FOOTHILL HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER Melissa Wantz knows a thing or two about creativity. The lucky students who have passed through her English classrooms on two Ventura campuses have been encouraged to go beyond the merely expository and work on writing for just the pure joy of it.
Yet in this noble pursuit of stretching and growing young minds and instilling a love for writing, she has often felt thwarted by the constant spector of the standardized test.
"I think at a certain level every human being is a creator and has a deep need to be creative in some way, but when the only mandated method of measuring achievement is through standardized tests, and when so much depends on the outcome of those tests for our schools, the opportunities to practice the creative arts are pushed to the back burner for most teachers, myself included," Wantz said.
So Wantz came up with an idea for a contest to support and showcase the creative work of high school writers, artists and photographers in Ventura County.
The contest will award cash prizes paid for through a Ventura Education Partnership grant and an opportunity to be published in a book compiled by the journalism class at Foothill High.
Both the book and contest take their name from a mythical bird which dies in a fiery death and rises to live once again -- the Phoenix. "Our motto, 'Rising from the Ashes of Standardized Testing,' is taken from this idea of life after death," Wantz writes on her Web site.
TEACHERS AND ADMINISTRATORS across the state will be forced to get creative very shortly when it comes to the budget process. Estimates vary depending on what side of the aisle is doing the cutting, but classrooms statewide could take anywhere from a $4 billion to $10 billion hit this year. So what could go?
If it was up to Ventura Unified Education Association President Steve Blum, it would be all that bubble testing, at least for a year or two. Blum, along with many others, has proposed this idea to state officials.
Chip Fraser, a teacher at Pacific High School in Ventura, seconds the motion. "Not only does it cost money to do the test, but the costs of the materials purchased to help teachers 'teach to the test' are staggering," he said.
How much does testing to support the goals of the unfunded mandate that is the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act cost us? Ventura Unified School District Superintendent Trudy Arriaga estimated it costs $30 million per grade in this state to test students.
BUT BLUM DOESN'T realistically see testing going away any time soon. "The state and the feds are unlikely to go along with this idea because it was their idea to do all this testing. People almost always like their own ideas," he said.
Indeed, today our president is delivering a speech to mark the 7th anniversary of the signing of the NCLB Act, which he sees as one of his successes.
Most would agree that measuring a student's progress on agreed-upon goals is a good idea. But many teachers have told me that the rigors of NCLB go beyond merely stifling creativity. Around the country, programs for gifted students are being shuttled; art, music, drama and physical education have taken a back seat and students and teachers alike are just plain stressed out.
"Having started teaching at the beginning of No Child Left Behind, I've gotten to the point where if I can't see measurable gains in my students' work from week to week, I get really nervous and start increasing the pressure on my students, and that's not right," Wantz said.
And debate continues whether the law is even doing the job it set out to do.
With the dawn of a new presidential adminstration, comes the time to re-examine this testing mania. I hope it becomes a priority for Barack Obama and his new Congress.
I don't think it is fair to suggest that bubble testing is all Bush's doing. Wasn't the NCLB legislation passed with overwhelming bi-partisan support, including Ted Kennedy? And regarding it being an unfunded mandate, I have two questions:
1) Isn't it Congress that makes the appropriations for NCLB? I don't see how a president can be responsible for Congress not voting to appropriate the full allotment the legislation provided when passed.
2) Do you have any data or research that even comes close to proving that the lack of additional or "full" funding is to blame when schools don't meet the benchmarks their states have set for them to meet? One certainly hears the meme of schools need more money often and loudly -- but what, exactly, does more money buy? This is not a rhetorical question. What do schools currently lack that more money would buy?
Better trained teachers? Isn't that the job of ed school?
More classroom supplies such as computers, books and white boards?
Lower class sizes? The data is very iffy that lower class size produce consistently markedly higher student achievement.
In sum, in addition to having a lot of misplaced blame, this article fails to explain why more money should be spent, just exactly how testing is stifling creativity, or especially to show how testing is stifling creativity. In other words, there's a lot of talk, but very little substance in what is being presented as fact, but is in reality the author's opinion, with little or no basis in facts or data.
My 6th grader came home from school Tuesday and announced to me his average score on the benchmarks for Social Studies. Each kid was called up to the teacher's desk individually and privately shown his or her score. That's a natural response to standardized testing--performance on benchmarks is all-powerful and used as carrots or sticks to get children to work harder, and the children are informed in a secretive manner, as if they are being shown top secret information.
The reason that the materials schools need to purchase to help teachers "teach to the test" are so astronomically high is because this whole approach was set up to commoditize education. Instead of viewing learning as a process as individual as each student, education is now a "shiny package" to be bought from companies touting this or that "new, improved technique". When the President's brother has got a "purple cow" to sell to schools, you know it's no longer about the relationship between teacher and student.
As for arguments that Congress is responsible for raising funds--yes, but the Dept of Education is responsible for allocating those funds. If the dept. hadn't spent all that money making propaganda ads, maybe our students would have made more progress.
WA Advocate - UC Riverside conducted a study of S. California classrooms that showed teachers do indeed feel NCLB is stifling creativity and causing children to lose interest in learning. It's no secret funding for art and music programs is dwindling because of the excessive emphasis on testing at the expense of the arts and other worthwhile pursuits. I would also challenge you to provide data that shows cutting classroom funding helps and that testing makes students more creative.
There has never been an established correlation between per pupil spending and academic performance. Washington D.C. and New York have the highest per pupil spending in the nation, yet test scores for their students are among the lowest of all states. By contrast, Utah and Montana have some of the lowest per pupil spending but their students performance is among the highest in the nation. It bothers me that there so many education advocates act like the single biggest problem in education is funding. I don't believe for a second that massive increases in funding will make a substantive difference in the quality of education in this state as there is absolutely no evidence to support that conclusion.
If teachers do make a difference (and I believe they do), then we need to offer compensation according to their skills and contributions. In the private sector chemists earn more money than accountants, even though both have college degrees. It is harder to find employees with the technical skills to be chemists, while accountants are far more common. By the same token, it makes sense to pay higher wages to math teachers and chemistry teachers in order to attract these individuals into the profession. Instead, teachers unions have blocked all attempts at pay differentiation, and the result is a shortage of teachers with those skills and students being taught by teachers who lack the appropriate credentials for the subject matter. We also need to offer higher compensation to higher performing teachers (merit pay), and have a willingness to fire bad teachers who shouldn't even be in the classroom (and yes, they do exist). Principals and administrators also need to be empowered to make decisions about teacher assignments to specific schools and classrooms instead of seniority based systems that have been established through collective bargaining agreements.
All the money in the world won't improve education unless we make fundamental reforms. Taxpayers aren't willing to cough up more money for education unless they are confident that the money will be spent wisely.
Mr Fraser is right on target with his comment. Teachers will teach to the test to meet the standards even if the standards really don't measure anything valid or important. Education is a long term investment for our children and we know that critical thinking skills are not built up using the same skill sets that multiple choice tests are based on. This is proven by research results.
Bubba Kidd,
I disagree with your point. First, you compare DC and NY, with an incredibly high number of poor inner-city kids with Utah and Montana, which are two of the whitest states in the union. Studies have repeatedly shown that poorer (predominantly African-American) children do not fare as well at school as their richer (white) peers, and much of the high spending in inner-city school districts is to try to level the playing field. (http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d03234.pdf).
Studies also show smaller class sizes produce better learning (same link above). Can't get smaller class sizes without hiring more teachers. Can't hire more teachers without money. More money = better resources = better opportunities for learning = better performance.
I'm not arguing that you simply throw more money at a system, and hope for the best. But California has not shown it is invested in public schools. By contrast, Massachusetts has, and their students are high performers on at least one international standardized test of student knowledge.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2008/12/10/bright_sign_for_tech_in_mass/
Now, if we were simply to look at per pupil expenditures, then my point is supported. For example, Massachusetts spent, on average, $11,981 per pupil in 2005-6, with Cambridge School District spending over $20,000 per student, and Boston spending a similarly high amount. During the same school year, the US national average per pupil was $9,138, and CA was well below this at $8,486. Source: http://ftp2.census.gov/govs/school/06f33pub.pdf
Cambridge and Boston students typically do better on the MCAS (Mass. version of STAR testing) than do other school districts who do not spend as much per pupil. One could argue though that socio-economic status of Cambridge residents is a big factor in student success, and I would agree with that. However, Boston has a very high African-American population, and their test scores are in the top of all MA districts, also.
As discussed in the Boston Globe article, MN trailed MA in student performance, and as shown in the census data (link above), MN spent less per pupil for education in the same reporting year. This would seem to back up my point, also.
I agree with your suggestions to raise teachers' pay, but doing it based on subject matter gets us into sticky areas; how would you avoid losing teachers in the arts if they are valued less? And whose value system would be used to make those decisions?--Music exposure is essential to math learning, are you suggesting that music teachers be paid less than math teachers (this is, of course, completely hypothetical, since elementary schools in Conejo Valley USD have no full-time music teachers of which I am aware). I look forward to reading others' comments. This is a complicated issue, and just asking for reforms from teachers' unions isn't going to solve it.
To blogger WA Advocate,
I believe you are new to this forum, but as a general rule, a blog is indeed an opinion piece. I write this to provide a thoughtful forum for myself and others to share ideas.
That being said, I never write anything I can't back up with hard data and facts.
To WA Advocate and Bubba,
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's bipartisan Committee on Education Excellence spent two years researching how best to provide California's children with the education they deserve. (Important note: On his committee were people ranging from a conservative education policy analyst from the Hoover Institution to the legal director of the ACLU).
They produced a report which calls for both reforms and an additional investment of $10.5 billion for programs such as early-childhood education, teacher training and incentives plus additional funding for poor children and those who are learning English.
They recommended an additional $5 billion for the poor and ELL children.
A report from Stanford noted the fact that most ELL students attain proficiency on the CELDT long before they attain proficiency in academic English suggesting that the achievement gaps created by language difference are much more amenable to intervention and therefore require fewer additional resources than the gaps created by poverty. This is important to note when speaking to those who blame illegal immigrants for everything that ails the schools. There are plenty of English-speaking kids who are just plain poor and don’t do well in school because of that.
Standards and Poor’s did research that low-income kids need 35% more funding; ELL need 20% more. For low-income students, CA provides just 5.5% more, compared to the national average of 17.2.
As far as reforms go, most educators I talk to would like to see local districts get more control of their funds. Categorical spending has grown three-fold in the last three decades. There are proposals on the table now to free up some of the categoricals. The Committee’s report also calls for that.
Here is the link to the additional funding they recommended:
http://www.everychildprepared.org/docs/appendixc.pdf
You go Marie. We love your intelligent research based responses.
Ill have to say that this is very skewed and blaming issues on the wrong people. California has received funds for the No Child Left Behind act, and if you watch legislation closely, school funding is being diverted into other areas including funding for Transportation and Road projects (Cal-Trans) Our government is out of control period, and these programs would work to our advantage if we did have more control locally of what money is spent where, I will agree with you on that. I wanted to state that the problem is within our government thinking it can fix these things when it cannot. I think people should pay closer attention to what is actually going on with the government and stop pointing fingers at individuals.
I also have issue with Ms. Wantz being used as an example in your blog as a so called creative minded teacher. My child is a student of hers and her way of teaching English is very, very out of line and driven by personal beliefs. My father has a masters in English and History and I have had some amazing English teachers over the years. Ms. Wantz uses her classroom as a political forum and I see the work she has my child do. Its a complete joke, it is more like a Political Science class and English is second when it comes to her teachings. If she is concerned about creativeness she should have the kids do more creative writings and get away from political hot issues. If teachers would focus more on teaching the actual subjects and the actual structure of it, the grades of the classrooms would rise. These teachers are supposed to be teaching, not using the classroom as a political forum and its become an issue with my child.
Parents not taking pro-active measures with their childrens education is a huge problem these days. The government is not the answer, until families start getting more involved in their own childrens education, throwing money at it will not solve the problems.
Please provide a link or facts to back up your assertion that school funding goes to Cal Trans.
Of course federal dollars go to support the goals of NCLB, but not enough to pay for their complete implementation. That is my point. A group of school districts has challenged the law as an unfunded mandate and it is currently before the U.S. Court of Appeals.
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2008/12/11/16nclbsuit.h28.html
My daughter had Mrs. Wantz as a teacher. She improved my daughter's writing tremendously and worked with kids in the Gifted and Talented program. I have heard nothing but praise for her from numerous parents.
I am not sure what you are referring to in the class this year, but it sounds like she is asking the kids to write on current events. Nothing wrong with that. Today's teens are a very politically engaged generation.
I will get links when I can, its actually in legislation passed by our California legislature, they re-routed funds and it is a fact, they do it quite often actually. It really irritates me as I watch our legislature and what they do and for all the complaining they do about the schools they have no problem moving funds for other projects. As far as your edweek link, some interesting things, but again, there is unions at play and if we were to rid our system of these unions we would have more cash flow to go directly into the school system,I believe unions are very much part of the problem, not only for schools but for teachers as well.
On the political things in school, it does not belong in the classroom unless it is a Political course and Ms. Wantz is an English teacher. She has a good way of pushing her view on kids. School is for learning and in no way should be used for indoctrination and what she does in her class room is borderline indoctrination. I don't mind political discussion, but those who have different views from the teacher should not be treated different and it should not be put into the curriculum. You will probably hear more about this since we are filing complaints with the school board. This election year really got out of hand and one teacher even went as far to ask my child if my child was racist because the teacher was told if my child could vote, it would not be for Obama. Our family was not very big on McCain either so its not a partisan thing for me. It was not Ms. Wantz though so that is a separate issue. Doing a piece on current events would not be an issue if it wasn't so consistent and it has been like this over and over. I have never seen so many subjects blatantly one sided. Children were allowed to grade others papers, my child got a D not because of the work, but because of her views. This is not a Political Science or History Class, its not a Class on Journalism, its an English Class.
We're not buying this for a minute. If your kid got a D it was probably for failure to cite sources, just like the old man.
Please provide us with an example of this teacher using her classroom in a wrong way. Otherwise her "political views" could be common American values like free expression, respect for others, and patriotism. If teachers are teaching values that are commonly agreed upon they shouldn't have to deal with anonymous attacks on the internet.
Infused-1, I've been a mom a long time and several times over. It's been my experience that what kids come home and tell parents is not always what actually happens. And I believe this is the case here. Teens have an egocentric way of looking at the world. This is not to say that they are selfish but they lack the cognitive abilities to place situations in perspective. Knowing the teachers at this top high school as well as I do, I would venture to say you are greatly overstating your case. And since you are having trouble with multiple teachers, you may need to look inward as well.
We also have no way of knowing whether you are actually a parent or a teen-ager waging an anonymous attack against the teachers at your school
Since you are unable to provide corroboration of your earlier posts about mismanagement of funds, I remain highly skeptical.
But thank you for posting.
More support for the commoditization of education due to NCLB--this flawed legislation puts money into corporations' pockets because it ties federal education dollars to externally-defined measures of progress through standardized tests, and these tests must be bought from major corporations.
http://www.projectcensored.org/top-stories/articles/12-bush-profiteers-collect-billions-from-no-child-left-behind/
As a former columnist and journalist for The Star, I always made it a habit of not responding to anonymous attacks; however, I feel I must attempt to clear up the facts about my English program lest the above slander malign some of my colleagues or students.
My English course is aligned with 10th grade world history, which takes students from the French Revolution through World War II. Students in my class read the following works of literature: "Oedipus Rex" and "Antigone" by Sophocles, Things Fall Apart by Achebe, All Quiet on the Western Front by Remarque, Animal Farm by Orwell, Night by Wiesel, Fahrenheit 451 by Bradbury and "Julius Caesar" by Shakespeare.
So far they also have read three newspaper articles that I have provided for them: "Harmony and the Dream" by David Brooks of the New York Times (column on Chinese Olympics that explores the idea of individualism versus collectivism), "Through Drama, Toll of War Resonates" by Tony Perry of the Los Angeles Times (article on how actors read from the works of Sophocles to a group of Iraq veterans to help them with post-traumatic stress symptoms), and "Season of Lamentation" by Richard Tosanwumi, a Nigerian writer (about the slow progress his country has made toward creating a full democracy).
They have watched three short videos, less than 5 minutes long each, all on Youtube: "The Battle at Kruger" (a clip that shows a herd of buffalo defending a baby calf from a pride of lions), "Handlebars" (a music video by the Flobot which shows two friends and their divergent paths that end up in tragedy) and just this week a Larry King clip showing OJ Simpson's "white Ford Bronco" chase, as an example of the ancient Greek idea of a tragic hero.
I have never asked students to read the newspaper for homework or to comment on current events for my course. I've never discussed the election or any of the ballot issues in class or out of class with any of my students. The only election-related material that I have assigned was during our study of the Greek gods in September. I had students work in pairs on a "Greek Gods on the Campaign Trail" project. They chose one of the 12 gods of the Pantheon to run for President and created either a poster, blog, webpage or video about why their god would make a great President for Americans today.
I'm confused about why this parent has not contacted me by email or phone or in person about his or her concerns, because I have an open door policy, encourage visits from parents and have posted every single assignment on the school's website, as well as 90% of my students' written work (password protected from the public but open to any parent or student). I have offered no indication in class of my personal political views (either on national or local issues). In nine years of teaching, I have never been accused of such a serious flaw as "indoctrinating students;" in fact, my 8th grade US history students would always vote on the last day of school as to whether they thought I was a Republican or a Democrat. I judged my effectiveness as a neutral instructor by the results of this informal tally: it was always a 50/50 split.
To indoctrinate a student would be the antithesis of my educational philosophy, which is to help students become critical thinkers, sound writers and lovers of literature and reading.
Thanks for correcting the record, Melissa. This sounds like a very reasonable and non-partisan curriculum.
Infused1's posts presented a dilemma for me. I am not a fan of anonymous, non-factual assaults on the character of well-respected members of our community. Yet bloggers on this site and others consistently do this.
I could take down everything that I know to be untrue. Or I can leave it up and let it be corrected by others and myself.
This calls into question the very nature of blogging altogether. Are blogs a free-flowing forum to exchange information or are they a place for destructive people to take anonymous potshots at the good work of others? Often they are both.
But I struggle with this question every day.
A caveat to my bloggers: if you post incorrect information, it will very soon be corrected here.
Hi Melissa:
Is there a world history that 10th graders receive prior to the French Revolution? .l
Why no Jane Austen? I might surprise some, but Jane Austen is probably the best English writer besides Shakespeare in my view.
Why no John Milton's Paradise Lost?
Any John Swift?
Why no T.S. Eliot's Wasteland?
It appear the reading list above George Orwell- anti-totalitarianism, Remarque - pacifism, Achebe - colonialism's breakdown of the collectivist society.
Apologize for the last sentence. I actually moved my cursor over submit and bumped enter before I was done.
Should read:
"It appear the reading list above George Orwell- anti-totalitarianism, Remarque - pacifism, Achebe - colonialism's breakdown of the collectivist society all steer students to certain conclusions."
I guess I'm not sure what you mean when you say critical thinking. How can they approach these novels and not come out with a certain bent?
Hello Scott,
Seventh graders receive a year of world history, then it skips to American history in 8th, followed by geography in 9th and back to world history in the 10th grade. All the world history standards can be found here: http://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/documents/histsocscistnd.pdf
The sophomore year starts with: " Students relate the moral and ethical principles in ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, in Judaism, and in Christianity to the development of Western political thought."
And then it goes right to: "Students compare and contrast the Glorious Revolution of England, the American Revolution, and the French Revolution and their enduring effects worldwide on the political expectations for self-government and individual liberty. "
Next is the Industrial Revolution, then Imperialism, WWI, totalitarianism, WWII, then nation-building in the contemporary world.
The authors you mention are among my favorites, too. I have a copy of Milton: Complete Poems and Major Prose that my father used for his English degree and that I used for mine. Rereading Swift for my masters course work was amazing. I'm always open to ideas. How would you see them or Austen fitting in with the above timeline? What connections could be made? And because it's already difficult enough to cover eight major works in a year, which of the current works would you replace?
As for your question about coming out with a certain bent. The idea behind having students -- or anyone -- read literature is that it will raise questions in their minds. The act of questioning is the start of critical thinking. Hopefully, I am teaching them to confront the questions that are raised by these authors and to seek within and without for answers. Once my students get some ideas, the next step is to be able to formulate their responses -- whatever they are, wherever on the political spectrum they land, because I honestly don't care -- into cogent, logical arguments with evidence.
For example, one of the questions raised by Achebe in Things Fall Apart is: Who is to blame for Okonkwo's suicide? The responses in our Socratic seminars in December were all over the map: some students blamed Okonkwo, some the English colonial military power, some the Christian missionary movement. I sat silent, listening with great interest as these 15-year-olds defended their conclusions. I didn't care which conclusion they settled on, I just insisted on their ability to use the text as evidence to support their opinions. They are not very good at that yet; we are working on it.
So, while all works of literature have a point of view that we discuss, the students invariably agree, disagree or fall somewhere in the middle. They are graded on their ability to state and defend their conclusions, not what those conclusions are. That's the ambiguity and beauty of teaching English. You couldn't get away with it in science or math, for sure! :)
You wrote:
"For example, one of the questions raised by Achebe in Things Fall Apart is: Who is to blame for Okonkwo's suicide? The responses in our Socratic seminars in December were all over the map: some students blamed Okonkwo, some the English colonial military power, some the Christian missionary movement. I sat silent, listening with great interest as these 15-year-olds defended their conclusions. I didn't care which conclusion they settled on, I just insisted on their ability to use the text as evidence to support their opinions. They are not very good at that yet; we are working on it."
I appreciate that debate and your non-intervention in that debate more than you'll ever know.
I'm a conservative and a man. If Ms. Wantz has the restraint in the above mentioned debate, she's alright in my book.
I'd even want to intervene.
I still think Milton's Paradise Lost and Jane Austen should be covered though.... don't know how, but they should.
I guess Milton and Austen don't fit in the bubbles Marie was talking about even though they are of great importance to Western Civilization.
Any Shakespeare Sonnets? I print one out from the internet and try to read it until I "get it" each week. Probably sounds strange, but it's the Elizabethan language/diction I'm trying to grasp.
With regards to Julius Caeser,
Tell me about how Brutus get's covered in your class? How do the students perceive his funeral eulogy of Caeser?
I'd love to be a fly on the wall for that one. It's a discussion for the ages.
Thank you for your vote of confidence. Teaching is a craft (a practice) but it is also an art, and one of the more difficult aspects of my art is to learn when to be silent. For sophomores, that is almost always! They are at an age when even though they are being given permission to ask questions and confront the "authority" of a text or author or belief -- or history itself! -- they often choose to remain silent. Some are not all that confident socially, are easily embarrassed and, for many, there is a desire to have someone "in charge" tell them what to think while they take notes or fill in the blanks.
Part of it, I think, is a little bit of intellectual laziness (I kind of remember what I was like at 15 and it is NOT with pride in any kind of work ethic). On the other hand, the rote testing that they are asked to do over and over from 2nd grade on does not exactly foster critical thinking. In a multiple-choice question, there is one right answer. I think they've found that answering those kinds of questions takes little effort. They are either right or wrong, and it's over quickly. The answers don't mean anything to them intrinsically, but they unfortunately get used to thinking of questions in that superficial, surface way.
The kinds of questions that literature demands, however, require a different level of engagement, and, often, a very long and uncomfortable pause by me while they sort through their thoughts and reach tentative conclusions. It's their ability to defend these conclusions in writing and orally that I care most about and the reason I teach English in the first place.
As for Julius Caesar, I have no idea! This is my first year teaching 10th grade World Lit and we have not yet covered it. I'm sure I will be surprised.
On the issue of Our state legislature diverting funds, I will look for the amendments they passed that re-routed federal funds and get the link as soon as I can. I would like everyone to know about it regardless of views. I need to look through the actual legislation to find it, I had already found it last year, but Im having a hard time finding it again. I found it because I watch our legislation, it wasnt reported.
Ms. Wantz, thank you for posting, I appreciate it. I am not accusing you of indoctrination, but i do feel what you are doing is borderline. The subjects and way they are handed to our children to write about are my main issue. Especially about the subject you had our children do on Iraq. You compared us to being Imperialists and what we have done in Iraq is no different than what Christianity did in Africa. It was made to sound like all we have done was really bad and my child had issues with it. I wont go into detail, but it was very much political and the views expressed to my child were political. Other children have even made nasty comments to my child. This issue was not brought to you directly because of my time constraints. I have 3 children in 3 different schools so my time is limited to come to your classroom when school is out. I did not want to bring this directly to you during school hours. We did bring complaints to the counselor about the political things that were going on and that my child was a target in a few issues. The counselor defended the teachers and obviously did not bring them to your attention although it was brought up on a few occasions. I think its because most of you are in the same train of thought with these issues. My child is not a saint and I did not want this to be an attack, but an eye opener to those who dont see whats going on. I would not defend my child if it wasnt something that I saw first hand. I know you never targeted my child personally, but others have. I have issue with the way you are handing out assignments with hot issues and then having an article written about being creative. Im sorry if I offended you if I did. I still feel you are pushing personal opinions in the classroom and I dont know if its intentional or not but it is inappropriate since this is an english class. I harbor no ill will toward you as a person as I feel political freedom is great, I just dont think it should be skewed in such a way to our children.
What connections could be made? (Austen, Swift, and Milton)
In terms of Milton, you could probably backdoor it through his writings, "Areopagitica: A speech for Liberty of Unlicensed Printing to the Parliament of England." You could further back this into your discussion of Fahrenheit 452.
Check it out and tell me what you think.
In terms of Jane Austen, perhaps an open discussion of patriarchy and social roles would be of use. I know I read some surprisingly conservative language from Marie on Sarah Palin and a woman's role during this last election cycle. Austen's characters are the best.
Johnathan Swift's " A Modest Proposal" is my all time favorite. Any discussion of all the folly that goes with government planner's fixation with creating utopia or fixing this problem or that is worth introducing Swift's "Modest Proposal"
Swift is really timeless.
Infused1,
I would be happy to discuss any issue that you have regarding me as your child's teacher. I will not do it online in a public forum with one of us being anonymous. But I will say that I believe you are mistaken when you write that I "compared us to being Imperialists and what we have done in Iraq is no different than what Christianity did in Africa." The students were asked to come up with their own questions about Things Fall Apart for their Socratic Seminar. Two of the students came up with that issue or question (What are the parallels between America's presence in Iraq and the Imperialism in Africa?). I chose it and the one about Okonkwo's suicide to be asked during the seminars (I have six classes of sophomores and they were all asked the same two questions). The students could choose to answer it or not. Nobody was forced to speak. They were not even graded on participation. I monitored the discussion to ensure that it remained civil, but I did not participate. I have never suggested that "all we have done was really bad" in Iraq. At most I have only asked the question "are we like the Imperialists in our approach to Iraq?" As I explained above, my philosophy is to help students learn to question and defend their conclusions, not to make them reach whatever conclusions I have come to. I think the question was an entirely valid and creative way to connect history, a novel and the world stage and not inappropriate at all for World Literature in 10th grade.
I truly wish you would have found the time to send me an email with your concerns; I would have been more than happy to address them in private and in more detail.
Melissa
Part of the challenge of having a public school monopoly is that you have to choose what is important and what isn't. This creates divisions. Would you prefer a system where you could control your own curriculum?
Scott,
I really like the idea of using some of "Areopagitica: A speech for Liberty of Unlicensed Printing to the Parliament of England" with Fahrenheit, so I will explore that further. Thank you for the idea! As for Austen, I think I would have to really get creative to integrate her work into the history curriculum. I think the senior teachers get to cover Swift, because one of the English standards is satire, and I would not want to steal their thunder. :)
Maybe
The history department ought to cover Jane Austen. I know J.K. Rowling would agree with me.
Scott,
To answer your last question, there are pros and cons to working in the public schools, but I prefer to work in a system where the public has a vote in which curriculum I use. The school board approves (or denies) every major text that teachers request, thereby ensuring accountability and oversight and, conversely, freedom from the pressure to please unreasonable parents or administrators who have problems with certain texts. If I cared a lot about choosing my own curriculum, I would be teaching at the college level.
Melissa :
May I ask why you need government to approve what you are able to teach?
Do you think government knows more than the teaching professionals?
Sometimes. I believe that the public entrusts me with their children and that there should be accountability and rules in terms of what I can teach. I might disagree with some of the decisions the school board makes, but I wouldn't have taken on this responsibility if I wasn't prepared to abide by the rules. I respect the self-governing model in which I live and work. And as I said, I gain at least as much freedom to teach as I give up. The system works.
Infused1,
Sorry if I don't believe you when you said you didn't have time to send a private email to a teacher but you did have time to complain to a counselor and you did have time to go after a teacher in a public setting where anyone that googles her name can see what you wrote.
You should apologize.
If you have a problem, many times it is only a lack of understanding. If your student was graded unfairly this teacher seems professional enough to listen and either tell you why you have some of the facts wrong or to fix the problem.
It was cowardly to hide behind your computer and then when you were called on it pretend you didn't have time to send an email for clarification when you obviously had time to complain to a counselor and to put into google search results the stuff you wrote.
All public schools are inefficient money pits that care more about increasing funding and appeasing the teachers' union. Schools get their funding based on attendance rather than performance. Administrators seeking blue ribbon and ca distinguished status cheat and scam to bolster their their standardized test scores, like Jan Britz scandal in Simi Valley that cost the district 30 Million in national/state funding for the entire district.
Standardized testing is flawed anyway as an indicator of performance or learning. Artists won't do well on bubble tests on math. People good at history may not perform as well as those math and science oriented. Thats why you pick majors once you go to real school, vocational or university. In China, they try to find your skills and develop them for the sake of society. Im not saying we should be that extreme, but we need to promote vocational programs, and high school programs should promote welding classes for those that aren't university bound, art specialist high schools for artists, computer science high schools, and biology and philosophy (I guess like seminary school) based high schools.
there has never been a cut in spending on education in caliornia in the past 20 years. We've borrowed trillions of dollars in proposition bonds that need to be paid off, and the teachers' union wields way too much power in this state. Has any of the money that we keep giving to school districts helped with drop out rates? Does throwing money at any problem fix it?
I'm the only one in this world. Can please someone join me in this life? Or maybe death...
Life is worth living and you are not alone. Email me if you need to talk.
briandennert@yahoo.com