“For What It’s Worth…”

      I have been in public education as a student, teacher, assistant principal and principal for 47 years.    I have witnessed a great deal from segregation to busing to urban disarray to suburban self centeredness to magnet energy.  All of these descriptions are, of course, gross generalizations.   Schools are not predictable systemic units, but independent organisms.   Calling any schools a success or failure ignores the complexity of the culture within a school.   Some struggle to get students to a place that provides opportunity, but that is as much due to circumstances beyond a school’s influence as school decisions.  Sure there are educators, from superintendents to classroom assistants, who influence positive and negative outcomes for students, but no circumstance acts as the sole contributor.  Contrary to the political narrative of simpletons, no one succeeds on their own.  There are many schools that need to improve, but there are many more that make profound differences in the life of a child. 

            The last thirty plus years of the “reform era” have been marked by an arcane approach to the human condition.  Limited in intellectual vision and weak in delivery, policy makers and politicians have let us down again and again.  For what it’s worth, allow me to be arrogant enough to propose ten reforms that would get results.

1.     Stop the practice of justifying action on failure:  Since a Nation at Risk in 1983, policy makers, pundits and politicians have consistently pointed to the challenges in public schooling as failures.  This is an overly simplistic and unproductive approach to serving students.  Since the beginning of Public Schools in the United States, students who have a foundation for learning have succeeded in school.  Resources, opportunity and rich experience are the keys to academic success.  The opportunities available to privileged students have to be provided to the underprivileged to see meaningful gains in academic success.  Failure has become an excuse to withdraw from public schools.  We cannot succeed in serving children if we do not engage.

2.     Use standardized tests as a diagnostic tool and focus on teacher actions to justify policy:  Standardized tests are not designed to judge teacher or school performance.  Such practices simply get in the way of meaningful instruction.  Diagnostic tests can provide a base line for learning.  Expect teachers to regularly adjust best practices to meet the needs of students.  Principals can easily determine coaching priorities for staff from documented evidence that this is taking place without deflating teacher morale.

3.     Bring back kinesthetic production: We have hands for a reason and our brain needs to use many synapse to build dendrites.  Mental dexterity comes from a variety of experiences that stretch brain capacity.  Getting away from shop, Home Ec, Music and Art keeps children from expanding problem solving capacity and creativity. (And get rid of Career Classes.  They’re worthless.)

4.     Require Professional Development that is chosen by teachers and individual schools:  Schools are where students are served.  Each school has unique needs and should be allowed to improve based on their own determination.  Schools can choose to team with other schools free from fiat.  Funds should go directly to schools with no strings attached and should be provided to allow schools to serve their professional needs.  The theoretical justification, free from the ideological,  for vouchers and charters is to go around the byzantine organizational structure that has become the “public schools.” It would be much more efficient to simply get the money directly to the schools with better results.

5.     Nationalize teacher certification requirements:  Universal teacher standards do not limit a state’s ability to determine learning standards.  In other words, this would not be an infringement on “states rights.”  Federal certification requirements would establish a bar to improve teacher quality and enhance the likelihood for success.  This would also require colleges and universities to make meaningful changes in their education degree programs based on accreditation requirements.  This would take the cost of certification out of state budgets and put it in the hands of a federal budget with a greater capacity to do this efficiently.

6.     Require teacher candidates get a four-year degree in content with a 2 to 3 year Masters that is practicum heavy:  Successful teachers must have intellectual curiosity.  Whether liberal arts or vocational specific, teacher training should not begin until after such a four-year degree.  At least 2/3 of a Masters program for teaching should be spent in schools.   There is a reason why medical school residencies are grueling, meaningful internship will give a better indication of a candidates ability and help that prospective teacher determine whether teaching is their vocation.

7.     Set a minimal age requirement of 25 years of age for teachers:  Speaking of brain research, we now know that the frontal lobe determines the executive function of the brain.  This part of the brain does not mature until around twenty-five.  I have worked with excellent teachers who are younger, but as a rule, too many are not ready.  There is a reason why only 59% of students graduate from college on time.  Organizational maturity and impulse control are crucial for good teaching.  We need to stop sending young teachers to slaughter before they are ready.  

8.    Re-establish step pay systems with cost of living requirements for teachers and school based administrators:  People see raises as evidence of appreciation.  Teachers know that they are not paid enough, but this does not mean they don’t need outward visible signs of appreciation.  The 2008 crash became an excuse to not pay teachers.  We will continue to see fewer and fewer go into the profession if they do not see a reward. 

9.     Federal funding in P-12 education should go directly to schools with limited requirements for spending:  Funds should be distributed according to need based on FRL (poverty) percentages.  Principal’s should be given the ability to spend the money where needed without restrictions placed at the district level.  Schools should not be labeled Title 1.  Funding should not be based on competitive requirements meant to push a specific government agenda.    Programs established to impact instruction at the federal level are typically limited in effective reach for students. The money can be better spent.

Establish parent support programs that include mental health, health and career services in elementary school communities where needed:  Student success is dependent on opportunity.  That includes opportunity for parents to be supported in their efforts to provide for their children.  Elementary schools represent a microcosm of culture that can give families the resources to find meaningful experiences that increase the likelihood of a meaningful citizenship.  Jeffery Canada in Harlem is correct on this front.  Give it a chance to work and expand the model.

Manning to Voltaire on a Back Shoulder Fade

            In sports, I am what many refer to as the ultimate homer.  A Native of Tennessee, I support everything Volunteer.  Therefore, like many University of Tennessee fans, any discussion about Peyton Manning raises my awareness.  I constantly tire of comparisons between he and Tom  Brady, and I am at the ready whenever they put Brady as the best because he has won more titles.  Despite my obvious bias, I objectively reject discussions about “the best.”  In football, I marvel at the productivity of a plethora of quarterbacks now playing the game.  The evolution of the position, along with the preparation of young players at quarterback, has served as an example of the athletic possibilities of such gifted individuals. 

            Over the past few years I have reflected a great deal on Voltaire’s proposition to keep perfection from becoming “the enemy of the good.”  I recently watched a documentary where a historian described the ancient view of the world as a dome.  Thousands of years later we are now seeing the possibility that there may be more than one “Universe.”  In other words, there are no limits.  I recently heard one Eduardo Sa’enz De Cabezo’n at the 2015 IB World Conference describe a student’s effort to prove the paper fold theory wrong (one can only fold any piece of paper 7 times).  The student cited was successful by taking a mile long sheet of paper towel and folding it 12 times.   Mr. Cabezo’n went on to describe the exponential possibilities of this exercise, through math, stating that a very thin sheet of paper equal to the distance from the Earth to the Sun theoretically could be folded 54 times based on the student’s results.  As I understand it, and for the sake of disclosure I am no professional mathematician, the definitive nature of mathematics can get us to a specific answer or into serious trouble, depending on your perspective. 

            Out of ignorance, I began to think of Pi.  There is no end to Pi.  At least that is what I have been told.   Does this then mean there are no limits?  I listen to physicists speak in terms of the finite age of the Earth or Universe.   I listen to sports journalists, that title can be a stretch, speak in terms of the best.  Are such speculative discussions practical, or necessary.  The best, the beginning, or the end demonstrates a human desire to define perfection in such a way that limits possibility.  It is clear then that acknowledging perfection provides a cognitive understanding of alpha and omega.  Voltaire speculated that this is not a good thing.

            There is no such thing as the best quarterback, pitcher, golfer, artist, musician, ad nauseum.  The universe, which in title implies an end, is unlimited.  If Einstein is correct that everything is energy, individual existence is a continuum.   Oh yeah, watch Peyton Manning throw a back shoulder fade to the post and you will immediately know that he is the best quarterback EVER!!!  Even Voltaire would have made the catch.

A Message to Parents About Summer

     Growing up, my family had a camper where we saw great natural wonders in Yellowstone National Park, drove into Canada through Mackinaw Island in Michigan and explored Fort Ticonderoga in upstate New York, all different journeys of course.  I grew up loving to draw and paint natural scenery, fish and hike.  I believe that my privilege to see all of these wonders encouraged my passion for history and the arts. This summer my family and I took a long drive through the Ohio Valley up to Cleveland and then to Niagara Falls.  In the three years I have been in Huntsville we have used our vacation time to travel and see this great country of ours.  Two summers ago we went through Gettysburg, Pa.  for the 150^th anniversary of the Civil War battle and into New England.  The scenery and cultural flavor of the entire country astounds me with is depth and breadth. My wife and I now have a bucket list to get in all 50 states.  We’re getting close.  We have also worked hard to expose our three children to these wonders and the opportunity our existence in this time and place provides.

     Here in Huntsville we are within easy travel distance of many natural and cultural sights that brighten the imagination and intensify curiosity.   An hour and 45 minutes north is Chattanooga with its natural beauty, aquarium and bustling riverfront.  Travel northwest and you come to Nashville and a musical heritage that is nothing short of inspirational.   To our south is Birmingham and Montgomery and just to our west are the Natural wonders of Bankhead National Park to name a few.  Since coming to Huntsville I have hiked many trails on the Land Trust and at Monte Sano State Park.  Cathedral Caverns, just 25 minutes away, is spectacular.  The lakes and small rivers all around us are great places to explore in a kayak or canoe. 

    All children learn.  However, the depth of that learning is profoundly impacted by exposure to our world.   Putting this in terms of current brain research, every experience leaves a mark on our brains; the more profound that experience, the more lasting that mark.  If you have seen this summer’s movie Inside Out, it illustrates how the brain categorizes and chooses memories and experiences to discard or keep. In education we frequently struggle with what we identify as “summer reading loss.”   We experience this through a process of review teachers find necessary at the beginning of the school year to get students ready for the new year’s learning.  The students who struggle at the beginning of the year are, typically, not only limited in exposure to reading in the summer, but also had fewer activities from free play to travel outside of school that expanded their thinking.  The students who are ready to go at the return to school are not only reading books, but go to activities that provide new experiences that impact thinking and brain activity.  

     As your summer winds down and you begin to get your children ready for school, take the time to look for adventures around you.  This not only includes trips to various sights, but through conversation and providing opportunities for children to explore and learn.  A passion for learning comes from the opportunity to see possibilities.   The most important job for a parent is to provide those opportunities.

Why stop at 100?

            I recently read a Facebook post from The Atlantic magazine highlighting the 100 most influential Americans. (1) These top 100 lists are specifically what is wrong with the uniquely American approach to history and its significance to contemporary experience.  When Ralph Waldo Emerson penned “All history is Biography,” in Essay 1 in 1841 (2), he did not distinguish the importance of celebrity over the common human.  Emerson goes on to say, ”The world exists for the education of each man.” (3)

            Limiting the American experience to a list of 100 influential individuals represents a misguided view of the American story.  It may not be the intent of the writers to articulate that these 100 put our country where we are today, but it leaves that conclusion as an implied interpretation.   In Essay 1, Emerson goes on to ask, “Who cares what the fact was, when we have made a constellation of it to hang in heaven an immortal sign?” (4) Celebrity can create a false history.  It can cause us to miss the important lessons from experience that weakens the opportunity from that experience.

I am thinking specifically thinking of the inclusion of Elvis Pressley in this list of 100.  Elvis would have never been possible, but for the scores of musicians who made his meteoric rise possible, from blues men like Robert Johnson to gospel and country, Elvis found his soul immersed in the voice of others.  It was the American obsession for celebrity that diminished Elvis and eventually killed him.  His true contribution was nourished through others while greed leeched his marrow.

Maybe this means, from the American perspective, that Elvis truly belongs in the top 100 influencers.  Emerson cites Napoleon, "What is History, but a fable agreed upon?" (5).  The same Napoleon whose fatal ego drowned in his own celebrity.  We are in an age where Americans claim an exceptional existence from the exploits of human kind.  As Emerson wrote, “We are always coming up with the emphatic facts of history in our private experience, and verifying them here,” where “all history becomes subjective.” (6) Perhaps Elvis then should move to #1 on The Atlantic’s list.  This search for super human celebrity, as with other Americans of great renown listed by The Atlantic, causes us to miss true meaningful influence and power.  Though written in 1841, Emerson could have meant Elvis when he wrote, “His power consists in the multitude of his affinities, in the fact that his life is intertwined with the whole chain of organic and inorganic being.”   We miss so much when we search for, and cite, the historic based on celebrity while the time of his or her other experience so formed action of such grand repute. 

The focus on Robert E. Lee should not be his stately myth, but the failure of misplaced loyalty.  The lessons of World War II should not be the combined psychopathy of Hitler, Stalin or Hirohito, but the overriding force of collective good forced into action.  All history should be debated and reviewed not for absolute right but invariable humility.  Martin Luther King was not the Civil Rights movement, but a voice that could be heard about a truth that had to be revealed.  

There is a collective insanity that comes with the repeated missteps of leadership and civilization.  The false worship of historical figures as celebrity blinds us from the truth of our humanity.  Perhaps the fear referenced in FDR’s famous speech is not of forces driven by ill-gotten fame, but a fear to acknowledge who and what we are.  Or as Emerson put it, “If we would trulier express our central and wide-related nature, instead of this old chronology of selfishness and pride to which we have too long lent our eyes,” (7) then maybe we can learn to act and pursue in the better interest of all.

(1) http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2006/12/the-100-most-influential-figures-in-american-history/305384/

(2) 09/03/20022:36:01
http://www.emersoncentral.com/credentials.htm

Jone Johnson Lewis
M.Div., 1981, Meadville/Lombard Theological School
Unitarian Universalist minister and Ethical Culture Leader

(3) Ibid 09/03/2002

(4) Ibid 09/03/2002

(5) Ibid 09/03/2002

(6) Ibid 09/03/2002

(7) Ibid 09/03/2002