Many years ago I was employed by a prestigious institute, which partnered with an esteemed university, to visit elementary schools across Vermont (all names withheld) and closely observe classrooms in action. There was a scoring form used, the rubrics were primarily oriented towards engagement, involvement, inspiration, and critical thinking.
One classroom I visited was vaunted in advance as a high scoring classroom on standardized tests, the teacher a veteran known for their effectiveness. This was an early ed room, first or second grade. The teacher was brusque, professional, their M.O. seemed to be some kind of tough love. My work began as usual with the start of the day– sessions lasted a whole day– our role was akin to the Star Trek prime directive, observing only, being careful to not interfere.
At one point early in the day, a student raised their hand and indicated they needed to use the bathroom. The teacher asked them aloud, what kind of use, to which the student sheepishly responded by holding up appropriate number of fingers. The bathroom was in the classroom, the student went in, closed the door, and at that moment the teacher turned over an egg-timer, a little hour-glass. When the sands ran out two minutes later, the teacher rang a handbell, and began knocking on the door, summoning the student to appear. All other students watched in rapt horror as this undoubtedly oft repeated sequence unfolded.
I was immediately mortified by this act of shaming, made worse by pressuring and regimenting something so natural, personal, and universal. Besides this event, the ‘school day’ proceeded unexceptionally, and I tried filling in the rubrics with objective equanimity. Later in the week, our team of auditors met with the project supervisor. When I related what I witnessed, I learned that my supervisor had a very different take on this classroom’s functionality and scoring.
She said that such an act of dehumanization essentially invalidates all other achievement. That all of my grading should have happened in the light of that indignity. That a classroom that wasn’t safe, wasn’t free of harassment is a toxic environment no matter what academic results may ensue. Since then I’ve thought long and hard on this idea, and watched it play out in the many zones I’ve had access to as a teacher and specialist.
Performance numbers may say some things, but I’ve got to say that as a fairly integrated, yet independent fly on the wall I’ve observed some not such wonderful things. Realizing there are differing styles, I’m left with the question posed by my supervisor. In exalting high performance, at what risk is achievement traded for fairness, security, and dignity for all? Do blemishes in a learning environment merely mar academic ambiance, or is there a greater standard that classrooms, schools, and personnel should be judged by?
Not always like this
From 1881:
“The examination of the Grammar school senior class, conducted by three resident clergymen who gave out a series of questions of which neither teachers nor pupils had any previous knowledge, shows a very satisfactory degree of proficiency.”
What if we tossed the current system of evaluation and returned to something more like this? Real people in our community asking our scholars our questions.
…
The first day of kindergarten, I was not happy. The teacher noticed and brought me a toy truck, placing it on the table in front of me. After a while I took the bait, and slowly rolled it back and forth, somewhat depressed.
The teacher returned and scolded me. “We don’t play with trucks on the school tables,” she announced.
I think if I had know obscenities I would have used one.
…
“Would you like small or large?” asks the person behind the counter.
“Small,” we answer.
“We only have large,” they reply.
(True story of a visit to a diner.)
Anecdotal Academia
In 15 years of school, I had several abusive teachers. Of those, one personally hated me for reasons unknown, and the rest had it in for various friends of mine. Never, to my knowledge, did a teacher use an egg timer or go pound on the bathroom door. That’s beyond the pale. But I do know that my 5th grade teacher’s harassment led to me having panic attacks and not being able to concentrate. My defenses were up, waiting for when the daily abuse would commence, and much of that year was useless as far as learning anything new was concerned.
The good as well
So how many of us have had a teacher who noticed our talents, encouraged us, advocated for us and made a real difference in our lives? I has some –how about you?
Panglossing over?
I’d hope as a school board member you’d be open to inquiry, and receptive to the idea of improvement in school environments. Please understand I’m not taking your comment to mean teachers and administrators are beyond reproach, but it seems you were quick to counterpose without letting my point sink in. And if you read my article carefully you’ll note that I didn’t pass judgment on that teacher’s ability, I related an exchange about how learning frameworks and classrooms are evaluated. And implications or conditions that may follow.
For the record, both my parents were teachers, as were many of their friends, and I was too, and many of my friends…In over two decades as an educator I’ve seen plenty of good, and bad. Not only do I value the importance of positive forces in the lives of youth, I’m writing so that this spirit of nurturance might be furthered, despite the present rush towards quantifiable results.
Glossy
Well spinoza you will be relieved to know that I have not been a member of the school board for more than a year now. I would hope that you would understand that I would not support the behavior of the teacher you described in any way as a parent a taxpayer or a member of that board. Humiliating students is not acceptable. As I have no personal experience of such behavior in my dealing with teachers in our district I can only hope that after witnessing such a thing that you took action to prevent it from happening again. I would hope anyone would.
Maybe you are too subtle for me – but your post it seemed like a story of a incident that was meant to paint a broad picture of how education is done here, or to imply how government school works now, or how the drive for high test scores does not allow children meet their biological needs in a humane way. I’m not sure – but I think that the odds are good that for every “bad teacher” story there is most likely a good one too. That is the messy work of humans.
I never ever claimed that anyone is beyond reproach–however I do think that if people are serious about changing things they need to do more than just post provocative tales on-line . They need to study the issues, go to public meetings, vote, run for board seats, lobby, talk to their neighbors, agitate, and identify and move the levers of power. It all starts with just showing up when is counts.
All candidates for town governance positions were unopposed this year- just sayin’
" at what risk is achievement
” at what risk is achievement traded for fairness, security, and dignity for all? ”
It seems like anyone who isn’t average is going to pay the price in some way.
I was what was typically labelled an advanced student. I was often in situations where we were waiting for others to catch up. There were a few times when the whole class was in sync and the teacher could move us all along, but more often a class could be stopped by a class clown, someone acting out, or kids asking for everything to be repeated again.
One exceptional class was Mrs. Leonard’s Geomtery class. She was old-school, teaching us proofs, and signing them QED. She did the opposite of most teachers. She looked for those of us who were interested and gave it all to us. If you jerked around or didn’t pay attention, you fell behind. If you worked hard, she’d work you harder. It was great.
To get into this class we had to beg the school system in Florida. I had just moved down after taking a the regents Algebra test in NY. They wanted to place me in… an algebra class. We finally made a deal where I would be driven to the high school for geometry, then could walk over to the junior high for the rest of my classes. I had to work in the library at the junior high each day until the schedules lined up.
Of course, the same year, they put me in a basic, remedial English because of scheduling. (They were being lazy). It was awful. Kids would ask if spelling counted on vocabulary quizzes and the teacher would say “no.” I was finally able to drop my typing class and get into a proper English class (which, being Florida, wasn’t really very advanced at all. “What is the date of the copyright of this book?” was a question on an open book exam.)
The long lasting effect? I type with almost, but not all, of my fingers. I got the the level of mastering about three fingers on each hand before leaving the class. : )
…
But, that’s me. When we put a group of kids in a room with a teacher, my needs can’t be the only ones. Other kids might need different sorts of help or encouragement. So the teacher tries to reach as many as possible. A handy nationally-approved program of average learning might seem appealing in this case. It’s scientifically proven!
…
Good or bad, it does seem like what happens in school sticks with us for a very long time.
Dropping a load
Thanks to Spinoza and the folks making comments to his schooling articles he makes me revisit my own schooling.
I have to admit I breezed through schooling with occasional shining moments, but the bigger picture was more like a “program of average learning.”
But it is the vagaries of the educational experience from a teacher’s perspective which is new to me. The peaks and valleys Spinoza has taken and continues taking us through is a side I might not have been exposed to if it weren’t for him reporting those experiences in a powerfully “human interest” way.
Please advise
This has me puzzled.
Should all conversations and stories about schools and teachers point out positive experiences?
not necessarily
All conversations should be what the participants want to say. Period.
what can, should and needs to be said
It is obvious – to me anyway – the educational system needs to hear the truth. Are children always handled in the most ideal way in all schools at all times? No. Do public schools drift toward an average education in their quest to reach all children who present themselves at the door? I’ll say yes, even as someone who has spent his life teaching in our local public schools. At the same time, do our schools provide amazing opportunities for all ranges of student achievement? I confess I’ll have to answer yes to that, too.
There was an inner city principal who grew tired of all the charges that the school he led was ‘failing’. He told a journalist that the school was actually one of the few things in the neighborhood that was ‘working’. Employment, healthcare, transportation, public safety, childcare, nutrition, etc were all letting the children and their families down. No wonder his young charges ran across the school’s threshold each morning.
I have spent my life promoting public education, supporting it with all my being, and attempting to be a truth teller with regards to our schools and their shortcomings. Yes, schools should be held to a higher standard. Scandals have rocked all manner of schooling from private, parochial, home and public. Shaming can take place anywhere and can only be defeated by transparency.
“Children are always learning, but they are not always learning what we are teaching them.” This is one of my favorite quotes because it recognized the inherent resourcefulness, perception and cleverness of children. I think one of the saddest things that “outcomes based, data driven” instruction has led to is the fiction that we can create a system where we know how to educate everyone with “research based” curriculum. Although I learned Spanish in high school I mostly remember learning in Spanish class about the long and painful set of political and corporate bullying that South America had endured over the years. We learn content from our teachers, we also learn what our teachers demonstrate each and every day in how they act toward others.
“If we teach children something but do not assess that knowledge, did they learn anything?” – A. Davis
E. F. Schumacher, of “Small Is Beautiful” fame, used the example of human education as his prime example of a “divergent” problem. Divergent problems present more solutions the more you investigate the root question. “No Child Left Behind” – and its offspring – treats education like a “convergent” problem. Convergent problems are essentially mechanical in nature: the more you investigate the more one solution appears.
One of the oldest criticisms of public education in America has been that public schools arose during industrialization and hence resemble factories. As Sir Ken Robinson (TED Talks) has noted, we organize children in schools “according to their date of manufacture.” The age of testing and high stakes assessment has driven us deeper into that industrial (and now corporate) model.
Is the answer private schools? John Dewey’s dream of “education for democracy” requires diversity of race, class, culture and values. It saddens me that so many families have been alienated from public schools. Well over half of the children in our Brattleboro Town Schools are growing up eligible for food assistance. Our town schools continue to excel despite imperfections and mistakes. It may be this inherent diversity of outlook that fuels our public schools despite the political and economic challenges they face.
I hope this conversation can continue with honesty. Not many teachers feel safe speaking about what they see and experience in schools. Becca Balint’s column this week in the Reformer was “spot on.”
http://www.reformer.com/Opinion/ci_27678568/Balint:-We-are-the-85-percent
Yes, a higher standard. But that will take a public process that includes honesty, courage and trust.
Andy