 Two brothers. They are genius IQ level and completed the same intense level of study and training at the world's foremost brain surgery clinic. Both brothers were the highest scoring student on record. In their practice, however, they have taken a different approach. Robert has elected to follow the time tested practice of performing one brain surgery at a time, in an orderly and methodical manner. His brother Phillipe, however, equally skilled as Robert, has elected to follow the modern practice of differentiation. He will perform five to sic brain surgeries at the same time, jumping around as needed and adjusting his time with each patient based on their needs. Which brother will you choose for your brain surgery? With your choice made, let me ask you how you would expect a classroom teacher to differentiate in a class with at least six sub-groups; gifted, average, behavior, language learners, struggling students and special education students?  If you think that your child is getting a quality education you are mistaken by the duration of time they are in class. Compared to home schooling where a six-hour public school curriculum is covered in two hours, with greater emphasis on hands on learning and with higher scores and stronger retention, one must ask what the point of subjecting a student to six to seven hour day where they will only get the teacher's attention one sixth of the time, if they are lucky? The gifted students get bored. The average students do not care; all their incentives have been taken from them. The language learners who get a half hour uninterrupted, spend the rest of their day struggling to catch words they understand and wind up frustrated. Modern logic does not consider a bilingual teacher an advantage. Struggling students are the base level at which the class lessons are paced. Nonetheless, with teacher only able to spend a sixth of the time helping them, working with them or arranging for assistance, they remain struggling and unable to find the joy of learning because there is no joy; it is drudgery and thank God recess comes around for both student and teacher.  Behavior students may be one sixth of the class but they suck two thirds of the teacher's recourses and patience, often interrupting and causing breaks in any teaching pattern. And with the public school's deplorable method of handling behavior students (I have seen students sent to the principal get candy from the idiot principal's candy box because that was her 'style' of leadership) and site leaders downplaying the need to suspend since higher numbers on the suspension and expulsion list of the school report cards looks bad, it is left to the teacher to deal with the brunt of the student and often, their idiotic parents as well. Special education students get pulled out of the classroom for resource and special ed services that they receive. In the process, aside from being babied into a low performing consistency, upon their return to the classroom they are already lost on the new content. In the end class size reduction is pushed so that the teacher can afford to spend more time with each child. That is a solution? NO that is not a solution. I have taught in a 20:1 as well as a 34:1. K-3 at the 20:1 is as much work as a 4th or 5th grade 34:1. The structure is wrong. Someone please explain to me why teachers must differentiate? Why do classes have to be mainstreamed? This process, aside from preventing discrimination based lawsuits does nothing for education services that the child receives. It defies logic. And just as you would not chose Phillipe for your brain surgeon, we should not have this ridiculous notion of education the masses through mainstreaming. It does not work. Drop out rates, poor college freshman remediation rates all support that it does not work. Teachers can support that it does not work. Education should be a pleasure. You should be in a class with similar ability students regardless of race. You should, regardless of your level, have the option to display competence to change levels as needed, in either direction. Your classroom should be harmonious where the teacher can fire up the students to want to learn with no interruptions. The teacher should be able to put out 300% for the whole class and not fragmented bits at unpredictable times. Doesn't your child deserve that kind of learning environment? It used to be that way until some fool and a lawsuit changed things. MisterWriter |
Saturday, June 6, 2009
THE BRAIN SURGERY ANALOGY - you choose!
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14 comments:
You pose some interesting thoughts and given that you are a teacher, you should know. Your are correct about the rules that we must operate under as a school district, they are filled with political agendas.
Since my early days as a School Board member, I have wondered why we baby students who insist on behaving badly. We need to change the rule from "every student has the right to a quality education" to every student has a right to access a quality education, provided they show up on time, prepared to learn, dressed appropriately, and without behavior issues.
We should do everything in our power to ensure that teachers have an educational environment that is conducive to learning, and that includes removing students that won't behave. That sounds simple, but you would be surprised at how many people outside of the classroom who refuse to treat behavior problems as most people would with their own children. When I say that, the problem is not with our administration, the problem is with the system and the education code. The education code is so prescriptive when it comes to dealing with behavior problems that local school districts have their hands tied. My question is how will that ever change? Who has the courage to take on the bleeding heart do gooders who believe that we must give every student 20 chances to correct their behavior, while at the same time has the leadership skills and charisma to motivate the system to follow them? Arnold doesn't, although he said he was going to take on the system. Davis certainly didn't. So who or what will lead us out of this mess?
One more issue while my soap box is out. The biggest example of institutional racism is how California and the Nation deals with English Language Learners. How in the world does anyone really believe that you can place ELL students, who are struggling with the English language, in all of the other academic classes and expect that they will achieve? There is a reason why the US Military has a language institute where they send soldiers to learn a foreign language for a year, before they begin other training. ELL students need the same benefit, they need to have the advantage of being placed in an intensive full time English program where they do nothing but learn English. Once they have acquired English language literacy, they can then be placed back in the full academic program. Currently it takes ELL students about 8 years to learn enough English to be reclassified from ELL to English proficient. By that time, they are underachievers in all other subjects. That my friends is institutional racism. The current system is broken, everyone knows it's broken, but the policy makers in Sacramento and Washington are too afraid to do anything about it. They worry that if they pull the ELL students aside for 1 or 2 years for intensive language training, they will be called racists for segregating students.
The system is segregating students by knowingly allowing the current failures to continue. There is no student subgroup that benefits from the current system.
There is little that we can do to change how school districts deal with these issues. The changes must be in the laws and in the courts.
I just finished a book recommended to me called Disrupting Class, by Clayton M. Christensen. The book specifically speaks to the fact that in 10 years 50% of all class instruction at the high school level will be online. It even goes as far as to say it will be driven by a user network. It discusses obstacles like the teachers union and textbook companies. Disruptive innovation has applied to business innovations and is now being considered as a way to change public education. In this new world of education it will be less expensive to educate our kids, the curriculum will be customized to specific learning styles, students will work at their own pace without having to move on until a concept is mastered, and teachers will have jobs where they can actually work one on one with students in the role of tutor, mentor, and facilitator… how much more rewarding would that be?
All this can be accomplished in the same classroom.
Gifted students would not be bored, average students would be motivated and, by deduction, behavioral problems would lessen.
As a parent I would no longer be frustrated by strings of substitutes who show pointless movies, my student would receive instant assessment of schoolwork rather than waiting weeks and sometimes not receiving feedback at all. There would be consistency from one classroom to another.
This learning method would open up the world to our students. Imagine being a 5th year language student taking a World History class being taught in France. What a perspective. How about a geology class that plans a three week trip to study volcanoes and student don't miss a day of class because they can be connected anywhere.
These are internet driven programs that require no more hardware than a computer and a $10 headset
Personally I don't know what you are waiting for. There is more the district can do.
The information is out there, the trends support this move in education, try Google... you will be amazed.
More on solving the behavior problems by engaging students:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_M_336pDWoM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHiby3m_RyM
Sorry
One more that I could not let go by.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A-ZVCjfWf8
Gary, now is the time to look at reforming education. When we have the kind of crisis that is facing MDUSD we have an opportunity to come together as a community and bring resources together for reform. Lets stop talking about disengaged kids who misbehave and start talking about how to engage them. I would rather see parents donating money and starting foundations that would help transform education not replace existing programs on a piece meal basis.
Has MDUSD thought about bringing the leaders for 21st century education reform together this summer to brainstorm ways of creating a better environment for our student and save money at the same time?
Maybe it can't be done... I personally think it can.
Gary, thanks for the comment. I guess the real question is HOW we change the rules. And if a legal change is required what is the best way to achieve that?
Linda L - an interesting concept. I do believe that there can be some legislation that allows a disruptive child who has passed through the process to be moved to a behavior school run by an ex-military teacher. Drop and give me twenty - could be PE.
Misterwriter,
I don't understand your comment to me. I don't doubt there are disruptive kids. I also know that kids are being taught in an environment that is no longer reflective of what they see, hear, and do outside the classroom.
This problem of disruptive students is more complicated than shipping them off to boot camp.
This year my daughter had two separate instances where the students in the class unanimously opted to teach the lesson to themselves.
1. She had a class where the teacher never showed up and after waiting 20 minutes they found the lesson plan that had been left for the sub and the entire class stayed and completed the assignment.
2. She had a class where they were going on a fifth day of having a substitute teacher who did nothing but put on a movie and would say "don't bother me". Finally these kids passed a note around class and assigned themselves chapters 27, 28, and 29 out of their textbooks. They agreed to have a class discussion that Friday (it was Wednesday). When they took a vote it was 30 - 1 in favor of the plan.
I am tired of hearing that so many of the problems are because of the behavior of the student. I have not seen a post about excessive absences by teachers, teachers who who don't even get halfway through the course work in a year, teachers who have "checked out". Let's ask ourselves why students are disengaged? Just as there are good teachers there are good students. If we are going to lobby to change the laws about dealing with misbehaving students, lets change the contract of union teachers. Let's remove tenure and make them accountable to their students.
The point of my first post was to say to our school board, that it is time to look at the bigger picture. Look at the way kids are being taught. I want them to ask themselves if it is possible that disengaged kids who misbehave may be symptomatic of a bigger problem... we have an antiquated educational system that bores our students and does not prepare them for the world they will enter after high school (work and college).
Linda L, you wrote: "I want them to ask themselves if it is possible that disengaged kids who misbehave may be symptomatic of a bigger problem..."
I believe you are ABSOLUTELY correct that there is a bigger problem. However, I believe the bigger problem is in the home; the parents.
My wife is a teacher. Too many times she has come home and told me about parents that tell her they don't know how to "control" their 11/12 year old: "I can't get them to do their homework"; "She's at her father's every other week and he doesn't care what clothes she wears to school"; "My child would have never done such a thing- you're lying", etc.
You also wrote: "we have an antiquated educational system that bores our students and does not prepare them for the world they will enter after high school (work and college)."
I partially disagree. From what I hear and read, one of the biggest problems is what MisterWriter wrote about- mainstreaming kids with learning disabiliites, behavioral issues, and kids who don't speak English. From my memory of 30+ years ago, that didn't happen back then. Special ed kids were not mainstreamed.
Two examples my wife has shared with me:
1) She had a girl come into her class mid-year from Brazil, who spoke no English, only her native language of Portugese. She ended up sitting next to a child (these are 6th graders) who was from Mexico, who spoke little English. The Spanish-speaking child would repeat what little he understood in Spanish to the Portugese-speaking girl, and she understood whatever she understood from that, which couldn't have been too much. So from an English-speaking teacher, to a Spanish-speaking 6th grader, to the Portugese-speaking girl: how much do you think that young woman learned? Virtually nothing. Who's to blame? The girl? The "translator"? The teacher? NO, the system that would put two non-English speaking students in a mainstream class and then expect them to keep up with the gifted or even average students. And my wife, the teacher, is supposed to be evaluated on those test scores? How is that fair to anyone??
2) My wife has had students with a variety of learning disabilities. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending upon your vantage point, those students take up a disproportionate amount of resources- time and money. Again, they are mainstreamed.
So, some students are provided laptops, some are provided one-on-one teaching inside of the larger classroom, some are provided speech therapy, occupational therapy, etc. All at district expense.
Home and hospital- several kids have been put on "home and hospital" due to behavioral issues. So, a teacher is paid to meet with the child one-on one outside of school time- in their home, at the school, in the library, etc. The district pays for that! Because some parents are not doing a good job raising their children, the rest of our children, and the district, suffer the consequences. A disruptive child gets booted out of school, only to be taught one-on-one by a paid teacher (above and beyond their salary.)
I don't believe any of these things were happening 30, 40, 50 years ago, and the U.S. was leading the world in education, manufacturing, innovation, medicine, research and development, etc.
I think (no, I don't know for sure), the single biggest drain on the budget is special ed. That HAS to be revamped.
As for your child's experience with subs, movies, etc. Does that happen? I have no doubt. Are there classes where subs don't show? Yes. There is a shortage of people willing to teach or sub for the wages paid, and if enough teachers are out, there are classes with no teachers. Legal? Of course not. Does it sometimes happen? I believe it does.
Are there bad teachers? Yes. Should tenure be abolished or changed? Yes. I believe right now you are tenured on the first day of your 3rd year. That is just wrong.
I am no union fan at all. Get rid of the union. But ultimately, the issue is not the teachers. The bigger issue IS the disruptive students, parents who don't care, or who want to be their child's friend, and trying to teach the gifted students with the special ed kids. Nobody wins, and our children lose.
DodgerDog thanks for the excellent response.
I do believe that a behavior issue that is not resolved through parental involvement and ends needs to result in the kid being shipped elsewhere. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one. It is the parent's responsibility to deal with that.
LindaL, have you filed a complaint with the school principal and the district or have you appeared before the board of ed to share your experience? If so what was the result? If not...why not?
While I do not defend teachers that are useless, lazy or past the time they should retire, tenured and certainly do not justify the teacher union that I believe has many shortcomings, I do know that by and large the teachers are rigorously imposed upon in training and observation and expectations and for the most part you will see teachers bending over backward to give your child 300% even if the teacher if not compensated for it. I won;t comment on the issues you posed with your child until you clarify what action you took at which time I will be happy to comment.
Misterwriter,
As for the sub with the movies, I did go to the Principal who was as moved as I, with respect to the leadership these kids showed. The Principal took over teaching the class until the teacher returned.
I also went to the Principal regarding "no teacher" in the class room and was told that it would not happen again.
It was handled beautifully by the administration. I am not seeking advice from you on how to handle the situation, I am perfectly capable of that. I was trying to illustrate to you that the stakeholders you seem to so willing to defend are also not perfect and the kids that you are so willing to blame show moments of decision making that are inspiring. I am not an uninvolved parent complaining. I also have a child who does not get in trouble and is not part of one of your special groups you want out of the classroom. I am a parent who thinks this system could improve if everyone involved looked at the possibilities for improvement. I am going to state this once again so there is no mistake, there are many wonderful teachers and many wonderful kids. We do however have an antiquated educational system from a stand point of engagement and cost. If anyone thinks that what we need to do is offer our kids exactly what we had 30 years ago I would say you need to do some research.
LindaL, you are certainly welcome to your opinions about the manner of how it should be; after all that is the basis of a good dialog.
Your anger in..."that the stakeholders you seem to so willing to defend are also not perfect and the kids that you are so willing to blame... " hardly accurately sums up my points as I am a defender of things that work and people who work hard at it so please do not presume to think that it is a blanket approval of one group over another.
I certainly agree that there are many good kids; the fact that they have to be in a situation where those who are not are allowed to pollute what could be an otherwise wonderful experience is unfortunate.
I appreciate your comments.
Linda,
It's interesting you mentioned Clayton M. Christensen's book "Disrupting Class". He is going to be speaking at a church in WC at the end of June. I suspect his remarks will be church related, and not too heavy the education challenges facing our youth.
Dodger Dog,
That is too bad that you won't hear him speaking about education. I don't know anything about his religious believes nor is religion addressed anywhere in his book.
I hope you find him interesting with respect to your religion, I found him very interesting with respect to emerging trends in business and in education.
Linda,
I suspect Christensen is going to incorporate some of his ideas into a religous setting, if that's possible.
I had heard about his book, and was thinking of reading it, but after your endorsement I am definitely buying and reading it.
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