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Waiting for Superman, Poverty, and STRESS

  • Posted on December 28, 2011 at 4:48 pm

This has been one crazy messed up year.  I think the weather has made everyone slightly crazy.  In many ways the weather has been a sign of the Armageddon to come in the world of education.  We educators are mired down in a political system that is creating more problems in education than thoughtful solutions.  After being home a few days and celebrating Christmas with my son, I have come to realize just how stressed out I feel.  In school I feel like I am doing everything I possibly can as a teacher.  Many people have no idea what I really do as an art teacher, but it is far more than just playing with clay!  This year we have been told to add two new subjects to our teaching arsenal, reading and math.  I already do a considerable amount of writing with my students so this is “doable”.  However, I don’t think most people have any idea what is going on in school today.  By the 2014-2015 school year 50% of any Michigan teacher’s evaluation will be based on student performance.  http://www.legislature.mi.gov/%28S%28etstwt45mdi5h255mrhn50j3%29%29/mileg.aspx?page=GetObject&objectname=mcl-380-1249

The word going around the state is half of the teachers will be let go because they won’t be able to meet this standard.  We basically have been warned to fix the problem or else!  Now think about all of this and ask yourself if you want your child facing some crazy teacher that has to “whip your child into shape”.  Not literally of course, but in some capacity your child is going to be facing a teacher that has much to lose, so he/she better step up.  As I am enjoying my holiday time and de-stressing, I suspect some children are doing the same!

Today I watched “Waiting for Superman”.  The main premise of the movie is, of course, that the problems in education can be traced to the nation’s poor teachers and the teachers’ unions!  Imagine that!  I found this movie to be quick to denigrate a whole population of teachers with generalizations while basically giving no real solutions to any of the problems in education.  While it may be a catalyst for “merit” pay and charter schools it really isn’t going to be the change agent that magically turns the problems around in education.  If this movie was supposed to be the catalyst for changing education, it fell way short from that goal.  I was treated to visions of small children waiting for their number to be called from a lottery system that would determine whether they would get the” ticket” to the golden school or have to face another year in hell at their local school.  At one point, they showed a chart that “proved” that money didn’t help because back in the seventies we were spending $4,000 per pupil and now it’s up to around $9,000 and the testing results have remained flat.  Of course those of us in Michigan know that the true number for most schools is around $7,000.  In the movie this was used to show that adding more money doesn’t make a difference.  Of course in my mind I thought $4,000 in 1970 would be a hell of a lot more money than $9000 in 2011 but then I am not an economist.  I’m just a tax payer who lived through the seventies.  I bought my first new car in the seventies.  It was a Chevette and it was $4000.  In the early eighties I bought a mini pickup and it was $8,000.  You guessed it!  I bought a minivan in the early nineties and it was $16,000 but by the end of the nineties I paid $24,000.  Now I know kids aren’t cars but you have to wonder about the numbers in the movie because if the cost of cars has gone up surely the cost of an education is naturally going to go up as well.  I know that students going to college are feeling that super cost of an education.  I left college in the seventies with a $3600 loan.  I bet many students today would do anything to end college with that kind of loan!  So that little chart meant absolutely nothing to me.

Of course they wanted to assure teachers that they are more than willing to go to a merit pay system that would be a six figure system for the right results.  Michelle Rhee spoke about this in the movie and mentioned a figure of $125,000.  I think these numbers are basically meaningless.  It’s really about dividing teachers and pitting the math and science teachers against everyone else.  The movie showed parents that were willing to cart their child off to a special school that would mean getting up super early in the morning in order to get the child their by 7:45 a.m.  I found that interesting because we all know that the key for most children is the parents.  If the parents aren’t following through at home by setting aside time for homework, reading, sleep time, nutrition, etc. than the child may not perform as well in school.

The other night I watched CBS news and it showcased a state champion high school football team from Georgia. The coach felt that one of the key reasons they won the state championship was because of a special grant from the federal government that fed around 500 students their dinner.  It was set up like meals on wheels.  They delivered dinner to students at risk.  The coach noticed that by Tuesday his football team was plumb out of juice.  He wondered how he could get more calories in his team.  They needed more nourishment because most of them were on free or reduced breakfast and lunches but were not fed at night!  This was in what was said to be one of the poorest counties in the state.  To me this is all tied to education.  We have been told that we must rise above the stigma of poverty.  Poverty isn’t a reason that should stop us from doing our jobs.   Children can learn even if they’re poor.  Yes, I agree that children can learn even if they are poor.  However, if they are stressed and worried about their next meal, mom and dad’s job, or anything else that most children shouldn’t have to worry about, the battle for an education becomes more difficult!

Often times these students suffer in silence.  They are embarrassed or afraid.  They don’t want anyone to know that they are having a tough time.  Leave it to the politicians to spend ample time on putting blame where it doesn’t belong and not looking for real solutions.  Much of the problems in education are tied to the same problems in our country related to the economy.  That 8.6% job figure that is being touted as the new unemployment figure is just a made up number.  There are far more people that have given up on looking for work or have lost all hope.  They get shoved off the figures and the nation gets a false sense that things are getting better for everyone.  I think things are getting better for some people but there are many still struggling and this will be reflected in our education system even if the politicians choose to overlook the reality of the situation.  Our economy has been on a steady decline since the seventies.  Is there any thought that maybe the decline in the economy and education might possibly be related?  If the politicians really want to fix education, they should start focusing on fixing this economy.

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My Art Student, Occupy Wall Street, and those Pesky Politicians

  • Posted on December 10, 2011 at 1:11 pm

I had a student recently create a work of art that really made me think about how easy it is to understand the 99% versus the 1%.  So many of the pundits that I have watched on television have said that the Occupy Wall Street group doesn’t have a clear message, or a spokesperson and this is why they won’t be successful in whatever they are trying to do.  That’s the media, the machine that is trying to douse the flames of this current movement.  I want to share the painting that my student created.  First of all, she is a seventh grader of Mexican heritage.  She recently moved away and I’m sad to see her move as I would love to have worked with her more to see what inspires her.  The painting was the result of an assignment I had given.  She was working with a group of students and they were learning about Pieter Bruegel.  I challenged them to create a small painting inspired by the artist they were studying but to put their own “twist” on it.  Yareli did not let me down.  Below you will see the piece that inspired my student and you will see what she painted.

Pieter Bruegel, The Misanthrope

She had to write a reflection statement about her artwork.  This is what she said, “My artwork is pretty good.  This project helped me know what colors can make a different color.  My artwork could have been better but I wanted it simple.  It’s a better version of the artist I copied from because now days it’s the poor who are being robbed and that brings more attention to the one looking at it.”

Her artwork can be seen so you can make a comparison between the two pieces.

Yareli's Artwork

I think it is interesting that so many pundits and politicians profess to just not understand the Occupy Wall Street group when a little seventh grade girl can see what’s happening in the world today!  Newt Gingrich even suggested some ridiculous idea about taking a bath and getting a job.  I think the politicians and the pundits have a pretty good idea why people are so fed up with the way things are run in Washington.  They are just trying to get us off topic by changing the subject to bathing and trying to make people think the Occupy group is just a bunch of hippies.  You know those pot smoking, sex driven, street people, that are dirty.  Most of us are tired of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer because of those Washington policies that favor wealth and corporations over living wages, education, and jobs.  There is always enough money for Wall Street bankers and private corporations tied to our military industrial complex but there is never enough for the little guy.

I, for one, am thankful for the Occupy Wall Street Movement.  It takes a lot of guts to go out and really protest.  I can write on my little blog and say some of what I’m thinking but these people really put themselves out there, day after day, taking the abuse for the rest of us.  I couldn’t believe the way those young college students at UC Davis were pepper sprayed.  The video that everyone has seen shows how abused they were by the campus police.  It was surreal to watch as the students innocently stayed calm in the face of real adversity.  It must have seemed like a torturous nightmare to them that the police would spray them over and over when they were being so compliant.

UC Davis Students from LA Now from the LA Times Blog

What prepared those young students for the ability to sit still like that?  These are kids that have grown up with computers and comforts that their parents might not have had but they are still able to reach down into the well of what is right and wrong and take a stand!  I commend them and anyone else that is out there trying to make a difference in this screwed up world where up is down and down is up!  It’s almost like we have reached the Land of Oz where nothing seems to make sense.  We are facing a nightmare with the richest one or two percent controlling the lives of the rest of us.  I would like to see a change in our government but I don’t see it happening.  Too many that have the power to make the change are living in the world of the 1%.  They don’t care enough about the rest of the people.  If they did, they would stop playing these political games and get something done to get this country moving again!

I was watching C-Span today and there was a woman on talking about tax breaks for making energy improvements to your home.  A guy called in about transportation and how we should be creating a high speed railway system across our country.  I couldn’t help but think about all of the jobs that could be made from such a move.  The other day I was telling my new trimester of sixth grade students that we don’t know what the jobs will be when they grow up.  A tech guy had been in the room fixing a computer.  I told them that twenty years ago his job didn’t exist.  I went on to say that if jobs continue to be so difficult to find that the people getting the jobs will have to be innovative, inventive, and creative.  Unfortunately, politicians are the same old, uncreative, uninventive lot that they have been for years.  While they are sitting in their ivory towers of inequity telling the rest of us how to live, the creative innovators are being silenced.  They are silenced by this class of lazy, stale politicians that only live for one thing, their own greed!  My last post I pondered why the choices for president are so damn bad.  Unfortunately, the 1% and 99% don’t have a lot in common, one is looking for a hand up onto the boat and the other is pulling the ladder up and saying the boat is full!  I think the politicians are already in the boat ready to set sail.

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Choices, Choices, Choices….NOT!

  • Posted on December 4, 2011 at 2:48 pm

I’ve tried to think up a reason why I should be interested in the presidential race and I fail to see the point.  For me it seems like the current boss is much like the old boss and the next boss will be a repeat of the current boss.  Why should I care about this election?  The electoral process doesn’t really care about my vote any way.  If you listen to the pundits and you are a Republican, you shouldn’t even bother to vote.  It’s a done deal.  Well, almost a done deal, except for that pesky Newt Gingrich.  I remember back to the 2008 primary.  I was really into that election and then I discovered that the Democrats are as corrupt as the Republicans.  The process of voting in this country is deeply flawed.  While President Carter runs around the world trying to make sure elections are fair, he never looks in our own country for deceptions, lost votes, or discriminatory practices to deter people from voting.

In my humble opinion our country has lost much of the democracy that we fought so hard to obtain.  We have elections that are run by the deep pockets of corporate influence.  Those of us that want a choice and crave a choice between the two parties are left making a selection between bad and worse.  We continually vote for the lesser of two evils.  The two parties have made it virtually impossible for a third party to really structurally exist.  It’s not just about the ungodly amount of money it takes to get elected for anything; it’s the process of getting on the ballot.  It’s as if the two parties have secretly met to create this process.  They both benefit from it and the American people are the losers!

In addition to this process is the amount of legacy corruption.  It seems a pretty good bet if you father was in politics, you will be as well.  I don’t know how this all started, maybe it was the two Adams.  I don’t want to hear the argument about how I’m a teacher and my parents were too.  I just think it cannot be true that a few families are the only ones with the smarts to be president.  The other thing that I can’t stand and will mention here is Yale and Harvard.  In recent times it has become all too clear that no one that went to a “state” university could ever become president in this country.  For all the talk about Obama and Clinton coming from “Nowheresville” the truth is they both had handlers that put them in key positions along the way to the top and yes they both went to Harvard and Yale respectively.  I don’t trust the system at all.  I used to believe that my vote really counted and it probably does in local elections.  However, when I look to the top of the ticket it really is a corrupt system.  Both parties have fake primary and caucus systems where they have us pay for these elections when they already know who they want at the top of the ticket.  They use the media to spread the venom necessary to get their guy to the top.  When necessary they create some fake group that manages to steal votes for one guy or the next, like in my case here in Michigan when my vote was given to Obama in the primary.  Forget about women, they have never made it to the top really.  They have been used to appease those of us out here that believe in real equality between the sexes.  They’ll give us a token woman to put on the ticket and then pat themselves on the back for their sense of equality.  Behind closed doors they continue their “good old boy” mentality of running for office and ultimately running this country.

We see images of these guys looking like they are on different sides and then they come out with some piece of shit legislation that they can all agree upon.  Usually it is something we don’t see as the big picture and it is usually something to help corporations and hurt the middle class.  The media continues to work with these politicians trying to get us ready for the hailstorm that is to come into our lives, whether it is cuts in Social Security, Medicare, or even the current union busting legislation that has really come down from the top.  Yes, here in Michigan we teachers worry about the new legislation that our governor and Republican legislature has forced upon us.  However, the truth is even this has a blind eye coming from the Democrats.  President Obama was for “merit” pay way back in the summer of 2007.  I saw his speech on the NEA website back during the NEA convention.  The words “merit pay” has always been union busting words to me.  Fast forward to today.  We supposedly have moved to merit pay but of course there is no money for it and who determines what holds merit anyway.  Teachers have been vilified by the media.  It used to be as a teacher you were respected.  According to the media storm many of us are incompetent and lazy.  We don’t do our jobs and we just live for the summer.  All of the ills of society are the burden of the current crop of teachers.  We are responsible for everything.  It is our fault if a student doesn’t perform on some mysterious test that some corporate entity has determined is worthy.  It doesn’t matter if that child has problems at home, lives in poverty, or is emotionally disturbed.  We, as teachers, are their new mothers, fathers, cheerleaders, psychologists, mentors, and provider of all things positive for that child.  If a student comes to us damaged, we have to make him whole.  It’s not an easy task.  We have always known that we must be more than a teacher.  However, now we have the threat of the loss of our job if we cannot magically pull that rabbit out of the hat.  It doesn’t matter if we have a passion for teaching and if we can be successful with most of the children.  What matters is some illusive number on a piece of paper that tells a child they are either worthy or not.  I am appalled that we have been pushed to a point where children will be scrutinized to the point that they cannot help but feel the pressure.  Their teachers are being pressured.  The children will feel that desperation.  They have to buck up and so do the teachers.  As a teacher we have no choice but I cannot help but wonder what is going on with politicians these days.  Can’t they see that tying 49% of a teacher’s evaluation to a test is going to create much anxiety for everyone involved?  Maybe they don’t care.  I would not want my child to be stressed in this manner.  There has to be a better way to get students ready for their adult lives than this.

So back to that question, “Why should I care about this election?”  Obviously, there is a lot happening in government that makes me care about what is going on in our country.  The problem is the lack of a real third party choice that could make it to the top.  I saw Buddy Roemer on the Alex Whit CNN show this weekend.  I was surprised that he made sense.  Buddy was governor of Louisiana a long time ago.  I don’t know much about his politics.  I looked him up and it appears that he once was a Democrat and is now a Republican.  What I found interesting is the fact that he cannot participate in the Republican debates even though he is running for president.  He polls too low, so they won’t even consider him.  He talked about having a Democrat as a running mate to break the gridlock in Washington.  Since I see both parties as being similar this really isn’t a stretch.  What he said just made me think about the obvious problems with our system.  He doesn’t take any corporate money.  He limits the money to $100 donations.  No wonder he isn’t going anywhere but it says a lot about our system.  Money is the root of all evil right?  In politics, money talks and if you don’t have the corporate money, you are going nowhere fast.  Our election process is flawed.  I believe the money has to be taken out of the process especially in presidential politics.  The amount of money that is going to be raised for the 2012 election is enough to make anyone ill.  I think it’s too bad that money couldn’t be used for our education system or some other sinking ship in our government.  Instead it will be used to buy our next president just like it was used to buy our last one and the one before that! I have no real useful words of wisdom.  I’m just a frustrated voter wondering why our choices for president are so damn bad!

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