As we near the end of July, school posters, ads, and reminders pop up all over the place. Do I miss teaching? YES! (Well, let's qualify that....) I miss the kids and the challenges they give me, but I do not miss the administrative and bureaucratic BS that now goes with the profession.
Just the other day, I realized that in one small hour on the phone about a job interview. I was going to be a TA (Teaching Assistant) for an online university based in Clinton, IA. The people on the other end of the phone were nice people, well-intentioned (I think), but hardly aware of what grading papers in an English class is like.
Over the 34 years I taught English, I had learned to manage the barrage of papers that I created for myself. Sometimes I would give assignments that required one sentence answers to questions; sometimes I would give multiple choice assignments, and once a week, I would give an essay. These essays would range from usually around two pages to more than that. But, I knew how to budget my time, because I felt that if a student was going to spend the time writing this assignment, then I certainly should take the time to go over every bit of it and make it a colorful red. I had over 125 students, and that meant reading and marking over 250 pages sometimes. (Depending on if everyone turned in the assignment and met the required length.) I did this every week for the 36 weeks of school for 34 years.
When I asked how many students I would be responsible for, the lady told me 30-60. When I asked how many pages each assignment was, I was told 2-8 pages. What was I getting paid for this? Approximately 850 dollars for five weeks, or about 160 dollars a week. I was expected to get the papers back to students within 48 hours, I was to use a rubric to grade the papers and I could only work 12 a week, max. Now, if I followed their procedure, students may not get what I thought was a good review of their work, as I would have to spend less time on each page, and I would not get to use the same amount of red ink I was used. But the final straw, as I listened to the "college people of higher learning" was that they really did not care about quality, they only cared about quantity.
Later in the day, I read that there over 2000 "for Profit" universities in the US alone. And, according to the article in USA Today, they were going to have to start meeting certain standards, just like the secondary schools now have to do. So, Arne Duncan, who ran the Chicago Public Schools into the ground, and his colleagues in the US Dept. of Education now want to restrict the learning of folks at colleges and subject them to the same standards of what appears to be the No Child Left Behind Act. (Which I call The Every Child Becomes Mediocre Act)
After hearing this, and seeing the workload and the pay, I came to a conclusion. I would be better off spending my time floating in the pool and working at the museum and writing than I would be grading papers.
I mean, after all, I was not going to be the assistant, I was going to be the teacher. Been there, done that....
Doughnut
Showing posts with label Arne Duncan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Arne Duncan. Show all posts
Monday, July 26, 2010
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Where is Thoreau when you need him? Probably taking a test
First off, let's understand that I know the little red school house is gone. I know we live in a technologically advanced society... I own an Ipod. And I am now fully aware that most houses have flush toilets. But what I don't understand is why education decided it needed all those tests?
I now live in the state that ranks 48th in education out of all US states. I moved from a state that was 36th. I have one question... Who cares about rankings? Most coaches will tell you that they mean nothing when it comes to ranking teams, the same holds true when deciding about how well your kids are educated.
The whole testing thing is a plot by the government to make states accountable for the money spent that is allotted to them. I found this out in the mid 1980s when I was a student at the University of Illinois School of Education. They tried to brain wash me then. I fooled them, I had mine dry cleaned and left the program.
Think about when education really started going down the tubes and getting bad marks...late 1980s early 1990s. We had just won the space race, our economy was booming. Students were learning and America was number one. What changed?
Somebody convinced the federal government that our workers were not being trained well enough and that our kids were not stacking up to those from Europe and Southeast Asia. We had to do a better job. And how do we know if we are doing a better job unless we test EVERYBODY~ that includes children who are not up to par along with those that are way above it. We had to give tests over the same material. If little John is reading at a third grade level and is doing third grade work while chroniclogically being 15-16, shouldn't he be tested at that level? Why should he be given a calculus test when he can barely say it, let alone do it?
When NCLB came into being it was supposed to be the magic cure for the virus that was killing education. It started in Texas (Where the teachers say it is holding them back) and spread across the US under the Bush administration. And is being perpetuated by the Obama administration.
To put it bluntly, it stinks and it does not work. So, what does, you ask?
Get rid of all the constraints on teachers and education. Don't let the people in the ivory towers who have never been in a classroom, or have limited knowledge about teaching decide what should and should not be taught and how it should be taught. Get rid of standardized testing. Teachers are being forced to teach only material that is on the test.
Case in point... In my last years of teaching in Paxton, IL, the administration decided to go out and spend a bunch of money on "curriculum mapping". In other words, they were going to lay out the program that would be taught from k-12. Not a bad idea on the outside. Then it was decided that teachers had to teach a certain way, and they had to cover only material that was pertinent to the tests. Handwriting? Not on the test... forget it! And we were to spend no more than 5 minutes on any topic that was off the plan for the day. Now, any teacher worth his or her salt knows that real teaching moments are sometimes brought up by student questions, not by the script. What was the result? Scores have steadily declined.
The State of Illinois is way behind on payments to schools. So is Arizona. I say, that if they are not going to give schools the money, then schools should not worry about scores. If, like in Illinois' case, the state is not living up to the state constitution and funding the schools properly, then schools should be free to do work their magic in their own way. Test scores be damned.
Teachers should not pay taxes until the state gives schools the money they owe. Sound dumb? We are supposed to pay our bills as are they, but do they? Who holds the government accountable? We should!
This whole testing thing will be the end of public education. Look around and see how much "Charter Schools" are being pushed. How vouchers are being given to private schools because public schools are not doing the job. The Leona School Group, The Ball Foundation, and Edison Learning are just three of the companies that run schools and receive public money, but are not bound by public law. According to the US Charter Schools Homepage these schools, "...provide choices for families and greater accountablity for results." They are run on a business model, not an education model. Some of the schools out here in AZ are in store fronts and in old factories. Does that say something? One school that I know of personally, the administrators are not educators at all, but rather former investment bankers...how did they do in their last career?
We need to stand up and tell Arne Duncan and President Obama to put a stop to this madness and return education to the professionals and the people who know your children best. Have the well of money dry up and start opening your voices. Civil Disobedience, my friends. That is what it is going to take. Thoreau wrote that back in 1849. Students just getting out of high school would not know that, though.
It's not in the state descriptors for learning.
Doughnut
I now live in the state that ranks 48th in education out of all US states. I moved from a state that was 36th. I have one question... Who cares about rankings? Most coaches will tell you that they mean nothing when it comes to ranking teams, the same holds true when deciding about how well your kids are educated.
The whole testing thing is a plot by the government to make states accountable for the money spent that is allotted to them. I found this out in the mid 1980s when I was a student at the University of Illinois School of Education. They tried to brain wash me then. I fooled them, I had mine dry cleaned and left the program.
Think about when education really started going down the tubes and getting bad marks...late 1980s early 1990s. We had just won the space race, our economy was booming. Students were learning and America was number one. What changed?
Somebody convinced the federal government that our workers were not being trained well enough and that our kids were not stacking up to those from Europe and Southeast Asia. We had to do a better job. And how do we know if we are doing a better job unless we test EVERYBODY~ that includes children who are not up to par along with those that are way above it. We had to give tests over the same material. If little John is reading at a third grade level and is doing third grade work while chroniclogically being 15-16, shouldn't he be tested at that level? Why should he be given a calculus test when he can barely say it, let alone do it?
When NCLB came into being it was supposed to be the magic cure for the virus that was killing education. It started in Texas (Where the teachers say it is holding them back) and spread across the US under the Bush administration. And is being perpetuated by the Obama administration.
To put it bluntly, it stinks and it does not work. So, what does, you ask?
Get rid of all the constraints on teachers and education. Don't let the people in the ivory towers who have never been in a classroom, or have limited knowledge about teaching decide what should and should not be taught and how it should be taught. Get rid of standardized testing. Teachers are being forced to teach only material that is on the test.
Case in point... In my last years of teaching in Paxton, IL, the administration decided to go out and spend a bunch of money on "curriculum mapping". In other words, they were going to lay out the program that would be taught from k-12. Not a bad idea on the outside. Then it was decided that teachers had to teach a certain way, and they had to cover only material that was pertinent to the tests. Handwriting? Not on the test... forget it! And we were to spend no more than 5 minutes on any topic that was off the plan for the day. Now, any teacher worth his or her salt knows that real teaching moments are sometimes brought up by student questions, not by the script. What was the result? Scores have steadily declined.
The State of Illinois is way behind on payments to schools. So is Arizona. I say, that if they are not going to give schools the money, then schools should not worry about scores. If, like in Illinois' case, the state is not living up to the state constitution and funding the schools properly, then schools should be free to do work their magic in their own way. Test scores be damned.
Teachers should not pay taxes until the state gives schools the money they owe. Sound dumb? We are supposed to pay our bills as are they, but do they? Who holds the government accountable? We should!
This whole testing thing will be the end of public education. Look around and see how much "Charter Schools" are being pushed. How vouchers are being given to private schools because public schools are not doing the job. The Leona School Group, The Ball Foundation, and Edison Learning are just three of the companies that run schools and receive public money, but are not bound by public law. According to the US Charter Schools Homepage these schools, "...provide choices for families and greater accountablity for results." They are run on a business model, not an education model. Some of the schools out here in AZ are in store fronts and in old factories. Does that say something? One school that I know of personally, the administrators are not educators at all, but rather former investment bankers...how did they do in their last career?
We need to stand up and tell Arne Duncan and President Obama to put a stop to this madness and return education to the professionals and the people who know your children best. Have the well of money dry up and start opening your voices. Civil Disobedience, my friends. That is what it is going to take. Thoreau wrote that back in 1849. Students just getting out of high school would not know that, though.
It's not in the state descriptors for learning.
Doughnut
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