A "Proper Education"

“The complexity of our present trouble suggests as never before that we need to change our present concept of education. Education is not properly an industry, and its proper use is not to serve industries, either by job-training or by industry-subsidized research. It's proper use is to enable citizens to live lives that are economically, politically, socially, and culturally responsible. This cannot be done by gathering or "accessing" what we now call "information" - which is to say facts without context and therefore without priority. A proper education enables young people to put their lives in order, which means knowing what things are more important than other things; it means putting first things first.”
― Wendell Berry

On Teaching

“The teachers are everywhere. What is wanted is a learner.”
— What Are People For?, Wendell Berry

"From the early grades, Steve Jobs had been something of a troublemaker. Then one teacher, a Mrs. Hill, recognized he was really very bright, and bribed him to buckle down and study, using money, candy, and a camera-building kit. Steve became so motivated that he even ground his own lens for the camera. In the Smithsonian oral-history interview, Steve said, "I think I probably learned more academically in that one year than I learned in my life." Quite a testimonial for how one teacher can change a student's entire history.


That experience shaped Steve in a way that will come as a surprise to many people. From the very earliest days of Apple, he set up programs that provided ways for students  and teachers - from elementary school all the way through university - to purchase computers at a very steep discount. This wasn't some public relations gimmick; it was a reflection of a deeply held belief growing out of his own childhood experience in Mrs. Hill's classroom.


"I'm a very big believer in equal opportunity.... Equal opportunity to me more than anything means a great education.... [I]t pains me because we do know how to provide a great education. We really do. We could make sure that every young child in this country got a great education. We fall far short of that.... I am 100 percent sure that if it hadn't been for Mrs. Hill in for grade and a few others, I would absolutely have ended up in jail. I could see those tendencies in myself to have a certain energy to do something. When you're young, a little bit of course correction goes a long way." pp 252-253


"Steve had somehow recognized early on that when you want something passionately, you can tap into the power to convince others as well. Not all that many years before, his family lived in an area served by a school he did not want to attend. He announced that he just wouldn't go there. Still in his early teens, he was able to convince his folks to pull up stakes and move to a different neighborhood so that he could attend the school he wanted." p. 254 (Elliot, Jay and Simon, William, The Steve Jobs Way: iLeadership for a New Generation)

"Let us put our minds together and see what
life we can make for our children."

— Sitting Bull

How Making Thinking Visible Helps Teachers and Students

How Making Thinking Visible Helps Teachers and Students

Article Produced in Partnership with Cisco Education.**

 

Author: Alan November

 

One category of digital tools, making thinking visible, can give students a higher level of confidence to ask questions when they need help, or share their opinions and ideas with the rest of the class — leading to more thoughtful discussions. These same tools inform educators about how to plan for much more meaningful lessons.

In the 1980s coming of age movie, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, one of the funniest scenes I remember (perhaps because I was a social studies teacher at the time) is the high school economics class with Ben Stein as the teacher.  His famous monotone repetitive question to the entire class of “Anyone?” yields zero interest in response.  He tries to explain the Hawley Smoot Tariff Bill, “which, anyone? Raised or lowered tariffs? Did it work? Anyone? Anyone know the effects?”

Of course, the comedic effect is that not one student was willing to acknowledge what teacher Stein was conveying about the Hawley Smoot Tariff Bill.  He seems to accept his fate of a complete lack of student response without any concern or worry.  Undeterred by blank glassy-eyed student stares, he seamlessly moves on to his endless unenthusiastic nod for class participation, “Anyone?” One student is drooling on his desk while he sleeps through Stein’s monotone. Stein’s character remains oblivious.

While that scene is an extreme caricature of a classroom, a friend of mine who was teaching physics at an Ivy League School in the 1980s only had about 10% of student engagement when he would ask students in his lecture classes of more than 150 for their input. Similar to the movie, he used to see his job as conveying his knowledge to his students as he tried to hold their attention. Today, he is still teaching — but in a very different culture supported by digital tools and new processes.  It is not an exaggeration to say that all of his students are engaged almost all of the time.  Students are actively defending their views of the application of physics, they are writing application questions, they are explaining concepts to peers in a new model of assessment.

Throughout all of this energy and excitement, this professor is learning more about how his students think and reason and learn.  He has greater insights into their misconceptions and their ability to use their imaginations to extend beyond his expectations. He talks less and listens more. Acquisition of knowledge has improved. Enjoyment for student and educator is up. Use of time, the most precious commodity of learning and teaching, is much more efficient.

What the country needs is a high-tech version of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off to show the power of how technology can transform the culture of learning to be the exact opposite of the boring impact of Stein’s response to “Anyone?” In the original movie, the teacher owned the learning.  In the new high-tech version, there has been a shift to students owning their learning. That is the revolution — a change in the culture and control of information in the classroom. The new high-tech version of the movie will not be a comedy. It will be an adventure story of how exciting learning is. The pathetic Ben Stein character will be replaced by a romantic hero who seamlessly ignites students’ passion for learning.

In reality, transforming the culture of the classroom can be complicated and hard work and can take many steps. Pioneering schools and universities are moving to support a vision that students can tap their native creativity and curiosity, and their proclivity to social engagement with peers, to manage more of their own learning. One of the most difficult aspects of creating a culture of high-performing engagement is managing the shift of control from the educator to the learner. Another level of potential resistance is creating a team-based classroom culture from individual students working for their own grades to teams of students working to help one another.

Frankly, letting go of control can be very scary for professors and teachers who traditionally have been highly valued for their conductor-like ability to control the flow of knowledge in a classroom where every student receives the same content at the same time. The trick is to strike a balance between empowering students to own more of their own learning while the teacher directs the flow of learning.  In this new balance, the role of the educators is more important than ever.  All educators do not agree that technology has made their lives easier.  What we need is to give them tools that can ease the workload while improving results.

Where to begin? I have selected two powerful digital tools that are very easy to use. Each one reveals how students are thinking with different patterns. Both are free — and both can support student engagement while better providing educators with insights into patterns of student thinking.

The first example is Prism, developed by a team of students at the University of Virginia. When you see Prism in action, it becomes immediately clear why it’s so effective with inviting students to engage in debate. Very little technical staff development is needed; all you have to know is how to cut and paste text and fill out a form. It is based on a design concept of digitally overlaying the interpretation of how an entire class interprets text onto three screens. Each screen turns the text into a different color. Each color represents a concept the teacher has chosen for interpretation. It is formative assessment at its very best, leading to a deeper understanding of how a whole class is thinking. The feedback is immediate.

Let me tell you about the details of the first time I watched a class come alive because of the creative use of Prism by an English teacher. The teacher was giving a lesson on Shakespeare. Before she introduced her students to a Prism exercise, she was asking the class questions about the play they were reading, such as which parts they thought were hardest to understand, most insightful, or most open to interpretation. Only a few students raised their hands to answer — and it was always the same few students who did.

Then, the teacher had her students break into groups of two. Each group was asked to read the same section of the play that was uploaded to Prism. Within Prism, the students had to reach agreement about which passages to highlight with the three digital colored highlighters according to the code filled in by the teacher. Red was for the most difficult words, green represented open to interpretation, and blue indicated major insights. (The teacher could have chosen any concept to be coded to a color, such as use of evidence or best use of inference.) As students began to highlight, the pattern of the whole class’ thinking began to be revealed as the font size of each word in the text changed as a function of how many teams highlighted various sections of the text.  It was like watching a faded blurry map come into clear sharp focus! When the class was finished reading and highlighting the teacher simple clicked on one digital color at a time to reveal the patterns. It was easy and the impact on student engagement was immediate.

The whole class could see the pattern of thinking of their peers. When the teacher asked the class again: “Who would like to explain which passages they thought were the most insightful, and why?” This time, hands shot up everywhere. The difference in the students’ response was like night and day.

At that point, nearly every student was engaged in the lesson, and there was a high degree of enthusiasm. It was fascinating to watch. The bell rang, and the students didn’t want to leave. They were still debating with each other — and these were the same students who, moments earlier, wouldn’t talk or raise their hand.

What had changed in such a short amount of time to create the kind of rich discussion and engaged learning environment that many teachers only dream about?

When I asked the students to explain why they had become much more engaged, one girl noted that at the beginning of class she was reluctant to raise her hand, because she didn’t know what the other students were thinking. She didn’t feel safe in responding; because she might be mocked for saying something stupid — or something really smart. But once the class used Prism, she knew what other students were thinking, and she could see that she wasn’t alone in thinking the way she did — and that made it safe for her to participate in the class discussion. I need to mention that all of the students’ highlights are anonymous. It is this anonymity that gives the students the confidence to take risks.

The teacher was listening to this debriefing, and she was nodding. She understood the power of a tool like Prism to transform her class into a much more engaging, risk-taking, and intellectually curious environment.

We often think of making students’ thinking visible as a strategy to help teachers: When teachers have more insight into what their students know (or don’t know), they can adjust their lessons to make sure everyone understands the material. But making the thinking visible also helps students. When students can see how their ideas fit in with the rest of the group, they feel more comfortable in sharing those ideas — which leads to better and more open conversations. As one student commented, “For the first time, I realized that I was not the only one who had difficulty understanding one aspect of the reading. That gave me the confidence to ask the teacher for help.”

Teachers also can use Prism as a self-assessment tool. Students can upload their writing to the platform and highlight certain elements the teacher might request, such as inferences, supporting evidence, or places they could use help. The teacher benefits from seeing whether students understand these concepts, and the student’s benefit from reflecting on the quality of their work before they turn it in.

Research clearly supports the value of self-assessment, because it helps students become independent learners. For instance, researcher John Hattie has pored over nearly 1,200 educational studies from around the world to identify the factors that most strongly correlate with student success. Of the 195 independent variables he has identified, self-assessment ranks third on his list in terms of importance—and it’s the single most effective learning strategy that students can use for themselves.

Prism is just one example of a category of tools, of making thinking visible, that can help teachers, professors, and students to understand patterns of understanding that would not be possible in a world limited to paper. In the hands of a thoughtful educator, the patterns revealed by these tools can lead to richer debate and a deeper understanding of concepts. Educators can immediately see where there is a complete absence of highlights. These tools can help inform educators with much finer detail of what to cover next.

Another tool, Verso, is not limited to text but provides the educator to send out any content, photo, video, or text. It helps teachers encourage their students to think more deeply by asking open-ended, thought-provoking questions that students can answer either during class time or on their own. Only the teacher can see who left each comment, and this anonymity allows students to feel comfortable responding freely to the teacher’s questions and their peers’ responses.

One of the challenges with online discussion boards is eliciting original thinking from all students. If someone is the 10th student adding to the discussion, it’s hard to know how much he or she has been influenced by the first nine commenters. Or, students might be discouraged from giving an authentic response by what they’ve read from the first nine. With Verso, students don’t see each other’s responses until they submit their own — which solves this problem nicely.

Here’s how it works: Teachers create an activity by linking to a video or a document they want students to reflect on, then ask them a question about it — something that will provoke a good discussion. There’s a space in the assignment for teachers to model the kinds of responses they’d like to see from students, to make sure students understand the depth of thought that is required of them. Then, teachers assign the activity to their class.

Students can reply to and build on each other’s ideas, and they can reward others’ responses with “likes.” Teachers also can group students based on their responses and encourage them to probe each other’s ideas further, thereby taking the learning deeper.

In a traditional class discussion, pursuing a line of inquiry with one student means you have to ignore the other students. You can only get to one or two levels of discussion. But with Verso, you can put kids in groups and then have them respond to each other — which can be quite powerful. For example, you can challenge a subgroup of three students to try to convince the other two that their initial response is the most logical.

Verso is a great tool for helping students learns to ask more insightful questions and dealing with more difficult material. For instance, you could have students in history read this primary sources such as this letter to President Kennedy where the author expresses deep disappointment in the new president’s position on civil rights. Without telling students anything else about the letter, you could ask them to submit whatever questions they have about it through Verso.

Many students start out by asking basic factual questions, such as: “Who wrote the letter?” But those are closed questions; they don’t lead to any deeper thinking or debate. As the teacher encourages the class to ask hypothetical questions or divergent questions you can see an explosion of creativity as the questions become more complex. As a teacher, you can use Verso to teach students to develop a deeper line of enquiry. The anonymity provides the safety for the students to take a risk and the teacher mode allows the teachers to see what each student is thinking. It is the very best of both worlds.

These learning tools represent a small part of what can happen when powerful technologies are put in the hands of skilled teachers and are used to transform instruction. However, enabling the flow of critical information generated by learning tools isn’t made possible solely by the educators. The learning tools and technologies used to engage students are also extremely dependent on having a robust network. These web and application-based tools are being used by all students who are bringing their own devices onto the campus. As more educators realize how easy it is to tap the power of apps that make thinking visible, to save time and to add value to academic achievement, demand for access points and bandwidth will increase.

**Original publication can be reviewed at www.novemberlearning.com

Slow Pace of Making Changes

The Frustratingly Slow Pace of Making Changes

‘The trees that are slow to grow bear the best fruit.’ ~Moliere

By Leo Babauta

There’s something in all of us that seems to want the changes we’re trying to make in our lives come as soon as possible.

If we’re trying to lose weight, we want those abs to show up within a week or two. If we’re building muscle we want to look like Hugh Jackman in a month. If we’re learning to meditate we want to master that in a week.

But none of that happens. What I’ve learned through repeated habit changes is that change comes much slower than we ever imagine.

How long does it take to find your abs? Well, they’re in there, but depending on where you start, it can take months or even years. Probably more than 6 months unless you’re already pretty close. That’s a long time to stick to a diet.

How long does it take to become a good writer? Years of practice. (I’m hoping to get there soon.)
How long does it take to learn programming? I have no idea, but I spent months learning and I still couldn’t make a real web app.

When we start a change, we have an idea of how that will turn out — a fantasy in our heads, perhaps with a short timeline and a perfect result and an increase in happiness.

But that’s only a fantasy. It never happens as quickly as we’d like, we’re never perfect at it, and we tend to be mostly as happy as before.

So given that reality, how do we make long-term changes? How can you stick to writing or meditating or exercising for months on end, for years, to see the amazing results you’d really like to see?

1. Give up on the results. Instead focus on the step in front of you.
2. Give up on the fantasy. Instead be curious about what it’s really like when you try it.
3. Don’t be motivated by achieving the ideal. Be motivated by compassion for yourself and helping others.
4. Don’t be caught up in quick results. Savor the slow change.
5. Forget about the happiness of the outcome. Instead find happiness in the learning.
6. Don’t worry about perfect execution. The entire point is to learn about yourself.

And you will learn about yourself. You will have slow change. You will help yourself and others through this change. You will find out what it’s really like when you put in the effort. You will find happiness in each step, in the learning you experience along the way.

Change is worth the effort, and the results aren’t what you fantasize about — they’re much better, if you pay attention.

‘Perfection is attained by slow degrees; it requires the hand of time.’ ~Voltaire

Teaching As A "Noble Profession"

In this entry, let's examine what must, at times. seem like a paradox of sorts. It would be most difficult to imagine our world without individuals we refer to as "teachers." Of course, in this context we are speaking of, those individuals have in one form or another, and one title or another, chose "teaching" as a profession, and generally make their livelihood by being compensated as such. 

So, what is the paradox, you might ask? The paradox is that in a profession considered by most reasonable people as being fundamentally essential to the education and development of other human beings, young and old, and is the profession that trains and prepares people for all the other professions, the "Mother of Professions;" if you will, is constantly under oppressive scrutiny and attack by elements in our society.

In addition, we have a profession where the principal players - teachers - are constantly in contact and interchange with other human beings, yet, as noted in the quote above, teachers frequently feel isolated and on their own. Teachers generally find themselves experiencing the "fishbowl" and/or "microscope" effect where the person imagines, or experiences, a continuous scrutiny from both within and outside the formal school organization.

Not only a paradox, but seemingly contradictory is the notion that a profession that has been referred to as "noble" should seemingly be under constant attack by the very society it serves. As noted in the introductory statement, except for a small element of critics, teaching, and its product, education, are considered essential and fundamental to the strength of a nation.





There would appear to be two questions pressing us for reasonable answers? 1) If teaching is a "noble profession," why are the discordant messages coming from perceived benefactors? 2) Is there a solution to the dissonant perspective(s) that view teaching in a lesser light? One does not even have to go to the professional literature to gain a sense of the variables contributing to the rift between what is perceived as "existing" vs. "what should be." An initial search of the internet will generate a plethora of insights, perspectives, and opinions, with a bit of factual information included for good measure. To provide the reader an example, the writer has included a recent "opinion" article from an on-line administrative journal dealing with the topic:


Can we make the teaching profession noble again?

We need to stop blaming teachers and focus on increasing quality

Written by: Caroline Lewis

Teaching is losing its magic. Every year, the profession loses some of our most effective colleagues prematurely. Moreover, we fail to attract enough college graduates who have the talent and passion for teaching.

Many of us blame the education reform movement for this. Leaders may be well intentioned, but they ignore the reality that successful public education requires development of three key pillars—think of them as though they were the legs of a stool:

• the ability and readiness-to-learn of the students


• the quality of the teachers and


• the culture and tone of the school (leadership, resources, parental involvement, and so on)

We seem fixated on only one of the pillars—teachers—and not in ways that improve quality, but only in ways that undermine, place blame and seriously demoralize too many good people. Somehow, in the debate on what constitutes successful education, the spotlight has become laser-focused on a teacher’s ability to get students to pass tests.

True teaching is hard to measure

We have to recognize that effective teaching is about so much more. What is easily measurable isn’t always what’s significant in most teaching-learning environments.

What a teacher contributes to an individual student’s attitude, ambition, choices, career paths and so on may never truly be known. Teacher effectiveness is a complex issue—as I detail in my book (Just Back Off And Let Us Teach, 2014, Dog Ear Publishing)—and many of the rich classroom exchanges between teachers and their students go undocumented.

For too many, teaching is now reduced to robotic drilling of information in preparation for tests. The ideal of a teacher as a caring, scholarly, creative, pedagogical wizard is not the image being presented or acknowledged.

The joy of teaching has been diminished, and the wind has been knocked out of teachers’ sails. These teachers do not feel validated, much less fulfilled, and are vulnerable to burnout and despair in the current climate.

Racing to the top

We must rethink our education strategy and change the current debate. I would like to remind those who disagree with me that we cannot reform public education if our pool of effective teachers continues to shrink.

We must extol, not vilify, teaching to restore nobility to the profession. I fell in love with teaching in my early teens as I first saw the opportunity teachers had to educate, engage and make a difference in learning, lives and schools.

Back in the 1970s teaching was still considered an honorable profession, and it called out to me.

Let’s change the focus of education reform, attend to all three legs of the stool, and put people like me on the team in charge of the teaching pillar.

Here’s what I would do:

• First, I would stop spending millions of education reform dollars on designing new systems of instruction and measurement every few years at local, state and federal levels.


• Redirect this money to teacher salaries and meaningful professional development for teachers and administrators, including department chairpersons.


• Work, over the next five years, to raise the starting salary for teachers to $75,000. This, no doubt, will go a long way to attracting and retaining the brightest and the best.


• Require a certified master’s degree in education for all teachers, and fund or heavily subsidize it for the brightest applicants with the talent and passion for teaching. 


• Recognize our effective teachers and weed out those who don’t belong.

If we do this and make effective teaching a priority, we might much more quickly race to the top and leave far fewer children behind.

Caroline Lewis spent 22 years as a science teacher and school principal.

DA Daily, August 6, 2016, District Administration 35 Nutmeg Drive, Suite 205, Trumbull, CT, 06611. (https://www.districtadministration.com/article/can-we-make-teaching-profession-noble-again)

Whether, or not, Ms. Lewis' perspective and solution regarding returning teaching to its "noble profession" status is correct, or not, is not the important point in our conversation. What is important, if the people to which we are entrusting the educational formation of our youth to are not viewed in such a "noble" light, then how on earth can we expect to grow and improve as a people? As with any socially related issue, pretending there are easy solutions is simply delusional. If Ms. Lewis is correct in her assessment that teaching was once in our history held in such high esteem so as to be considered "noble," then had we not better sort through the pertinent issues post-haste, and restore teaching to its appropriate rank. If not for our sakes, then for the children's sake it is critically important that we at minimum attempt to do so. In light of diminishing ranks of top notch teachers, as proposed by Ms. Lewis, there is an urgency to this message.

Reflections on Anne Frank's Diary

Reading through his journal, the writer came across the quote above by Anne Frank posted in her well know Diary. Although written in the midst of World War II, her perspective seems as relevant today as it did more than half a century ago. We adults so often "get down" on young people for being disingenuous and seemingly detached from what is believed important and relevant. Do we ever consider that the young people are merely responding to their evolutionary instincts and operating from a defensive mode of functioning. The constant bombardment of negative messages coming from all forms of media is enough to cause anyone to withdraw and turn their "true self" inward. The general optimism and idealism natural to youth is being twisted and ground into the muck and mire of pessimistic nihilism.

Those of you who have read Anne's Diary know that she appeared able to see the light in the world even in those darkest of times. One can surmise all sorts of psychological postulations as to why Anne was able to remain upbeat and positive despite the bleak and challenging circumstances. The writer would prefer to accredit this ability to the great resiliency of youth. Many of our children, even in the more "advanced" countries, still today must contend with mental, physical, and spiritual hardships that no young person should be forced to bear. And, even though children display considerable resilience amidst adversity, it is blatantly obvious that the eroding social forces that are ever-present, and increasing, grind away at youthful optimism and resourcefulness.

The third and final quote of Anne's not only reflects the power of eternal hope and positive expectation, but reminds us that each moment we are alive is a possible point of debarkation to an improved, and, hopefully, better world. We need to believe that this is true, or we truly are a doomed species. Even more important, we need to assist our young people to believe that such a world is possible, and through the older generations' empowerment of the youth, they can be an essential part of the rebuilding and renewal process.

Finally, older generations bemoan the perceived lack of respect and concern by young people toward older individuals. Having worked directly with the younger generation for over 40 years, it is the writer's opinion that the youth of today very much want to respect and honor the older generations, but are increasingly being given reason to do otherwise. This is a topic for another time and post, but the writer believes that the younger members of our species are watching and waiting for reasons to be responsive to, and supportive of, the older generations. We need to take responsibility of opening the doors and inviting them to join their forces with ours to build a better world for themselves, and the generations yet to come.



The Truth About Children

The Truth About Children

“3 Minute Poet” is exactly what it sounds like– a non-threatening way to get kids writing. The teacher provides the title (in this case “your name”) and starts the timer. The rest is up to the students. Here’s a wonderful piece by a Davis Academy 5th grader (now rising 6th grader), Isabella McCullough. It’s reprinted here with parental consent.

Isabella McCullough

creatively weird

undefined

haven’t opened the door,

but I’ve freed my mind.

clash with the heart,

the true me is still there.

If you’re looking for me

I’ll be anywhere

I’m an unfinished

book

an open-ended fairy tale

I am who I am

Isabella’s poem and the context in which it was written (“3 minute poet”) illustrates a simple but important point:

Every child is a poet.

“I know I saw that book in here somewhere!”

When it comes to kids it can be hard to make sweeping generalizations. Not every kid is a math whiz, or a polyglot, or an app developer, or competent with a hair brush. But I do think there are some things we can say about “every child.”

Every child is an artist.

Every child is a philosopher.

Every child is a theologian.

Every child is an actor.

Every child is a dancer.

Every child is a nature-lover.

Every child is an explorer.

Every child is a comedian.

Every child is a skeptic.

Every child is a teacher.

Every child is a boundary pusher.

Every child is a truth speaker.

The Talmud teaches that the world is sustained by the breath of schoolchildren. When we pause and consider the wonderful qualities and traits of our children, it’s hard to disagree.

Whether we live out our responsibilities towards children as parents, teachers, school administrators, or simply as caring adults who look to future generations to make the world a better place, we should ask how we are helping cultivate these characteristics and traits in our children.


********************************************************************


Although the blogger would like to take credit for the above post, he cannot. Although he holds the same thoughts in his heart, the originator of the post is Rabbi Micah Lapidus. It was too beautiful not to share with the followers of the Children's Champion blog. The original citation is offered below should the reader care to visit Rabbi Lapidus' blog.


(Blogpost by Rabbi Micah Lapidus: http://www.rabbispen.com/the-truth-about-children/)

"When Teachers Are At Their Best"

The following is an excerpt of a school district superintendent's message to the returning staff of a western United States school district:

“At their very best, teachers are the heart and soul of this school district -- period,” he said. “At their best, they are passionate about what they do and that passion shows.”

When they are at their best, they inspire confidence and self-esteem. “They are role models and sometimes they even change lives,” he said.

Great teachers realize that students have needs beyond food, shelter and clothing, they also need a sense of self-worth or importance.

“Every student in this school district wants to feel important,” he said.

“If they feel disconnected, if they feel disenfranchised, if they feel invisible, there are consequences,” XXXX said.

 “Teachers are not simply conveyors of cognitive information,” he said. They recognize the other side of children and that those needs are just as or even more important than just the academics.

In, and of itself, the message is not a great deal different than that delivered to teaching staff members as they return to their schools in late summer each year. However, the writer, having served as a school district superintendent for a good number of years, and thereby having had the opportunity to greet his staff in a similar setting finds such observations and statements such as those shared in the excerpt wanting in both meaningful content and substance.


For instance, the presenter of these statements is obviously intending to connect with his audience in a positive and supportive manner. However, the several statements intended to identify teachers when "they are at their best" begs the question, "What about when teachers are not at their best?" What does this look like to the student, parent, colleague, administrator, etc.?" Indeed, the obvious unsaid implication of the superintendent's statements is that not all the teachers are "at their best" part, or all, the time. How do we compensate for the individual and greater good when some, or all, teachers are not "at their best?"


One final observation, and question, regarding the superintendent's shared remarks. Certainly, one realizes that people in any occupation or circumstance embrace rhetoric aimed at making them feel valued. The superintendent's declaration that teachers "are the heart and soul of this school district - period" may have won the hearts and minds of those in the audience, but is it, in reality, true? Why do schools exist in the first place? Who more than the children represent the complete and total reason for public schools to exist? As a member of a Christian church council, the writer was once asked, as were the other members of the council, "who, or what, is the heart of our church?" Interestingly, everyone else, including the pastor, named some member(s) of the church congregation. When asked for my reply, I simply stated, "It had better be Jesus Christ, otherwise we are all wasting our time here tonight."


Hopefully, no one reading this will question the need for great teachers, operating at their best, to ensure that our children receive a rich and rewarding educational experience. However, when we place the importance of one part of a school district community higher, or lower, than another part, we are dishonoring the greater whole. Ask any school administrator that did not have a good quality and supportive classified staff, supportive board, supportive parents, supportive community, and willing students, how things are functioning. Furthermore, if we place the importance solely on the teachers, "operating at their best," we have forgotten a very basic premise; schools are referred to as "systems" meaning that it is made of complementary parts working together. Whether you agree with the writer's thoughts and premises, or not, at least reflect on how the meanings of our words/statements need to be carefully considered before sharing them with an audience.