A Place at the Table

One of the best things about our Teacher Magazine blog group is the range of perspectives we bring to teaching. The commonalities and the differences in what we know and have experienced as teachers enriches our understanding of our practice.

For instance, it might appear that Jessica Shyu and I are worlds apart. I am old enough to be her mother. She's young enough to be my daughter. She’s urban, I’m suburban. I've been teaching 28 years. She's been an educator for three. She is a journalist who decided to be a teacher. I am a teacher who took up journalism.

We're different, but Jessica and I also share a lot of common ground. We both started teaching in small rural schools on the desert. She was on a reservation in New Mexico. I was just over the border outside El Paso in Fabens, Texas. We were both minority educators in our schools. She was the Chinese American teacher among Native American students and faculty. I was the Anglo teacher among Mexican American students and faculty. We both migrated east. She is now in DC and I'm just a few miles down the road in Virginia. We both work with new teachers. She’s now a trainer for Teach for America. While I'm still in the classroom full time, I train and coordinate mentors at my school and help assess higher education teacher prep programs.

As I work with new teachers I follow Jessica across her New Terrain because there is much to be learned from her experience as she works with alternative entry teachers. Teach for America is a great program that brings bright and gifted, highly motivated young people into high need classrooms. Some fulfill their two years and move on to new challenges, some become part of the TFA system, and some settle into a long-term career in the classroom. One thing they all have in common -- they didn’t start out to be teachers. That’s one reason it’s important to provide support, just as Jessica does in her current position.

Support matters. The problem is that too often teachers who serve in high-need schools get more blame than support. Most of them are doing the best they can where they are with what they’ve got. That’s why I feel compelled to take issue with the MenSa Ankh Maa poem that Jessica posted last week. Maa, Jessica’s TFA supervisor, is also a product of the TFA experience. According to Jessica, MenSa “wanted to be a poet, he earned a Masters in African Studies from Cornell, and he tried for a Fulbright to Africa. Then he joined Teach For America.” He taught, went through the New Leaders for New Schools program and became principal at Jefferson Junior High. Last spring he left the DC school system to become a program manager at TFA. He was speaking to new Teach for America conscripts in August when he shared No Day, One Day, Some Day Real Soon. He speaks of

One day, when Wendy Kopp had a vision that all children in this nation will have the opportunity to attain an excellent education.

And while I think Kopp had a great idea, I wonder if might be a little myopic not to share that credit with folks like Horace Mann, Booker T. Washington, and Mary McLeod Bethune.

Maa remembers

One day, when a school chancellor had the courage to take on a union that did not serve the children and families who paid their salaries.

And I wonder why Maa has forgotten or else doesn't know the history of teacher unions. In a field where most of the collars were pink and many of the faces were dark, the unionization of teachers took root to fight against the "segregation" and "legal oppression of women" that he opposes. And while there are situations where bad teachers have cowered behind the shield of AFT or NEA membership for undeserved protection, the vast majority of NEA and AFT members do not deserve to be labeled as people who “did not serve the children and families who paid their salaries.”

Maa declares

Today we remember what has brought us here and chart a course for where we need to go.

Entry into teaching is unique among professions. Most professions begin with a broad field of candidates that narrows over time and training. Some of us always aspired to be teachers. This was our dream of how to impact the world; but teaching also picks up recruits during college, and it gathers converts from other fields along the way. Some teach as a compromise between their dreams and their pragmatic need to earn an income. Some teach because teaching is a stop along the course they have charted toward some other long-term career goal. Some come to teaching after careers in another job.

Late entry doesn’t necessarily mean teaching is a last choice. Leaving teaching doesn’t mean a person is deserting public education. Spending a lifetime in a classroom doesn’t indicate lack of ambition. What matters is that we are in this together. And, for the good of our students, we need to work together and learn from each other.

While I believe his intent was to inspire, Maa’s poem does not work toward consensus. His words have the effect of dividing teachers into “us” and “them.” Practicing teachers ought to welcome the depth of knowledge, innovation, and energy that these young idealistic and elite TFAers bring to the classroom. New teachers ought to honor the depth of experience, the skills honed by practice, and commitment of teachers who have stayed the course through years in the field. It benefits us all to acknowledge that most educators “act on our faith” and that together “we put much of the world on our backs” as we all share in bearing the burden of educating our children.

Today we teach.

Today all of us teach. Some of us taught yesterday. Some of us will teach tomorrow. We are in this together. Education and teach are buried in all of the acronyms--DOE, NCES, CTQ, NCATE, AFT, TEAC, ABCTE, TLN, TFA, PTO, CTL, NBPTS, NEA, PTA and more. Even if we don't agree on everything, I believe we all share the common ground of wanting to provide a firm foundation of solid education for our children. Unfortunately, we are sometimes so seduced by secondary agendas that we are distracted from our real purpose. It’s not about us; it’s about the kids. We cannot afford to lose sight of that--not for one day.

Posted by Susan Graham at 6:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

I live and teach on the edge of Washington, D.C. We didn’t have school today and many of my students are attending inaugural events. I will be curious to hear what the kids have to say tomorrow. Our impressions may be vastly different, but when I remember today, this is what I will recall:

A chamber quartet playing a Quaker hymn made famous by an American composer. In case you are not familiar with the words:

"'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free,
'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,"

And there, on the mall stood well over a million people, not bumping and grinding to a rock concert or cheering for their team, but listening quietly to the gentle harmony of a cello, a violin, a clarinet, and a piano--American music played by three immigrants from Israel, China, Venezuela and an African American for the inauguration of a biracial President. “We the people of the United States..” are an immigrant nation and while the sea of faces on the Mall today may look different from those of the Founders, almost all of us are, or descend from, “come heres” from somewhere else.

"And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
'Twill be in the valley of love and delight."

There were concerns that there would be mass confusion, unruliness, rioting, and acts of terrorism, but more than a million people stood in the cold, being patient and polite. Official handshakes, ceremonial hugs, waves and nods among the dignitaries. Casual embraces, high fives, fist bumps and citizens walking hand in hand as they hiked back across the bridge and into Virginia where their buses were parked at the Pentagon.

"When true simplicity is gain’d,"

But those values upon which our success depends — hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism — these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths.

"To bow and to bend we shan't be asham'd,"

What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility — a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.

"To turn, turn will be our delight
'Till by turning, turning we come round right."

Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.

As I write, the new President and First Lady are still making the rounds of the Inaugural Balls, but tomorrow Barack Obama has to get down to business.

We do too. Just think, somewhere out there tomorrow morning a future President of the United States will be sitting in someone’s classroom.

It could be my room.

It could be yours.

Posted by Susan Graham at 12:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)

According to Jay Mathews Educators Resist Even Good Ideas from Outsiders.

….it’s time to disclose a great truth about even the best educators I know: As much as they deny it, they really don’t like outsiders messing with the way they do their jobs.

Mathews is right. As teachers we have a heavy workload, a tight timeline, a limited budget, rigid procedural protocols, and stringent quality control. Decisions such as grading scales and school start times are policy changes that teachers and building administrators on the front line of education do not make. Here in Virginia, these decisions are in the hands elected school boards and the superintendents that those boards appoint. If we seem to be preoccupied and unresponsive to your suggestions, it might be because we are not in the position to help you and we really do need to focus on meeting the needs of your children.

The problem is that schools, unlike other institutions, are handling parent's most precious possessions, their children. That aggravates the emotional side of the discussion. It makes it more likely that the smart educators are going to write off the parents as interfering idiots even if they have a good idea and data to prove it.

Hey, that was a cheap shot! We know parents aren’t all interfering idiots because most of us are parents ourselves! We also acknowledge that a parent ought to advocate in their own child's best interest. The problem is, different kids and different parents have different agendas that shape their “good ideas and data to prove them.” The professional education community has a lot of conflicting theories and they all have supporters who can produce research and data to back up their positions. For example, if you think education design should be adapted to meet the unique needs of adolescents, then beginning the school day later is obviously a good idea. But if you see education as preparation for employment, then it is a disservice to our young people to defer to their circadian clocks. They need to learn to adjust to workplace demands, even if it means getting up and leaving for work in the dark. If you are convinced that student athletics and part time employment are character building experiences, then beginning the school day later and disrupting afternoon practice and work schedules is a detriment to the future of the American way of life. Public educators have an obligation to hear and consider all of these postions, not just those with the most vocal advocates.

Mathews quotes a former PTA president who says, “People in the school system see the students as their customers, rather than their true customers—those who pay the bills.”

Right again. Taxpayers are our customers. Elected officials are our decision makers. But students are the clients that we, as educators, have an obligation to serve. The closest parallel to education may be healthcare. In hospitals patients are the clients and doctors are the decision makers. But the actual customers are the insurance companies because they pay the bills. If hospitals are too eager to accommodate doctors and insurance companies, we are likely to suspect collusion instead of applauding cooperation. But when hospitals and their staffs act as advocates for clients, even if it means resisting pressure from the insurance company customer, they are perceived guardians of their charges. Why then, are educators and schools held to different standards?

I admit that Mathews has a point. Sometimes educators do tend to resist good ideas from outsiders -- and yes, sometimes it is because some of us are ill-informed, obstinate, or arrogant. But I would argue that most of the time educators are cautious because they are keenly aware that, as Mathews points out, “they are handling parents most precious possessions, their children.”

I think I speak for most parents when I say we would appreciate a more willing suspension of disbelief when we pitch a suggestion and an openness to data before school officials make up their minds. Is that going to happen? I doubt it. And if you don't like this column, well, you're just ignorant.

Hmmm. The statement "I speak for most parents" goes to the heart of the problem. Almost every parent with an good idea presumes that all the other parents are in agreement. Threatening to label anyone "who doesn't like this column" as ignorant doesn't exactly invite working together for consensus, does it? Gosh, why would any educator be resistant to cooperating under these circumstances?

I won't presume to speak for most educators, but I think I can safely claim to speak for many when I say that we would appreciate a suspension of suspicious minds. Please don't be so quick to assume that we don’t listen, don’t know, or don’t care. Please realize that we must attempt to balance the diverse needs of our students with the diverse agendas and best interests of parents, policymakers, and the general public. It's true that educators tend to move forward slowly and cautiously they spend time looking in all directions. After all, we are in a School Zone. We're watching out for children.

Posted by Susan Graham at 3:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

After twenty-three years in our house, we couldn't put off refinishing the floors any longer. In the process, we have had to completely empty every closet and cabinet in the house. And I've discovered that in 22 years you can acquire an awful lot of stuff.

I unearthed a few forgotten treasures and a quite a bit of junk, but mostly found that over the years I had stuffed every closet in my house with, you know, stuff. A lot of it was good stuff, but it was stuff I didn't really need or use any more. Mostly there was just too much of it. I didn't want to be burdened with taking care of it, but I felt guilty about throwing good stuff away, so I started offering it to other people. Interestingly, a lot of my old stuff often turned out to be just exactly what someone else needed or wanted. The stuff once again had real value and I got my space back.

I’ve had my job almost as long as I’ve had my house. After 21 years at Gayle Middle School, I have filled up my teacher leadership closet with a lot of stuff as well. Sometimes I took on a leadership role by default, sometimes by volunteering or being volunteered, and sometimes because I begged for the chance to be part of some wonderful new opportunity. But lately I’ve noticed that my calendar is often overbooked, my filing cabinet is overflowing, and there are days when I don’t know if I am coming or going.

Bit by bit, I seem to have indiscriminately stuffed my teacher leadership closet to capacity. I once read about a teacher who, every six years, took a leadership sabbatical. In the seventh year, she rested. She taught her classes and then went home without serving on a committee, chairing a department, writing a report, sponsoring a club, or teaching a professional development class. Her principal understood that she was not quitting. She was regrouping and recharging and would come back ready to take on new challenges.

I'm not brave enough to declare a Year of Jubilee like this teacher did. However, she is my role model as I make this professional New Year’s resolution:

In 2009 I am going to clean out my teacher leadership closet.

For every new leadership job I take on, I will pass an old leadership job to someone else. In some cases I have outgrown a role. In other cases the responsibility has outgrown my abilities. Maybe those responsibilities should go to a colleague who is eager to take on a challenge and who is likely to bring more knowledge, skill or enthusiasm to the tasks.

I’m going to work at soliciting emergent teacher leaders to partner with me for some jobs. Not only does this make the work load lighter, it also opens the door to fresh perspectives and expands networking between the oldies and the newbies. Partnering with someone else allows me to “keep a hand in” on a project, creates continuity, and frees up some closet space for new options.

I am beginning to learn to just say NO. I am no longer so unsure of myself that I fear being ostracized from all leadership opportunities if I don’t always say YES to everything. There is a difference between being finicky and being selective.

I’m also going to encourage nascent leaders to be proactive in pursuing leadership responsibilities. Since it is easier to recruit parade leaders than public martyrs, this requires that I give up whining about being unappreciated.

I plan to rat out teachers who are doing good things. Teachers are notorious for false modesty and the inability to self-advocate. Often administrators are unaware of what the teachers in their school know and are doing because no one tells them.

In the last five years, I’ve had opportunities that I never dreamed of. Like Leo, I was a Late Bloomer and I was over halfway through my career before I tried my hand at leadership. For the longest time, I didn't think about doing anything except closing my door and teaching my kids. Then a principal pushed me, my CTE Director mentored me, and a couple of dear teacher friends invited me to join them in a couple of projects.

I was catapulted into a whole new world of leadership possibilities by the community of gifted educators at Teacher Leaders Network who boost each other up to see over their classroom walls. I want to help make that happen for other teachers, and I'd like to see it happen for them early in their careers.

I believed shared leadership is the key to building powerful schools. So I resolve to clean out that leadership closet and give away some roles to some colleagues who will make better use of them and treasure them as I once did. And who knows, in the process I might even free up time and space for some new acquisitions myself.

Posted by Susan Graham at 1:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)