ED4Change

on my morning commute yesterday i rode my bike through the part of downtown Los Angeles that everyone knows exist but does not want to admit exists. i have been there many times and yet it never ceases to amaze and sadden me, the amount of people living on the streets, without jobs, shelter, food, just your basic necessities that a lot of us take for granted… and i thought to myself, “i wonder how universal TGIF is really?”

this past week at work was long, like the previous 2 or 3… there have been many amazing examples of our stakeholders coming together to create a school that is supportive and innovative in committing to educational excellence. yet there have been just as many disheartening instances of disregard for authority and self-respect, destroying rather than building. to talk about all of the things that i have observed and thought about in relation to these rather long work weeks… it would be tediously long, incoherent, and overwhelming. so i just want to talk about yesterday, friday.

after my morning bike commute through Little Tokyo, Skid Row, and South Central Los Angeles, i arrived at work only to find out that the only true out of classroom personnel (my principal and school counselor) were not going to be in today. this happens too frequently as they are continually pulled out for district trainings and such, leaving our already understaffed campus to make due with less supervision staff… picture me and other teachers walking the campus during lunch and prep periods… after i realized that these key staff members would not be able to assist on this day i attempted to address the issue of one of my students and his foster guardian. this student has had difficulty all year just remaining in class, electing rather to roam the campus and hallways, which should be an easy fix if not for our complete shortage of supervision staff. he has also struggled with respecting authority. his foster guardian, who has successfully fostered 3 generations of children including the three currently living with her at the moment, was there to express her overwhelming concern and realization that she could no longer deal with the difficulties of raising said student at the expense of her own health or the future success of his foster mates. after 30 minutes of counseling and mediation between these tow parties, i was able to get him to commit to at least attending and remaining in ALL his classes that day as well as respectfully addressing any adult that he had an exchange with…

i next went on to manage a last minute attempt to decorate my classroom door (pics to come) with inspiring and informative messages regarding the college alma mater of my lovely wife. from there it was on to class (four 85 minute periods with only lunch as a break… even days are my most tiring) where i am currently attempting to manage a large scale hallway transformation project, my first real full scale “DESIGN” project in my geography class. we have gotten a lot of positive feedback (full on analysis and sharing of this project to come shortly) but nonetheless it is somewhat stressful to have 35 9th graders spread out between the hallways, classroom, with exacto knives and masking tape!

as the day progresses, the lack of supervision staff always makes itself real apparent, after lunch especially… as it did on this day. instead of fights that draw huge mobs of students, tagging wars on the walls, smoking in the stairwells or bathrooms… today it was a false fire alarm, broken extinguisher, and vandalized 4th floor foamed to the max with whatever is in a fire extinguisher.

i have to write about these experiences as truthfully as possible. i have to believe that an honest reflection of what is actually going on in our schools will lead to deeper understanding and more effective strategies on how to mitigate the negative while simultaneously capitalizing and recreating the spaces for possibility… positive transformation. but needless to say after enough of these types of experiences, one begins to feel defeated.

so we come to the end of the day… the part of the day where i am supposed to be looking towards the end with relief, more anticipating the cold beverage i will be sharing with colleagues than the next work day i will have the privilege to serve my students in this capacity… my “TGIF” moment. at the last minute i remember one of my last commitments of the day. this commitment began earlier this year when i realized that one of my more academically capable english language learning (ELL) students REFUSED to speak any utterance of english, despite being able to read and write at a basic level of fluency in her second language. a little more background, her family came from El Salvador about two years ago. her brother is also enrolled in my class, has been since day one yet i have never met him. when i asked her about this she explained to me that her mother could not afford to pay the rent with what she was making and so her brother – and the rest of the family – collectively decided that it would be better for him to work full time than to finish high school. her refusal to say anything in english stems from a real and genuine FEAR about how others will perceive her accent, intelligence, and social worth. this is quite common amongst ELL students and it is something that our educational system is not equipped to address effectively. throughout the year i have had multiple talks, pleadings, and interventions… the last one took over 45 minutes and involved some of her peers, all of us BEGGING for her to say anything in english. that intervention ended with her finally reading a passage of her own notes in english, which she had to do in order to leave my classroom. teaching the fundamentals of language acquisition and development at the graduate level, i am able to recognize when a students’ language fluency is being stymied by an actually inability vs. a perceived reality… both of which are serious when it comes to the development of one’s ability to use “Words” (click here for a fascinating Radio Lab episode on understanding their power) the way our society expects… her tell tale sign was her ability to write, observing her write down her response to my warm ups in class in english, i could tell that she was thinking in english, much like how they say when you dream in a second language than you have arrived at a certain level of fluency (although there has been little to any research that i am aware of that shows any correlation between language proficiency and language use in dreams)

i finally decided to MAKE her speak the english that i knew she could. i casually threw a book at her and her friend. i chose a passage and told them that they had to practice reading it out loud, all week, and that i wanted to hear it by friday. at the time i was not thinking about how that might impact her TGIF experiences, but rather i was trying to FORCE a break through. mind you this approach would not have worked if i did not invest a lot of time forging a relationship with this student, having the privilege to have her both in my geography class and in my advisory. it has been a precarious cultivation, discovering the fine line between truly supporting and challenging her. in this instance it paid off. she stayed after all the students had left. we sat down at the desk. and she began to read…

it was fantastic. and not so much for her “fluency” in reading the words off the page (though she literally stumbled over 3 words that would be difficult for any non native speaker)… but for the sound of her voice… the tonal and rhythmic quality, absent of the same fear, lowered of her affective filter enough to just read a powerful passage and add to its significance. layering a top of the story about a young girl murdered in an moment of compounded misunderstanding and injustice, her own narrative of reclaiming her confidence and finding the power of her voice.

my friday had been made complete, despite an intense week of both victories and defeats, i could end on a momentary win. i am not sure of the significance, if any, the acronym TGIF can provide any of us beyond a silly #hashtag that has evolved from an even sillier period of sitcom television and tag lines. but i can say looking back on this past friday, form the start to the end… i am thankful for the opportunities to do what i do and the ability to recognize the possibility in all of the problematics, if only for a few moments… hopefully not just reserved for fridays.

there is something sacred about circles… and perhaps a little uncomfortable. particularly in the education world, where there is a strange evolution of the use of circles. we begin in kindergarten (or preschool for those of us who are fortunate enough to afford it) and circles are in our everyday routine. by the time we reach high school, to circle up is to feel awkward, embarrassed, and vulnerable. sharing parts of ourselves in those spaces seems to become very difficult.

at my new school we are trying to change that. both by design and what i find even more interesting is how much of it is impromptu. take lunches for instance. i have never been one to frequent the faculty cafeterias or break rooms. i was taught as a young teacher to stay away from those spaces, as they supposedly had the tendency to breed nothing but negativity in the form of talk (complaining) about our students, the community they were from, the profession that we chose, etc. and for the first 7 years of my teaching career this was fairly accurate. in contrast i have eaten lunch with my colleagues in the Critical Design and Gaming School probably more than in the last 7 years combined. and not that i didn’t break bread with folks i worked with ever… but it was never at the officially designated architectural place… and it was never the majority of my colleagues. where as this year, almost every teacher in our small school is always eating together, everyday.

but not just eating together… sharing ideas, talking about instructional highlights, bring in student work samples, and even informally lesson planning… together. lunches in the staff break room have become a place of personal inspiration…

One of the Circles I had the good
Fortune to participate in truly opened my eyes to the power of this democratic geometry. My very own principal invited me impromptu to sit in on this peculiar but not so uncommon situation… A conflict that needed resolving. 8 students walking out of a first year teacher’s class, delicate feelings to be navigated on both sides. Eventually through this hour long dialogue, there ceased to by sides. There was deeper understanding and renewed commitment to teaching and learning from all members involved. Powerful to say the least.

This post has been in draft form since September 8th. Since then I have been bombarded with the realities of working at an innovative start up public school in the inner city, as well as becoming a father again. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to share a post of such raw optimism experienced in our 3rd week of opening these dream schools in week 8 of a very challenging year. But alas I can. And it’s important. If only to Remind me that I still work within the context of possibility, limited only by our commitment to our own imaginations. Circles beget creativity, democracy, and community. The other… Status quo

this video really hit home. returning home from new york late last night to our relatively quiet marsh side sanctuary… putting our daughter to bed after 13 hours of traveling literally by train, plane, and automobile… i found great peace reflecting upon the juxtaposition of soundtracks of travel vs. home…

in anticipation of all the work i had momentarily put on pause to enjoy a family getaway, anxiety set in. the work i am doing as a father (many of my close colleagues included) desperately needs to sing a more harmonious tune with the work i am doing as an educator… one that aims to be social justice and reform minded… (this being typed as my daughter’s wake up cries un the monitor require me to come back to this piece later)

(upon returning) the balance that we all struggle for in life has a lot to do i think with what we are listening to… what messages, who’s expectations, what ideas… i like how julian treasure situates the power of listening within the context of time and space, making it very essential to life itself.

so i agree it is of upmost importance not only “what” we listen to but “how”.
i think it is even more important for teachers to really tune in, so to speak, to the myriad of sound mixing that is going on in their own classrooms. perhaps setting up a simple audio recording device to capture the soundtrack of “typical” day of instruction in our classrooms. likewise i can see homework assignments consisting the same practice for students. whatever it may look, or rather SOUND like, it echoes the call for the need to explicitly teach listening to our students. many professional developments i have been a part of relied on the fundamental understanding of the 7 norms of collaboration. these were essentially techniques on how to actively and effectively listen to others. in this environment of intense and often shallow mistrust setting the context for dialogue around education reform, listening is something everyone should pay more attention to.

while taking a break in between writing this post i had a chance to put into practice what julian treasure was saying… some of which was reminiscent of my days as an outdoor educator (the mixing board activity). i prioritized certain tracks of my life today and decided it would be better for myself and my relationships to listen to my family sounds today and ended up having to cancel a work meeting… although somewhat apologetic to my colleagues that had to pick up my slack, i was so satisfied with immediate consequence. take a listen here…

contrary to popular belief (or desire) not all teachers have three months off to become the working class version of a corona vacation… the current economic imperative to cut public education from every angle has necessitated that a lot of teachers trade in the sand for the blackboard to make ends meet… which is to say that those teachers are blessed to have the option to do so in such difficult times (myself included)…

apart from what the national dialogue would have you believe about teachers being one of the last hold outs of public employees who are over paid and under-qualified, others are continually pushing to make the educational opportunities they can provide for their students in the coming fall that much more wonderful, innovative, creative, and effective (count me in this column too)

to those ends i have been pushing through many exciting projects with my fellow teachers, and i feel the need to share/reflect on these here:

i was fortunate enough to have a colleague recommend me to become part of the adjunct faculty at Antioch University’s Master of Arts in Education program… in teaching a small cohort of 8 graduate level students who are training to become educators, i have rediscovered why my job as a public middle and high school teacher is so important. i have also rediscovered certain educational theories that have helped inform my pedagogy. the class i teach is language acquisition and development… crucial for every teacher to have a strong theoretical and practical understanding of yet i am finding that the subject is increasingly relevant in my personal life as a new father. i am pleased to be joining the Antioch faculty.

a small team of colleagues and i have also just wrapped up an intensive 10 day training centered around GIS and how to incorporate this technical knowledge in our classrooms and in the community. through our UCLA TIIP grant proposal (scroll down to manual arts) we are lucky enough to fund our instructional inquiries throughout this summer and next. although intensive, this work has inspired me to continue to dream of the possibilities public education can accomplish despite the challenges we face.

the most daunting and inspiring task i have found myself working on these past few months has been designing a new public high school. it is daunting for the mere fact that the less than perfect LAUSD school board proposed process of public school choice is more political in nature than it is student or community centered. a continuing mix of privatized special interest lobbying, community swooning, and just plan old district disorganization has created a situation that has resulted in many heated exchanges including this one at a school board meeting earlier this year… it is in this, the 3rd round of public school choice that i find myself neck deep in… yet i am not alone. a trusted team of teachers, students, and community members have all come together under a unifying vision… Schools for Community Action. it is in this work where most of my idealizing and dreaming around educational possibility is taking place. but its more than that… it is a true dialogue with the community, with a basic premise driving it. in order to provide for the community you have to ask them what they need, what they would like to see, what do they deserve. our team is tirelessly organizing every thing we do around this premise… and hopefully at the end of the summer we will be that much closer to submitting a proposal that will usher in a new standard in k-12 education for the community of South Central Los Angeles…

although i am definitely feeling the need to just sit on a beach and relax (soon to come) i cannot feel luckier to be part of such amazing work, with so many amazing people. summer, i do love you…

“I’m supposing, or perhaps only hoping that our future may be found in the past’s fugitive moments of compassion, rather than in the solid centuries of warfare.” – Howard Zinn

After going on a little nature hike with my daughter this morning, being away from all the technological stimulation for a moment, I got to think about what I wanted to expose her to, what lessons I would teach her, when I would teach them… And how.

I came back and turned on the television to see Howard Zinn’s documentary, “you can’t be neutral on a moving train” and I was reminded of the great lessons history has for us. Messages from the past, great insights… And I was reminded of the importance of small things. Little walks. Meaningful conversations. Relationships built on trust. These are but some of the lessons I aim to teach my daughter. And I thank you again Mr. Zinn, for all that you have given the world. We do miss you…

just received this email from my supervisor:

Dear Colleagues,

As mandated by the Office of the Chief Operating Officer, Los Angeles Unified School District Policy Bulletin BUL-1824.1 and Education Code 35160, our school is required to randomly conduct metal detector searches. Beginning Monday January 24, 2011 random searches will take place on the Manual Arts campus:

* When students are entering the campus
* During the school day randomly selected classrooms will be searched
* Students that are processed for being tardy during the school day will be randomly selected and searched
* Randomly selected lockers will be searched
* LAPD’s Canine Unit will facilitate some random searches during the school day

The purposes of the searches are to:
* Detect the possession of weapons
* Deter bringing weapons onto school grounds
* Reduce the potential for violent incidents

Parents will receive a letter from the school if their son/daughter is randomly checked.

the full memo can be viewed here…

having been a student who made the foolish decision to bring a gun (air pistol very much resembling a gun that a police officer would have arrested me or even worse) on my middle school campus… and having my best friend’s life abruptly ended by an accidental gun shot… and still believing that my students will not benefit in any manner from any further criminalization than they already experience…

i am not sure how i feel about this… but i know it is not good. more thoughts to come…

i originally wanted to title this post, why John Muir Middle School will be taken over, but out of respect to my former colleagues and students (the later probably not minding so much) i thought it better to frame it in a bigger context. for even though this post will be largely personal in nature i believe it speaks to larger problem in general…

P.S. (should go on the bottom but i wanted it to be seen here)
as i have been reflecting on this for the last couple of days, i have realized that even the above statement could contain enough seeds of disrespect to my former colleagues… it was written from a place of heart and disbelief… i will not be removing it for i feel that it would not accurately show the record and evolution of my own thoughts on these events… yet i wanted to make clear -even though this is part of the problem when you try to make something clear and people just skew and spin it how they want to hear, see, and read it… that i have ALWAYS wanted my former school to be allowed the self-determination to decide its own fate in the ever changing and uncertain times. i have ALWAYS wanted the community the school serves to be allowed more involvement in these decisions… i have ALWAYS wanted the teaching staff to be unified as to be able to determine a brighter direction for the school… and I HAVE ALWAYS TAKEN THE SIDE OF STUDENTS OVER EVERYTHING ELSE… there are great people at john muir… from the students all the way on up through every staffed position and beyond out unto the community and they have helped shape me in so many positive ways… but there is a struggle going on and it is not always pretty. the following is just one small part of the struggle…

for those of you who do not know my former home of 5 years, john muir middle school has been through a lot in that time. we have seen 4 principals in that time. we have gone from a year round to a traditional school. we have expanded the campus to accommodate increased numbers and have shrunken the campus because of declining enrollment. we have fired many teachers… and have also “hired” (and been forced to absorb displaced teachers with tenure from other campuses – must places as they are termed)… this is not to mention the multiple plans we have been asked to write and revise and programs we have had to try and implement mandated by our local and central district. and with all of these changes we have at times increased our test scores and of late decreased our API
yet this year we are faced with one of the most pivotal situations for our campus for we have been designated for the public school choice resolution, essentially meaning that muir’s campus will be open for turn around plans to be written so that the board may decide the direction and management of the campus based on the strength of that plan and other considerations… what many would call a “take over”… and while the current team of public educators has available to the them and is pursuing the construction of their own plan, there are other organizations that are also free to submit a proposal for management of our campus…

i use words like “we” and “our” because i still belong to a family/community of john muir. the students remind me of that every time i visit… or when i see them around the neighborhood. and many of my colleagues remind of the professional and personal relationships that we cultivated during my time as a teacher there… which is why i was requested back on a campus today by one of their premier teachers… a department head and just an excellent teacher all around… one that i collaborated with on many occasions during my tenure at muir and an educator i hope to collaborate with again in the future…

teaching up at manual arts affords me a different schedule due to our year round nature and provides me with the opportunity to work at other campuses during my break, as they are still in session. what better way to remain close to students and teachers that i grew close with than to be able to cover as a substitute when needed. yet i more often than not utilize ALL of my vacation for myself because i feel the need to rejuvenate having worked so hard in the classroom… yet today was different because this aforementioned colleague reached out to me and requested me as a substitute for her classes, which is populated by many of my former students. it was an opportunity to assist her as well as see familiar faces of students i care a lot about…

and the first two periods were exactly that… not very interesting. i assisted both my colleague and my former students by carrying out the given lesson plan fairly effectively as i could assess in my own limited experience. she had told through multiple correspondence in preparation for her absence that there would be visitors from the district coming by to observe the lesson, which i had totally forgotten but was not a big deal since the teacher had so prepared me to deliver the instruction she expected…

the story does not get interesting until around 3rd period, when i was asked to cover another class, which i gladly obliged… there was no lesson plan left so i began the students on a warm up relevant to the class and everything was going smooth until a coordinator came in and said that they needed me elsewhere, not too uncommon when you are subbing at a school on any given day when there are lots of teachers out…

upon returning to the main office i was instructed to see the assistant principal. in the interim of waiting for him a former colleague pulled me aside and politely told me that the meeting was to take place because “they” didn’t want me on campus… well i was assured in the fact that there was at least one person who DID want me on campus (the requesting teacher who went through the proper channels to request coverage for an absence and DID secure a job number which ensures that i do get paid for the entire day no matter what assignment i end up doing… not to mention the hundreds of smiles and hellos from students) yet i waited for my meeting with this administrator…

although it may seem a little confusing… i was not totally in the dark at this point, though for all of my lack of “extensive” experience (10 plus years) working with the district… i have definitely been introduced quite thoroughly to the political nature of this job… the adult centered nature of this job… the part of the job that forgets about kids…

you see, i no longer work at john muir because i made a personal decision to leave an environment that steadily, each consecutive year, had shifted from focusing on the students and instruction, to focusing on political posturing and ideological debates centered around adult issues. this shift became so petty and unprofessional towards the end of my 5 years there that i had to make a decision that was in my best interest… yet i was not ready to leave the students nor that community… i enjoyed my JOB at john muir… i just couldn’t handle the irrelevant adult issues that came along with such transition at a struggling school. an opportunity presented itself that would allow me to stay in the community and teach many of my former students from muir at the high school up the street, manual arts…

enter the boogey man: MLA…
a rather uneventful subplot in my opinion, apparently is the driving narrative factor in the events leading up to me being asked to leave my former campus, the one i was assigned today…

let me reiterate: i was NOT allowed to finish my assignment at john muir today. i was told that i could no longer remain on my old campus (reasons to follow below)

the school i work at now, although it is fed primarily by john muir and another main middle school in the area, is partnered with MLA through iDesign, and MLA is one of the organizations writing a proposal to manage john muir under the public school choice plan…

and so what you might ask? my sentiments exactly… yet it is this one fact; that i work at a school that is partnered with MLA that prevented me from doing my job by students today… even though i am an employee of the district (which i still have yet to determine if my contractual rights were violated in anyway)

apparently people like me are a threat… why? because adults that should be concerned with doing their jobs and focusing on students and their education are not doing that… at first when i was asked to meet with the assistant principal (who is new to john muir this year) he approached me with a question about a alleged incident i had with a student, a student that i did not see the entire day nor i know of at all… when i assured him that the story he had heard was false he proceeded to tell me that there had been some type of mistake and that there were too many substitutes on campus and that my services were no longer needed… of course my job number given by the district substitute unit disproves that claim… and even if that were true (which i don’t dispute) there is always something to be done at an inner city school… not the least of which should be effectively instructing children in the appropriate content matter.

when pressed further to the nature of what this was really all about he left momentarily to go attempt to find out. he came back ten minutes later and we had a more honest dialogue upon which he revealed that the “main” reason i was being asked to leave was because some teachers (from what i gathered a large majority of my former colleagues) were not happy with my presence on campus… which confuses me still for i have yet to find these teachers… or students… or whatever. which speaks to either the fallacy of this statement or to the stealth of a conspiracy that i am just now being alerted to… no, i believe that in my heart the truth is that there is a small, vocal minority that harbors certain animosity towards me because i chose to leave before they thought i should, or because of certain ideals and actions i maintained during my time there… yet i suspect further that it is based on a perpetuated mistrust of intentions surrounding this year’s imminent fork in the road for the john muir community… i fork that i did not place there, nor do i continue to have a hand in steering the direction to which path is chosen for them. my hands and heart at john muir have done a lot… i’d like to believe a lot of good, and continue to do so for the nature of this profession is that we shape young minds… but that is not the focus.

unfortunately for the students of john muir the focus continues to be adult driven agendas, petty political theater…

there is more to the back story that could be exposed… certain people’s history with certain organizations… certain people’s feelings about certain decisions… but the one decision i am still questioning made by the principal… did i really need to be asked to leave my assignment AND leave my former campus? how did that benefit the students AT ALL???

interesting to note that i was not instructed to leave my assignment during the 2 periods when district observations were taking place for a combined time of 35 minutes, when 8 separate people including the principal and instructional coach and different instructional experts from the district were observing my delivery of the stellar lesson that was left for me… interesting to note that i was not told directly by the decision maker has to why this decision was made and necessary… if it is even legal at all.

and as i await a “promised” phone call from the principal to further explain the need for this decision, all the while collecting all of my pay for blogging from home… i can assure you that this is nothing short of: fiscally irresponsible (part and parcel to the taxpayer $$$ being wasted unnecessarily on folks in the education field doing nothing and getting paid for it) , instructionally unsound (the sub that took over for me was hard at work showing the kids a magic trick with a deck of cards), personally disrespectful and motivated by the exact opposite of what should motivate educators daily…

it is also why so many people are waiting for some type of superman to “save” the system of public education… because they are busy making up these mythical super villains to combat and defeat… there is a longing for someone to come in who is above all the pettiness and maintains laser like focus on the ultimate and moral goal; that of educating our youth, someone who is beyond corruption and politics… someone who makes decisions that are ONLY in the best interest of students and who doesn’t pay concern to a politicized base… a superhero… yet all we really need is for people to come in and love the students they teach enough to give their best everyday in the classroom and commit to constantly trying to improve, to be better… and although i would never argue that i am the former, although i have dreamed about being one all of my life… i can honestly say that i strive to be the later…

and until people in leadership positions can stop playing politics and ostracizing (criminalizing) those who are dedicated, who do their job and are good at it… then we will be stuck waiting… waiting…. waiting…

so i have given the movie 24 hours to marinate… (1 football loss, a saturday professional development, and countless articles – my favorites to come later in this post)

Waiting for Superman is a very well made documentary. it hits all the right emotional chords with audiences… and why shouldn’t it? the issue of of how we are or are not educating millions of our countries children (THE FUTURE to quote the once esteemed whitney houston) should hit us ALL over the head like an emotional hammer swung from somewhere by someone who simultaneously nods their disapproving head in shame… but not merely to judge… but more to say that we are capable of so much more. positioned as the richest nation state the world has ever seen, we should not tolerate what is even less then educational mediocrity…

the movie starts off from a perspective that i am about to become very familiar with, that of film maker davis guggenheim as a parent… if i came in with any hardened skepticism as a public school teacher in the inner city who knows damn well that i have been doing my best and improving my craft for the last 6 years… i was soon softened by the well crafted vulnerability of guggenheim’s conflicted stance of historically being a proponent of public education, but not wanting to put his own children in a system the audience quickly discovers is in serious dysfunction…

none of the “shocking” statistics were very surprising to me, but what was a surprise was how easy yet effective the presentation of this information was in the film… clever visuals, well placed narration, and music created an eerie balance of sadness, outrage, and hope?

there were times when the issues were watered down to a simplicity that often kills the type of national discussion that i am hoping for… statements such as, “It should be simple, a teacher fills a student with knowledge and sends them on their way…” sat uncomfortably on my conscious, an educator who knows better. in fact anyone who has read a little of my rantings on this site knows that i subscribe the exact opposite… more of a constructivist approach – kids are not empty cups to be filled, knowledge (a.k.a. the acquisition of new information or learning) is much more active of a process.

the two issues that many teachers are taking up as the battle cry to avoid seeing this film are the anti- teacher union and the pro-charter stances. i however did not find these to be so over the top to disqualify this film as a good starting point to get the public discussing education from a somewhat more informed stance. and the fact that teachers unions are actively fighting against certain popular reform ideas such as merit pay and measuring and evaluating teacher quality based on performance cannot be disputed… and the all too often denial by many union rank and file members that there are teachers who are “bad” for students is something that i will never sugar coat… i have seen ineffective teachers, good people perhaps, but not cut out for the responsibility of teaching children… some of them are more than ineffective, some of them are plain damaging… i have “represented” some of these individuals as part of my duties as a union chair, individuals who were “must places” or individuals who were sitting in a small district office awaiting some kind of decision while they collect a teacher’s salary without teaching a single student… on a certain level it is as simple as good teacher vs. bad teacher… what is not as simple is how one determines this… a topic i want to explore later in another post.

the second issue of charter schools is one i may be more sympathetic to and although many of the most talented educators i know have gone on to teach and administrate at charters, i take issue with the misguided belief that charters are automatically better than public schools… by and large the opposite holds true. by the film’s own admission only 1 and 5 charter schools is producing amazing results (which is to say that charter schools are not exempt from the same symptoms that plague our public schools)… yet one had to listen very closely to catch this single and simple fact… the rest of the film proceeds to document the struggles of ordinary families attempting to take the charter route in a very emotionally raw and real way.

one could argue that the mere footage spent on highlighting certain charters as the viable alternative to a really shitty public education is not balanced. yet i didn’t find it threatening that the film chose to highlight things that are working for students… in fact i was inspired to continue to find more effective ways that work for students in my own school and classroom.

knowing that my “progressive” ideals should align me with the anti-superman sentiment lauded by many in the educational community… i found the film at times echoing my own sentiments and even at one point the infamous michelle rhee (a TFA alumni – which should make her an automatic nemesis of mine for reasons found here) reiterated words that i had just spoken to a colleague hours before the movie started… that education reform always ends up being about adult issues as opposed to what is in the best interest of students. she actually goes on to state that we have a, “…Willingness to turn a blind eye against injustice to kids in schools in the name of harmony amongst adults…” and that “… “teaching is a privilege…”

it is this sentiment that i think resonates with me the most, that too often in the education reform debate, the students are lost…

in all i think that the film is one that undoubtedly is going to be seen by many and that makes me somewhat hopeful that an informed debate can possibly evolve into an informed discussion… before that happens i think there is more that needs to be drawn into the dialogue as vital information in order for people to speak intelligently and collaboratively around what we all should share in common, the desire to give the best education to all of children…

some perspectives to look into:
http://www.theamericancrawl.com/?p=599&cpage=1#comment-57509
http://idea.gseis.ucla.edu/newsroom/our-ideas/themes-in-the-news
http://www.examiner.com/parenting-education-in-los-angeles/waiting-for-superman (thanks to tony for the opportunity to see this film for free!)
http://socialistworker.org/2010/09/30/still-waiting-for-the-truth
http://www.fairtest.org/real-facts-about-waiting-superman

after school on wednesday my nemesis colleague and i were walking out the building discussing the current issues of alcohol and ecstasy use facing our current freshman when i bumped into one of my first students in LASUD. i hadn’t seen her much since the seventh grade where she was like many other young girls her age at the time, confused and somewhat lost in the messy world that is middle school academics… she was pushing a stroller with the cutest 10 month old little girl i had seen all day… it was her little girl. beautiful… much like my former student.

it is not the first time i have run across a former student of mine who became pregnant after our time together at john muir, but it was somehow different this time… i strive not to show any signs that may be misconstrued as disappointment, for i am not disappointed so much as shell shocked. yet this time it was a weird mix of awkward amazement an appreciation. asking my student about whether she was going to continue with high school and finish her senior year i was pleased to hear that she would be. i was upset to hear about the future of her young daughter growing up without her father, my student had openly offered that the she didn’t know where the father was… i shared that i would soon be a father too and then continued to play with her little girl for a moment before she left…

today sitting with another former student about to apply for colleges i shared the previous exchange with her former classmate from that same year. she shared back stories of some of the other girls – about five – who had made the journey into motherhood… one of them possibly attempting that role from behind jail bars.

i don’t know how to feel besides weird. in my joy of becoming a parent, watching my wife’s joy in being a mother combined with my own in supporting her, i know that what my former students have become – by premeditated choice or otherwise – is one of the most beautiful creations in this world… yet it is not what i anticipated when they sat in my class in the seventh grade, when i struggled to get them to see the importance of their educational journey and the relevance of decision making…

now they must become the teachers for the most important students in their lives. i only hope i was able to aid them somewhat in this effort… as they had aided my own journey in being a teacher and future father.

Last night i was lucky enough to attend the final night of the brave new voices poetry competition for young people with students from Manual Arts. The night was an amazing reminder of the power of words… As young people from Denver, Albuquerque, NYC and the Bay Area competed for recognition as national slam champs, my students and i were inspired by the breadth and depth of literary masters young in their career as words smiths. My students were especially impressed and surprised by how much they enjoyed watching youth their age take the mic and address issues with such passion, openness and wisdom. issues that we have just begun to explore in our community studies class; racism, domestic violence, access to healthy food, the destruction of public education, cultural hegemony, war, environmental degradation, loss of childhood, gang violence, youth drug addiction, consumerism, body image, true activism and social change and the list goes on…. Touching every human in the house through threads of universal themes that help to make up who we are as individuals and as a collective species. The sharing of these diverse yet interconnected experiences, and more so the manner in which the gravity of each theme was communicated, made for an absolutely delicious evening. Walking away more confident that they had a voice, my students were definitely glad to have been in attendance… And so was i to watch them and listen to the power of when youth speaks…

Now go forth and create your own poetry…