Recently, a tweet came from the THIRD STRING QUARTERBACK at Ohio State:
It's ridiculous to most people, but it doesn't surprise me. Cardale is 18. He's convinced he will play in the NFL in a couple of years. Three, tops. He's been so successful until this point. He's been adored throughout his adolescence, which is ending but not over (obviously).
He'll grow up. One way or another, he'll grow up. Maybe he realizes there is no NFL in his future. Maybe there is some NFL, but it gets usurped by bad ideas of Cheesecake Factory investments.
But that would mean getting a degree in how to manage a restaurant. Perhaps he's at the wrong school for that.
I hope the publicity pushback leads to Cardale's repurposing and academic success. If not, I hope he's able to find a way in his late 20's or early 30's to fix this attitude. In the meantime, we watch the promise of a young man drop significantly while he remains in a self-important rut.
Good luck, #3. I hope you get your chance. Somewhere.
It's tough being a kid these days...especially in Texas.
It's not enough that school has been dumbed down by multi-pile choice (sic) tests, anymore. Or that school funding from politicians is paltry compared to the need they, themselves created...and it's getting worse. Those are typical gripes.
This only marginally relates to what happened in Connecticut. I'm not trying to throw in my opinion on guns or mental health or autism or heroic teachers.
I'm talking about the "crowd control" approach to handling "threats."
In a single two-week period, we saw tragedy in Connecticut (or, as one local elementary principal wrote repeatedly, Conneticut). In God's Country, however, my eldest daughter has faced this "reverse evacuation" procedure three times. This last time? Somebody called the police because a guy had an air gun about 1/2 mile from the school. It was dismissal time. Everybody was unloaded from the bus and quarantined (er, reverse evacuated) for about an hour. Some family friends from Round Rock have faced it twice. Manor had an issue, as well. Those are just the ones I know about from education's Word-of-Mouth Network.
You'd be surprised at the incredible number of crimes that DON'T take place in schools. Doesn't matter. All 2600 people in a building get treated as though they are in some type of "bomb shelter-lite."
These are the same kids who were somehow able to function in this same world without these drastic measures before. Then, somebody flipped a switch--my guess was at an insurance company. There are RULES to handle threats at schools now, and they rival anything you might find at O'Hare International Airport.
Is there a stranger on campus? LOCK THE ENTIRE SCHOOL DOWN! NO BATHROOM BREAKS UNTIL SPRING!
Did somebody think they might have seen a strange bag in a hall about an hour ago? HAVE ALL STUDENTS HIDE UNDER THEIR DESKS IN PITCH DARK FOR 112 MINUTES!
Do these systems work? No.
On the other hand, DeAnn's institution of "lower learning" experienced a fair threat today...at least if you were the Head Honcho of the Day. An irate parent, obviously agitated, backed the principal into a corner--yelling, swearing, threatening, bullying. The situation was handled splendidly, and very few even knew that anything was happening or did happen.
I did, though. I have insider information. :-)
The kids still left the building. They are beginning Christmas/Winter Break.
That's an example of how to de-escalate a situation.
LOCKDOWN!!!!!! just escalates things to the point of the ridiculous.
There's only one thing worse in Texas public education: the way they treat teachers during testing week. Let's just call that a teaser for a future blog.
[NB! This post was written while I was held back on the interstate highway in Arkansas for 45 minutes (along with perhaps 1200 or so other vehicles). I was driving my "new" 1999 VW Cabrio home from Philadelphia, and finshing the last leg of the journey the Sunday before Labor Day of 2012. My situation seemed like something to write. You are free to call it a take on American society, women's issues, family issues, or just spit on your computer in disgust. I just found this on my iPhone Notes application. I am sharing it with you in a lighthearted manner. Please accept it as a "holiday break" from the Heavier Things. Happy New Year!]
-- Notes from the road:
If you want a banana, and you are traveling west on I-40 through Tennessee and Arkansas, you are S.O.L.
On the other hand, if you would like Adult things, you are in good shape. This is important, as I am an adult who wants a banana. What I choose to do with that banana would be an adult decision. Not that it's any of your business, but I would choose to EAT this hypothetical banana.
There are three major types of adult stores on interstates. One is the adult mega-something. Most look like shacks, but my guess is they go down underground 125' or so, allowing for a true mega-plex/mega-storemega-whatever experience.
Another is the adult outlets. Amazing, this country we live in. Adult video production companies are sending discontinued items and factory seconds to be offered to the public at deep discounts! An entire store of black-and-white dirty pictures and porn out-takes. What's not to love?
Finally, most tempting, are the adult supercenters. This being the home state of Wal-Mart, perhaps you can buy groceries (bananas) there, as well as porn, yarn, novelties, greeting cards, and gifts of ALL kinds. Perhaps they have a pharmacy where you can get both Horny Goat Weed and Lipitor.
Wait. That IS Wal-Mart.
They're allegedly selling peaches by McDonalds, but I'm holding out for a banana. My guess I will remain doing so for all of Arkansas. [Blogger's Note: There were no bananas in my life that night. No pornography, either.] Happy New Year! May you find all the bananas you care to buy in 2013, pth
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!
"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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
