July 2011 Archives

John Merrow sends his regrets:

I won't be reporting from Saturday's Save Our Schools March and Rally because my young granddaughters (and their parents) are visiting from Barcelona,

I totally understand Mr. Merrow. I'm a grandparent too and time with grandchildren is precious.

Jay Mathews, nationally recognized education pundit at The Washington Post apparently will not be able make it either. He titled yesterday's blog: School march won't unite us, but so what? I'm sure he didn't mean to sound dismissive. He must have thought about coming since he wrote

If I were at the "Save Our Schools" march around the White House, my sign would say "Bring Us Together." Too many of us who care about schools are picking at each other, but maybe I am expecting too much... Some of us want to focus on what is happening in classrooms.

The Post offices are only a few miles from the White House, so Jay knows just how miserably hot and humid it will be out there Saturday. But I guess I'm a little confused about the identity of the "some of us" to which he refers. Which ones of us comprise that "some of us?"

I'm also a little surprised by his choice of sign slogans. "Bring Us Together" seems a little inconsistent with Mathew's usual willingness to live up to his blog's name, Class Struggle. In most cases, he's not shy about taking a position. Just last year he was consistently and adamantly supportive of Michelle Rhee's themes of "Go Hard or Go Home." I don't recall him encouraging compromise as she closed schools and fired principals and teachers. When there were accounting errors, testing irregularities, teacher firings, union busting, politicization of her office, and incendiary comments in the press he seemed to agree that "sometimes you just have to break a few eggs to make an omelet." While I agree that it seems "...we rarely meet each other halfway," it seems that "all of us" and not just "some of us" might need to be less focused on compliance and a little more open to compromise.

Fortunately, Valarie Strauss, Jay's colleague at The Washington Post who blogs at The Answer Sheet, will be there, in her capacity of education opinion writer. And even though John Merrow will be busy with the grandkids, he posted that

...it's likely that PBS NewsHour will have a presence there. I regret missing the event, because I expect I would recognize a lot of people there. I wish everyone well.

I have a question, however. The acronym SOS is catchy and convenient -- the internationally recognized cry for help. But what are protestors hoping to save our schools FROM? And, just as important, what are they FOR?

The "catchy and convenient SOS acronym" is indeed a cry for help. Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure the message that educators, parents, and other supporters are trying to communicate is this. We need to Save Our Ship of public education. It is the great equalizer that has made America the land of opportunity for those who were born here and those who arrived here from distance shores. There's no question that public education is floundering in rough water. War weary from the Policy Wars it is battered. Its crew of teachers have been under attack and they are disheartened and battle weary. And our passengers, America's children, are at risk. With good intentions, it seems as if some stakeholders have seized on a different interpretation of SOS. They appear to believe the message is "Sink Our Ship of public education. It's expensive and there's too many aged and overpaid crew members. We could load the passengers into lifeboats and inflatable rafts. They're young and can make do. And while most of them are Waiting for Superman, we try floating some new experimental boats. Meanwhile we can condemn the old tub, sell it as scrap metal, maybe turn a profit on the deal."
Unless I misunderstand, this is misguided mission that these protesters are hoping to save our schools FROM. They believe that in the last twenty years we've wandered off course, unsuccessfully experimenting with other people's children and attempting to privatize public education.

Because Merrow's HUFFPOST piece linked to the Save Our Schools website, I was surprised that he didn't find the answer to his second question--"More important, what are they FOR?" If you go to the site you'll see a tool bar that says About. Pull that down and you'll see Guiding Principles. Click on that to find this list of what these teachers, parents, and supporters are FOR:

• Equitable funding for all public school communities
• An end to high stakes testing used for the purpose of student, teacher, and school evaluation
• Teacher, family and community leadership in forming public education policies
• Curriculum developed for and by local school communities

The site goes into more details if you're interested and I'm surprised John missed it.
But, he did write that

I regret missing the event, because I expect I would recognize a lot of people there. I wish them well.

I hope the organizers who invested so much of their own time, money, and heart don't take nonattendance on Saturday means non-interest because I, too have to RSVP with great regret. After twenty-eight years in the classroom, I have bad feet and two artificial knees and I can't handle the heat and crowds. I expect that I, too, would recognize a lot of people there. I am so proud and blessed to claim you as colleagues. You know who you are.

I hope policymakers, stakeholders and the media understand that it isn't just a protest about testing, tenure and retirement. Teachers aren't asking for help, they are offering help in response to the distress signal that stakeholders have been sending ever since A Nation At Risk was published. The SOS agenda is doing what's best for our children and their development. SOS marchers realize that 20% of our children live in poverty and to say that hunger, inadequate medical care, unsafe neighborhoods and dysfunctional families are not excuses is inexcusable. Practitioners and parents know instruction that is driven by the data from a single sitting test is developmentally inappropriate and it doesn't prepare children to develop their own answers to the challenges of an unknown future. Participants see the unanticipated consequences when theoretical policy plans collide with the realities of implementation in the field. They know these things because they are the ones who see the faces of children not flowcharts and spreadsheets.

SOS marchers coming from all across America because they care about the children in their classrooms.They are not a problem to be dealt with or a distraction to be dismissed with "so what?" They are the first wave of an army of 4 million highly educated and motivated citizens in small towns, urban centers and suburban neighborhood. If our nation is serious about saving our schools, it is time to invite teachers to the policy table.

[Editorial note: Education Week Teacher is not affiliated with the Save Our Schools event; the views expressed in this opinion blog do not reflect the endorsement of Education Week or Editorial Projects in Education, which take no editorial positions.]

Posted by Susan Graham at 2:58 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

It's mid-July, but we've had an uncommonly nice weather this weekend. I've been enjoying one of the guilty pleasures of summer--sitting on the porch and reading. I take my book and a glass of limeade, turn on the ceiling fan, settle into my wicker chaise lounge, look out over my garden and read.

At least I start reading. But I must admit to another summer indulgence. When I get still, comfortable and calm, I have a tendency to drift off and take a nap. I used to be annoyed with myself for falling to sleep, but over the years I've become more permissive. Now one of my summer projects is catching up on sleep because, according to this Scientific American article, I am chronically and critically sleep deprived.

A 2005 survey by the National Sleep Foundation reports that, on average, Americans sleep 6.9 hours per night--6.8 hours during the week and 7.4 hours on the weekends. Generally, experts recommend eight hours of sleep per night, although some people may require only six hours of sleep while others need ten. That means on average, we're losing one hour of sleep each night--more than two full weeks of slumber every year.

Whoops! During the school year I tend to manage on about five to six hours most nights, but it's not that uncommon that I am still at this computer at two and I face the day with no more than four hours of sleep. I've done this for years now because late hours is how I've managed to balance a full personal life with a full teaching load, graduate school, and teacher leadership responsibilities. I wanted to have it all, and so I what I decided to give up was sleep. But among the animal kingdom, humans seem to be unique in their willingness to go without sleep. Have you ever noticed how much your pet sleeps? Sleep is natural and that makes us out of sync with our design. Science Daily reported that

Even though animals and humans may be able to adapt their sleep system to deal with repeated sleep restriction conditions, there could be negative consequences when this pattern is maintained over a long period of time. This brings us back to the idea that repeated partial sleep restriction in humans has been linked to metabolic dysfunction and cardiovascular disease.

Yet, I admit that I see my ability to remain functional in spite of insufficient rest as sort of a badge of honor; and I'm not alone. I know a lot of adults who are sleep deprived. But what may be more concerning is that our children and teenagers are chronically overtired . School age and preteens need 10 to 12 hours and adolescents need between 8.5 and 9.5 hours. But they are getting less and less. Since 1970 they have lost approximately one hour per night.

Insufficient sleep impacts the physical health. We are struggling with a national epidemic of childhood obesity and, at the same time research tells us that there is a corollary between sleep deprivation in children and adolescents and obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. No parent would encourage their child athletes to stoke up on candy bars and sodas, but many of those same parents don't hesitate to get kids up early or keep them up late for soccer or swim team practice.

In the last thirty years, we've seen a huge increase in attention deficient and hyperactivity disorders in the last thirty years. The inattention, hyperactivity, forgetfulness, poor impulse control or impulsivity and distractibility that characterizes ADHD make school and personal life difficult for children. More exercise or medication or altered learning conditions are often part of a treatment plan, but the link between ADHD and lack of sleep is rarely addressed.

The apparent increase in bullying in our schools gets regular headlines. When we discuss how to deal with bullying, no one suggests earlier bedtimes. Yet according the research at the University of Michigan Medical School, " Children who are bullies or have conduct problems at school are more likely to be sleepy during the day."

So we know that lack of sleep can impact physical health and emotional health, but if we do want our kids to be smart and to be smart they have to study hard. And to they study hard they'll just have to put in an extra hour and get that homework finished. But maybe not because according to research by Dr. Matthew Walker of UC Berkley,

During sleep, the brain shifts what it learned that day to more efficient storage regions of the brain. Each stage of sleep plays a unique role in capturing memories....The more you learned during the day, the more you need to sleep that night.... We have an incendiary situation today where the intensity of learning that kids are going through is so much greater, yet the amount of sleep they get to process that learning is so much less. If these linear trends continue, the rubber band will soon snap.

We push our kids hard these days. We haul them out of bed at 6:30 so we can drop them off at daycare at 7:30 so we can be at work at 8:00. Then we take pick them up at 5:30, feed them a quick dinner and try to fit in soccer practice or music lessons or church activities and a little family time. There's still homework and reading and bath time and it's tough to get them in bed before 9:00. But if they get the 10 to 12 hours they needed, that's not enough. Then they get older and practices get longer and homework becomes more complicated and there's the social thing and maybe a part time job and many of our middle school and high school kids function on less than 5 hours rather than the 9 hours of sleep they need. And somehow we've developed a mind set that says studying late into the night is an indication of future success.

I have a new grandson who is 7 months old. Ben is a very good baby. Translation: He sleeps regularly, deeply, and he does it a lot. When teenagers sleep regularly deeply and do a lot of it, grown ups roll their eyes. If is sleep desirable in a baby, why isn't it desirable in a teenager?

In some high tech businesses napping is encouraged as a way to recharge creative energy and process new idea. If we really want to improve student learning, maybe we should reinstate naptime for all P-12 students. It sounds good to me.

Posted by Susan Graham at 8:35 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

One of the best things about summer is time to read. I read in bed in the morning; I read on the porch midday; I read on the couch in the afternoon; I read in the bathtub at night.

I read the professional books that have been stacking up on my desk, I read the classics that I never got around to, I read my book club selections, and murder mysteries, two newspapers, an assortment of journals and magazines. And I may be the only person I know who reads the product descriptions in the catalogs that arrive in the mail almost daily.

I admit that I may have an unhealthy interest in other people's reading habits. I tend to wander over to to see which books are on the shelves of the bookcases in homes that I visit. What books do my students carry around? What are my colleagues reading? Which books are other people considering in the bookstore or library? Which newspapers are fellow passengers in the airport reading? I guess that makes me nosey doesn't it?

Maybe my unabashed curiosity is the reason I've been particularly interested in a current decorating trend. In decorating magazines and catalogs, I've noticed that there are bookcases and there are books---but the books have been wrapped in plain brown or white paper. There are no titles or authors or illustrated book jackets on whole shelves of books. Some would argue that this is just a decorating conceit; an attempt to present a clean, uncluttered look. After all, what's the point of books if you don't know what's in them? But to me, those blank book jackets represent a new political and intellectual movement. I'll call it Readers Anonymous.

I understand how perfectly respectable readers are enticed down this slippery slope. It starts innocently enough with email. Then comes an occasional on-line article or news story The next thing you know, their newspaper doesn't land on the porch, it's delivered virtually. And before you know it, they are downloading books to their phone or an electronic reader.

I'm very attached to my books. There are bookcases in every room of my house and to quote Mr. Jefferson, "I cannot live without books." But while I love looking at a wall of books, am attune to the sound of a rustling newspaper, find the smell of old paper rather heady, and relish the feel of a hardbound book in my hands; I now own a Kindle.

Tucked into a discrete 5x7 black leather cover, the content of my reading is my secret. The observer has no idea whether I'm reading profound scholarly articles, a best selling self help book, or a trashy bodice ripper romance. I, too, have become a member or Readers Anonymous.

So here's what is interesting to me. While our intellectual life becomes more enigmatic because of technology, that same technology opens our personal life to the world as people post the intimate information on their Facebook page.

So what does it all mean? Well, I just googled Readers Anonymous and it doesn't exist yet. But when I googled how digital reading changes reading habits I got 32,100, 000 results. Good thing I have plenty of time to read!

Posted by Susan Graham at 11:03 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

It's the Fourth of July and the media around the country has been honing in on some bad news:

According to a recent study by National Assessment of Education Progress, only 20 percent of fourth-graders, 17 percent of eighth-graders and 12 percent of high school seniors were proficient on a nationwide test of history knowledge....While those at NAEP say these results are largely unchanged over the last time such student knowledge was assessed in 2006, it remains troubling to see the lack of knowledge as a constant. Which brings us back to the yardstick. History teachers can tell you the difficulties of cramming knowledge of the past into tests featuring a neat multiple choice format.

I thought about that last night as I honored one of my personal Fourth of July traditions. After the Raft Race and the Heritage Festival, and the fried chicken and potato salad and watermelon, and the fireworks down by the river, I watched 1776. For probably the 30th time, I watched the singing and dancing version of the Declaration of Independence.

Out there someone is smirking and thinking, "So this is why our kids don't know American History! See, we really do need to fire all the bad teachers! Can this teacher possibly be so dumb that she thinks a musical movie is a primary source for information on the First Continental Congress?" No, I'm fully aware of the dramatic licenses that were taken. But here's the thing, when I first saw those patriots take on skin and blood as they sing and dance across a stage over 30 years ago, I wanted to know more about them. I've searched them out and spent time getting to know them---who they were outside of Carpenter's Hall in Philadelphia, what their lives were like, what became of them, and reading what they wrote. Now I sing along with my laptop on, digging a little deeper and yes, discovering the inaccuracies in the dramatization.

While we may try, history can never completely accurate because it must be told from someone's perspective. We can really only make educated guesses at the motivations and long term visions of those shadowy figures in history. But it seems important to remember that history was made by real people. Watching 1776 reminds me that becoming a nation didn't come easy. It wasn't all high ideals and noble actions. It required compromises--some which were selfless, many that were pragmatic, some that were far less than noble. It reminds me that we all have personal as well as public agendas and it's difficult to separate the two. It reminds me that what we do today may have unforeseen outcomes and consequences that we can only imagine.

Last night, during my annual on screen reunion with Ben, Tom, John and that tough cookie, Abigail and the mysterious and tragic Martha, I was singing along and tapping my feet with Richard Henry Lee. But once again, I was sobered by the price these patriots paid in their fight for freedom and our responsibility to keep faith with what they did. John Adams warned us

The jaws of power are always open to devour, and her arm is always stretched out, if possible, to destroy the freedom of thinking, speaking, and writing.

And that made me think about what I read a couple of days before in the blog of Mr. D who is concerned that our current education policies will not prepare the next generation to maintain the freedom that our forefathers and foremothers fought to acquire and preserve for us.

They will not understand the meaning of why "all men are created equal." They will not understand the importance and fragility of our "inalienable rights" of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." They will not be able to participate in a government that is "instituted among men," nor will they be able to adequately serve as the "consent of the governed."

John Adams said "There are two types of education... One should teach us how to make a living, And the other how to live."

So Mr. D, who knows his history and how to teach it, is going to Washington July 28 -31 because, like many teachers out there, he believes we need to SAVE OUR SCHOOLS.

With good intentions, people who don't know much about teaching and learning are making bad decisions about educating our children. I would argue that this may be the result of policymakers who are too far away from the realities of the classroom and as a result they tend to forget that schools places of potential rather than measurable outcomes. Teachers, who look into the faces of children can see what is obscured at a distance. Our schools are teaming with Life. They are the incubators of Liberty. They should be a place where The Pursuit of Happiness occurs.

Whether people recognize it or not, I believe most teachers hold that as their own sacred trust. Lately teachers have tried reason, they've tried compromise, and they've tried just trying harder. But, with apologies to Mr. Paine, "these are the times that try teacher's souls," and since policymakers seem deaf to Common Sense, it may be time to heed the words of Jefferson who said, "Dissent is the highest form of patriotism."

Posted by Susan Graham at 2:50 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend