"Wanna Be A School Reformer? You Better Do Your Homework!"

[LWolf]

Gary Stager
Posted: October 19, 2010 03:19 AM


Stager makes the clear point that today's most powerful education "reformers" aren't qualified to educate anyone, and he has a list of recommended reading for those that want to "do their homework" and educate themselves about public education and public education reforms.

Shouldn't people bold enough to call themselves "school reformers" be familiar with some of the literature on the subject?

Most of the school leaders who signed last weekend's completely discredited "manifesto," are unqualified to lead major urban school districts. Michelle Rhee and Joel Klein are not qualified to be a substitute teacher in their respective school districts. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan could not coach basketball in the Chicago Public Schools with his lack of credentials. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that they advocate schemes like Teach for America sending unprepared teachers into the toughest classrooms armed with a missionary zeal and programmed to believe they are there to rescue children from the incompetent teachers with whom they need to work. In public education today, unqualified is the new qualified.

I'm familiar with the literature. As a matter of fact, I've read about half of the list Stager proposes, and many of those sit on the shelf next to the computer I'm typing on. But then, I'm an actual teacher.

Reform™ narrowly defines school improvement as children chanting, endless standardized testing preparation, teacher bashing and charter-based obedience schools who treat other people's children in ways that the rich folks behind Reform™ would never tolerate for children they love.

If that were not bad enough, Reform™ advances a myth that there is only one way to create productive contexts for learning. It ignores the alternative models, expertise and school improvement literature all around us. Public education is too important to society to allow the ignorant to define the terms of debate. Great educators stand on the shoulders of giants and confront educational challenges with knowledge, passion and intensity when afforded the freedom to do so. There are a great many of us who know how to amplify the enormous potential for children, even if we are ignored by Oprah or NBC News.

That's the point: actual teachers, those of us actually qualified to do our jobs, know what kinds of reforms we need. We just don't have the support to make it happen on a wide scale. That support goes to privatizers and union busters rather than the actual troops on the front line.

There are some giants on Stager's suggested reading list. Gerry Bracey and Ted Sizer: we lost them both last year, and they are greatly missed. Alfie Kohn. Jonathan Kozol. Deborah Meier. More:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gary-stager/wanna-be-a-school-reforme_b_765199.html

[mediaman007]

1. Another great question: Why do people, who have never taught, get so much power over teachers?

Thanks LWolf for posting this. What has taken so long for this question to be asked?

Going back as far as No Child Left Behind, I have wondered why educated leadership (superintendents and principals) don't stand up and say what bullshit this stuff is? Where are the statisticians who actually think that every classroom should improve every year, perpetually? Don't they realize that teachers go back and start over every September? The inmates have taken control of the asylum!

[LWolf]

10. You're welcome. The answer to your question?

I could probably spend a whole book exploring it in depth, but at this point, I'll say that we're educating future voters, and those in power would like to condition them to vote the way they're told. The current "reforms" lead to increased drop outs, enlarging the pool of cannon fodder and cheap labor. Speaking of cheap labor, teachers' unions are obstacles to the degradation of labor standards in the U.S. desired by corporate power. And there's money involved. The amount of money spend on education, not available for corporations to profit from, is not acceptable to them.

And politicians are beholden to them. It's the politicians at the top, not the principals and superintendents. We all have to comply with the laws passed by politicians, and that's where it starts.

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. Oh come on now. You know that the ones who are qualified are also incompetent.

Especially if they have lots of experience. And TENURE. :scared:

[Catshrink]

3. And belong to a UNION!

Everyone knows that once someone gets tenure they become incompetent.

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. I think the incompetence hits the union members faster

It's like a virus.

[Catshrink]

5. True.. you can join the union before you have tenure.

[LWolf]

8. The more experience they have, the more tenure they are likely to have.

No wonder we're at the top of the hit list, when union-busting is the agenda hiding under "reform."

It really has nothing to do with teaching and learning.

[stray cat]

6. Boy is that ever true for anything and everything in life but seldom happens even on DU

People like their own opinions but like doing homework to have informed opinions less than the laziest student

[Catshrink]

7. And some people never make any sense, regardless of the topic.

[LWolf]

9. When the powerful who are controlling "reform" don't base

their reforms on what schools really need, and count on the public to be ignorant, we end up with...

Exactly what we've got.

[eppur_se_muova]

11. "unqualified is the new qualified" -- sounds familiar, doesn't it?

That's how Teabagger candidates prove their 'worth'.

The corporate masters and their sycophants want to be certain that any agency likely to breed opposition is undermined by incompetence, so they infiltrate their own into the system.

[LWolf]

12. It does sound familiar.

But some of these are Democrats. :(

[Starry Messenger]

13. Or run a hedge fund.

I swear most of the "reform" lingo these guys sling around is just snake oil window-dressing. It's just all out thievery dressed up in pseudo-educated jargon. Actual teachers all know it is bullshit, and if there was anything real to what they were saying, they'd debate us on the issues. Instead they just make it personal and smear the profession with propaganda. It's probably all created in an office on Madison Ave.

[LWolf]

14. Yep. nt