dumpduncan

Dear President Obama,

We, the undersigned, a cross section of the nation’s teachers and their supporters, wish to express our extreme displeasure with the policies implemented during your administration by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. Although many of us campaigned enthusiastically for you in 2008, it is unlikely that you will receive continued support unless the following three dimensions of your administration’s education initiatives are changed:

1. The exclusion of teachers from policy discussions in the US Department of Education and from Education Summits called under your leadership.
2. The use of rhetoric which blames failing schools on "bad teachers" rather than poverty and neighborhood distress.
3. The use of federal funds to compel states and municipalities to use student test scores in the evaluation of teachers and as the basis for closing low performing schools.

Because of these policies, teachers throughout the nation have become discouraged and demoralized, undermining your own stated goals of improving teacher quality, upgrading the nation's educational performance, and encouraging creative pedagogy rather than “teaching to the test.”

We therefore submit the following measures to put your administration’s education policy back on the right track and to bring teachers in as full partners in this effort:

1. The removal of Arne Duncan as Secretary of Education and his replacement by a lifetime educator who has the confidence of the nation’s teachers.
2. The incorporation of parents, teachers, and school administrators in all policy discussion taking place in your administration, inside and outside the Department of Education.
3. An immediate end to the use of incentives or penalties to compel states and municipalities to use student test scores as a basis for evaluating teachers, preferring charter schools to existing public schools, and requiring closure of low performing schools.
4. Create a National Commission, in which teachers and parent representatives play a primary role, which explores how to best improve the quality of America’s schools.

We believe such policies will create an outpouring of good will on the part of teachers, parents and students which will promote creative teaching and educational innovation, leading to far greater improvements in the nation’s schools than policies which encourage a proliferation of student testing could ever hope to do.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

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dumpduncan.org:

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Superman and the Villain

or hypocrisy, depending on how you look at it.

My School District is a district in need of improvement.

A state requirement for districts like us is that we must provide

parents with school choice.

Since we're not big enough to have multiple schools, the district MUST

contract with an outside agency to provide tutoring services.

Our district hired Sylvan Learning.

Guess who Sylvan is hiring to provide these services?

MySD's teachers.

So, in order to save our students from our obviously failing teachers,

we hired a company who is hiring our teachers.

Of course, all the profit goes to Sylvan instead of being used to provide more services, but hey,

it's about the kids, right?

(Oh and all of Sylvan's employees are part-time and the hourly rate is $5 less than MySD's)

So, I guess public school teachers are both Superman and the villain)

OCCUPY THE DOE

United Opt Out National:
March 30-April 2, 2012.
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Arne's Rotten Apples for the Teachers

Three times this week, I was asked by colleagues for advice on some of their 'trickier' students. Gladly, I helped. I feel honored when one of my oh-so-very amazing colleagues asks me for an idea. We all know who to go to in our building for the best Science ideas, Art integrated centers; we know who always finds the best poems or songs that help teach concepts or content. Each and every teacher in our building brings unique strengths to our school, making us all better teachers.

In a competitive atmosphere, I'm not sure this sharing attitude will continue into the next generation of teachers. Why would anyone want to help someone else get better if it could possibly mean helping another teacher get a 'higher batting average'? That could put your own job at stake. I love teaching, but I hope I'm not around if and/or when schools and teachers become that way for their own survival.


Below is one of the best letters to Arne Duncan I've seen yet.  

Mr. Duncan, you are a shining example

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David Reber

, Topeka K-12 Examiner

May 21, 2011 - Like this? Subscribe to get instant updates.

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Mr. Duncan,

I read your Teacher Appreciation Week letter to teachers, and had at first decided not to respond. Upon further thought, I realized I do have a few things to say.

I’ll begin with a small sample of relevant adjectives just to get them out of the way: condescending, arrogant, insulting,

misleading, patronizing, egotistic, supercilious, haughty, insolent, peremptory, cavalier, imperious, conceited,

contemptuous, pompous, audacious, brazen, insincere, superficial, contrived, garish, hollow, pedantic, shallow,

swindling, boorish, predictable, duplicitous, pitchy, obtuse, banal, scheming, hackneyed, and quotidian. Again,

it’s just a small sample; but since your attention to teacher input is minimal, I wanted to put a lot into the first

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paragraph.

Your lead sentence, “I have worked in education for much of my life”, immediately establishes your tone of

condescension; for your 20-year “education” career lacks even one day as a classroom teacher. You, Mr.

Duncan, are the poster-child for the prevailing attitude in corporate-style education reform: that the number one

prerequisite for educational expertise is never having been a teacher.

Your stated goal is that teachers be “…treated with the dignity we award to other professionals in society.”

Really?

How many other professionals are the last ones consulted about their own profession; and are then summarily

ignored when policy decisions are made? How many other professionals are so distrusted that sweeping federal

legislation is passed to “force” them to do their jobs? And what dignities did you award teachers when you

publicly praised the mass firing of teachers in Rhode Island?

You acknowledge teacher’s concerns about No Child Left Behind, yet you continue touting the same old

rhetoric: “In today’s economy, there is no acceptable dropout rate, and we rightly expect all children – English-

language learners, students with disabilities, and children of poverty - to learn and succeed.”

What other professions are held to impossible standards of perfection? Do we demand that police officers

eliminate all crime, or that doctors cure all patients? Of course we don’t.

There are no parallel claims of “in today’s society, there is no acceptable crime rate”, or “we rightly expect all

patients – those with end-stage cancers, heart failure, and multiple gunshot wounds – to thrive into old age.”

When it comes to other professions, respect and common sense prevail.

Your condescension continues with “developing better assessments so [teachers] will have useful information

to guide instruction…” Excuse me, but I am a skilled, experienced, and licensed professional. I don’t need

an outsourced standardized test – marketed by people who haven’t set foot in my school – to tell me how my

students are doing.

I know how my students are doing because I work directly with them. I learn their strengths and weaknesses

through first-hand experience, and I know how to tailor instruction to meet each student’s needs. To suggest

otherwise insults both me and my profession.

You want to “…restore the status of the teaching profession...” Mr. Duncan, you built your career defiling the

teaching profession. Your signature effort, Race to the Top, is the largest de-professionalizing, demoralizing,

sweeter-carrot-and-sharper-stick public education policy in U.S. history.  You literally bribed cash-starved

states to enshrine in statute the very reforms teachers have spoken against.

You imply that teachers are the bottom-feeders among academics. You want more of “America’s top

college students” to enter the profession. If by “top college students” you mean those with high GPA’s from

prestigious, pricey schools then the answer is simple: a five-fold increase in teaching salaries.

You see, Mr. Duncan, those “top” college students come largely from our nation’s wealthiest families. They

simply will not spend a fortune on an elite college education to pursue a 500% drop in socioeconomic status

relative to their parents.

You assume that “top” college students automatically make better teachers. How, exactly, will a 21-year-old,

silver-spoon-fed ivy-league graduate establish rapport with inner-city kids? You think they’d be better at

it than an experienced teacher from a working-class family, with their own rough edges or checkered past, who

can actually relate to those kids? Your ignorance of human nature is astounding.

As to your concluding sentence, “I hear you, I value you, and I respect you”; no, you don’t, and you don’t, and

you don’t. In fact, I don’t believe you even wrote this letter for teachers.

I think you sense a shift in public opinion. Parents are starting to see through the façade; and recognize the

privatization and for-profit education reform movement for what it is. And they’ve begun to organize – Parents

Across America, is one example.

To save yourself, you need to reinforce the illusion that you’re doing what’s best for public education. So you

play nice with teachers for one day - not for the teachers but for your public audience.

You also need to reassure those who leverage their wealth – and have clearly bought your loyalties – that you’re

still on their side. Your letter is riddled with all the right buzzwords and catch phrases to do just that:

“…to change and improve federal law to invest in teachers” sounds like a wink-nod to TFA that federal dollars

are headed their way.

“…sophisticated assessment that measures individual student growth” can be nothing other than value-added

standardized testing; a mill-stone for teachers but a boon to the for-profit testing industry.

“…transform teaching from the factory model…to one built for the information age” alludes to systemic

replacement of living teachers with virtual ones – bolstering the near monopoly of one software giant who

believes the “babysitting” function of public schools is the only reason not to go 100% virtual.

“…recognize and reward great teaching” is stale code for “merit pay”; which is stale code for “bribe for test

scores”; which comes down to “justification to pay most teachers less.” Lower teacher salaries, in turn, will

free up money for standardized tests, new computer software, and other profitable pursuits.

No doubt some will dismiss what I’ve said as paranoid delusion. What they call paranoia I call paying

attention. Mr. Duncan, teachers hear what you say. We also watch what you do, and we are paying attention.

Working with kids every day, our baloney-detectors are in fine form. We’ve heard the double-speak before;

and we don’t believe the dog ate your homework. Coming from children, double-speak is expected and it

provides important teachable moments. Coming from adults, it’s just sad.

Despite our best efforts, some folks never outgrow their disingenuous, manipulative, self-serving approach to

life. Of that, Mr. Duncan, you are a shining example

Continue reading on Examiner.com Mr. Duncan, you are a shining example - Topeka K-12 | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/k-12-in-topeka/mr-duncan-you-are-a-shining-example#ixzz1k6g21KPO

hope

In the midst of a mini-depression over the attack on public education as well as the failure of our 'representatives' to represent anyone other than the ruling class, a dear friend e-mailed me these words in the early morning hours.   I was questioning the power of love and right to overcome the hate.  These words gave me hope.  At first, I was going to edit for spelling, capitalization and punctuation, but I've decided against that for my own personal reasons.  Here is the e-mail, as I received it:

you got me thinking about something.

it seems like whenever things have been in somewhat 'orderly' fashion,
 (the Victorian Era & post-war '50's come to mind) when the status quo was able to keep folks distracted with religion, blind patriotism, materialism, that  open hatred and hostility was minimal -  contained if you will.
at the same time, under the surface, racism, sexism, worker exploitation was a reality for millions.

it's when the oppressed and their allies develop social movements and say NO!, that's when the hater's come out of the woodwork.
 recall how the worker's strikes - the powerful general strikes, actions ragainst the most deplorable conditions at the turn of the 20th century (the ending of a mostly calm, indifferent Victorian-era),  during that period the ruling-class demonized, murdered, scapegoated & criminalized the struggle.  corporate-controlled print media ran non-stop  hate-filled headlines. company thugs split heads, burned homes, the haters hated most violently.  these sacrifices gave rise to the 40 hr. work week, better pay and benefits for millions of future working-class Americans. love.

when 'the coloreds' were silent witnessses to the 'AmericanDream', knew 'their place',  all was well. it was when   the civil rights movement, boycotts, marches, for education, voting, housing
HUMAN rights grew, with many going to an early grave or the prison,and the ghettos burned in modern day slave quarters -  the hater's went crazy.  today we honor their struggle and learn from their examples. love.

as folks rise, throw off physical and mental shackles, protest exploitation of the environment, raise voices against imperialist wars against soverign nations - the hater's materialize. in the face of outright hate those righteous struggles remain unstoppable,  peoples' unquenchable thirst for justice. love.

with last year's Arab Spring,  the  rise up in Madison, the Occupy movement. a life-affirming  consciousness rose
with it.  these are incredible times we are in darlin'.  nothing like this has happened since the 1960's - not even close.  with great changes comes great anamosity and great hatred from those who want NO unity, or collective approach to a saner, cleaner, peaceful future.  they cling with those in boardrooms, fight against their own interests to  a capitalist system existing    on life-support.  hate?  follow that $$$.

let's  try our best to keep our faith in sun above above earth below, and remember this old world is full of good and caring folks. we can never let the tiny angry, confused speck of humanity in (local forums) get us down with their hatred.   it's a big beautiful world out there teeming with brilliant and creative  people. folks that rise each day with  a smile on their heats and purpose in their step - folks like you .

we are in amazin' times. love

Deep Breathing

In through the nose, out through the mouth.  In through the nose, out through the mouth.  In through the nose, out through the mouth.

Repeat as necessary.  It works.  It really does.  It's just very hard to do when you're tense.


Very, very hard.

Theme for 2012

So, I've decided on my theme for the year (or possibly the month if this doesn't work out).

If you read my previous post, you noticed a link to an article with tips on how to stop beating yourself up. One of the tips was about New Year's Resolutions. Instead of locking yourself in to a promise to improve yourself, whether it be diet and exercise or better budgeting, decide on a theme for the year. I like this concept. It seems a more well rounded way of approaching self improvement. It also doesn't lock you in to a regiment--you know, the kind that have never worked for you anyways?

So, after much thought, (and 2 days of testing it out to see if i could live with that) I decided that my theme for the year would be Organization. I like it. It's working on many areas in my life where I would like to see improvement. I find myself taking those few extra seconds to clean up small areas of my life. The best thing is, I don't have to have everything perfect or become an organizational expert overnight. I'm just taking advantage of small moments to make small changes.

The other benefit to thinking in themes is that I get credit for the things I already do well anyways. For example, my lesson plans are always well organized, but today when I was organizing them for tomorrow, I smiles at myself for helping to fulfill my theme for the year. It's important to give yourself credit for all the things you do well every day instead if always focusing only on those areas that need improvement. Thank you elephant journal.