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365 Days: What is Possible

 November 4, 2014 /  Marjorie Larner /   What We Can Do /  No Comments

Showing up every day

 “If you write one short story every day, at the end of the year you will have 365 short stories. Three or four of them will have to be good because it is impossible to write 365 bad short stories.” —Ray Bradbury

When I taught writing to middle school kids, they loved this quote — we read it aloud every day before writing. It gave them belief in their possibilities as writers. I have been thinking about this principle in other contexts—what we do each day accumulates to expand or limit our possibilities.

Every time I see another viral letter from a principal or teacher explaining why they have to quit, I feel discouraged and sad for our kids and our profession. I worry about the strong principals and teachers I see wavering under continuous pressure and threat.

I don’t want them to quit. I don’t want to quit working in school buildings. I believe even the smallest success in sustaining the kind of education we believe is good for kids, means we haven’t lost yet.

We need to help each other sustain our commitment with ways we’ve found to sustain teaching that matters, to keep belief in the possibilities alive.

I’ve been gathering stories, quotes, advice and poems from colleagues, from other fields, from the past that offer guidance to sustain our efforts and a keener sense of our mission as educators in these times. We are not alone nor are we the first to face these kinds of challenges.

I have come to see my sustaining belief in possibility as a discipline, a practice like meditation that has a cumulative effect on my spirit and strength. Each day for at least a while,  I learn something new about how to succeed in difficult contexts.

Could Ray Bradbury’s principle apply in an education context? What would happen if I wrote and posted a good story, lesson, example, or inspiration every day for 365 days? At the end of the year, what could be the result for our strength in sustaining good education?

I hope you will join me at any time; your contributions will expand our repertoire for meaningful work and widen the place in our hearts where there is a story of hope and possibility for our children.

My friends who are not quitting

"Hold those things that tell your history and protect them. During slavery, who was able to read or write or keep anything? The ability to have somebody to tell your story to is so important. It says: 'I was here. I may be sold tomorrow. But you know I was here.'"

Maya Angelou

I'm not saying that teachers' experience compares to slavery yet there is a trend toward decreasing recognition of the humanity of teachers and students.   I'm recognizing the increasing oppression with top down one-size-fits-all micro-management solely for test score growth in our public schools. I'm mourning the appreciation of each person's unique contribution in this world where we raise our children in school buildings.

This year we did not feel like we were telling our story but being forced into someone else's story--with no humor, little humanity and often headed for tragedy. Suicide risks ran high and real.

Now that the school year is officially done in Denver, we're telling our stories from this year. While the realities are still fresh in our minds, we are trying to find what we can take hold of for a story that has heart, voice and more meaningful learning for everyone. We're listening. We're talking. Maybe a little dreaming. A little hoping. Some strategic thinking, design, planning.  A lot of love and appreciation for anyone who will listen.

One more year. Because we know the kids don't have a choice.

Buck Up: How Many Will It Take?

So close to the end of the school year. my mind is full of images of my colleagues through the last 9 months. Our conversations in the hallways when we tried to figure out how to deal with the latest demand. Tears when we saw our dreams for kids dissolving when the tests and teaching to the test wasn't relevant or meaningful. A kind of painful laughter when the program became too crazy to even talk about anymore.

With a summer break in the routine and a new school year ahead to start fresh, we are talking about how we can work together to find positive pathways through the increasingly standardized policies and mandates. There is a lot of talk around me of small groups to support and learn together and find ways to reach the kids in our particular schools while under external one size-for-all control.

I hope we can keep ourselves healthy in our lives to keep on going.  Summertime is a chance for us to breathe different air and see with different perspectives.

I'm grateful to Marge Piercey for writing this poem that I go back to all the time when I need to buck up. I hope its okay with her that I share her poem here--I think poetry is meant to be shared, right?

The Low Road

by Marge Piercy

What can they do

to you? Whatever they want.

They can set you up, they can

bust you, they can break

your fingers, they can

burn your brain with electricity,

blur you with drugs till you

can't walk, can't remember, they can

take your child, wall up

your lover. They can do anything

you can't stop them

from doing. How can you stop

them? Alone, you can fight,

you can refuse, you can

take what revenge you can

but they roll over you.

But two people fighting

back to back can cut through

a mob, a snake-dancing file

can break a cordon, an army

can meet an army.

Two people can keep each other

sane, can give support, conviction

love, massage, hope, sex.

Three people are a delegation,

a committee, a wedge. With four

you can play bridge and start

an organization. With six

you can rent a whole house,

eat pie for dinner with no

seconds, and hold a fund raising party.

A dozen make a demonstration.

A hundred fill a hall.

A thousand have solidarity and your own newsletter;

ten thousand, power and your own media;

ten million, your own country.

It goes on one at a time,

it starts when you care

to act, it starts when you do

it again after they said no,

it starts when you say 'We'

and know who you mean, and each

day you mean one more.

(from The Moon is Always Female 1996)

Cracks in the System

Looking back at the end of this school year, it has been harder and more chaotic than I could have ever imagined.  And still, if we give up on good teaching, we have lost. 

Through the year, I read endlessly powerful posts and articles about what is wrong with what is being forced on our schools. I read letters from strong teachers and principals explaining why they have to quit. I heard about famous educators and media stars coming out against the insanity. Nearly everyone I know considered quitting. But we made it through and many of us are staying. 

Now, we can't just wait and hope for protests, letters, re-posting on facebook and twitter to have an effect.  When we find ways to provide teaching and learning that matter for our kids'  lives, we are resisting the juggernaut of the billion dollar testing industry's impact on reducing our students’ learning opportunities. We have to resist where we can in our classrooms and school buildings.  

We join a bigger struggle for social justice that has been going on seemingly forever and continues in many spheres of our lives today.We can learn from the courage of those who have persevered in the past. If I'm afraid of consequences, what about slaves who learned how to read in the face of sure dire punishment if caught? What do I risk compared to that?

Last month in a turnaround school, every teacher I talked with said something like this: At the end of the day I want to think I did a good job for kids. I want to feel like they learned in my class. I don’t feel that way right now.

 Where are the cracks in the system where students can learn not just for a test but for their  lives? Starting today I am on a mission to reach beyond the people I've been working with in person to spread what is giving us hope to persevere:

1.  stories of how teachers and principals are finding time and space for experiential and project based learning, collaborative learning, deep discussions and questioning, performance based assessment of learning and so much more that engages and develops our children as human beings.  

2. sources of strength and inspiration from within and beyond our field and time.

 This is my protest. Good teaching in our public schools will endure. We refuse to let it end.

A visit to a Public School the week before 1st day of the 2013-14 school year:

My point of view: one comparative data point goal has not been achieved in this school nationally recognized for preparing students for college and the world. This is a sword held over everything.  District employees circle, checking on adequate time spent on data discussions.

·      12 classrooms are under construction for at least another month as they are split in half in order to accommodate more students than the building was designed to serve. Displaced teachers are still negotiating for a physical place to hold class.

·      Counselors huddle figuring out the puzzle of individual student schedules in response to a drastically changed schedule sent to teachers two weeks ago.

·      Temperature hovers in 90’s. Email from Facilities Manager explained the system to keep it from going even higher. How long does it take custodians to open windows at night to let in cool air and close windows and draw shades in day to keep out sun?

·     Floors are still shiny. Everywhere I go I run into the main custodian solving multiple issues simultaneously.  We tease each other. That has not changed.

I I still catch glimpses of hope that this year the activities, the room arrangement, the curriculum, the classroom community will reach every single student.  Yet when we catch each other’s eyes, the usual excitement is heavily mixed with anxiety and insecurity—will the hard-won foundation of this school hold? 

Trickle-down theory for school reform?

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I am writing from a beloved and under-resourced magnet school where we offer a great public option for kids' education. We struggle to comply with mandates from many layers above, when we have to, without compromising our vision for kids that is so much more than standardized tests can measure.

But here we go again.

Education Week: Duncan Sounds Starting Gun on ESEA Renewal

Education Week: Duncan Sounds Starting Gun on ESEA Renewal

He [Duncan] said the new version of the law will need to ensure effective teachers and principals for underperforming schools, expand learning time, and devise an accountability system that measures individual student progress and uses data to inform instruction and teacher evaluation.

Got me wondering. What would happen if we applied those same principles at the top, starting with using the same data from standardized tests (that they devise) to inform evaluation of their performance? Seriously. I'd like to suggest a trickle down theory for school reform. We will clean out waste and incompetence at federal and state education departments. Tie their pay to student performance on the tests they devise for students. Secretary of Education has two years to see AYP (average yearly progress) in all schools or he is replaced.

The politics of education are no different from the other issues facing us today. The larger story of what is happening to our children in schools is dominated by corporate profits in the form of a billion+ dollar testing industry controlling the school day and chains (some for-profit) of charter schools multiplying across the country. The people making decisions are not directly impacted by the consequences of those decisions nor are they held accountable but rather they pass it down the chain and then the President tells students there is no excuse for failure and in the next breath says his administration is only 'trying' to get them the resources they need.

Anyone who has worked in an organization knows from experience that change starts with the leaders' example.

Duncan is convening meetings across the country to look at what needs to change in schools.

The audience included superintendents, representatives of unions and community organizations, members of the business community, and proponents of arts education and public school facilities.

I'm dreaming of turning the tables on this discussion so that students, parents, teachers, principals and taxpayers can exert urgent pressure on top leadership to start the change with themselves.

I think he’s trying to say that it’s going to get a little uncomfortable," Mr. Barone said. "He’s not afraid to make people feel a little stressed out" to make sure the legislation includes the right outcomes to advance student progress.

I realize there is likely to be zero chance of changing the bureaucracy but I think there is a point to pressuring them to include themselves in their reform plan for effectively leading our public education to ensure success for every student.

Other ideas for holding their feet to the same fire?

Teacher Letter to Obama

Anthony Cody is collecting letters from teachers to President Obama--perhaps our voices can be heard. http://www.facebook.com/inbox/readmessage.php?t=1155581610692

My letter is below.

Dear President Obama

With many challenging years in school reform under my belt, I am thankful to work for the last four years in a small urban 6-12 urban school that is not based on a prescribed model but rather on a big vision for every student's active participation and positive contribution to the 21st century world. While our school is imperfect, everyone is dedicated and with a 100% graduation and college acceptance rate as well as portfolio presentations providing evidence of student learning and skills tied to a graduate profile, we have data to support our own anecdotal evidence of student development and achievement.

The measures on the standardized tests are inadequate to assess the internalized habits, dispositions, skills and knowledge that we see our students developing, namely their capacities for leadership, creativity to overcome constraints, taking action to help others, seeing issues through multiple perspectives, belief in their responsibility and agency in the world, ability to build a case or analyze another's argument. It is not easy or simple, nor could it be taken to scale and standardized to hold teachers and students who were not committed to this particular vision, "accountable."

As an educator with a background in qualitative assessment, it breaks my heart to see children's abilities and potential reduced to test scores, their days in schools reduced to preparation to do well on a test, teaching reduced to scripted lessons and canned curricula. Not because I do not believe in accountability, rigor or quality teaching, but precisely because I do.

Several years ago I worked in a school with generally high test scores (even 100% proficient for third grade readers one year) with relatively weaker numbers in writing. So for years, this data "drove" their district mandated school wide focus on writing and they gave the kids the message that as a community they were weak in writing and had to work hard to improve these scores. One year, the district paid for the testing company to release a few test items to the school for information. When we analyzed these few items, we learned that the students' scores were proficient and advanced in the actual writing samples. It was on the multiple choice questions where they had to choose an answer with no context that they lost points.

We were left with sobering choices to make. Would we choose to spend less time on teaching them to be writers in order to work on how to take a multiple choice test to ensure our data would satisfy district requirements for growth measured by the test? What would our choice do to or for them in their lives as writers?

I have seen students challenged and inspired to work hard, investigate, create, strive for greatness in all subjects and still not reliably score well on the state test. We need to learn from the meager results we've seen these past ten years to develop an innovative and realistic alternative for gathering evidence of student progress aligned with a clear vision of who our students will be, what they will know and be able to do as a result of their years with us in schools. With sufficient resources and support (probably a fraction of what goes to testing), every school could institute a rigorous system for students to demonstrate their relevant knowledge and skills.

In small schools, we say we will ensure that each child is known well and seen by at least one adult. it has always struck me as sad that this is such a hard thing to accomplish in the buildings where our children spend at least half their waking hours. Standards and tests barely scratch the surface of what we need to provide for and foster in our children if we are to engage rather than alienate them in becoming active responsible citizens and if we are to include everyone in, as you say Mr. President, forming a more perfect union.

Let's expand rather than reduce the vision of what our children and our country can achieve.

Thank you.

Marjorie Larner
University Partnership Site Coordinator
Denver Center for International Studies
Denver, Colorado