I don’t get angry often. I have a fairly long fuse and I will laugh often to keep from blowing up even if it is a sardonic laugh. But I want to yell at someone tonight. I just don’t know who.

I started out in preschool — teaching that is. In 1979 I went to work for the State of Arizona as a resource teacher for children age 0-5 years of age who had identified delays in their development. I spent my mornings working with 3-5 year olds, helping them integrate into normal preschool settings. My first placement was at a school that I was not familiar with but over the next year that I worked there I became good friends with the director/owner of the school.

I had already worked in a couple of preschools part-time while I was getting my first degree in archaeology thanks to the intercession of my wife who with her master’s degree in early childhood had become a director at another preschool. She saw that I had a talent with kids and nepotism didn’t bother me.

This school was very different from the one my wife ran, but I was flexible.

As I said the director of my new school and I became friends because she immediately saw I was not just some government lackey, I actually knew about kids, knew how to work in a preschool and I went out of my way to integrate myself into whatever program I was placed in. I went on to work in many different schools over the seven years I was with the state, each with its own character, but continued to be close friends with that owner long after I left her school.

Eventually I went on to teach in public school. I stayed mostly in early education, spending eleven years in kindergarten and seven years in second grade. My friend’s program grew for a time and she expanded to another site on the other side of town but after going through a divorce and as her kids got older she decided a career change was in order. She sold her schools and after a few false starts, using her original teaching degree she returned to the education field. She continued to grow in skills and eventually found that teaching English special education in middle school beckoned to her. She enjoyed the work, was innovative in her approach and seemed to in a good place professionally.

Except with colleagues.

Interpersonal skills with peers had never been her strong suit.

Everywhere she went she seemed to have a problem with being somewhat blunt with what she said to others. She also suffered enormous mood swings. Then there was supervision, often a problem for teachers who are left to their own devices so much, additionally, having been the boss herself for many years she struggled to deal with her various principals especially when she saw them as simply hassling her for her lack of tact and her tendency to speak up about whatever was on her mind. Few, if any, criticized her teaching, in fact most gave her good evaluations because, as I said, she was good at it.

She went to the doctor about her issues with interpersonal relationships and was diagnosed as bi-polar. Her doctor put her on medication. For a while it seemed to help.

After several contentious years with one district here in Tucson she decided to make another change and move to her home state of Texas to teach. Her son lived there and she initially moved in with him while she began subbing. There was some friction, he being a grown man who had left the nest several years before so she eventually moved into her own place.

She stayed busy and while she didn’t want for work, she finally decided that Texas wasn’t for her and she came back to Tucson, eventually landing a new teaching position, this time in a high school as a special education inclusion teacher. My wife and I were both called individually as references and asked our opinions of her as a teacher before she was hired. Ironically when we compared notes later we had said almost exactly the same thing.

We both said we had known her for over twenty-five years, that some of our children had gone to school together, that we thought she was an excellent teacher but that she could be brutally honest at times and would invariably speak her mind. Additionally we both said we would hire her, given the option — but then we knew her well.

She was pleased when she was hired and really looked forward to the job. She shared her ideas and goals with us and spent a lot of time learning what an inclusion teacher was supposed to do.

It was rough year. The high school had never done inclusion before. I could relate because inclusion was what I had started out doing all those years before when I worked for the state: trying to make sure that exceptional education students fit in to a regular classroom. She often felt that her opinions were dismissed as not being the way that they did things and she tried to persuade them that she recognized that was not how they had been doing them but this was something new.

Near the end of the year she wrote a grant and received an award for materials she could use the next year. This pleased her greatly and it seemed a vindication of her skills professionally. That was the high point — there were many low points.

She grew frustrated and often depressed. It just wasn’t working out. My wife and I had many discussions with her about various issues because we had a standing dinner date on Friday nights. We gave her what advice we could and once again her teaching skills were never in question as she continued to get excellent evaluations on her lessons.

Near the end of the school year her medication was adjusted by her doctor to try and ameliorate some of the radical mood swings.

On one hand she was worried that she would not be asked to return to the school and yet she was equally worried that she would be asked back.

We assured her that whatever happened she would have a job next year because the district was always short of special education teachers and her evaluations were good. We tried to persuade her she was golden.

The day she got got her RIF — Reduction In Force — notice, news that her job would not be filled the next year, she called and came over to talk with us. Again we assured her that this was simply procedure on the part of the district and she would be picked up soon. Funding was the main culprit, coupled with lowered enrollment so they were just “covering their ass” so to speak. She laughed about it at the time but my wife knew it really bothered her. One thing she was afraid of was that she wouldn’t have health insurance until rehired and that could take all summer.

She went to the meetings held by he district for those people who had been RIF-fed; employing a verb that has become common usage for describing the process. She was getting ready to go to a job fair; much like the one where she had been hired the year before. Some friends from work were going with her to ensure that she got all the interviews she wanted.

Yesterday she came by to wish my wife a Happy Mother’s Day as we were loading into the car to go to brunch. Her kids all live out of town so we invited her to join us, but she demurred saying she was going to church, something she had been doing lately. When she left she seemed in good spirits and we said we’d talk later.

Sometime last night she dressed for bed, put towels along the base of her garage door, climbed into the backseat of her car with the engine running and went to sleep.

She was found around four o’clock this afternoon by two colleagues who wondered why she hadn’t come to work.

I’m mad, I want to yell, I want to scream, I  just don’t know who to scream at.

It is essential to have time to collaborate.

In light of the news of how Michelle Rhee’s much touted success in Washington was at least partially due to cheating,1) and the catastrophic disclosures about the Atlanta school’s scandals, educators are back to the drawing board in the debate as to how to evaluate teachers and improve schools.

High stakes tests as teacher evaluations don’t work 2) and yet those who are charged with overseeing education insist on using them. As a result we are seeing schools closed because of failing scores, principals who have devoted their professional careers are having to deal with non-renewal notices because of someone’s artificial measure of success. Public education has been built upon a litany that educators know only too well: “Keep doing what you have always done and do this too. We wish we could provide the materials you need, or support for your struggling students but money is so tight.” Teachers who have labored for years while watching their classrooms increase in numbers and their paychecks shrink with each fall’s arrival are now looking at the want-ads to search for their new career.

It’s not any easier for the students.

Children are spending their precious time learning how to take tests and what to look for on the test and they are deprived of time to think, reason and develop as they should. Art, science, music and social studies are sacrificed to the altar of the all-mighty standardized test with no more thought than we used in choosing our cell phone provider — that of money: which one is cheapest, high stakes tests or real education?

But teachers must be accountable; no longer is it enough that they are willing to do the job few others want to do. Now we must validate their competence through a fabricated measure, some kind of assessment. Unfortunately no one agrees as to what that measure should be.

I think I have a simple solution.

When asked about schools and public education in general, parents often respond that schools need to be improved. But when asked about their schools, the one their children attend, they usually respond that their school is fine, they are happy with their school. 3)

Have parents evaluate their child’s teacher.

Now wait, don’t sign my commitment papers yet. Follow my reasoning on this.

One thing we know is that children need to be educated, we can’t just let them wallow in ignorance hoping they’ll get lucky and fall into some lifelong career like being elected to our legislature. If we are going to educate them we may as well do a good job of it; I think most people would agree to that premise.

But there is no panacea.

Writing in the New York Times, Jal Mehta offers one of the most damning and yet cogent arguments for what is wrong with education at this time. 4) He argues that our model is basically unchanged from the original formulated in response to the needs of the Industrial Revolution and yet our world is greatly altered. The warnings have been around for a long time:

In April 1983, a federal commission warned in a famous report, “A Nation at Risk,” that American education was a “rising tide of mediocrity.” 

Mehta continues by offering a solid solution and it is what so many of us have been advocating for years:

Teaching requires a professional model, like we have in medicine, law, engineering, accounting, architecture and many other fields. In these professions, consistency of quality is created less by holding individual practitioners accountable and more by building a body of knowledge, carefully training people in that knowledge, requiring them to show expertise before they become licensed, and then using their professions’ standards to guide their work.

Some might respond, “Don’t we already do that?” No we don’t, our system does not prepare teachers for what they actually find when they get to school each day. It prepares them for what we think they should find but reality intercedes.

We need more time spent in real teaching, more research into what works, and support, support, support. This issue is simply too important to skimp on it.

We point to Finland and cite the effectiveness of their education systems but they have already adopted this model. Their teachers actually teach fewer hours, have better training and are appropriately compensated for their efforts.We do not necessarily want to be Finland or even Japan but we do want an effective educational system that prepares students to participate in the world not to shun it. When our goal is truly to provide the best educational experience possible; administrators, parents and yes, possibly even legislators will clearly see the results and enacting the evaluation model will be easy.

I see teachers every day. I see how hard they work and what conditions they work in. And I see students struggling to focus on learning.

It is not simply a case of good schools and bad schools. Writing in the Arizona Star, Richard Gilman aptly points this out using Paradise Valley School District in Arizona as an example. 5)  He states: Some of the state’s “best” schools, judged just by test scores, are part of the same school district as some of the “worst.” That means it is not simply a matter of good teachers and bad teachers, good schools and bad schools; it comes down to support. Gilman reports:

(Paradise Valley) pulled in 14 of the 15 A’s given and 12 of the 16 B’s. . . . worse-off schools get . . . the black marks (and) Paradise Valley received seven of the district’s 10 C’s and both of the D’s. Any suggestion that the disparity is the fault of the schools is vigorously disputed by Paradise Valley Superintendent James P. Lee. He declares, “Some of our best teachers are in our ‘D’ schools. They’re laying it on the line for these kids.”

To educate a child is a worthy goal. But we can’t ask children to learn if they are hungry or sick. We can’t ask parents to help with homework if they are working three jobs only to still be living in poverty or they have to use the hospital emergency room as their family’s primary medical provider. We can’t ask teachers to make children successful if they do not have the necessary tools, support or training and we can’t expect anyone to commit to being an educator if that profession is reviled or dismissed outright.

The answers are not simple and they are not likely to be cheap but then they say you get what you pay for.

If we don’t offer what students need to learn they will still find some way to survive, though not necessarily as contributing members of a growing healthy society. If we do not provide avenues for parents to achieve a reasonable wage in a profession they value without working 60 hours a week they will give up or become a drain on our economy instead of an advantage as a contributor to that society. If we do not provide our best teachers the support they need to be effective they will leave and seek professional gratification elsewhere. And if we do not invest in our education system and those who commit their professional careers to mastering it there is no hope for our continued position as a leader in the world.

But if we do decide to turn this around, in an appropriate fashion, by committing to the whole child, and their families, I think the teacher evaluation issue will be solved.

1) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/13/michelle-rhee-cheating-investigation_n_3072568.html

2) http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/leading-mathematician-debunks-value-added/2011/05/08/AFb999UG_blog.html

3) http://www.dc.gov/DCPS/Files/downloads/

4) http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/13/opinion/teachers-will-we-ever-learn.html

5. http://azstarnet.com/news/opinion/guest-column-state-leaders-turn-blind-eye-to-socio-economic/article_41a9f9d9-17e1-5cf6-9812-0844a09bd7a0.html

I don’t trust this guy. He looks like he means to make mischief of one kind or another. Photo by M. Severson

Any good parent will tell you they can’t make their children behave, but what they can do is make them want to behave. They can make them imagine the consequences of not behaving in a certain way and choose to do what is safest for their continued happiness.

Teachers will tell you teaching is not like that.

This is where teaching and parenting part ways. Teachers can develop dire outcomes to aberrant behaviors in many faceted forms and children will still choose the wrong path, no matter our resistance.

So that’s it, fine, we have no recourse, if children don’t want to learn, we can’t make them. It’s over, give up.

No, that’s why we have teachers.

What teachers can do, if fact what many teachers are really good at, is they can make children ready to learn. This is the penultimate divergence between parenting and teaching. Teachers check to see what skills children have before they try to teach them something. They evaluate student learning styles to see how the child processes new concepts and how best they internalize new ideas and teachers strive to make the learning of the material understandable and interesting so that the child is intrigued by the thought of pursuing it further.

Teachers spend most of their time preparing children so they are ready to learn, it is what they do.

Ready to learn. What an epiphany!

Our focus in education over the last few years has been directed at setting the curriculum (read test) and forcing the child to learn it or else. “Learn this or fail!” has been a hollow mantra that has resulted in increased frustration and growing despair among students and teachers alike.

Imagine if our cynosure was the child, themselves. What if we chose instead to ensure that the child had all they needed to be ready to learn before we demanded that they do it?

If you are working on your car would you get up in the morning and throw up the hood without first gathering tools, identifying the problem, making sure you had parts and perhaps even fixing yourself a cup of coffee to help ameliorate your mood at being forced to pursue the activity in the first place? No, you want to be prepared.

We owe our children at least this courtesy. Make sure they are ready to learn before we ask them to learn. Provide the stability and security of the freedom from hunger, disease, poverty or fear and then offer the enrichment of exposure to all the developmental prerequisites necessary to make the child feel confident they are prepared and yes, even eager to learn.

Throughout my career as a reluctant scholar I was not always a diligent student but I was usually well-behaved. I didn’t get into trouble very often. Well, there was that incident with Roger Glen Hayes, my best friend, where we were doing something that was prohibited. But in my defense, I had recently turned five and we were in kindergarten. The two of us simply couldn’t resist the lure of playing “man on raft chased by alligators” with the big wooden blocks just one more time. And as a result we paid dearly for our transgressions; we were both severely dealt with, consequences including corporal punishment.

But that was a very different place and an even more distant time.

Today teachers are facing classrooms loaded with young children who have grown up with computers, flat-screen high-definition TVs, phones that are packed with enticing games and handheld toys that imitate life in extreme forms. Those same teachers are charged with competing with these entertaining mediums and gaining the full attention of their students.

While both student and teacher are pursuing engaging and interesting activities, those activities are in many ways not the same for each group. They both want to experience learning but the direction of that learning is often at cross purpose.The teachers want depth and focus, the students want excitement and interest, who will succeed?

If this makes modern American public education sound like a war — welcome to the battlefield.

Students and teachers can have different agendas. When their expectations are at odds with each other this causes conflict. Additionally, our teachers are under attack from non-professionals judging their results and questioning their motives. That engenders still more confusion, self-doubt and in the end many teachers simply give up and look for easier employment elsewhere.

But those hardy few who are sticking it out are looking for answers. Child study and psychological evaluation are some methods that educators turn to to try and assess the student’s learning potentials. Often when children are evaluated for behavior issues that interrupts learning for them and sometimes even more importantly their peers’ learning, the question of medication raises it’s oft-contested head.

An article in EdWeek by Nancy Rappaport seeks to address this issue. She argues that while:

“Education reform does not come from introducing Ritalin into the cafeteria lunches of poor schools.”

She also recognizes that when there is something wrong:

“Many teachers do not get the support they need on how to work with children struggling with mental-health problems. Too often, teachers enter the classroom ill-equipped to respond to students’ challenging behaviors: their refusal to do work, defiance of teacher authority, persistent arguing, or, in the words of one principal I know, their ability to go from “zero to 100 in a split second.”1)

Personally I was never a fan of medication for behavior issues but along with many of my colleagues I have seen an alarming increase in disruptive and distracted behavior in classrooms which makes the job of teaching the rest of the class while dealing with such interruptions something approaching critical mass.

So what is the answer?

Another article by Caralee Adams suggests one solution may lie in “character education”. Character education involves training for teachers and students that  focuses on appropriate social interaction for everyone in the school. At its heart the concept seeks to instruct and develop responsible personal conduct in school environments. Recent data from some schools suggests that embedding character education as part of an overall school culture may significantly decrease misbehavior and help support key values such as “respect and ownership”. It may also help decrease incidents of ‘bullying behavior’. 2)

Some might say that schools are not charged with raising children, merely educating them. Most teachers would probably agree but find themselves looking for parental strategies as much as instructional. Spending time teaching character education takes valuable minutes away from core objectives.

Though there have been other detractors of the concept of “character education”, Adams states:

“A 2011 meta-analysis of school-based social and emotional learning programs published in “Child Development” found significant improvements in academic achievement, behavior, and attitudes compared with control groups.”

One new factor that may seemingly be driving this idea of character education and other solutions to classroom management issues, is the adoption by many states of the Common Core standards. Inherent in the CCS are critical thinking and synthesis, skills that demand focus and attention to learning.

However, even if the idea of ‘character education’ offers some serious hope for solutions to mis-behavior it is my belief that there is still a glaring problem. That problem is with all the financial cuts that have occurred to education, our schools are now significantly lacking in necessary support personnel who can identify and help treat the most radical behaviors. Counselors, social workers, even psychologists and indeed, teachers have been decreased to the extent that those who are left in schools are virtually unable to take on one more mandate; which is what adding a new set of lessons that focus on additional skills would amount to; no matter how valuable they may be.

Imagine sending one out of every five firefighters home and then asking the ones who remain to continue to do their job just as they have and take on the new task of counseling the populace in fire safety standards. By diverting resources from the service we would invariably be less protected from future hazards.

Fires are already burning and they are in our schools, threatening great swaths of valuable resources, our children and subsequently our own futures. There is no panacea beyond attention to the needs of children to allow them to become effective learners. You can’t be expected to learn if you are hungry, sick, angry or tired. And you can’t be expected to learn if you are consumed by actions that are beyond your control.

We must clear the way to allow teachers to teach and students to learn but even more, we must encourage that teaching and learning.

Once again I am left saying, while proposed ideas such as ‘character education’ are all well in an idyllic world and possibly helpful in practice, unless we commit ourselves as a nation to fully support our children, their families, their schools and their education, we are talking about yet another unfunded mandate.

1) http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2013/02/27/22rappaport.h32.html

2) http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2013/02/27/22character.h32.html

We need to unlock the gates of teaching as much as we need to unlock the gates of learning. No one wants to work in a field where they feel devalued or dismissed as ineffective, no matter their efforts. Photo by M. Severson

We hear all the time about companies making record profits, financial institutions handing out millions in bonuses to CEOs, even when their business loses money. As an educator I look upon such news and wish a fraction of that money could be allotted to education.

Instead we are bracing ourselves for even more cuts. And then, here comes the sequester.

Writing in her blog Alyson Klein argues that Arne Duncan’s claim that teachers are already being fired due to the sequester is an incorrect assertion (“Arne Duncan’s Education ‘Sequester’ Claims Questioned” 1). I do not claim to be in her league as a blogger but I have to disagree and raise my hand in support of the implied tenor if not the concrete adherence to Mr. Duncan’s statement.

In the school where I work we already know that next year we will have one less classroom teacher, no part-time counselor and our half-time librarian will become a half-time library assistant. These people know that they will be looking elsewhere for work, and I wish them luck. Our district is bracing for the closure of 11 schools. A memo from our superintendent outlines numerous position cuts. These jobs are already gone and the additional loss of funds from sequestration makes our choices become either bad or worse.

When did we decide as a country that short-changing the most vulnerable members of our society is acceptable?

Ms. Klein states:
” . . . districts have known the cuts were a possibility for a long time, more than a year. Many districts—including most that receive federal impact aid, which supports schools that have a lot of kids from a nearby military base or Native American reservation—have already planned for a possible reduction in federal funding.” 1)

Ms. Klein is correct when she states that most districts are already prepared for more cuts to their budgets but she is wrong in saying that doesn’t mean that people aren’t already planning to look for work because their job ends in May. Many teachers know that the sequester will simply make the likelihood of find a job that much harder and is tantamount to a pink slip. With their own families to support they must try to be proactive. The negative impact of continued cuts to education continues to be felt. Unfortunately in the education field we have been getting used to working with less each year for some time now. It doesn’t make teachers more effective, it makes them more dis-spirited and desperate.

And these continuing cuts have an even greater adverse impact. Many young teachers are seriously reconsidering their career choices. I speak to them every day; bright new-to-the field minds who have their efforts devalued or even denied. Seeing a pattern of less and less support for education and no opportunity to move into a financially secure position in their chosen occupation, many are seeking employment elsewhere. Anthony Cody writing in EdWeek says:

“The pressures we are subjecting teachers to are taking a toll. When our leaders hold schools responsible for overcoming poverty, teachers sometimes feel as if their work is never enough. And in addition to meeting all the needs of their students, teachers are also expected to constantly monitor data, communicate with parents, and even act as security guards when violence invades the school. Many teachers have families of their own, and find themselves in a losing race to meet the competing demands for their time and energy.”2)

Even those teachers who manage to hang on in the face of these pressures also have to face the very real possibility that their place in their chosen career will be sacrificed to the looming monetary crisis. The tragic part is that this current crisis is all created by our own government’s ineffectiveness. Dedicated professionals will lose their jobs, families will be denied important services, children will be placed in over-crowded classrooms and schools are deprived of needed personnel and materials simply because political posturing takes precedence over the needs of our citizens.

Yes, Ms. Klein we can prepare for still more bad news while at the same time we wonder, yet again, why it is happening?

1) http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2013/02/arne_duncans_education_sequest.html

2) http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2013/02/how_can_teachers_overcome_depr.html

I believe fervently that this is the exact way we should approach the problem of restructuring American education — from the ground, or just a few feet above the ground, i.e. the height of a small child, up.

Eventually I left my first field, archaeology, and re-entered education and gained professional status.

A third of my career was devoted to teaching kindergarten. As an eleven year veteran of that kindergarten teaching I saw the progression of an ever-widening gap that appeared between children who entered school ready to learn and those who had little or no clue as to why they were there. I left the teaching of kindergarten some years ago, pleading wobbly knees that made floor sitting a relic of my past but I have continued to watch with keen interest each new school year’s arrivals and after discussing my observations with many colleagues I can definitively say that the gap is still growing.

In my current iteration as a part-time retiree I spend parts of four days a week working at the school where I retired from the classroom. My hats are many but one thing I do is escort excessively disruptive children from their classroom. I am called in when they are bringing the whole day’s work to a standstill. (You know, it would be kind of like taking Tea Party Republicans out of Congress so they could get something done.)

What do I do with these children? If there aren’t two many, I simply talk with them. Not at them, but “with them”. I get their side of the story, ask them what happened, we discuss what they did, and if we are lucky we try to get at a solution for the next time. Often they simply say, “I got angry.” Invariably I ask them, “Is it ok to get angry?” You’d be surprised to hear how many say, “No.”

“Yes it is!” I always say, “everybody gets angry. It’s what you do when you get angry that makes the difference.” Then we spend some time talking about alternatives to just melting down or striking out.

I believe this highlights one of the crucial problems we face in our rapidly-changing society, nobody’s talking to kids. It’s not that they are being ignored purposely, they just get lost in the shuffle. Most families today cannot survive on one income, I know that when my wife and I were raising our kids we had trouble making it on two teacher’s salaries and my part-time jobs. Things are even worse now.

Which brings me back to my original premise. The President calls for quality preschool for all children. Research shows such a thing would go a long way toward preparing our children adequately for what they need to do in school. But who funds it?

If we just tell people “Put your kid in a good preschool.” and leave it there then nothing happens, most families are already struggling to make ends meet and they won’t have the resources to go out and find that good program much less pay for it.

And what constitutes a “good” preschool program. Well I can tell you what it is not, it is not academics, it is not seatwork and it is not listening to adults do all the talking. It is singing, it is moving, it is playing and learning how to share. It is internalizing a routine that helps you learn what the expectations are for you to successful as a member of your community. Most of all it is a language-rich environment that builds vocabulary, meaning and understanding. 1)

Do parents have the time to find such programs? Some do, but not all.

No, if the President is serious about this, and I believe he is, then we must provide quality preschool education as part of the public school system, we must recruit teachers, well versed in developmental theory and practice to staff those preschool classrooms and most importantly we must pay those teachers well and fully fund their programs to keep them in that classroom.

“Vulture Capitalists?”

Oh, and while were at it, we might want to extend these same ideas to the entirety of our educational system.

1) http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2013/02/06/20vocabulary_ep.h32.html

An Arizona Legislator as a volunteer fireman.

When you live in a state that is variously rated 50^th, 49^th or 48^th in the nation in per pupil funding you tend to look askance at any announcement that touts a new source of funding meant to assist education in Arizona. So it was with two announcements this last week.

The first was one from the office of the Governor, Jan Brewer stating that she was attempting to increase funding for education in Arizona despite apparent lack of support from her party in the legislature. I have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised and guardedly optimistic, that is of course, until I read the proposal more carefully.

As one comment to the article stated most cogently: “The education(al) equivalent to tax breaks for the wealthy. I suppose she imagines it will trickle down . . .” 1)

In the plan money is offered for improvement and success. Maintain success and you will be rewarded. However, if you are not doing too well, you will need to show improvement first before you will be offered any assistance.

The governor’s budget director, John Arnold argues that most of the money is allotted to help schools that are near the bottom and demonstrate improvement.1) The problem, as usual, is in the method used to determine said improvement.

Last year Arizona uncharacteristically joined many other states in adopting what appears to be cutting edge educational reform: the Common Core standards. These national standards are certainly more rigorous than those previously used by our state if only for the reason that they emphasize student’s thinking processes rather than simply testing their memories. 2) If Arizona continues to measure student growth with standardized tests like AIMS the results will not reflect the progress in the Common Core objectives and their adoption will be a useless exercise in window dressing for a condemned building.

Fortunately the plan is that AIMS will be phased out over the next few years and replaced by an online test called Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC). But this gives rise to two more problems. First, there is the availability of computers, technology and most importantly both of these factors being kept up-to-date. TUSD suffers from a significant issue in bandwidth availability which already limits the use of technology by students and staff; one can only wonder at the mayhem that could be unleashed upon the system by stretching the much used rubber-band much farther.

The second caveat is that our state has significantly cut funding for very successful programs like JTED, the careers part of the PARCC. The timing could not be much worse.

So tell us, what was the other good news in Arizona education you ask? Glad you asked because this may directly relate to the previous discussion.

In his most recent report of progress in education in Arizona, State Superintendent of Education John Huppenthal states that he intends to fix Arizona’s broken educational technology system. 3) How will he do it? Well, part of the plan is to upgrade the system to the point that it will save an estimated $40 million currently being spent the correct data errors. A grand goal indeed and certainly laudable and yet in order to get the system upgraded won’t there have to be a major investment of new funding?

Governor Brewer wants more funding for educational skills improvement in schools; are Huppenthal’s technology upgrades going to have to spar with those goals to garner their funding?

Wait, wait, there’s more news on Arizona’s cherished horizon.

It only took a few days for Arizona lawmakers to attack the Governor’s plan. 4) Since this educationally benighted state is already looking at losing over $900 million next year due to the failure of the 204 initiative, money that was not a new tax but had previously been already in the coffers until the election defeat, and the outlook for Brewer getting anything in new funding for education looking dim; education funding in Arizona appears to be heading for a new low.

Across the nation high school graduation rates have reached a high not seen since 1976. 5) Yet in Arizona we struggled to approach the national average  falling short by several points. We can’t simply hope that grandiose plans for educational reform and improvement will occur because we wish it to be so. We need to decide that Arizona truly values education and fund it appropriately.

1) http://azstarnet.com/news/local/education/precollegiate/brewer-has-new-plan-for-school-aid/article_2b276eab-adae-5d0b-b7e3-2d730e697f43.html (comment by Bruce F.)

2) http://azstarnet.com/news/local/tucson-area-schools-preparing-for-tougher-education-standards/article_9c2fb9ab-3fe1-5fbb-8df0-0ed56adcc150.html

3) http://www.azed.gov/oci/files/2013/01/january-2013-progress-report.pdf

4) http://azstarnet.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/gop-brewer-budget-flawed/article_06be67b9-1707-5e79-9683-b84e4e3a846b.html

5) http://azstarnet.com/news/national/govt-and-politics/high-schools-see-highest-grad-rate-since/article_03558bb7-c941-551b-b580-cf6bfca6f84c.html

“Did I remember to load my glock this morning?” Photo courtesy TucsonCitizen.com

We have begun an old discussion again and added a new caveat. In the wake of New Town the hue and cry was bifurcated into two radically dissimilar camps. The old wheeze is that of Gun Control, while the new rallying slogan is “Protect the kids put a good guy with a gun in every school.”

As a career educator and a person who enjoys blowing up innocent cans with a .357 I have to say neither camp has won me over.

America’s love affair with it’s guns is well-documented. 1) From the legends of the Minuteman to the proliferation of shooting games on our computers there is no possible doubt that we will continue to have guns in the United States for a long time.

It is not of question of banning guns, it is a matter of regulation. Should we outlaw all guns? Of course not, that is patently ridiculous. Should we regulate the types of weapons available to the public, train the gun users and do universal background checks on all gun owners? Certainly, that is obviously, equally true. Register guns as we do cars, license gun users as we do car drivers, deny the use of purely military weapons as we do vehicles. You can’t buy an Abrams tank to drive your kid to school so you shouldn’t have an assault weapon with a high capacity magazine to hunt rabbits and coyotes.

Even more troubling to me is the current discussion that revolves around arming school personnel. I do not want a principal, a teacher, a custodian or even an armed security guard at my school (even one personally validated by Sheriff Joe Arpaio as an official volunteer). Guns and schools are a bad idea. As a teacher I forbade students to even bring play guns to school. I routinely throw over the fence, those branches that have fallen from our trees at school so my students won’t be tempted to play guns.

Did I play guns as a kid — you bet, but not at school.

We used to have SROs, School Resource Officers, in our schools, though only occasionally or as they needed and even then seeing someone with a gun in a school always made me nervous.

What we do need is increased support personnel to allow for identifying and treating mental health issues in children. We have cut counselors, social workers, teaching assistants, school monitors, psychologists, therapists, librarians and teachers all of whom are more eyes and ears focused upon our children and additional adults offering an ear to listen and a shoulder to lean on. 2) Our children deserve better and this early identification and treatment will foster better care for and control of troubled youth and as a consequence improve the safety of all.

1) http://politicaloutcast.com/2013/01/missouri-proposes-law-requiring-students-parents-to-inform-schools-about-their-guns/

2) edinsider@nea.org “CONGRESS NEEDS TO HEAR FROM YOU TODAY:  TELL THEM SOME CUTS NEVER HEAL”

The ironic thing is I was working on this very topic the day before the horrific events of December 14th, 2012. I scrapped that version for this one but many of the ideas are the same.

We do not nurture or insulate our children enough.

The amount of stress that a five-year-old feels today is greater that it was 10 years ago, much greater that twenty years ago and immeasurably greater than when I was in school. More than a half a century later I can still call up palpable, clear memories of  my worries as a five-year-old.

In our current iteration we have slashed support personnel at public schools and subsequently loaded more and more responsibilities on those few people left behind. A similar statement can be made for our social services like police and fire departments and the hierarchical support of families as well. Many people, and especially parents are trying to do more with less on a daily basis. They lose ground as we strip them of services and buying power. Then we encourage them to enjoy the holidays.

Even for students from relatively stable, two parent households the holiday season is rife with possibilities for uncertainty. Much of that uncertainty is subsequently felt by children and yet they do not understand the source.

As much as they squawk and moan about it, school is a haven for many children. There is a set routine, expectations exist in their school that they can count on. Children know if they forgot breakfast, or didn’t get one, there will someone waiting with food in the cafeteria. After eating when they go outside someone will be there. There will a safe place where they can play with their friends. At a certain time a bell will ring and they will know where to go and who will be looking for them. They know that if they left something behind on the playground, more than likely someone will pick it up and bring it in.

Once in class the daily routine sets in and the expectations are known by all. Subjects and task follow sequentially and both the student and the teacher can draw a certain calm from that reassuring knowledge.

I can attest that as a classroom teacher I was a slave to routine because I am by nature so adult attention deficit if I did not enforce a schedule no one knows where we would’ve ended up.

Most days there would come the time that I found most satisfying as a teacher. As my favorite principal, and my most strident critic, Ann Francisco used to remind me, “A classroom should sound like a beehive Mr. Severson, not a chicken coop!” So I called it ‘hive time’. The class would be busy, working, moving around, interacting, talking in lowered voices and to me it resembled nothing so much as a busy beehive on a warm summer day. As I teacher I felt a certain security in this slightly noisy but calm environment. I cherished those days.

Because for all of us, calm can change to uneasiness or even to incipient terror in a moment’s uncertainty.

Children love Winter Break. They look forward to the unstructured time and the sleeping in; the excitement of the holidays and the opportunities to see family and friends. But they also see it as a time of uncertainty and it makes them uncomfortable. For all their supposed desire to get out of school for a few days teachers will tell you that student behavior gets a little erratic before vacations.

Often that is why teachers rush early in the quarter before vacation to get as much substantive work done as possible, which of course also heightens the apprehension.

We put too much pressure on our children. We give them too information and we hurry them along toward adulthood too quickly. Children are not our achievements, they are simply themselves, individuals in an ever more complex world and we owe them an opportunity to be children before they must be adults.

I don’t think the crux of the argument is whether we should enact stricter gun laws (we should) or outlaw guns (we shouldn’t) or even arm teachers and school administrators (???). What it comes down to is whether we as a society are going to value our children above all else because in the final analysis you don’t go to work to provide a bright future for yourself. You don’t have children to show them off like your newest tattoo or a cell phone that lets you play games. Children are the future, treat them appropriately.

Let’s do a better job protecting the future. There is no more crucial task.

A few days back I got use an old skill that I thought might have been lost forever. In my new semi-retired state I have left behind many of the day-to-day techniques that had become second nature over the last few decades. But as I was sitting in the cafeteria at the elementary school where I spend four afternoons a week corralling miscreants and practicing educational psychology, I happened to notice that one little boy, two rows away from me, was having issues.

As a professional educator when faced with a roomful of adolescents I habitually scan the enclosed area looking for behavioral malfeasance wherever it may occur and upon encountering it I have no choice but to act. After so many years it is automatic. And it is a talent or possibly a bad habit, that sometimes makes me unpopular at venues like Chuckie Cheese and Toys R Us. Mea culpa, but there is nothing I can do to prevent my interference, for a career teacher  it’s like breathing.

So it was when I saw two children taking another boy’s lunch bag in tag-team tandem just to torment him, and in spite of the fact of my being two rows away in a massive, very loud, high-ceilinged room, I clearly heard him say, “Stop it!” I had to respond. I decided to call up the old skill and put it to use.

I stood and taking one step towards them, said, “Did you hear him?” using my TEACHER VOICE.

I was rewarded with immediate and absolute silence falling upon the hundred or so formerly voluble progeny. The two tormentors in question turned to look towards me immediately and meekly nodding as the smiles left their faces, they handed the lunch bag back. Somewhere from the other end of the room, amid the surprised hush I heard a small voice say “Who? Me, teacher?”

Satisfied I had made my point, I sat back down and slowly conversation resumed and eventually regained its former decibel level. But the two chastised 8 year olds stayed quiet and minded their P and Qs for the remainder of lunch.

The boy who I had interceded for looked at me and mouthed “Thanks” and I nodded. A female colleague moved closer and said, “Well that was impressive, I wish I could call up that deep voice.”

“Yeah I replied,” finally smiling, “I guess I still have it.”

Teacher voice is a necessary skill for all who seek to instruct children, or teach anyone, for that matter. Every good teacher has one and it is not simply an issue of volume or tenor. It is an attitude that comes through their words and says, “The nonsense is over! I am serious and you don’t want to pursue this behavior any further.” While I employ my “basso profundo” some teachers rely on an even quieter than normal voice to effectively get their point across. As a teacher you use whatever works best for you.

Sometimes I wish I could make my writing echo with my ‘teacher voice’. While reading Joy Resmovits’ recent article about charter schools 1) I had one of those moments. The premise of her article is that despite the fact that charter schools are demonstrably no more effective than public schools 2) some states are rushing pellmell to encourage still more charter school development at the expense of public school.

If I could just stand and say in a clear ‘teacher voice’ that would be heard by all rank and file: “Stop fooling around and get busy working to save public education in the United States! It’s critically important to our collective futures.” I would. All the rancor and greed would dissolve; the politicians posturing to control something they do not understand would stop; the would-be entrepreneurs seeking to recreate public education as a growth industry would shrivel in their seats nodding in temerity and from somewhere a small voice would say, “Who? Me, teacher?”

Yes, all of you.

1) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/14/charter-schools-growth_n_2125286.html

2) http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/monographs/2009/RAND_MG869.pdf