PISD Domestic Partner Healthcare

PEA has taken the first set of slots. They are speaking to this policy as a benefit being threatened, much like the salary schedule and 3 sick days were taken from them in the past.

7:35
The PHS cafeteria is covered in signs reminding everyone of the "hate-free" status of this school. The "No Place for Hate" crowd is following the PEA lineup.

7:40
Mine will be the last testimony of the evening. My number?  40.

7:45
Hate shows its head via John Saenz (and "Texas Values"). Since he's Hispanic, he knows discrimination. Veiled threat of legal action.

Pastor from First Baptist Church of Pflugerville...claims to be the hate monger...it's hard for him to hear. He's devoted his whole life to loving people. His congregation loves P'ville, and they've done a lot. He feels bullied by name-callers. That's NOT his reputation. This is simply about where the majority lies.

8:00
Next testimony reminds board that an opinion from AG has no force of law and hasn't happened.

8:03
My priest is up now. She's making my key point: nobody seems to care about the heterosexual domestic partners. Jesus said, "Love everyone, and take care of everyone."

8:07
John Henkens--"This will fall on the backs of the taxpayers." I will work to check the spelling. He asked to get this on the record.

8:08
TSTA just finished their statewide staff meeting today. Pretty much the whole staff is in the "Silent P" tonight. Testimony to this point is firmly leaning toward keeping the benefit.

8:30
The best HS debater in Texas (#2 in nation) is the son of a same-sex couple. Refreshing to find an issue that brings high school students (and college students who graduated from PISD) into the discussion.

The other side seems surprised that they have met resistance. I've never seen these types of people act so timid in a Texas public venue.

8:46
A smattering of testimony to flip the vote. Still, overwhelmingly in favor of keeping the "benefit." My testimony is coming soon. It's in God's hands. Kind of like this internet connection!

No, You Can't.

"Let me give you a word about the philosophy..." of Texas public schools.

They're different than most states.

In most places, activities like football and cheerleading are just that: activities.

In Texas, they are classes.

You get a grade.

You meet during the school day.

It's true in middle school, as well.In the middle of the morning today, a group of 7th graders are jogging out to a practice field in full gear to practice football. When finished, they will trot back to the building and dress back in their school clothes to attend math class.

In high school, it gets more significant, though.

You also meet after school.

After all, you can't expect to win in this state unless you practice from 3-6:30 on whatever it is you "do." Athletics gets "double-blocked."

So does the band.

So do a bunch of other classes, like that new and interesting geometry class that involves construction time building a structure that from what I can tell is either an ice-fishing shack or one of those "swamp homes" from the bayou of Louisiana. 

Before I had children attending the local high school, I didn't care much about this system. Now, it flat-out drives me crazy.

-----

My high school years were spent doing all kinds of things. I wasn't a great athlete, but I participated in a number of sports. Today, we expect kids in Texas to choose one. You can play tennis or soccer. You can be in band or choir. If you want to do two things, well, then half of your coursework is determined by those…and the other half will be determined by the requirements to graduate from high school, i.e.--English, math, science, social studies. Oh, and you need a foreign language. And also, you need…

The list goes on. There are 2500 students in many of these schools. There are 12 spots on the varsity basketball team.

Contrast that with the state of my birth, where entire districts can have 300 students. In those cases, the marching band suffers on Friday night because the cornerback is also the #2 trombone player. He also takes part in theatre (theater), wrestling, and four other things throughout the year.

Crunch time for the Henley family came Monday. I have a son with serious musical ability. He wasn't all too excited about band at year's beginning; however, he realized how much better he had gotten this year. The grueling work he did last year paid off, and he finished as the #4 player in a district filled with tens of thousands of students. Watching the Pflugerville Pfestival of Bands (including an appearance from Texas State's marching band) helped, as well.

Horn players are like gold to a band director. They're needed in just about every small ensemble, and the instrument is fairly difficult to play. Everybody wants to play trumpet, saxophone, flute, drums. Then those kids turn around, looking for a horn player to complete their quintet or carry the tenor line for the ensemble. Pflugerville High School will be lucky to have him, and band will be a great experience for him. He'll travel. He'll be surrounded by friends and a "team" of 150 working toward a common goal. This will be great!

-----

OK, let's get this set up:

You have to take these four classes because they're "core." [Another blog is coming on THAT one…]

You have to take Spanish to graduate. Alright. That's five.

Want to play soccer--like you have for seven years, already? Your dad was your coach for three years. You're an Aztex fan. You're pretty good. You have a Messi jersey hanging on your wall. You ref little kid games for extra money. Soccer is your "thing."

That "double-blocked" course will set you up to seven classes.

You have eight, total.

OK, band, then...
Wait, that's double-blocked, as well!

You can't take band for one credit?

Doesn't matter. "Geometry+Ice-Fishing-Shack-Building 101" is also double-blocked, so you already have eight, anyway.

-----

I only majored in music because I was trying to cobble together enough money to go to college in the first place. I was worth $50 as a non-major…$400 or so as a music major. I fell in love with music when I discovered how music was being created in my theory class. I liked human interaction, so education was natural to me.

I needed to be 18 or 19 to discover these things, but they changed my life, and the lives of those of those I taught for a decade and a half. Music and music education defined my adult life and provided me with opportunities I couldn't imagine at age 13.

My son is 13. He won't have those musical opportunities.

He will miss many, many other opportunities because he is in Texas.

They do things BIG here.

And very, very specifically.

I'm sorry, Micah. I wish I could help you become everything you're capable of becoming.

But I can't. Not here...

The UNIONS? Really?...Really?

This short clip comes from the non-Oscar nominated movie, Waiting for Superman--a ridiculous movie that embodies the recent proliferation of ignorant people making movies about education. This blog post involves my school experiences--decades of school experiences--all in non-bargaining states where teachers unions are forced into roles of advocacy instead of negotiation. It also involves my recent experiences dealing with teachers that flat-out need to leave the profession.

Generally, teachers are respected. They are seen as underpaid professionals who work long hours and put up with many issues. Most adults can single out a few of the best teachers they had, from elementary school to graduate school.
They can also recall the worst teachers they had.
My worst was my last. Yeah, I went there.
On a typical campus of 100 teachers, five probably need to find a new career. Teaching is tough. You're not a bad person if you are a bad teacher. You do have issues if you continue to teach, though.
The question seems to be this: how do we make all of the teachers good ones?
There are a number of ways to do this. The best-case scenario is one where struggling teachers get training or mentoring...and become good teachers. That takes financial investment and a commitment to the staff on campus. It's not impossible, but there are few (if any) "blanket" programs that can fix individual problems. There are a lot of programs, though. If you can't fix the system, there's plenty of money to be made perpetuating the problem.
Another generally happy scenario is one that involves rigorous (!) teacher preparation and selection; if you don't have the chops, you don't teach children. Similar to teaching's role in the oft-celebrated Finnish system.
That's not what we do in America.
The "barriers" to a teaching career used to involve a commitment to teaching before actual classroom instruction began, including a degree in education. Now, those barriers have become more like general boundaries. I ended up in a journalistic argument with a for-profit teacher trainer in Education Week a few years back. Today, to become a teacher in Texas, you need a degree and a grand total of 30 hours of instruction before taking over a classroom.
This is the idea put forth in Waiting for Superman. Deep content knowledge is all you need.
Suddenly, we have a lot of "bad" teachers in Texas.
And this is now the key issue of lawmakers: how to fire bad teachers. Well over half the laws regarding teacher quality point directly or indirectly at dismissing under-performing teachers. It becomes akin to the 95/5 rule, where 5% of the people take 95% of your time and effort.
So, why don't these teachers get released from their contracts?
The pat answer: unions.
The incorrect answer: unions.
The correct answer: America.
American schools are social situations. To view a stereotypical east Asian system, students spend multiple hours studying mathematics by silently reading books to themselves. Expectations are high on students, and family reputations are on the line. Special education is handled through expulsion. Corporal punishment is common. Social time is strictly limited and often moderated. Kids are products, valued by numbers (test scores).
In the United States, schools function differently. We care about things like bullying, in-class discussion, and social interaction. That's true of students. It's also true of teachers.
To fire a teacher (or pressure a teacher to get better) is to send a message throughout the campus community: the faculty is under attack. The term "teachers union" in Texas is a misnomer. Teachers have very few rights, and yet teachers rarely get fired.
Principals fight "school climate" issues when they pressure teachers to improve. Other teachers in the building become less responsive to constructive criticism, and low-stakes "pointers" mentioned off-hand after a brief visit are perceived as threats to job security. Sometimes, they result in phone calls to attorneys. This is true even when the faculty generally agrees that a certain teacher needs to improve or be removed. After all, having an employed "bad teacher" around provides a feeling of job security! I can vouch for that.

"As long as they don't fire her, I can pretty much do whatever I want." 

That's a quote. I said that. Often.

To avoid this, the "Dance of the Lemons" continues, whether in a union state or a non-bargaining state. Teachers may feel threatened by principals at times, but principals come under fire from teachers, parents, and central office personnel to keep people happy...to maintain "school climate."
In most cases, things tend to fix themselves. That's the advantage of our "Social America." People don't like to fail daily. They find excuses, and they find the exit door. I can cite a couple of cases where teachers just didn't show up--no warning, no professionalism. Once, the teacher never bothered to grab her lunch bag on the way out of her career-change. She just dropped the kids off at lunch and disappeared. These teachers just couldn't take it, anymore. They also didn't want to own up to their own "failure." Other times, it falls on administrators (often at the upper-district level) to "make the lemons dance."
How do you tell a 30-year veteran teacher he's just not a good teacher anymore?
Sometimes, these rules get codified in a union contract, but that contract just makes things open and honest. In reality, social pressures from inside and outside a campus make it difficult to outright fire a problematic teacher.
But the real "Lemon Dance" issue is complicated. Like America. Like the people that make up America. Like the kids dealing with these teachers that will continue to make America the complex, complicated, imperfect, fearfully-wonderfully-made nation that it is.
I'll take that issue set.
You may have had a problematic English teacher, but you likely had a great one, too. You learn things. It's not a perfect process because it involves people, and people have issues.
It's hard to fire teachers, officially or unofficially. Yes, this is a problem. Yes I agree, it's an unfortunate situation.
We can decry the issue. Politicians and policy makers, I admonish you to keep trying. Just quit blaming progressive states and union contracts that openly disseminate the inner workings of a ubiquitous practice.

The Markets As a Popularity Contest

http://insidefmm.com/2011/07/city-maps-location-app/

I love it when economists stick to economics.

Books like Freakonomics tend to blur the lines, "allowing" the would-be unemployed to direct major policy shifts in education.  There are only so many places for people to accurately predict the economy, and most of those are in government. You spend time working to find relationships and determine which relationships form trends.  Then you make conjectures based on the direction of those trends.  Kind of like Bryan Alexander does as my colleague.

One set of trends Bryan monitors is NITLE's Prediction Markets. These allow people to make "investments" in ideas.  People "buy and sell" stock in candidates on the political talk shows.  NITLE does the same thing with ideas and phenomena. Now it seems the process of "crowd sourcing" is coming back to the markets.

Arthur J. O'Connor has done some work on stock prices as they relate to Facebook status.  Called "Sentiment Analysis," it has created a new research wing in the investment world. 

As it turns out, there is a correlation between the number of Facebook "Likes" and stock price. 30 brands with the most "Likes" on Facebook. According to O'Connor 99.95% of stock price share could be explained in terms of Facebook fan count. Not that "Likes" make a difference, per se. However, the accompanying sentiment seems to have an effect. It was nice to hear the difference between "causes" and "could be explained by." There's a big difference there. The education world would do well to take note of this distinction.

Popular kids in high school tend to earn more than their counterparts.  Up to 10% more, in fact--40 years later!

The point of the article was that academic focus alone is not enough for education to prove successful. I agree. That would be another blog, altogether.

Career success depends on many factors. I remember one friend of mine who was popular in high school. While failing in college, I saved his sorry academic butt. He went on to law school, got a job with his dad's practice back home, and seems to be doing well. He drove a much better car to the first class reunion than I did, anyway.

My car was a new Saturn. As I told people, "I put the down payment on credit card…and I 'financed' the rest."  The fact was, I needed that new car because my ancient minivan threw a rod on the way up to the reunion.

Yelp! reviews have value, as well. Meanwhile, one of those sharp-witted tweets of yours?  It's worth one tenth of one cent.

One of the great things about social media is it gives everyday people the chance to make a statement to others. Now, we see how this phenomenon is becoming monetized. Good for business? Bad for business? What about my privacy? [Note: if you're not paying for a service--like Facebook--you are the product, not the consumer.]

I don't care. What I see is vox populi affecting a stock market that tends to forget everyday people. However they get reminded of my existence is fine with me. 

I love it when economists stick to economics!

Equality? Let's Talk Equity.

My son, the fútbol player, had a "home" game today. It was a 35 minute drive to gain the "home field advantage. In other words, we played on the other team's field a second time. This time, however, the Pflash (!) was the home team. Outside of a coin toss, I'm not sure what it means in this league.

The first time we played this team, I sat near the field on the rubber particle track that encircles the field. Since I wasn't the first to get there, others had already been moved to the outside of the track. Apparently, my folding chair is a threat to the track. Oh, well. None of the Pflugerville gang seemed to mind, since the outcome of this came was pretty certain. My son plays for a very good team, and the Westlake Makos are not a good team.

They do have a sponsor, however: iMeet. The hotlink is there for your viewing pleasure. I haven't visited the site yet. These kids are 13. They have a corporate sponsor.

Did you notice the mention of the rubber particle track. Yep. That track circles a field of high-quality artificial grass. In fact, the space we were told to sit on outside the track is also the kind of "Astroturf 2.0" you see on college campuses and NFL stadia. Personal trainers worked with teenagers throughout the game on the track. The field is lined for American football, soccer, and lacrosse (which I am CONSTANTLY told is taking off in this country). Nobody bothered to put bleachers in the field area. Thus, the chairs. The restroom is a portable toilet. If you use it, you'll note it overlooks the high quality tennis-court setup. Here is (from what I can tell) a mother following a teacher to the court with two shopping carts full of tennis balls. The daughter of about 7 years is the one getting the lesson.
 

Oh, one thing I should mention: we were at Hill Country MIDDLE School.

As I understand it, then, living in the Eanes school district means your 6th grader can play tennis.
The week after the first Pflash-Makos game, my son and I traveled to Manor, Texas to play the Vikingos. That ragtag group of kids ran the team in Spanish. Their uniforms were not quite "uniform," and they all had shirts with team patches from the Monterrey Rayados (translated vesion here). They might have found a sale. My guess is there is no official relationship with the Mexican Premiere League team; they likely just follow the team (like I do). The field, and surrounding park, were beautiful in Manor. Travis County did a nice job. But the fields were miles from any housing. I drove through the Manor housing areas. Lower-middle-class is a charitable label for their lives.

In school districts like Manor and United (Laredo), air conditioning units fail repeatedly. I remember in Istrouma High School (Baton Rouge, LA) used to have buckets placed around classrooms. When it rained, the buckets filled with water and got replaced. It's still awful there.

There are no rubberized tracks at middle schools in Laredo or Pflugerville. I'm not sure how you justify that kind of opulence while other students would be doing well to attend school in a building that has glass panes in the windows, like the kids faced in Washington, DC for years. How is a kid in Anacostia (DC) supposed to learn at the same pace as a kid that a 5 million dollar athletic complex attached to their middle school? Some kids are at home plate starting with an 0-2 count; others are born on third base.

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) requires public schools to provide a Free and Appropriate Public Education (FAPE). Perhaps the term, appropriate, needs to be a little more clear. Requirements should apply to everyone first. After everybody has an "equality of opportunity" should we be adding "spinning rims on some gold Jet Ski."

Westlake High School is where kids at Hill Country go for high school. Drew Brees is from Westlake. So are a million other amazing kids, as told by the Austin American Statesman. If the "Chaps" find their butts with both hands and a flashlight, it makes the Sunday sports section front page.

Meanwhile, the "Silent P" Panthers played for the state title in San Antonio with nary a color photo before they qualified for the finals. I don't think Round Rock's Stony Point ever got fully covered during their run. Upon losing to Pflugerville several years ago, parents gathered $300,000 to pay for a weight room complex. When state funding cuts threatened two teacher positions, parents fundraised to garner the money to keep them, temporarily.

"Hello, class. My name is Mr. Smith. I will be your teacher this year, and I am brought to you by the good folks at Dell."*

When the game was finished, the Pflash had won 3-1. The last goal came from the Makos, and the Eanes/Westlake crowd was ecstatic. After the players shook hands, the 13-year-olds with the iMeet logos ran in line toward their parents to rousing applause before they turned back to meet with their coach. Ours met with their coach and came over when to start the long journey home. One team will be in the playoffs, but to see the end of this mess, you'd think the working-class kids had come up short.

Other districts (and schools) struggle to deliver adequate. This one surpasses adequate and shoots for borderline ridiculous. The proof? They're raising money this month to "help" the district:

It's too bad this district sees no need to help their impoverished neighbor distrcits. After allIt's students at those districts that will account for the brunt of the people Eanes ISD graduates will encounter in their adult lives.

Oh, yes. Forgot. That's why there are so many gated communities in that area. In fact, that's why the rich folk move out there in the first place.

Never mind.



---------------------------------------------
*Michael Dell lives in that district. He owns a small herd of goats, allowing him to label his living quarters "agricultural" and drop his school taxes. Even with that conniving, the district is flush with cash.

Civil Servants and Civil Rights

(Video cameras from KVUE set up outside a school board room that 

was packed with people an hour before the meeting began.)

As posted previously, the Republican presidential candidates have tended to name education as "the civil rights issue of our era." I disagree with that. Education is a means to an end.  Civil rights are what that end could be. It may lead to an equality of opportunity, but a well-educated person can still face a civil rights disparity. Nowhere does that seem more apparent than the issues of gender identity and sexuality.

Last Thursday, a school board in Sunny Pflugerville (God's Country), Texas was faced with such an issue. There had been deeper discussions over the years, resulting in expanded language in the official non-discrimination policy (including “sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression"). That was contested and discussed before passage. The issue was a topic in 2010 because the result would be something like what happened this month.

PfISD is now the only district in the state to offer health benefits to domestic partners. That's right. Over 1,000 districts in this state...now with one offering medical insurance to people who face discrimination on a regular basis.

That status got picked up by the Pflugerville Pflag (that's right...spelled with a "P"), which is owned by the Austin American Statesman. Suddenly, it hit the local news in Austin, think tanks and the local conservative crowd mobilized. So did the move's supporters.

What's important to me is how a school board--non-partisan by design--chose to follow the values it had set two years ago and listen to the staff committee appointed to create this healthcare plan. Politically, the board runs the gamut. They do the work most people think just gets done. By doing so, they faced a miserable night.

My job required my presence in Orlando that night. Others took up the cause quite bravely. What follows is the email I sent to this board. I requested bravery from those who testified. Everyone should know what I had to say, as well.

---------------

The first time I heard anyone in PISD address domestic partners was almost seven years ago.  A second-year teacher addressed the board--fighting her every instinct--in a situation that demanded her to be brave and professional at the same time.  This week, I approached that same woman about domestic partner health benefits. I was told she thought nothing had happened, that it was a wasted effort. 

Thank God it wasn’t wasted. 

By trusting your staff, your work came to fruition through a minor policy change with a major message.  Unexpectedly, you find yourselves at the forefront.  You are poised to be the first school district in the state to make this move.  Perhaps this is an opportunity to take note of the fact that you are making history, and that your sphere of influence will humanize millions over the coming years.  

I don’t know how people think these things happen, but I do know they tend to think the process is easier than it is.  This was done without splashy publicity.  That shows how this board and this staff sets values first and then moves from those values to policy.  This is real change, and real change takes time.  It also takes systemic, sustained effort. 

The board has created conditions for positive things to happen over the course of decades.  One step at a time, PISD learned to trust itself.  There have been roadblocks, regression, and recovery.  On late afternoons, teachers and staff labored over this healthcare plan for hours.  Late at night, emails demanded attention.  Administrators have faced scrutiny, and they have risen to meet that scrutiny. People think things like this “just happen.”  They don’t.  This change represents a combination of hard work, trust, consistency, and a quiet resolve that some don’t understand.  I commend you for these attributes; I wish we could replicate them in other areas of government. 

Recently, Austin media attention has gotten disengaged people to pay attention. 

• Many are unaware that 71% of Texas school districts face sanctions. 

• Many weren’t around when PISD was facing a $20 million shortfall. 

• Many didn’t argue the change in discrimination policy language. 

Like the woman who testified and thought nothing had happened, they are generally unaware of the diligent efforts required in the process of making things work.  Many will see this as a “vote” of some sort.  They will think it has been much easier than it was.  In doing so, they make the process more difficult.  Overall, it can be hard. 

The “hard” is what makes it beautiful. Many beautiful things are taken for granted, but I hope you do not take this one for granted.  Your work tonight will impact people who haven’t been born yet.  I know members of your staff who are watching from afar, afraid to face potential hate they know too well.  Other districts are watching, looking for leadership.  This is a watershed moment, in terms of how we treat our family and how they should treat theirs.  You should be proud of yourselves.  I know I’m proud to have you as my local school board. 

---------

In the end, "no action" was taken. Whatever repercussions follow will be handled when they arise. What I do know is that one, small, suburban board of unpaid volunteer "politicians" has risen to meet the real civil rights issue of this generation.

And they're doing it through the world of education, a means to a beautiful end.

Silent “P” forever.

The Success of Failure

"Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment."

This blog transition is rife with failures in formatting and wording. I see that as a positive. I choose to see it as a positive.

Jeff Selingo, from The Chronicle of Higher Education, posted an article this week on LinkedIn. It was called "College Majors of the Future?"

He challenged the overall need for majors in most cases, noting that most children want to be football players, nurses, teachers, doctors, and firefighters. The kids grow up. They learn new options. New career options are created. Majors don't matter, kids. Ironically, this post went public on LinkedIn, where there may not be a plethora of high school upperclassmen in the readership. Not sure he cares, though. This seemed to be "a conversation that was meant to be overheard."

He admonishes entering freshmen to do four things to become successful:

• Focus Less on Classes and More on Faculty. One study shows new students need to connect to at least one professor, personally.
• Dive Into a Research Project. This gives you a chance to "put it all together" when results are unknown.
• Study Abroad. Selingo notes many have life-changing experiences during these.
• Find Uncomfortable Experiences. You know, FAIL at stuff...and find places where such failure doesn't kill you.

Yes, these ideas probably make sense for students. Working among the liberal education leaders in higher education, I can vouch that they feel comfortable with these admonitions. In fact, they may be four good goals to have as a new student. Jeff tells the reader that businesses want people who can think for themselves and know how to learn new things. He goes on to say that (with some exceptions like Engineering) majors don't necessarily matter. I would say it still might be tougher to get a marketing job with a classics degree. "I know how to learn this" isn't as effective as "I learned this, already." If there's something you love, perhaps your college years are the ones where you jump in with both feet.

That's because if you really love marketing, a marketing major doesn't necessarily keep you from working in another field...like classical studies.

I usually point out that higher education would do well to pay attention to trends in K-12 education. However, this is one key area where higher education (especially liberal education) has approaches that would benefit the public schools in the United States. The whole idea of temporary failure should be promoted. I'm not alone. So does Will Rogers. In fact, Peter Dewitt thinks failure is a good thing for education. So do the fine folks at NITLE, my employer.

Kai Vallon asked about this "failure potential" when posting about Jeff Selingo's article in Conjectural Technologies. He lamented what has become of public schools and wondered openly what is holding us back.

Imagine a world where elementary school students have meaningful relationships with their teachers, are regularly exposed to new ideas and places, junior-high students start to take responsibility for their own learning by researching topics of interest to them, and high school students have the opportunity to see new lands and meet new people as a regular part of their education. How would the world be different with such students entering college or the workforce?

My guess is...better.

We encourage our kids to try new things. Youth soccer is a good example. Look at Pflugerville--God's Country--the 7-8-6-6-0: Eventually, over 12 soccer teams made up of 6-year-old boys become two teams of 14-year-olds. Eventually, we expect our children to fail at some of these things. Trying soccer, learning from the experience, and moving on is normal. Kids quit. Kids find out they're not very good. We encourage failure in the pursuit of success with our children. Sometimes we call it "exploration."

Schools, on the other hand, can't fail. We will close a school and throw problematic lives into further chaos. We will punish buildings, if that's what makes us feel better. "We" can't fail. There's no chance for a school (or its students) to try new things. When a student falls behind in reading or mathematics, everything else falls by the wayside in deference to the two most tested subjects.

That's unfortunate.

As of this writing, 71% of Texas school districts are failing. This, despite the "research-based" methods that Texas throws at districts. I thought we determined failure was not an option (unless you're the Gates Foundation). 

If the whole goal of a college major, a K-12 education, a lifetime, is to "not fail," well, you pretty much guarantee failure. You're going to miss the mark.

And the point.

Lights, Camera, Teaching, Analysis, Ugh.

Last week, a new education movie debuted. You can find the trailer for Won't Back Down here. 

Richard Roeper reviewed Won't Back Down and said it should have been named 'Lean on Me' and I'll 'Stand and Deliver' some 'Dangerous Minds.'

Despite the first rate cast and the good intentions and a half-hearted attempt to show both sides of the story, Won't Back Down sinks under the weight of its own stereotypes. It's so clearly anti-union, and so simplified and sentimentalized in its approach that we roll our eyes when we should be reaching for tissues. It's ironic that a film purporting to celebrate the potential in every child, parent and teacher would take such a dumbed-down approach.

Likin' that review!

The movie's failure at the box office was record-breaking, with an intake of 2.6 million. If you want a good laugh, see this list of movies it beat for the dubious honor. The dismal result may be political timing, but it was probably most likely due to a nearly nonexistent marketing strategy. Ridiculous: Slam public schools, but don't take the time to do the one, key thing every movie needs. One of Won't Back Down's stars, Maggie Gyllenhaal, has s box-office numbers on both extremes. She has been in the 4th largest opening weekend of all-time and the worst opening weekend of all-time. (Source here.)

I take all education movies with soy sauce, ginger, and a nice Canadian blended whiskey. Also, teacher movies should be comedies, not dramas. I warned Texas teachers about the "Nice White Lady" syndrome facing Texas schools FIVE YEARS AGO in this article. With the possible exception of Chalk, I'm not interested in movies about my own world (or former world). Others are, however. A movie about how hard family farmers had it in the early 80's led to a movie called Country, which packed the theaters in my home town. 

The National Education Association has come back with a list of movies that teachers love. I'm not sure what connectedness author Rebeca Logan is, but these movies were sent to her by members. Knowing the NEA, Bad Teacher won handily, but it didn't fit the image they wanted. Here's a list of her "teacher favorites" that I've seen…along with my free italicized comments!

Mr. Holland's Opus 

A frustrated composer finds fulfillment as a high school music teacher.

I was a band director when this came out. I thought Richard Dreyfuss played an idiot. Teaching is about the kids, not the music (or the English literature, or the love of history). It took him what? 30 years to figure out his true significance was shaping the future? Idiot with a stick. I felt sorry for the mythical kids he'd been teaching 10 years prior.

Dangerous Minds

An ex-marine teacher struggles to connect with her students in an inner city schools.

I use this movie as a punch line to many teaching jokes. Well-intentioned "nice white lady" goes in. Realizes nobody hugs each other. Cries. Has a breakthrough moment (usually involving writing), and it all gets better. Yay! Next year will suck all over again. That fake teacher lasted two years.

Stand and Deliver

The story of Jaime Escalante, a high school teacher who successfully inspired his dropout prone students to learn calculus.

I loved, loved, loved this movie. Too many times, Jaime stepped over the line with his students. After awhile, that comes back to bite you in the butt. With him it did, but kids understand things. They often have a different way of showing that they do. His car is stolen by his students…only to be returned in tip-top shape. 

The other movies mentioned either deal with college students or high-level British students. This is disappointing. Two were left out of contention by the NEA, which is quick to tell people with ideas like mine to "kiss off." Then when I do, I have to write yet another letter of apology. Here are two movies that need to be on a list of teacher-friendly movies.

1. The Breakfast Club

Five high school students, all different stereotypes, meet in detention, where they pour their hearts out to each other, and discover how they have a lot more in common than they thought.

This movie is great because of the teacher's role in forming these relationships. He bonds them together by being a jerk. He doesn't take his job seriously. He has no respect for these Saturday detention students. He gets overly-focused on all of the wrong things. 

You learn two things from this movie: how not to teach and how students do NOT need amazing teachers giving them personal time to learn. Your brilliant teaching is nice, and all. But the key point is whether or not the students learn something. If that's the case (and it is), they will (one way or another) be just fine, even on your worst days.

2. Summer School

A high-school gym teacher has big plans for the summer, but is forced to cancel them to teach a "bonehead" English class for misfit goof-off students.

This movie was great for two reasons. First, I learned how to do a good rat impression from Mark Harmon, which I used throughout my teaching career. I tell my own kids they're trapped like rats and imitate his fine work! Second, and most important (I guess…) is that he actually visited his own students. Over the course of time, you realized that these kids had stories and that they faced overwhelming obstacles in their daily lives. Instead of seeing them as flunkies the viewer's take on the situation is morphed. It was a great way to help a then-future teacher take note of family situations, financial situations, cultural differences, and personality traits.

School of Rock is suspiciously missing on the NEA list. I blame Obama and the liberal media.

Post Script--Another education movie is being quasi-released this month. The Revisionaries opens in Austin on October 26. It opened in other cities last weekend. It seems to be a good documentary on why your students have to learn the bizarre things they do. More after I see that one.

The People's Republic of College

There is a fascinating new concept in higher education. For those who don't follow higher education closely, the topic for to day is Massively Open Online Courses, or MOOCs. Note that Wikipedia indicates the entry is written like an advertisement. Policy makers and politicians love MOOCs. After all, once a course is up and running, it costs very little to teach, say, 10,000 people at once. That way you have No Child Left Behind.

It's simple, really. A professor (or just some woman named Julie) designs a course on, say, economics. You watch the videos. You answer the questions at the end of the videos. You are given a certificate of completion, suitable for framing. Best of all, these courses come at no charge. If you have an internet connection and a suitable amount of intelligence, the world can be had through MOOCs. In fact, you can even get an electronic copy of The EdPunk's Guide to a DIY Degree gratis. Note: funded by Gates Foundation--more on that later.

Then again, it's not really that simple. People are only toying with ways to encourage class participation (forced blogs, requirements to respond to two blog entries, blech). There are exercises that can be interactive, sometimes. The topics range from the mundane (College Algebra) to the fantastic (Robotics). Sometimes, the only place to catch a course on a specific topic is a MOOC. That makes them exciting. On the other hand, these "class participation" attempts are lame. The certificate (suitable for framing) is really just a piece of paper you printed out on your Hewlett-Packard failure of an inkjet printer (READ THIS LINK!). When finished, your "credential" isn't really accredited.

The only real issue I can see involves that University of the People (pictured above). They have hired Dr. David Harris Cohen away from Columbia to become their Provost. Dr. Cohen's job is to garner accreditation. If you can string together a bunch of MOOCs and call it a degree...and that degree gets accredited...then an education based on MOOCs becomes possible, though not probable. I can't imagine how difficult that would be, but I know that policy makers see this as a panacea to education for "those" kids. That way, you can offer everybody a college degree, knowing full well the "right ones will fail." The rich kids get the 12:1 student-faculty ratios and lots of help from caring professors. The middle class (if they exist) get great sports teams and graduate students. The poor kids get videos with quizzes.

I signed up for a MOOC. I failed. Does that affect my credit score? For some reason, I got distracted from hours of video on whatever topic it was.

Still, I managed to watch the entire Trailer Park Boys series, during that same time. I highly recommend my approach. We all take pride in different things, though there was no certificate at the end of my substantial effort. Perhaps that's my calling in education: a MOOC on a vulgar series from Canada.

MOOCs typically come from large universities. Here's Stanford's latest effort, Coursera. MIT and Harvard put their MOOC catalog online. The University of Michigan offered one on model thinking that was tempting.

MOOCs could be quite effective as tools at schools, particularly useful on liberal arts college campuses, and especially helpful for flipping classes. If you want to see the longest infographic I've experienced, it can be found here. It tells in several ways the concept(s) of flipped classrooms. I like the idea. "Watch the lecture. Then come to class, where we will experience it." Perfect.

MOOCs also work as study aids, as well. Always helpful to have a full set of videos from Coursera on Economics 101 when you're supposed to be taking the course in real life. Miss a lecture? You've still got another waiting for you. In one flipped classroom, the professor has a list of 30 lectures (some his own, some from others) that he sees as the best of the best. Student have to have watched those before pouring in to class the next morning, where they apply physics lessons to experiments. That's nice, especially when a school like the University of Texas is killing off biology labs to make room for more students.

MOOCs have a key issue, in that they seem to take the human condition out of learning. It's interesting to me how U Phoenix is still working on ways for students to interact. This is one of many reason I don't think I'll ever take that "institution" seriously, outside its business model and it's stadium naming rights for the Cardinals. If MOOCs are the future, then they threaten community colleges, lower-tier public institutions, and for-profit ventures. The threat is deep because it is political in nature. 

On the other hand, expensive schools will be fine. Strange, but true. Nobody headed to an LAC is trying to get by on the cheap; they've made a decision to invest in their education. The act of choosing a MOOC shows a lack of that very investment. And if your education isn't worth a full 20 of your dollars, then how many hours of your life do you think it is worth?

What is the "success" rate for foreign language courses like Rosetta Stone and Fluenz? Note the lack of links--DON'T BUY THESE! I've failed at this approach, as well. I learn more Spanish in a night in Mexico than I learn from all those stupid videos and cds. This MOOC approach is a working theory. Nothing more. "Students" in these are lab rats for now, and the experimental result will be no difference at best and awful at worst. In real life, forward-thinking institutions will have more tools, despite the current focus for MOOCs. For that, we can be thankful to the Gates Foundation, who are supporting MOOCs as yet another stupid idea. Maybe a small school MOOC, Bill...

By the way, if there was ever a MOOC setup, then the Khan Academy is a primary example. Well-designed and often interesting, Salman Khan is an interesting online teacher. His TED Talk was amazing, and his initial efforts were noble: helping his cousins from afar. K-12 uses the Khan Academy like that; mostly through teachers referring students to Khan for another approach to the same types of questions in a class. The Henley family uses Khan that way, especially for Algebra right now. It was designed for that, originally. Nobody in K-12 is leading a major charge for dropping teachers and curriculum and just using Khan.

Higher education needs to learn from the K-12 public schools. This is yet another example.