is very poor form to emulate southern evangelical hucksters who have grown rich by using their so-called faith to get their way in terms of material things.  I suspect that should Christ return during this election cycle He would grab His whip and chase all these “money changers” off the ballot.  It is so superficial, and yet some candidates continue to play.

The “I am a leader and you are not” game:  This is a variation of the blame game and is played by a candidate looking at all the actions of a given player then declaring those actions to be failures regardless of the real outcomes.  If I can convince enough people that the “other guy” was a failure, or that his or her policies and programs are failures, then surely I must be seen as a real leader for my ability to criticize the other guy and find flaws in his or her performance.  Even if it takes 62 votes to finally pass a bill declaring a program a failure rather than the facts.  There is no way to know what the “I am a leader” might have done in similar circumstances and what the outcomes would have been.  Finding flaws in human beings is a stupid game as anyone can play and everyone can lose.  And yet, candidates continue to play.

The “I have a plan but you cannot see it” game.  All the above games are truly insulting to the American voter.  Each game assumes we are so stupid as to be sucked into the game, and sadly, there are people who do get sucked in.  This game is the worst, however.  It allows me the ability to do nothing but play the other games while avoiding a clear statement of intentions and programs should I get elected.  If a candidate does not have proposals to make the nation better, why run unless it is for self-aggrandizement?  And if that is the case, do we want such a person as President?  I think not.  I am not stupid.  You are not stupid.  If you want to get elected and want to avoid playing games you must show us your cards.

You must show us your cards in fiscal policy, foreign policy, human rights policies here and abroad.  You must tell us what matters more to you, corporations or individuals.  You must take a stand on American’s international role.  Are we the cops of the world or are we the bystanders?  What shall we do if a nation self-determines its government and we do not like that government?  You must take a stand on climate and announce what you would like to see done to improve it, if anything.  You must take a stand on women’s reproductive rights.  Do they have any or should it be left in the knowing hands of middle aged white males?  You must take a stand on immigration and offer proposed policies.  You must take a stand on corporations sending jobs overseas and bank deposits oversees to avoid US taxes all while spending tons of money to influence elections here.  You must take a stand on firearms.  Shall we impose limits or shall we allow anyone and everyone to own a weapon?  You must take a stand on health care.  Shall we offer a government supported and required program for those who cannot get insurance any other way, shall we impose the previous strategy of survival of the fittest, or shall we mandate a single-payer program as those nations with the highest standard of living have?  You must take a stand on education.  Is public education simply an opportunity for private sector folks to make money via charter schools and testing, rich folks to save money via vouchers, or an essential ingredient for the future of our democracy?  Etc.

I do not like the broadcast candidate debates as it appears to me such events only encourages game playing.  I would love to simply see a list of proposals and policy stands on a variety of issues from each candidate, both parties.

That, of course, would be rational and promote adult decision-making between now and November of this year.  If the candidate who wins the Presidency has done so via game playing we will have no clue what lies ahead for the USA.  I can think of few things more frightful than that.

Eldering

Perhaps at Christmas time more than any other educators reflect on what they are doing and why.  Now is soul-searching time on a variety of fronts, (virgin birth, wise men, sacrificing a son, etc.) and if you are a teacher or an administrator I bet you have spent some time in the last few weeks asking if what you are doing now is what you really want to do.  You may go through the same exercise during spring break and especially during the last few weeks of the school year.  But the reflection this time of year in a festooned home with remote family members suddenly juxtaposed can be the most philosophical time.  The brief moments alone, salvaged once others go to bed and lit only by the tree bulbs in an otherwise dark room, is fertile ground for reflection.  These are mine:

The information age is exactly that.  The internet has virtually hung all knowledge like low fruit.  I think that is wonderful.  I also am increasingly concerned that we are losing the line between knowledge and wisdom.  They are not the same.  Wisdom is individually accrued over years and years and those who have it are well worth seeking out.  We do not see that so much anymore as we have such ready access to knowledge.  My smart phone is smart; it is not wise.  Asking Google how to improve schools is pointless.  Ask someone with wisdom.  My window on the world is not windows 10.  It is windows 66.

I am an elder.  I was a superintendent for 17 years, and before that 23 years as an administrator and teacher.  I learned many, many lessons, few of which I have forgotten.  You may tap that knowledge, or ignore it.  You may pick another elder, or no elder at all.  I am deeply saddened by those I know who are already convinced they know all they need to know and not only have stopped learning but have started preaching.  Those of us who know better and know more, at first laugh then cry as we hear their homilies.  To preach prior to accumulating wisdom is a declaration to the world that one does not yet have wisdom.  Yes, we learn best with our mouths shut.  We learn even better when listening to those who have gone before us.  Else wise we make the same mistakes every generation suffers.  Or, every kid suffers.

I wish I could be with you while you think through your professional practice and calling.  I wish I could silently sit on the hearth and listen to you talk to you.  I would not interrupt.  I would not intervene.  That would be a violation of your sanctuary.  But I would love to hear your thoughts.  I have had similar thoughts for 40 years.  Now retired, I reflect in different ways.  Once alone with the Christmas lights I now see our issues in different light.  Brighter.  More hopeful.

You have wounds and grievances.  They must be given air to heal.  I know, I still bleed.  Find a friend you trust, no simple task, and air the foolhardiness of public education today, air the slights, air the lack of support, air the unjustified assault on your professionalism, and air the frustration with non-educators dictating to you only because they have been elected, not because they either knowledge or wisdom.  Ha!  Fools and idiots prevail in our profession and those of us serving kids fall on our swords for not blindly serving irrational, ignorant adults.  Say it.  Scream it.  Write it.  Get it out.

You have questions about remaining in education.  Is it pointless?  Is it worth it?  You have agreed to sacrifice income for the sake of making a difference.  Now, others with no wisdom or knowledge are dictating how to assess your practice with no thought toward the individual differences we can make in the lives of kids.  Improving test scores does not improve the quality of the human experience.  Air your doubts and your questions. 

In the best of all scenarios you air the wounds and grievances, the questions and frustrations in the company of an elder.  Get it out.  Then, if you are willing, dare to seek a response.  Chances are very high you will hear questions in return of such a request.  Prompts to clarify your thinking and help you find your path.  If so, you are with an elder.

And for most the current reality of schooling returns on Monday.  I hope you are rested.  I hope you are energized.  I hope you have reflected.  And I hope you have found your elder.

And I wish for you a Happy New Year, or a Happy New Semester as the case may be.  Make a difference.  May the Force be with you.