This meme was sent out by Nancy Flanagan, a thoughtful blogger at Teacher in a Strange Land. The purpose was to get a group of people sharing their thoughts on what policymakers should know.
So, after many hours of whittling down my list of 104 items (trust me, that was down from the previous number), I have my five.
1. Forty-seven minutes is not an adequate or desirable amount of time to do deep, mature, extensive, thinking. You know . . . the level of thinking that creates meaningful learning and life-long learners.
2. . .
2. Education is not a business model. This will lead to the downfall of education, being caught up in a maelstrom of bureaucracy. In addition, business is not even an appropriate comparison for education (I have never read a school mission statement that included anything like “We will strive to make money”). The business model is often used because education needs money to run and thinking of education in terms of a medical or legal comparison works even less; here is a thought, allow education to be something unique. I also think too many business-types get their two cents into education, so the Odd Couple partnership is created. When the education system was set up, it followed the industrial revolution model (raw materials of equal merit come in, things are done to the materials, and perfect products come out the other side), but this can no longer be applied to education if education is to make it into the 21st century.
3. Never underestimate the power of treating a teacher like a professional. He or she has been specifically trained (and usually exhaustively) for his or her subject. The teacher has the most experience in that classroom with those students. He or she is the expert of what they are doing. In most cases that teacher has been in education longer than you. Treat that person like a professional and support his or her efforts.
4. The educational system cannot work its first-year(s) teachers to death, despite their eager eyes, smiles, and nodding heads. It will burn them out and give them a perspective of education that is unlike the rosy one they had going in to the profession.
5. The discovery of penicillin, going to the moon, breaking the sound barrier. Those are great achievements and they were risks. In education, RISK is a four-letter word. Districts, schools, and teachers are not encouraged to take risks and improve the system of education for students. They are told, in numerous ways, some obvious, some not, to “stay the course”. If education keeps doing what it is doing, it will continue to get what it has always got. This is a hard smack in the face when schools do a redesign, figuring out how to best serve its unique population, and the school is told in the end that they cannot do that because it is too different than the other schools. When someone says education should not be a “one-size fits all” (and uses the shoe or shirt analogy), applaud, but watch and see what happens 6 months later. You will all be wearing sized medium white shoes.
I am going to start by “tagging” my thoughtful friend at Quasi Dictum and the ever posting Science Goddess at What It’s Like on the Inside. Check them both out.
Here are the rules for sharing/sending this meme:
1. Create a list of five things you wish policymakers knew or understood about your classroom, your school or your students. Post it on your blog.
2. Title your blog post “Meme: Five Things Policymakers Ought to Know” and link it back to this blog (https://www.storiesfromschool.org/).
BE SURE TO DO THIS–use the “link” tool (the little chain-link icon) and cut and past the address above into it. Then–when the people you tag play, they will cut and paste YOUR link and it will drive traffic to your blog.
3. Invite as many bloggers as you like to create their own lists of five things policymakers should know, and link back to your blog. In Blog World, it’s considered friendly and appropriate to ask a blogger whose work you admire to participate, without a formal introduction.
Hey, Travis. Nice work. I hate white shoes, BTW–has something to do with having to wear them (and keep them white) for marching band.
I especially liked your third point: teachers love to be treated like professionals. This has nothing to do with reserved parking, a secretary or the ability to have discretion over time and resources (although I wouldn’t mind any of these). It has to do with someone coming to you and saying “I need your input–you know a lot about this.” Valuing what teachers know–that’s the ticket.
Keep up the good work. You never know who might read what your post. 🙂
[BOB] I infer from your list that teaching is something special (like a club?) that policy makers don’t understand.
[Travis] That is a great observation. I had not really thought about it as such, but you are correct. That is the purpose of this blog (so spread the word)–the purpose is to show the everyday life of the teacher (where practice) and how policy makers reading the blog, and the community who have the influence on policy makers can make changes to better the education in this great state (meets policy).
Sadly, you have summed up the current situation of having to make do with what we have, but get ever increasing results. This is a strange model and would never work in business. Can you imagine Bill Gates telling everyone that they will just have to make do in 2010 with Windows from 2008? Probably not. Education has to evolve and to evolve education needs to be able to have the ability to flex without too much hassle, or, better still, have the support of the policy makers behind what teachers know. Teachers are there, in the field, if you will, noticing the changes and the needs, first-hand.
I have nothing against policy makers. I respect their position and realize that it is not something that I could do; I would never say, “Oh, anyone can do that.” Yet, I would love to work with policy makers, giving them some of my experience, my knowledge, and my dedication to the education in this state so if you know any policy makers, send them my way. I will take them out to coffee, my treat.
Thanks for the insightful push on my post. Your comments helped me to view it in a different light and you pulled more meaning out of it than intended, but that meaning is the underlying reason behind all of the posts.
I like your sense of humor. The handshake would be fun. Perhaps your readers will try it out. 🙂
I infer from your list that teaching is something special (like a club?) that policy makers don’t understand. I’m told directly that others understand and “don’t care.” I read that to mean they expect us to change what we do in order to increase student learning with whatever we already have. Yes?
Mr. Heiny,
I am unsure how to answer your comment. I do not recall arguing from the point of view of any elite club although a teacher handshake would be cool: something like, (1) move hands as if writing with a pencil, left to right–other person mirrors, (2) people meet in the middle with the writing and slap the back of the hands, (3) then raise arm with a #1 hand sign in the air.
Interesting post. I’m a teacher. Are you arguing that teaching is some kind of a club with secret handshakes?
I found your blog post interesting. (I like the comics in the other ones as they put the stress of every day teaching in perspective.) This one, I would have to agree with your statement about schools not being a business model. When will people learn this? Are we doomed to fail?