Top Ten Issues and Myths in Education

I just watched the NFL Network’s “Top Ten Myths of the NFL.”

It’s got me thinking about the top ten myths and issues in education.

10. Digital Learners

Myth. Don't think just because every kid has a cell phone and a facebook account that they actually know how to use this technology. Moreover, don't assume they know how to use the technology to enhance their learning.

KoKo can work her way around Facebook and can text all day long, but when it comes to navigating the web, she is too click happy and impatient. The same is true for finding information on the web.

The great thing is, once students GET the technology, they excel and leave me in the dust. But it takes awhile for them to really get around to understanding it.

9. The tenure issue

Issue. Even though I’m co-president of the teacher’s union here, I can see both sides. If you’ve read this blog at all, you’ll know I’m a big fan of Michelle Rhee. She is dead set against unions. Yet, Cal, one of the people whom I respect most here, is an ardent union member and is quick to remind me of a time not too terribly long ago when teachers had few rights and could be fired simply for not getting a long with a principal.

I admit that’s scary. But I know too – and have been victim of – many teachers who are allowed to pantomime their ways through the latter years of their careers just waiting for retirement.

What are they gonna do? Fire me? They ask.

That’s bullshit and a sin against our profession.

But I’d be a lair if I didn’t admit that such idiocy is allowed to persist.

Now, it’s up to administration to step in and make sure that the tenured teacher just doesn’t cash it in. That they, instead, stay relevant in their field, teach inspiring and relevant lessons, motivate their students, and so on.

But as Rhee found out in Washington, D.C., sometimes administrators are fearful of conflict.

Of course, it’s up to a teacher to be a professional and take an administrator’s criticism and actually fix what they are doing wrong rather than getting angry or just turning a blind eye.

In many cases, tenure is great for education. Think of all the great young teachers who never last because some distracts are unwilling to grant them tenure and pay them more. Think of all the great young teachers who want that job security and move on when they don’t get tenure.

However, as I said previously, there are a lot of awful teachers who should be tossed out because they have tenure and are pretty much free to do what they want because of it.

As Lee Iacocca said once, “Trust teachers to be professionals and pay them for the work they do.” Now administrators need to step up and hold teachers to professional standards if they don’t hold themselves to those standards.

8. More programs/policies and money will fix everything.

Myth. I hate this one. I think of the big push when I first started teaching for grad standards and the profiles of learning. While they are still around, at least bits and pieces of them are still around, I think of all the money our district pumped into them that could have gone to technology or advanced training for staff or other areas that are lacking.

I know the standards and the seminars we all went to caused us to re-evaluate how we teach and construct lessons. They did help me become a better teacher. But I can think of a lot of other things that all that money could have been spent on that would have also made me a better teacher.

Plus, when those old grizzled veteran teachers rolled their eyes, shrugged and said between clenched teeth, “This too shall pass,” they were right. And that attitude angers me.

The same is true for NCLB. If that is scrapped, we can kiss all of the money invested in that program goodbye. And all those teachers with their clenched teeth and their “This too shall pass” mantra will win again.

Instead, let’s invest in programs that really work (all day every day kindergarten, tutoring programs, small class sizes, find a way to pay exceptional teachers (don’t ask me who defines that one!), after school programs and technology - and make sure teachers know how to use it!) and I think we’d actually save money rather than throwing tons of money at every new fix it strategy that comes along.

Now, I know even in our own district that there are some programs that are given more funding or attention than other programs, and it really has some teachers worked up. I know this is not a perfect system. We have to examine what programs really work and which just look good. Look at the Read First program. A billion dollars spent on it, and what happened? Little to no influence on reading scores. Think of all that money wasted.

In terms of money, it seems to me that whenever teachers and administrators cry “more money” it gets labeled as a cop out. Give us more money and we’ll fix things. I’m not sure that always works. In fact, you can look at a lot of innovative charter schools that are doing great things without a lot of cash.

Schools also are terrible wasters. I can’t imagine what our electricity when certain lights stay on ALL the time. Or what about our heating bills when we have windows that don’t shut properly in the winter? What about going to a paperless system where students email papers to us. Does anyone know what a school spends in paper in a year? How many classroom SMART boards, iPods, and laptops could we get for that?


7. Significant content knowledge is the most important asset a teacher can have.

Myth. Not even close. A love for kids and a passion for learning and pedagogy trump content knowledge every time. Here's why - ask yourself if you remember a teacher who knew A LOT about their subject but couldn't motivate you to learn or couldn't make you understand the subject. I bet several teachers come to mind.

Now think of a teacher who really cared. How many come to mind.

Which ones made more of an impact on you?

Of course, the trick is to combine deep content knowledge with a love for kids. That's how you get great teaching.

In the end, I believe, it’s personality and passion that carry the day in teaching. I was just listening to a podcast with Thomas Friedman talking at Yale. He was going through what jobs and skills he thought could not be outsourced or replaced with machines in the future ‘flat’ world of ours. He said that one skill that can’t be outsourced is personality. He referred to a lemonade salesman at a ballpark. It doesn’t get much more basic than water with ice and a slice of lemon in it. What machine couldn’t provide that? Yet, Friedman noted how this lemonade salesman had a whole routine. He exchanged banter with the fans. He stood on his head. He knew people by name. He joked. In short, he put on a show and gave the fans something they couldn’t get anywhere else or from anything else. And guess what? At the end of every game, that guy has a wad full of money from tips larger than any other worker. That’s the power of personality.

That’s what a teacher has to do. They can’t just present the information anymore.

6. Standardized test effectively and consistently measure student learning.

Issue. They measure something. I’m not sure if it’s learning or test taking skills or what. And it scares me that we base so much on them. Imagine basing what you do right now on ONE test that you have to take. Imagine if you’d lose your kids if you don’t pass a good parent standardized test. Or in your line of work, what would you do if you had to take ONE exam to prove that you deserve to have your job. Where does this happen?

Rarely are we forced to take any kind of exams. Rarely are we forced to problem solve alone. Rarely are we forced to wager so much on such a flimsy piece of paper.

I like the quote (and I’m paraphrasing here) – judging a students education by the number of tests they take is like judging how good chili is by the number of beans.

5. Great teaching looks one specific way.

Myth. Great teaching is an art. And there are many, many different schools and genres. There are the disciplinarians. There are the odd, random-abstract types. There are the well-planned out, concrete sequential types. There are the student friendly types. There are the old school types.

I hate when administrators like Paul Vales in New Orleans tries to devise a teacher-proof curriculum. Here is the standard, the objective, and the task. Just add an adult, students, mix, and hand out the standardized tests, fill in the bubbles, show progress, and move on.

I think that is the total opposite of teaching or getting an education.

Mr. Matzke was one of my favorite teachers in high school. He made me fall in love with American history. Now Mr. Matzke loved notes. He loved to lecture. I recall spending many hours deciphering his handwriting on the board (and on his tests). But he brought enough personality to the class to hook me on history. Yet, he was about all about lecturing and taking notes. We never used a computer or a PowerPoint.

But somehow he awakened something in me that got me interested in history. I’ve never been the same since.

In fact, one of my favorite memories from high school was taking one of his American history tests. I felt sure that I got every one right. I was sure I even got the bonus right. But I got sick and missed the day, which happened to be a Friday, that he handed the tests back. I felt terrible. I spent a good amount of time that weekend going over the material in my head to make sure I had it all right. It didn’t even seem like it was school related. I was interested! Imagine that. It was like thinking about the NFL draft or playoffs or the bands I was interested in.

Later in college I had writing teachers, Mark Christensen and Susan Hauser, who just had us sit in circles and share our writing.


4. Pay for teacher performance

Issue. Recently, George Parker, head of the union and lead negotiator for the Washington, D.C. school district, where Michelle Rhee is offering teachers a unique opportunity: waive your tenure and you could double your salary ($120,000) or keep tenure and top out at $62,000.

Parker now admits that the time has come for pay for performance. But whose performance? I can teach my ass off and get less than half the class on track. Other times, like with the wonderful and talented kids in my College Comp classes, I could not do a thing and those kids and their scores would make me seem like a genius.

Is that accurate? Of course not.

I know when teachers from different districts have presented on the MN version of pay for performance, Q Comp, it was a farce. The pay for performance had nothing to do with student gains. It had more to do with professional development for the staff. But shouldn’t we do that anyway as professionals?


3. You can't teach writing if you don't hammer grammar.

Myth. Wait. I'll change that. Out right lie! You don’t become a better artist by knowing what chemicals comprise the paint nor do you become a better musician just because you know how to assemble or build your own instrument.

Give the kids all the grammar worksheets you want. They will never make them better writers. Ever.

I got one B in my English major in college. And I couldn’t tell you what a sentence fragment or an introductory adverb clause was. But I had voice and style and passion. That’s what writing teachers need to focus on.

Grammar gets hammered because it’s easy to teach. Plus, once a teacher masters grammar, it’s something you can hold over a kid’s head. It’s empowering. Just like the five-paragraph theme.

You can grade all the worksheets you want, but you aren’t making kids better writers unless they write.

Now you might get by with some grammar in context exercises. But get them writing. Not circling independent clauses and underlining subjects and predicates.

2. You have to be an a*&hole for the first few weeks of class.

A huge myth. Be genuine. If you’re an asshole, be true to yourself. If you’re not, be who you are. Kids will see right through that. Plus, if they genuinely enjoy coming to your class because you care and are passionate about what you do, students will see that and want to come to class and partake. It won’t always be easy and there will be times you have to put the smack down, so to speak, but you have to be true to who you are.

I’ll give you an example. I used to have trouble with a student. They were disrespectful in the hall and interrupted class and acted like a puke.

Instead of flying off the handle or running to administration to handle it, which would only escalate the situation, I ended up ignoring him and his behavior.

Then I noticed an awesome painting he had drawn. The next time he acted like a little shit, I asked him about it and if I could buy it for my classroom. For once, he stopped seeing me as whatever he had seen me as and we talked. I bought the painting and now he is civil, respectful, and nice. I didn’t buy it to get him off my back. It was an awesome painting. I took an interest in him and that changed everything.

Now he is working on an even larger painting to give to me.

Funny how that works. That would never have happened if I would have assholed him (a term our principal used for hardballing students)

1. Cell phones are the devil.

Epic myth.

They are here to stay and they are not going away. So if you can’t beat them why not join them?

Every student in my class has one. Think of all the information at their disposal. After all, they aren’t just phones. They are – for all intents are purposes – computers.

As one slideshow on technology I was watching observed, think of all a student could use Text messaging for - pop quizzes, spelling, polls, math and science experiments, book reports, peer tutoring, and class presentations.

Imagine, as the slideshow suggests, giving your class this assignment –

“Class, you’ve got 10 minutes to receive a text message from anyone outside of this school. Please find out these three things – First, what they had for breakfast. Second, what the weather is like where they are. Third, what was the last thing they purchased. Bonus points will be given for messages received from people in other countries . . . using languages other than English. Talk about acquiring useful data! This data could then be used in nearly any class . . . To teach a wide variety of essential skills: graphing data, food preparation, and predicting outcomes.”

And that is just the tip of the iceberg.

We might think it’s rude when students – or our kids- take out their cell phones to text while they’re talking. But they don’t think like that. Our parents maybe thought it was rude to eat in front of the TV instead of at the table. Maybe they thought it was rude to do any number of things. But times change.

Our kids and students are simply multi tasking.

Now, I don’t pretend to think that cell phones will be magic. They’ll be distracting. But we deal with dozens of distractions too.

Just wait until more and more teachers use cell phones as part of their every day lives. Just think of what could happen if you got the cell phone numbers for every student in your class. Then you could send out a mass text message – as many of our coaches do to their athletes – regarding assignments and due dates.

Personally, I would buy – if I were the God of education – a cell phone and iPod. Just think what they could do with an iPod. They could use iTunes to access iTunes U for a plethora of podcasts. By downloading certain podcasts, students could see what it’s like to sit in on an MIT lecture. They could listen to lecturers at Stanford. They could get videos from Missouri State on several disciplines (there are some very good lectures on ee cummings, Ernest Hemingway, and Robert Frost). And that is just using iTunes U, not to mention the other podcasts out there.

It’s gotten to the point where the old mantra, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em comes into play.

I’m not saying have a free for all with cell phones. There can be rules and consequences, but there is so much power in those little cell phones that teachers would be foolish – especially if you’re in a small school where computer access is limited or nonexistent – not to take advantage of it.