Welcome to those finding my blog for the first time. After you finish this piece, I hope you will take the time to read this one, Everything That is Right in Public Education, as well, which describes an experience in which I can actually take pride.
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
~Macbeth
Over the past few days, I have had the unbelievably depressing and deflating experience of being part of NBC’s Education Nation. I was one of the first teachers on stage for Sunday’s Teacher Town Hall, and I returned on Monday for a panel entitled “Good Apples,” taking up a so-called “Oprah Seat” which promised the chance to respond to the panelists, who included the Waiting for Superman Three: Randi Weingarten, Geoffrey Canada, and Michelle Rhee, moderated by Times reporter Steven Brill.
Unlike nearly all of the other teachers involved who either worked for charters or had some previous national education recognition or involvement, I was there randomly. I got a call last Tuesday from a friend of my wife’s who works at Scholastic, which seems to have had the primary responsibility for getting teachers to the events. My wife’s friend knew I taught at a Bronx public school and thought I could speak well about my experiences there. She did not know that I was my school’s UFT Chapter Leader or a National Board Certified Teacher. I told her I would not turn down an opportunity to talk on behalf of good teachers everywhere. On Thursday, I got a call from someone at NBC, who briefly interviewed me about my views on teaching, accountability, recruitment, and retention. I was then invited to be on stage with Brian Williams at the Town Hall.
Arriving at Rockefeller Plaza Sunday morning was a surreal experience. I am going to give NBC credit for two things: they have poured a ton of human and financial resources into having a conversation about education in America, and they built a beautiful setting to do so. I felt like I had entered a dream world where the voices of teachers would actually be listened to and respected in a forum where major educational decisions were made. I should have known better.
After being escorted downstairs and having makeup put on for the first time in my life, I had a good hour to talk with the eight other teachers who also would be on stage for the Town Hall. While I did not agree with all of them on all issues, I was very impressed by the passion, intelligence, thoughtfulness, and experience of my fellow panelists, and I was looking forward to having the country see an intelligent conversation between teachers with varying viewpoints. I should have know better.
The first red flag was when an NBC production assistant came up to us, and told us that while they had all the “experts” lined up to talk Monday and Tuesday, they were excited to have us share our experiences first. We were implicitly encouraged to argue and to make bold, controversial statements while on stage. Despite the disrespect, we were assured that Brian Williams would merely be on stage to start the conversation, and that the majority of each 30 minute block would be made up of conversations between the teachers on stage. My block was to focus on recruitment and retention of good teachers. We were told audience participation would only be occasional, and would mostly be in response to things we said on stage. I should have known better.
At 11:30, Monica Graves, the young KIPP Dean from Atlanta, and Bonnee Breeze, a Philadelphia teacher there because of some relationship with the National AFT, and I were escorted to the Green Room to be miked and await our journey to the stage. There were buckets of apples everywhere. It was only then that Ms. Graves was told that portions of an NBC special on her first year of teaching four years ago would be shown. Ms. Graves and I began a conversation about her experiences with TFA, which I let her know I would probably critique on stage if given the chance. As the three of us began a very good conversation, another NBC person came over and jokingly asked us to save it for the stage. I was really excited at that point to do so. I should have known better.
Our first interaction with Brian Williams was when we walked out on stage. He introduced us, getting my subject wrong, and the program began. All three of us used our first opportunity to speak to lay the ground for key points we assumed we would discuss later. The next thing we knew, they were going to the audience. During the commercial break, I asked Williams if we would have a chance to respond to the audience, and he said we would. He came back to me with the next question, and then before we knew it, we were being ushered off stage. That was it. Not a single chance for any of us to respond to each other or share anything of real substance with the audience or the nation. As the event continued — and it got eaten up by rapid-fire comments from the audience in which everyone just tried to get their voice heard without really listening or responding to each other — the nine of us realized that we had just been pawns for the news media that have little interest in intelligent discourse, the very discourse that teachers teach their students and partake in everyday. I should have known better.
I figured that was the end of my experience, but I got a call Sunday night to go be a part of the “expert” panel on teacher recruitment, retention, and evaluation. I was not invited to be on the panel, but was told I would be in the first row and would have the chance to respond. Since I could attend without missing a class and it was on my way home anyway, I agreed to attend. After the Town Hall, I had low expectations, but I thought I would at least have a chance to speak up for the support and training new teachers need to be successful. I should have known better.
The panel itself was an embarrassment to everyone involved. Steven Brill, the moderator, clearly had an anti-union agenda to push; Randi, Michelle, and Geoffrey continued to make the same points we’ve all heard them make 87 times this past year. There was a representative of the Gates Foundation who had a couple of good points to make based on the Foundation’s research, but he hardly had a chance to speak. I admire the guts of the East Harlem public school teacher on the panel who attempted to defend public schools, but ultimately he came across as combative and couldn’t go toe-to-toe with the talking heads. Despite Randi’s continuous pleas to ask the four of us in the audience who worked in schools what we need to fix our schools, no one bothered to stop bickering long enough to ask us anything. Ms. Groves, one of the four in the audience, did ask the panel what they thought we could do to invest in the development of new teachers, but no one bothered to answer her question. By the end, the question I wanted to ask the panel was simply, “Why am I here?” but of course, no one called on me. I should have known better.
At that point, I was fairly depressed about my whole experience, but the two most insulting and demeaning moments were yet to come. First, I turned to to young woman who sat next to me the entire event. She had introduced herself earlier as an Assistant Principal at Harlem Success Academy, a well publicized charter run by Eva Moskowitz. At one point during the panel, Brill, in order to back up a pro-charter point made by a panelist, asked the young woman to stand and tell everyone what she did. She talked about how she got to spend all day every day giving “real time” feedback to teachers. After the panel, I turned to her, and told her I wish my public school could afford to have someone like that. Her response: “That’s why you should come work for us.” My response: “I’m sorry, but I teach wonderful students who need me, too.”
I then went up to Mr. Canada. During the panel, in a conversation about having a longer school day, he said that he thought all teachers should work “until the job is done.” I asked him if he would be willing to go to the NYPD and ask them to do the same in order to protect my students who are regularly jumped and robbed in their four block walk from the subway to school by the YG Gang that has infiltrated the neighborhood in the past two years. His response, “That’s why we do the Zone; we had the same problem.” My response: well, it didn’t happen, because after he made the comment someone grabbed his arm to introduce him to some bigwig in the audience, and he completely ignored me. I left the room in despair.
I admit, I should have known better than to expect anything positive to come out of NBC’s Education Nation. It became abundantly clear that while well intentioned, NBC really knew very little about the topic they decided to cover, and instead of any real conversation or reporting, relied on the most famous faces in education to argue over the same old points that get us nowhere. I hoped the conversation would change, but with the people they had involved, I should have known there was little hope for that.
With that said, I’ve had a lot educators, in person and online, say to me things like “That’s why I didn’t bother watching or participating.” I don’t think that those of us who are good, committed, public educators can afford to do that. It would make us just like the teachers who say, “These students can’t learn, so what’s the point of engaging them?” Despite my despair at the end, I know those of us who are actually in real schools everyday can’t stop talking about what we need to improve and what we know works, in hopes that, just like our students who almost always come around in the end, eventually people will listen and realize that we are already the change they have been waiting for.
And if absolutely nothing else, it made my students’ day to see their teacher on TV. My students aren’t dumb, they know that with 25-30% annual turnover they’re not always getting the most highly desired teachers. It was good for them to see that we are all good enough to have a national news anchor ask us what we think. I might have sacrificed some dignity to be NBC’s pawn and a good proportion of what little innocence I had left, but it was good for my students, which at the end of the day, is all that matters.
(Though it’s a waste of time, you can watch the Teacher Town Hall online)
44 Comments
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Hi, Stephen,
How courageous of you to participate in Education Nation – and courageous of you again to share candidly about the experience. I too hoped for a genuine, productive conversation during the Teacher Town Hall. I too was hoodwinked– because I so wanted to believe that our nation was prepared to invest in education. I know full well that the top television networks only promote political and profitable agendas. By their very nature, they have no interest in sponsoring a meaningful dialogue among/between educators – unless the public craves to eavesdrop on the debate. Our educational conversations are NOT the conversations that yield profit – because our nation’s people have not yet demanded a conversation about transformed 21st Century schools.
I hope the NBC fiasco will help educators move beyond the notion that a “superman” of any sort is coming to our rescue. The rescue must come from within our own ranks. Education dialog should take place – but live television is not an appropriate forum.
Stephen, within the first hour of the Teacher Town Hall, I tweeted:
Teacher Town Hall w/ Brian Williams – an unfocused, unproductive, patronizing forum. #educationnation
I want you to know that I sensed very quickly that exemplary educators were being exploited – for political gain and network profit. Still, I am grateful to those of you who attempted to represent education professionals. I think we all learned from this experience. Our profession has much “growing up” to do. I, for one, aged quite a bit through this experience. Hopefully, we are all a bit wiser.
Thank you, Stephen, for your courage. Never give up.
Beth Holmes
While I hate to see a smart, articulate teacher disillusioned, I want to reassure you that you–personally–were a bright spot in the (poorly managed, poorly conceived) Town Hall experience. And I want to STRONGLY support your point that teachers can’t afford to let being patronized and ignored (and worse) stop them from stepping up and speaking out, over and over and over, for what it right.
NBC took down the Education Nation Facebook site today (which was running about 10 to 1 pro-public education) and changed the URL. There’s something really frightening about seeing a major media outlet controlling the conversation like that. I’m sorry about what happened to you–but you represented teachers well and in sharing this honest story, may get more people to stop cowering and whistling in the dark. Thanks, Steve, for sharing this.
I made my way here from Beth’s Twitter post. As a public high school teacher of 22 years, I echo Beth’s response. Thanks for your passion for kids and your courage to tell the truth.
Thanks for venting and sharing! It is so important for people to know that this was nothing but propaganda from the get go. I have become very cynical and “knew” there was no point in watching; I do not even bother to watch news on tv anymore, nor do I believe we live in a democratic society; there is too much money involved at the higher levels for us to make a difference with our votes. They just want us to believe we feel empowered in casting votes. Watch this clip taken during the Obama campaign and see what you come away with:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIPik872K64
I did watch some Education Nation clips on-line, because as a good person I keep hoping that maybe, maybe it would not be all that bad, but it was! And then there was Oprah too and The View (which I do no longer watch) of which I happened to catch their segment on Waiting for Superman. I believe the audience was given a copy of the book by the same name. It is stunning how they all do this so blatantly, as if they know we are mere peons not able to stop their endeavors.
Even so, many activist groups are uniting and if you are interested you can stay apprised of that ground swell of collaboration by joining Uniting 4 Kids on Facebook. We have several authors and experts on board, even Diane Ravitch told me she’s interested. http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=111772538876554&v=info
You were a wonderful representative for teachers. Though it didn’t work out the way you would have liked, can you imagine what it would have been like without the perspective of teachers like you (and me and many others). Such actions as taking down the Facebook page, may backfire in the long run. In my idealism, I am hoping that more people are seeing the media manipulations and the irrational, one-sided arguments of folks like Rhee. We can’t let them beat us down. I tell you this because I have to tell myself this as well. Thank you. You were great!
I agree that we have to keep raising our voices to be heard above the din, even when if feels as if our voice is getting lost, and so, thanks for going on stage for us. It’s never fair to expect one person to represent a mass of people. Yet, I bet most of us watched you folks on stage and wondered if you would be our voice. The whole experience was just as odd and disjointed to those of us not participating in the room, too. I appreciate the honesty of your reflections here.
Kevin Hodgson
Sixth grade teacher
I have to agree with everything you said. It was obvious what was going on. The experienced moderators were very good at bringing the subject back to public school, union, and teacher bashing to pro charter schools. Everyone I watched who supported public schools, union and teachers had a hard time getting the floor or had a hard time bringing the subject back. The best I saw was Colin and Alma Powell. When Joe Scarborugh and Mikka wanted them to jump on their agenda of charter schools, union bashing tenure and teacher failure they were able to support our teachers and our schools. Also on the last panel when the moderator tried to bash Randi Weingarten and the union, the mayor from Pa. and Gov. of Michigan defended her. It wasn’t liked by the moderator. Should of been a more balanced discussion. Shame on NBC propaganda and sensational news promoted by NBC. All while a good discussion with good ideas could of been expressed so schools who need help could grow.
Stephen:
I’m glad you went on Sunday and then returned on Monday despite the poor experience you had the first day. While you say you “should’ve known better,” how could you? You showed up and made your voice heard on a few occasions, even if it wasn’t broadcast to the nation, standing up for public school teachers. I applaud you for that.
Best,
Stacey
Thank you for speaking out about the truth of your experience. Perhaps, your writing (post NBC event) is your real contribution. With more than 40 years in public schools (K-12) and higher education, I know that if, we teachers, do not speak truth to power, who will? You are giving courage to many. Thank you.
Joan Wink
Thank you for your honesty! When will people figure out unions are comprised of teachers in the ranks who look out for the good of all, students included! I do not doubt for a minute, charters are having difficulty finding quality teachers and one way to get more is to pull the plug on public schools!
As with these other comments, I greatly appreciated hearing your report and experiences. Thank you Stephen. As with you, I have had very mixed reactions to the Education Nation events, as well as the Oprah coverage of Waiting for Superman, and the recent news about the large foundation grants from Zuckerberg and Gates.
While the massive coverage on education (every night this week on NBC nightly news, for instance) is in general a good thing, we have our work cut out to make it clear that not everyone is behind the simplistic steps the “experts” are calling for – teacher retention based on test scores, charter schools as the solution, etc.
We have to broaden the conversation beyond that to the deeper purpose of education, to the need to help all young people be engaged in their own learning and gain the tools to build a more just, democratic, and sustainable society. And we all know there are many schools that take that broader and more personalized look at learning, and even more great teachers like yourself and many of the others in the audience at the Teacher Town Hall who do the same in their classrooms in schools around the country.
Again, thank you, and let’s be sure to keep getting these other messages out there however we can.
Dana Bennis
IDEA: Institute for Democratic Education in America
Hi, Stephen,
Thank you so much for this enlightening post about your experiences on Sunday and Monday. “I should have known better” when I said to myself I was “finished” watching the news media trample all over my profession and reading blog posts that pass through my Twitter feed. But this one, I couldn’t pass up. I spent the entire day, Sunday, consumed by watching others talk about education reform. I was mostly disheartened by the folks in charge who seemed to be pitting teachers against each other with this constant question, rebuttal, question, rebuttal atmosphere.
I think you summed up something so perfectly about what others know and think about education. Your observation in the green room made me realize this: “there were buckets of apples everywhere.” To everyone else, our working and professional lives can be defined and represented by a bucket of apples. (Doesn’t everyone know we like office products and technical gadgets better?)
I’ll keep working. I will try to stay present in the dialogue. I will try not to be as disheartened as I was over the weekend. Thank you for reminding me that I need to keep talking.
Casey Daugherty
12th Grade Teacher
Please send this to the NYTimes, Gotham, Washington Post, LATimes and Huffington. This needs to be out there. I and many others on FB said we didn’t believe the media would be fair and balanced. Only a portion of the show was dedicated to public school teachers. The rest was a charter/TFA lovefest. I posted that on EN’s FB page.
I hope you sent this to the President of NBC News as well as Brain Williams. I will link it to FB’s SUPPORT PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
This is one of the best pieces I’ve read in a long time: honest, descriptive, and astute. I live-tweeted the Teacher Town Hall — I saw and appreciated your comments — and was also disappointed in the event.
I agree with you that the participants were waiting for their turn to speak, rather than listening to what others were saying. I’m so glad that you did participate on Sunday and attend on Monday, so you could share your first-hand experience of Education Nation.
I was glad that the event happened at all, in order to give teachers a chance to speak about their experiences (in theory, anyway) and show their value by giving them a national platform (again, in theory). I hope that it’s an awkward baby step toward real, authentic dialogue.
I’ve shared this post on my organization’s Facebook page (www.facebook/DemocraticEducation). I saw that Dana, one of my coworkers, commented above, and I hope that you two New Yorkers can get in touch.
Thank you for your willingness to keep participating, even when you don’t feel your voice is being heard…yet.
Melia Dicker, Communications Director
IDEA: The Institute for Democratic Education in America
Find a place to start a real conversation. Maybe a facebook page and they will come. Thanks for your courage and this blog post. Find a way to connect us all to reality.Do not give up. We are with you. Help the kids with the truth.
Over twenty years of analysis has convinced me that even the best teachers in the school suffer at the hand of politics. Teachers, if they could afford to politically, have shocking insights into many practices that have intense impacts on many that cannot be brought to light.
We need engineers and designers not preachers in this struggle against the autocratic corporate model. Anonymous surveys will make that possible even if your principal is a washed up coach. I have never had more passion for anything than this anonymous survey concept for oversight, check and balance, and giving a voice to the muted. Even the unions have lost touch with members because this approach is avoided.Thank you for noticing.
Well Stephen, I gotta say: good on ya for ‘taking one for the tem’ and giving your students something to chew on. They’ll be more likely to ‘get’ the message, I think.
Secondly, writing–as I’m sure you know–is cathartic. And, by what you’ve written here, you may have lost your innocence, but you’ve not lost you enthusiasm, principles, and optimism (simply by writing and telling us).
Well done…from waaaaay up here in Canada :-)
Congratulations, Stephen!
Despite the negative, there’s at least one positive from the experience: “And if absolutely nothing else, it made my students’ day to see their teacher on TV. My students aren’t dumb, they know that with 25-30% annual turnover they’re not always getting the most highly desired teachers. It was good for them to see that we are all good enough to have a national news anchor ask us what we think.”
For 16 years, I tried to be the best English teacher/coach I could be, in and out of the classroom. I was not a perfect teacher, but I cared as much as humanly possible. Unfortunately, I threw in the towel back in 2002.
I could NOT ignore the public school bashing – not constructive criticism but malicious bashing to advance an agenda.
Stephen, I am proud of you and all the other caring, bright, passionate educators and staff who refuse to quit on our kids and our country. All of you (though muzzled) conducted yourselves very honorably.
No matter what, we must stick together and broadcast our collective voice. Every one of us supporting public education KNOWS some schools and some aspects of public education need to be “fixed.” Our system is NOT in disrepair. Not all schools are failing. Not all parents are “losers” and not all kids need to be “saved” by privatization of education.
Make no mistake, there’s an overt movement to privatize education as our country’s savior. This “summit” is the shot across the bow. We know the players; we know their agenda; we know their talking points. Their strategy is to allow us to destroy ourselves.
Thank you, Stephen!
Stephen,
I’m sorry you had such a negative experience at NBC, but not surprised. Maybe your experience will help you to understand why so many people have abandoned the networks for Fox News, even union members get a more equitable shake on Fox.
Your experience may also help you understand the Tea Party movement. Although painted as a bunch of right-wing-rednecks, Tea Party members are normal, hardworking Americans who (like you) have not been listened to, have been patronized by ‘the experts’, and are tired of watching other people spend their money in stupid ways.
Finally, this is why those who care the very most about their children’s education today are, for the most part, homeschooling because their concerns have not been heard.
Thank you Stephen for being there. You are absolutely right. Randi
Dear Randi,
Interested in joining Uniting 4 Kids on Facebook? Please go take a look. I think is is time that all education advocates and activists unite under one umbrella. Only then can we be persuasive!
Your appearance was worthwhile to me, Stephen. Thank you for agreeing to do it. I’ve written more about the phony event here: “Education Nation reflection and fallout” @ http://perimeterprimate.blogspot.com/2010/09/education-nation-reflection-and-fallout.html
I am dismayed and disappointed to see big business infiltrate education, and to see the scapegoating of public schools proliferate. Education has truly become the favorite societal whipping boy, conveniently distracting people from focusing on what is really wrong in our country. I have so many ideas bouncing around my brain, about this whole mess, I hardly know where to begin. So I will randomly share a few thoughts.
First of all, I should note that I have 37 years experience in public schools, and would still be working if I were not one of almost 1,000 teachers/guidance counselors who were laid off this spring by the School Board of Broward County. As a guidance counselor, who spent 27 of those years in a city high school, I truly believe I have some insights as to what might be done to improve education. I doubt that anyone will ever ask my opinion, or the opinion of the hundreds of other dedicated professionals I have been fortunate enough to work with over the course of my career.
I watched a piece, on The Today Show, this a.m. in which they profiled a school in Pocomoke City Maryland. They highlighted the importance of personal attention, and stressed that teachers there are hired partly because of their love of students. As a guidance counselor, I was able to see how true that concept is. It’s truly criminal that some schools in Broward County now have as few as 3 guidance counselors to attend to over 4,000 students! At my last high school, I had over 700 students assigned to me, and was still able to give some personal attention to most of them. This, in spite of the fact that I spent the last 18 out of 24 days this spring proctoring standardized tests! Love of students, indeed! There’s a limit to what any one caring individual can deliver.
When I first started working in Florida, in 2000, someone turned over one of the FCAT’s (the Florida state graduation test). It stated “manufactured in Midland Texas”. Needless to say, this information is no longer on the test. Need I say more? We are a test crazed culture, and some corporation is making lots and lots of money!
Since my point of view is that of a counselor, I have to close by revisiting my opening statement about our society. We are a society in terrible trouble, and schools simply cannot solve all the problems of our students, nor should we. Where are the parents? Wasn’t Bill Cosby castigated, a few years ago, for taking parents to task? In all fairness, so many families are struggling, economically, there are many new challenges. It occurred to me, recently, that we talk about “No Child Left Behind”, yet we, as a society, have left millions of families behind! How can we expect students to succeed at school, when they are steeped in dysfunction and failure, at home?
As Town Hall expectations go, it wasn’t all bad. It was good to hear the varied opinions, and not just from the so-called panel of experts. Dialogue is one thing; action is another. I wouldn’t expect real, actionable solutions to be ironed out in this type of setting. There were some great examples offered – it’s up to each of us who have an interest in this issue to take those ideas into our communities and begin the work. It’s a little disheartening that so much of your blog focused on what went wrong with the Town Hall in its execution and your subsequent disappointment, instead of encouraging next steps for parents, teachers, and students.
Stephen:
Something did seem a little off about the way it was going with you 3 on stage. Once you were off, we stopped watching the event to tune into as big a trainwreck, our beloved Browns. The teacher to your left was hardly given the opportunity to say anything. We were annoyed as you were that instead of going into a true town hall format involving the audience, it was basically just show & tell, or more accurately, tell and tell and tell.
But it was still a kick for us small town folk to see you in HD. I was waiting for you to name names of the bad teachers who inspired you to get into the profession. That would have made the Sun Press for sure. Also, your hair looked immaculately soft. See you in a couple weeks!
I thought I would be sad to miss it, was celebrating the boyfriend’s birthday, but I’m glad I did. It’s hard being a policy wonk at heart, and seeing such ridiculous manipulation of real policy decisions that affect real people (teachers and students) every day. You made us real deal teachers proud though. Thank you for always being an encouraging supportive teacher to this new teacher!
Stephen,
I am not at all surprised with what you have written. We have a corporate media that really does not believe in free speech. Thank goodness for the Internet so that we can air diverse opinions. What we have is an agenda that wants to privatize education to further stratify our society. The cream will go to charters while those students who have unmanageable problems and who are disabled are relegated to defunded public schools. As for the Success Charter School in Harlem, I could tell you they are not so successful when it comes to students with real learning problems. I was on a Committee on Special Education IEP team this summer and this Charter always sent a participant to make sure the student would not return to the school. All this school has is resource room services. Thus, if a child needed anything more restrictive, this school was able to rid itself of the problem. I have spent 32 years in special education helping every child. Well, it is too bad that these charters do not have the same philosophy. I challenged the Success Academy to set up integrated and self contained classes so that they can keep all the special education students they serve. I wrote this in a letter to Eva Moscowitz. So far she has not answered me.
There needs to be a better forum.
And I think that only happens if we create it.
I kept wondering if I was the only one becoming depressed by the “talking heads” on TV. However, I fully believe the conversations that have come out of this week are worthwhile. Teachers are speaking out,speaking with one another, and community members are joining them. While NBC had baskets of apples setting out, it is a reminder that “one bad apple don’t spoil the whole bunch, girl.” We must continue to let our communities know about all of the good things happening in our schools and, while there may be some poor teachers that need to be dealt with, most of us are dedicated, hard-working, and effective.
So much rhetoric. Let’s see what comes from all of this “dialogue,” or if it’s only that, more talk and no action.
I talked with a Teach for America alum yesterday. His comment, “teaching is grueling work, especially in the inner city.” He did it for two years; I did it for 21. Please, those who want to criticize teachers, go into a classroom and try it for a week. Then we’ll talk.
Honestly, what did you expect? You can’t blame NBC so much, it looks to me like they wanted to give as many people a chance to speak as possible, not to squash intelligent discourse, as you accuse. Welcome to democracy. It’s a tv show, not a conference, they are speaking to the whole country, not educators and policymakers. If the teachers in the room began grandstanding and not listening, well that’s on them. For a general audience, it was a good snapshot of what a decent cross-section of teachers is thinking.
I had a similiar experience with Oprah. I talked to her producers before both education segments that aired last week. They told me I would get to talk in a town hall type summit after the screening of Waiting for Superman. It never happened. They called me a second time and I disagreed with some of the premises of the first show – on the follow up live show I was to have 3 minutes to air some countering opinions to the pro-charter narrative. They must’ve decided they didn’t want a counterpoint and they reneged on their offer. THoughtful dialog doesn’t make for good TV.
Sadly, I had hoped that Education Nation might be a real dialogue, but after watching a couple of segments, I could see that it was the same old thing. I don’t know why, but I expected poverty to be the first topic of conversation. I thought surely this panel of experts would start with the some of the real problems — hunger, lack of health care, parents who don’t get their kids to school or understand why that’s important, non-English language speakers, lack of affordable before and after school care, early childhood school readiness, transient populations…. When none of that was addressed, I just couldn’t watch anymore because I knew it would become a forum for blaming teachers and teachers unions. The TV anchors seemed unprepared and ignorant of the subject. Your experience shows that they weren’t interested in opening up a dialogue, but merely in supporting an agenda. They didn’t even seem to have read any research on charter schools. And what about the foundation of public schools in America — we have a unique system in that the reason for even having public education is to ensure that our population understands our system of government in order to be able to vote. What a huge waste of time and what a disappointment. Brian Williams seemed to be more interested in congratulating himself and his colleagues on their “important conversations” than actually having a meaningful conversation. Everyone involved should be ashamed.
I’m very sorry that this happened. I wish I had a television so I could have watched it. I hope it is online at the NBC site or elsewhere on the web.
As a new teacher (in her second year), who teaches in a traditional public school in a traditional public school system in New Orleans (read: not a charter school), I am ever more dismayed at the rhetoric attacking teachers, unions, and administrators who came up through education rather than big business. Privatizing education ever further and making it inaccessible to those who need its opportunities the most on a policy level is making it harder and harder for those on the ground, negatively affecting the children who need the most support. I guess they can’t see it from high up in their towers.
The following revelation personifies everything I cite in my criticism of Charter schools as a whole.
Here is what education’s SUPERMAN does when the model doesn’t fit the rhetoric.
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/Bridging-Differences/2009/05/what_the_harlem_miracle_really.html
This is a moral disgrace of the highest order!
What person who truly cares about children and educating them would summarily dismiss an entire class of students just to fit a propaganda campaign?
I hope someone like Michael Moore goes and interviews the students who were thrown out as well as their parents about Mr. Canada.
Better yet; they can have those parents and students watch WAITING FOR SUPERMAN and ask them how they feel about the film.
When I watched Canada advocate the failed and fraudulent reforms sponsored by Emperor Bloomberg and Chancellor Klein, I knew he was nothing but a mercenary. Anyone that would sell-out 990,000 kids in the NYC public school system just to support the 600 in his charter school is nothing short of an animal.
By the way Canada got his payoff from Bloomberg after the mayoral election as cited by the New York Times.
I noticed that Randi Weingarten “Thanked” Mr. Lazar for his participation on the panel.
I find it truly ironic and even more hypocritical for Weingarten to present herself as an advocate for public school teachers.
Randi Weingarten has systematically weakened the position of public school teachers in NYC at almost every turn. She has capitulated to nearly every whim of Billionaire Bloomberg, Chancellor Klein, and the rest of their hand-picked appointments at the Department of Education.
While standardized testing, merit pay, and mayoral control have ALL been disproven as a viable means of improving public schools, she has advocated all of the aforementioned practices here in NYC.
Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read and comment. I’ve been overwhelmed by the support and emotions this has brought out for others.
I consider this a reminder to just keep my nose to the grindstone, helping kids in the trenches and letting the media and the bigshots duke it out. Fortunately, my local media (Green Bay, Wisconsin) has been very supportive of teachers and education, but if I ever get a call from a major media outlet, I’ll be sure to say, “Sorry. Wrong number.”
Thanks for this story.
Know that there is at least one teacher in Buffalo who admires your courage to go on an NBC panel to try to discuss intelligently what we can do (in teaching kids living in generational poverty) and how to work to improve the situation. I, too, was horrified by the Teacher Town Hall. Every time Brian Jones tried to talk, he was shut down by the screaming Geoffrey Canada.
As a supervisor once told me, “Always just keep the kids in mind. They are the people we work for.” Keep up the great work and carry on.
From the land of Michelle Rhee I can tell you that dialog is not something we are going to get from the folks behind reform. Rhee has practiced a self-claimed “benevolent” dictatorship in D.C. without the benevolence. She has excluded parents, teachers, and other members of the community from any kind of collaboration in her reform, calling “collaboration overrated.” The Education Nation charade was simply that, a charade. Yong Zhao, the Michigan State University professor received his invite only last week – dated July 22nd but somehow lost in the mail. It will be up to the educators and parents involved in public education to fight back and fight back we must.
If the campaign promises are lived up to; Dictator Rhee should be fired in a few months.
Now she can join the ranks of the unemployed along with all of the dedicated D.C. teachers that she so callously dismissed.
I can almost guarantee that Oprah, John Legend, Scarborough, and most of the others who advocate Rhee’s anti-union vitriol; have never spoken with D.C. teachers or parents.
I also participated in EdNation as a presenter in ” the educator” tent and I found the experience a bit anticlimatic. I attended the “Town Hall” discussion after the Movie screening on Sunday evening, although I’m not quite sure why it was called a town hall meeting. There was absolutely NO audience participation and nothing substanative said by any of the talking heads on stage. I agree 1000% with the feelings you express in his post. Well said. Keep on fighting the good fight!
Many thanks for sharing this. I came across your blog by pure chance, but am very grateful that I did. Hang in there Stephen!