Greener Grass is an Illusion in the form of a Charter School.

The sharks were circling poor Dr. Aaron Woody during a relentless attack on his opinion concerning the value of the charter school movement as depicted in the documentary WAITING FOR SUPERMAN.  As Dr. Woody attempted to defend the honor of the public school system he began to wither under the attack of a parent who desperately wanted to believe that moving her child to a "different" school meant moving her child to a "better" school.  But after the rhetoric died down there were only facts left to digest.  To the observer who will actually sift through the talk it was clear that greener grass is still only a hope and not a certainty.

The concerned parent used no-win language to question whether or not Dr. Woody wanted what was “best” for his child.  The parent asked whether or not a family had the right to seek the best school possible for their students. Certainly the language was a highly effective tactic that does not allow for an answer that will do anything but support the opposition argument.  “Yes” I want better for my child and “of course” I would like to choose a great school.  But the fundamental question is whether or nor the charter school is the solution.  The decision, to abandon the system of education that is typically provided by the state for an alternative education also provided by the state, seems to be a less than logical move.  There have been alternative settings provided for students who could not succeed in the typical school setting, but these placements were made based on the particular needs of a student.  The alternative setting was designed to meet the needs of the students.  The charter school lottery system depicted in the documentary WAITING FOR SUPERMAN is not meeting a particular need of a child but is instead playing a Vegas style game of chance with student placement. So the answer is “Yes I want the best school for my child. Is it the charter school?” The follow-up answer is probably “no”.

The charter school proposes that there is a better way to teach your child. If that is the case and the charter school is funded by the state, then why not use the charter school not the standard for all schools.  Rather than have the school system use a lottery to see who goes to the “better” school put the state funding into schools and best practices trainging for the existing schools.  The legal expert that was invited to this panel debate demonstrated that most charter schools did not perform equal to the schools that saw to upgrade.  The expert further showed that charter schools did not have a staff equal in certification to the public schools.  A less desirable staff and a lesser showing on state mandated testing cannot be used a proof of a better way to deliver instruction.

The grass is not greener.  That is merely an optical illusion designed to illicit a political response that will lead to school choice.  The time and energy spent on charter school can be better spent making our existing schools great once more.  Rather than develop an alternative than is limited to the few, commit resources to the schools that exist.  Believe in the change that will affect all students and not those who are merely lucky.

BURNED FINGERS

Somewhere...way back....long time ago...there had to be a guy playing with this new thing known as fire. Or maybe it wasn't named that yet. Maybe it was just that hot thing that his wife wanted because the cave next door has had it for over a month. Either way, he burned himself a good many times before getting the hang of it. Of course once he did, he created the centuries old argument over how cold it was or wasn't in the cave. Now she is cold and he has to hang his feet out from under the bearskin...but that is a whole other problem.

What if he had decided that he didn't like the burned fingers. What if he did not see the potential life alterating change that was to come. This caveman decided that he would work through his problems and all the potential dangers of fire and he would make it work. He stayed with the fire thing. He stuck it out. Fire turned to steam which moved on to gas and then microwave and now any caveman can make a meal in under a minute during a routine time out without missing a play of the game on Sunday. I have heard there are other ways that fire has improved life but this is a big one.

When it comes to technology, I am that caveman. I am willing to sit through the crashes, freeze ups, and lost connections. I can deal with the viruses and the hackers. I can handle the obsolescence and unending upgrades cause there might be a way that technology might make it so that my snack will levitate to me during the game and I won't even have to move. Or even better, technology might cure cancer, save lives, create jobs, and unlock mysteries we never dreamed of discovering.

Thank you cavemen or cavewoman..your perseverance is appreciated.

OLD SAYINGS...and new learning

There is a great deal of wisdom in the old sayings.  In our history, we have learned to save a great deal of time by proper sewing techniques.  We know that saving our pennies will certainly make us richer.  It is very nearly a fact, if you eat apples every day, then you do not have to go through the hassle of filing insurance forms for each doctor's visit.  But the old sayings have one thing in common....they are old.  The question is whether they can be relevant in the technological world we live in today. I'm saying yes.  I don't want to be the educator who claimed that Ben Franklin, William Shakespeare or Confucius has no place in the 21st century.  So let's examine a few.
You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. There is no place where this old chestnut is more true than in the classroom.  Having a curriculum in no way guarantees an education.  I have often claimed that if i could solve the problem of the uninspired student for once and for all, I would write my book, go on Oprah and retire to the lucrative world of educational consulting.  But since Oprah beat me to retirement i will need to find a different solution.  You cannot MAKE a student learn.  You can inspire, cajole, and sometimes trick the student into learning but you cannot make it happen. Learning will not be forced.  But into this quandary strolls technology.  Technology can do all of the above.  The 21st century learner will be inspired by the power of technology.  The 21st century learner will embrace the new (to us at least) way of taking in information. The 21st century learner will often not realize he is even learning. When the curriculum is presented to the learner in a way that does feel like "old school" learning, the student may not even see it coming.
Idle hands are the devil's workshop. There is not a middle school principal on Earth that doesn't believe this to be anything but the truth.  Pushing a pencil has always been a tried and true method of class management.  Today's student has become use to listening to an IPOD while chatting on a computer and texting to a friend.  This occurs during homework time while watching a TV program that features a running scroll on the bottom. With this amount of sensory input, your standard lecture on Hester Prynne's virtue doesn't even rate a raised eyebrow. the 21st century learner has to feed the info monster.  The 21st century learner has to keep all those synapses firing or shutdown.  And when they shutdown, they often take down everybody around them.  Engagement has always been the key to good classroom management and academic success. Today's students must be engaged on their terms.
These are but a few of the many old sayings.  But the old sayings can have new meanings in the world of the 21st century learner.

BEING HEARD

In the novel and movie BEING THERE, Chance the Gardener is a simple man who is mistakenly taken to be a very wise, intelligent and profound man.  The misuderstandings lead him to great and high places. He accidently creates a platform that allows him to very influential.  Most of us will never get the chance to be that influential. Our students will probably never be that influential, but we can all be heard.

With blogging each of us can create a platform that allows us to be heard. We can have a voice that allows us to express, teach, and share who we are.  This electronic expression has a power to allow each of us a chance to command the center stage in some symbolic way.  Students need to be heard.  Students often clamor to be heard.  Teenagers claim to be misunderstood and ignored.  The blog can be an opportunity to change this perception.

The teacher that can be confident enough to embrace the student blog has the potential to engage students on a deeper level.  There has never been a middle school teacher that hasn't dealt with a talkative student or class.  Middle school students believe they have something important to say.  Middle school students believe that others will think what they have to say is important too.  The blog can be that platform.

As educators we can give them their voice.  The blog can be a safe but expressive way for a middle school student to be heard.  And while they are expressing or venting, the good teacher sneaks in some grammar, vocabulary, and figurative language on the sly.  Everybody wins.

Everybody doesn't necessarily want to learn, but everybody wants to be heard.