As I wrote in my previous post on this topic, "Reality ain't nothin' like a country song."
No, it's more like a middle school production of a Wagnerian opera...loud, long, uber-dramatic and full of unintentionally funny moments.
The proverbial solid waste has indeed struck the rotary cooling device at my daughter's school. The parents are collectively freaked out and want to know what's going on. The administration hasn't been notified of anything officially, and doesn't want to make any statements regarding what are (for the most part) rumors. The teachers don't want to talk about any of this with anyone except the students, who are universally supportive of the principal.
Now, one of the PTSA's responsibilities when stuff like this happens is to provide opportunities to foster public understanding.* So, I set about that task with gusto...I spent about four hours a night for three and a half weeks** trying to piece together what was going on and pass it along to the parents. Because of this, I fell behind on a project at work and got to see my boss angry for the first time in the fifteen years I've known him, and I got actual hate mail from a teacher.
Here's what I learned:
1) Some teachers are apparently fond of anonymous letters. Actually, to be more precise, these teachers are fond of badly written anonymous letters.
2) Taking great care to remain neutral and unbiased does not go unnoticed nor unappreciated.
3) Taking great care to remain neutral and unbiased does not go unpunished.
4) All of this drama, and I am still not getting laid.
Now that this thing is on hiatus***, I can sort out some lessons -- some "take away" ideas. I don't think that our society supports educators enough. I'm not talking about financial compensation, though that could use a huge boost. ($50,000 a year in San Diego is shitty pay, even if we don't require them to fund 90% of their classroom supplies out of their own pocket.) I'm talking about classroom support...teacher's aides, qualified readers for AP classes, decent electronic support, effective administrative support.
Last year, our governor asked for (and got) a 7% cut in every school's budget. For our school, that amounted to a $420,000 cut...teacher salaries were not affected, but the cuts were so deep among the support staff that the PTSA sold t-shirts to help offset the cost of keeping one staff member on. Some of our teachers have 36 students in a single class...and no teacher's aides?
I know money is tight everywhere, but I think it's time for some outside-the-box thinking. I'm no longer willing to accept a Board of Education decision to reduce a school's budget. If the money isn't there from all the sources of regular revenue, get corporate partners. I'm not talking about changing the name of the school to Qualcomm High (or the infinitely funnier "iPay High"), because the quid pro quo for the corporate dollars invested in our children's education shouldn't come in the form of advertising, it should come in the form of young adults who can speak and write fluently, effectively and persuasively...young adults who can add and subtract well enough that it doesn't take a manager's assistance for them to figure out that if the tab comes to $13.76 and you give them $14.01, then your change is a fucking quarter. The simple pitch is this: if you want employees who are capable of helping you make money, you will help finance their educations.
I also think that our classrooms are woefully behind the times, technology-wise. I'm told that the state of California paid to make every classroom in my daughter's school a WiFi hot spot...that is, wireless broadband Internet access exists everywhere on campus. For free. Where are the computers, then? Why are our kids carrying forty-plus pounds of books home from school every afternoon...and lugging them back every morning...when they could have a five pound laptop computer that does the same thing? Why not leverage off technology to simplify a teacher's life, to reduce his workload? Let the computer check grammar and spelling...the teacher can read for content and guide her students toward writing more compelling essays and term papers.
It's called working smarter, and the possibilities are as endless as the human imagination. No, I do not think that teachers should be left to decide what technology they will use in their individual classrooms. As Henry Ford wrote, "If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses." How many of us had any idea what a computer or a cell phone or a PDA could do for us until we had it in our hands and understood its functions?
Sorry...I set out to write something funny. I raised a lot of questions and I haven't offered many solutions.
I'm still thinking about it, though.
*Translation: opportunities for people to express strong opinions on subjects they know very little about.
** Roughly 43.478 times the amount of time I spend planning an elaborate date.
*** No, it is not over.
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4 comments:
interesting post. my mom is a teacher and I find it unbelieavable that she supplies most of the books and other materials in her classroom. she could not afford to do it if she were on her own. and she teaches in one of the better funded public school districts, where the mill levy almost always passes.
it's also unbelievable to me the interaction between the parents and teachers and administration. the communication lines are definitely not open. which makes it so much more difficult for her to do her job, and for the students to learn.
I am a middle school teacher in the San Diego area and the district I am in takes technology very seriously. We have a 2:1 ratio of computers to students in every classroom in the district. We are also leading the research and development for student computers that are durable, functional, and wireless. Teachers, students, and parents can all access school information from home computers.
Sounds great doesn't it? Well, it all comes at a price. Our schools serve some of the lowest socioeconomic kids in the area. So while kids are getting this technology at school (to a degree) they are not getting to use it fully because most do not have computers/internet at home. The laptop programs consist of kids randomly chosen or those whose parents knew to request it. Everyone knows that in schools "random" does not exist and of course it's the motivated and achieving students who are getting this additional access. These kids are the only ones who probably do have computers at home.
Because the district puts so much emphasis on the technology things like student behavior expectations have been neglected. Many of us have become rather uncomfortable with the security level in our own hallways. And of course, test scores have actually declined in the past couple of years.
Teachers are pressured to integrate this technology with little training and no extra planning time. The expectations to use the technology are high while the applications are limited.
Are teachers consulted on the best way to make technology work? Sure. Are their ideas actually implemented? No. Are they ultimately blamed for any failures? Yes. Do they get the big addition to their resume for having implemented these programs? No. But someone does.
~ you know me but I'm not signing this. :) No desire to get dooced.
You raise some excellent points...but do you really mean that there are two computers for every student?
One local school district has partnered with a communications company to provide broadband access in every student's home, eliminating that socioeconomic gap, and that's where I think corporate partnerships can be most useful.
There are no simple solutions to any of this, of course. Nothing is without cost.
I didn't mention it directly, but security in our schools is one of the concerns I have about allowing the Board of Education to simply cite "budget cuts" for our problems. I know first-hand how difficult it is to concentrate on the task at hand when you're worried about your personal safety.
I sincerely hope that I didn't come across as having anything but respect for those teachers who comport themselves in a professional manner. I've worked very hard to support educators at all levels and will continue to do so.
One of the most positive outcomes of the discussion at our school has been that parents are much more aware of how much their help is needed, and I hope to be able to capitalize on that awareness during the coming school year.
The possibilities really are only limited by our imagination.
~Kurt
P.S. You know that if you got dooced, it wouldn't be from me!
Kurt, no you came across with total respect. Often the parents are more on the same page with the teachers than the administrators and certainly than the legislators.
I was just bringing up some other issues with technology.
There's never a simple fix. :)
And I did actually mean 2 students to every computer. Sorry, I worded it in reverse.
Of course you wouldn't dooce me but you never know who reads what!
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