Listening to the President talk last night, I was 1) reminded why the nation went crazy for him 3.5 years ago and 2) reminded of why I wish he weren’t so, well, wrong is the only word I can come up with, education policy-wise. Listening to him talk about schools and kids and success..it was inspiring (though, looking at the Wordle, you don’t see much there about schools or kids, do you?). At least until I remembered that the whole thing is built on a fallacy- that test scores don’t reliably measure anything but affluence and maternal educational attainment and that they are less valid and reliable as you move from 10,000 feet (whole states) to 5,000 feet (districts) to 1,000 feet (schools) to 100 feet (classrooms) and 10 feet (kids).

Now, I’ve been beating that drum forever- as have a lot of folks with bigger names and bigger voices than mine. But now more than ever I’m hearing teachers- teachers who have fought the good fight and taken kids beyond what they thought possible- say that they’re thinking of getting out or, at the very least, thinking about pulling back a bit emotionally. “It’s too hard to love something this much and to have it hate you back,” is what I hear. It isn’t the kids who hate them, though- it’s the nation and the educational system. I can’t imagine that’s what the president is hoping for. Can you?

What are you doing to take the chains off of your students today?

Once in a blue moon,though, I have a quiet moment to reflect (usually in the car at a long red light). Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about what I’m learning through all of this doing.  I’m not certain that I’ve got it nailed, but here’s where I’ve come down:

Don’t stand too close.

Everything- teaching, writing, parenting, reading- is more effective, more enjoyable, and more interesting when I stop working so hard at it and just make space for growth to happen.  I introduce a lot of people to new ideas every day (and have a lot of new ideas introduced to me!).  I can expend energy trying to force action, parsing out the process into steps and component parts and breaking ideas into minutiae, or I can explain the idea, step back and wait while the new concept mixes in with the existing experience, creating something completely new.  When I take a developmental view- of the writing, the learning, the text or the work- I can see the progression of ideas and thought and understanding.   I think this is equally true for classroom teachers.  When we introduce a new idea- be it capitalism or evolution or the Civil War- we must resist the impulse to force our understanding into the minds of our students.  When we present an idea and allow time for the questions connected to it to surface, we allow meaningful understanding to grow.

But you know what else we really love?  Soup. We really enjoy soup. We have an annual soup luncheon to raise money for the Monadnock Center for Violence Prevention.  Our lunches, created by Donna and her crew from Monadnock Developmental Services create the most extraordinary carrot- ginger and tomato- cheddar soup- and don’t even get me started on her Italian wedding soup.  Nearly every day there’s something new.  All fresh ingredients, always made from scratch…Donna is a master soup maker. You know why Donna makes such good soup? Because she knows her recipes. Donna’s been making soup forever so she knows from soup. She knows how to adjust the recipe based on what’s in season, what the weather holds, and the students in the building that day.

So  this article from the folks at NEA and TFA would seem to be right up our alley, right?  Even with the response from Diane Ravitch, DailyKos, and the Washington Post.  But here’s the thing:  it seems to me that, in order to make good soup- or be a good teacher- you have to know the recipe well enough to be able to change it. I’m not sure that 5 weeks of training is enough experience to know how to do that. In fact, I’m pretty sure it takes more than that to even remember where the recipe book is- or what the pedagogical options are- so the idea that enthusiasm will make up for inexperience seems…ill advised.

If you want to become a teacher who knows the rules well enough to know when to break them, come talk to us.  If you want to develop the instructional chops to differentiate, facilitate, remediate and accelerate- we’ve got programs for you.  If you want to  commit to teaching as a job worth preparing for with all intention and commitment?

We’ve got some great soup for you.

But here’s one powerful thought to hold on to today:

All that matters right now is what’s right in front of you.

Your students. Your classroom. That’s it.

Take a moment right now and look up from your computer. Pick one thing- one face, one tree, the sky out the window, the hamster in the cage- and focus on just that.

For the kids in your class today, for the time that they’re with you, you are everything . Whether they show it or not, you have the power to make them feel successful and proud and loved. You are the most important factor in their experience.  So that other stuff?  The economy and the reauthorization of ESEA and the testing and the commercialization of childhood and all that?  Leave it for later.  Let someone else to worry about right now and just be with your kids.  ’Cause they’re all that matters.

Do that. Okay?

So here’s what I think.  I think that I can’t Occupy Wall Street right now.  I think that most of the people I work with can’t either, because they’re busy in their classrooms working with the 90% (I also work with some excellent folks working with the 10% in private schools or those who are homeschooling, but the same principal applies generally- it’s hard to be an occupying force with 29 3rd graders in tow).  But here’s the thing I think we can do.

We can Occupy Our Classrooms.  Chad Hansing, the author of this idea, describes the idea this way:

“If you would occupy your statehouse to keep your job, pay, and benefits, please also consider occupying your classroom.

• Give your students at least a day a week to follow their passions.
• Get rid of your furniture. Help kids borrow, bring, or build their own.
• Get rid of your textbooks. Or redact them.
• Ask kids to make sense of the world as it happens across media and technologies.
• Build communities instead of reinforcing expectations.”

According to JOSÉ VILSON, Educator, Writer, and President of LANSU; Board of Directors, Center for Teaching Quality in Why Education Needs an Occupy the Classroom Revolution

“This is more than a call for reforming the way schools are funded. Teachers must develop their own expertise and take control of student learning.”

I love this idea with a fiery passion because not only does it allow us to make a stand without abandoning our posts, it allows us to do it while also serving our students well, by doing right by them educationally.  It’s brilliant.

As you head in to the weekend, ponder this:  What would happen if, on Monday morning, you chose to take back your classroom?  What if you decided to put aside the mandated curriculum and the pacing charts?  Not forever- I’m not that naive- but for the morning.  Or the day. What if you took just a few moments and let your best professional self step forward, unbound and unafraid?

And if you’re already doing just these things- or something even better- take a moment to post it here.  I did.

National Coming Out Day logo designed by Keith Haring

National Coming Out Day brings two faces to mind for me- one from my own school years and another from my early teaching days.  The first, a young man who guarded his “coming out” carefully, living in fear of the bigotry of AIDS-fueled hysteria in the Bible belt. Those who knew and loved him supported and protected him as best we could but this was before the days of school Pflag and GLAD chapters.  We were his friends and that was the best we could offer him.  I often wonder at the ways that we must have failed him, even with our best efforts, because there was no one there to guide us.  We had so many questions about what we should do, but there was no one to ask.

Years later I sat in a faculty meeting and listened to a debate between teachers as we discussed a young person in our community who had been out for years.  I wish I could say we were trying to determine the most supportive stance or the best way to make her feel included and welcome in this rural, homogenous community. In reality,  the question being debated was “How could she possibly know if she’s really gay at her age?”

Yup, we were arguing over whether or not she was actually gay- like it was our place to decide that for her.  I’m not sure what specifically was about that conversation (seriously- it was so wrong on so many levels), but it was a moment I’ll never forget.  The absolute denial of this young woman’s self awareness and her desire to live honestly, the unwillingness to accept her as just another student struggling to find her way, the anger at her “choice” to “disrupt” our school…it was the moment I Came Out as an ally in every possible sense of the word.  Trust me- I didn’t become terribly popular by standing up and saying “I’m going to make my classroom a safe place for her- and for any other students in our school who are struggling to come to terms with their sexual or gender identity.  I’m not going to tell them what they should or shouldn’t feel.  I’m going to do my best to keep them safe- and to help their friends keep them safe. No questions asked.”

Now I live and work in a place where we try to make orientation a non-issue.  We celebrate love for the gift it is.  We strive to be extravagantly welcoming and we actively seek those who will hold us accountable when we’re not walking our talk.  We push our students to look at their own classrooms and schools, to surface issues of equity and to stand up for those who are least able to stand up for themselves.

No questions asked.

You get the idea- and apparently so do the folks at the CCSSO since they put on their Snopes.com hats to create a whole page of myths vs. facts.

But here’s the thing:  I’m not so sure we’re not overreacting.  Not that we don’t have precedent- a lot of the stuff coming at educators these days is certainly hysteria-worthy.  We’re under fire, no doubt about it, but I think our adrenaline-soaked brains may be perceiving a threat in something that could be a gift and while the CCSS may not be perfect, they also aren’t necessarily the end of the world.

The CCSS don’t tell us how to teach, they guide content.  They set very general goals for all students but the “how?”  That’s up to us- and the “what” sounds an awful lot like the sort of thing that Critical Skills teachers should welcome with open arms- Discuss, analyze, evaluate, integrate, compare, contrast…I can see where wise educators could get from them Common Core to this or this or this.

Sounds good to me.  And apparently to

These folks at Edweek

and the New Hampshire DOE

and Doug Reeves

What about you?

So, in the last few years when the first stories surfaced  about schools eliminating recess in favor of more instructional time, I watched with a been-there-done-that perspective. I assumed these latest Dickensian efforts would fail.  Lots of good folks had their eyes on that ball and I didn’t really feel like I had much to add because, quite frankly, it’s sort of a no-brainer.

Kids need recess. Any questions?  

But now it’s years later and it’s still going on. I’m still hearing from moms and dads and teachers about district level decisions to eliminate or curtail recess in order to squeeze in RTI or some new literacy program or math program (funny how I never hear that they’re working hard to squeeze in more art or music, but that’s another post for another day).

This, from nearly all perspectives, is a colossally stupid idea. Perhaps there’s research somewhere that says it’s a good idea. And perhaps I just haven’t come across it and am, therefore, woefully ill informed. On the other hand, there’s this:

Want to get your kids into college? Let them play

And this:

Recess Makes for Better Students

Or this:

The 3 R’s? A Fourth Is Crucial, Too: Recess

And…
Morning exercise to spark kids’ learning

Looking for something a bit more academic?

Recess, Physical Education, and Elementary School Student Outcomes

Physical Activity May Strengthen Children’s Ability to Pay Attention

Or…  Study Finds Regular Recess Time Improves Students’ Test Scores, Concentration

Or maybe we just need to utilize this wacky thing I like to call Common Sense. If what we’re doing now isn’t working, what in heaven’s name makes us think that adding another 15 or 20 or 30 minutes of the same will somehow fix currently ineffective instruction (assuming the instruction is actually ineffective, and that kids aren’t struggling because of poverty or hunger or learning differences that skew test results)?

You know what I’d like to see? I’d like to hear from more parents who want to their kids outside and moving because staying healthy is more important than testing well.  I’d love to talk with more teachers like the one I’ll call Ms. Y, who is scheduling “wellness breaks” into her day. You know what happens during wellness break? Kids go outside. They swing and play kickball and slide down the slide and go on the monkey bars.  And I’d LOVE to hear from a group of kids willing to push back themselves- I might have a little advice for them.
I don’t think subversion has ever looked like quite so much fun.

Yeah.  That Sir Ken Robinson.  Just the two of us- and about 300 other close personal friends.

He was the keynote speaker at the Rowland Foundation’s Conference on High School Transformation.  He was just as I expected him to be- charming, self-deprecating, and unflaggingly British.  He was also, of course, spot-on.  I’d intended to either Tweet or live-blog the speech but a dead battery and a packed room conspired against me.  He said two pages worth of amazing things (as evidenced by the chicken-scratch notes on the back of my participant list).  But here’s the one idea that I want to bring to you today.

“We collude in our own problems.”

I recently had a brief conversation with a small group of teachers charged with creating policy for their district.  As we chatted about the task before them, they bristled with anticipatory anger and frustration.  They just knew I (or someone else) was about to make their lives more difficult and they were ready to Fight Back.  It was difficult for them to imagine that no attack was coming- that the policy about to be imposed was first to be created- BY THEM- and cleared BY THEM before being rolled out.  They were in the driver’s seat.  They could change what needed changing, simplify their own work, create systems of support rather than bureaucracy.  By buying into a belief that the only possible result was a bigger, harder problem, they were inadvertently helping to create just that.

Here’s the truth that so many of us in education just refuse to believe:

“There is more freedom in the system than we realize or utilize.”  

Over and over I sit with teams and administrators who have transplanted a media-created, national perspective on the goals of the state DOE into our local context even though that picture is nowhere near our local reality.  They cling to some misguided belief that the state will “take over” their schools (not possible) or  that they’ll be “reconstituted” (unlikely) if they don’t make AYP.  They assume either ineptitude or malice on the part of those working at the state policy level.  They anticipate some giant state plot to intervene in their local schools as though they were either desired or possible.  They operate within tightly held constraints which may exist in other parts of the country but which Do. Not. Exist. in New Hampshire.

Here’s the thing: as I heard last week (and have been spouting for years), school is what happens for kids and teachers every day.  It’s local.  It’s about our kids and our work.  Yes, there is a national policy battle going on and some of it stinks, but ultimately, “We have the power to step outside our current circumstances and imagine something different.”

Period.

So get out there and imagine the possibility of something greater for yourself, your students and your school.  Then let me know how I can help make it reality.