St. Patrick's Day for Everyone

A few years back, I told a student of mine on St. Patrick's Day that I was Irish. This pre-teen girl of Caribbean descent looked me up and down in disbelief.

"If you're Irish, where are your pointed ears?"

Whether she mistook Irish for leprechaun, or elf, or even Vulcan, her sincere naivete was refreshing. I was able to educate her about something in which I was an expert by birth, being Irish American.

One of the joys of teaching in New York is the opportunity to meet people different from me. From Sesame Street to Star Trek, with a course on American Pluralism, in between, I have come to enjoy finding and celebrating the differences in individuals, beginning with some of the broader differences like culture.

One of my greatest heroes, Bruce Lee, was so proud of his heritage that he wanted to share it with the world. He met resistance from Chinese elders, fearing he was divulging something that made the Chinese people special. However, Lee also knew the value in taking from other cultures, weaving principles of martial arts from France, Korea and all destinations into his own Jeet Kune Do

Consequently, there is a line in the movie biopic "Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story" that sums up to me the ideal student. "I will teach anyone who wants to learn," says Bruce Lee.

So for St. Patrick's day, a day I would claim as emblematic of my cultural history, I share this anecdote about identifying with pride my own cultural heritage, while blending in some fact about my hero, who happens to be of another culture. Celebrating heritage should not happen at the expense of another, but rather it should happen as a way to build connections with people form different backgrounds.

So, lend me an ear and I'll tell you a story or two, and I'll reciprocate, pointed ear not withstanding.

Dream Language

Last night/early this morning, my brain did me the favor of waking me up as my body had to use the bathroom.

I'm a dream aficionado so standard nightmares have fallen by the wayside as I have picked them apart and analyzed them into nothingness much like movie critics do with Adam Sandler movies.

To wake me, my brain has to craft a dream that arouses intrigue and a little confusion. ie Why are Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians fighting dragons?

So what dawned on me, a little before dawn, was how intricate a process dreaming was.

Though there is still discovery and debate, I see the process going like this. The brain constantly records information, images, sounds and smells, even when one is not conscious of it. Proof of this can be seen in those handful of people, like actress Marilu Henner, who can remember every day of their lives. I believe everyone may do this, but not everyone can access the information.

Excess memories, particularly those just collected, pool in the subconscious and wait just under the surface. When sleep occurs, the mind pulls from these images, whether to point out that they are there or to expel them to make room for new ones, and creates dream imagery during all phases of the sleep cycle, but particularly REM.

As I said before, there is some debate over the value of the dreams, but consider this. My mind has intent when it makes the dreams. In the case of last night, it needed me to wake up. Memories are stored along the neural pathways leading to the amygdala, which is the emotional center of the brain. The brain follows the emotional path to collect the images that when put together will stir me to wake.

As I also said before, my brain has abandoned the idea of scaring me and turns to other emotions to wake me. In the past, when I have not responded to the more subtle messages, I will dream of running water, rivers, and, if I ignore that, I will dream of looking for a bathroom and how good it feels after its use. My mind is getting very close to speaking to me and saying "Wake up, you need to use the bathroom."

So, first, Let me promote teh value of dream as a tool for self help. You might not dream answers to problems, but you do get some insight.

Second, I think this makes an interesting case that literacy can happen without written words, or even spoken sounds. The brain selects from a vocabulary, a familiar one, of ideas and connects them to images in order to communicate an emotionally expressive meme demanding a response. It "speaks" to me.

And finally, dream language like all other langauges, is a complex continuum with many parts and levels. For language to be taught, each of these parts must be recognized. For it to be aqcuired, each of these parts require reflection.

So thank you brain for the first lesson of the day and for keeping my sheets dry, too.

The Smartest One in the Room ...Sort of

Upon receiving the computer, the professor found a technical problem the staff member could not solve and the professor looked to her class for help.

The young, Ivy-league-educated doctor surveyed the classroom of working teachers she had been charged to teach tolerance and understanding. She pivoted on her heel and made an almost complete 360-degree turn, dismissing every one of her students' potential to help her until she stopped at the one man in the room, a young man with a tie and glasses.

"Can you help me?" she asked.

"I'll try," I replied.

When I started the program that would lead to my master's degree, I didn't understand why the professors bothered taking time out of the classroom to teach students, current teachers, lessons like Don't Judge a Book by Its Cover. Hadn't that lesson become irrelevant in a world of Sesame Street and Star Trek, in a pluralistic state like New York, to a profession that introduced teachers to the myriad and unique forms of humanity?

I think even the educators who embrace the idea that children are unique and should never be judged based on skin, color, gender and appearance, forget to apply the lesson to adults.

People assume I'm smart, I think because I wear glasses. People assume I am conservative, because I wear a tie. And the combination has made me a "Math Professor" in the eyes of at least one teacher who did not understand me. While harmless unless empowered by me, the labels are inaccurate, as labels always are, and that is frustrating. It is particularly frustrating when these judgements are made by people you would hope know better.

I understand it is human nature to make judgements based on appearance. It is anthropological, biological and psychological. We are open to people we find attractive. We close up when we fear someone. However, humans also have the capacity for logic and such judgements are, in fact, illogical.

Maybe I was best suited to deal with the computer problem. I don't know. However, what I do know was that the selection process was based on superficial and circumstantial evidence and that I cannot support.

Hard to Say Goodbye

Once a student came into my office absolutely inconsolable. His mother attempted to say goodbye to him, but he wouldn't let her go until she promised to get rid of the car that she drove that day.

"Just throw it away," he cried. "Just throw it away."

His mother explained to me that the car she normally drove was in the shop and she was forced to drive a beat-up rental.

The mother left and for the next three hours I had a completely defeated 12-year-old on my hands. Diagnosed with Autism, the little boy was normally cheery and playful when I needed him to focus. Now, he slumped over in his seat and completed all his assignments obediently, but without any vitality. A blessing in disguise? No. When you win the World Series you want the other team to at least show up. This was a hollow victory in the name of production and the cost was this little boy's personality.

His mother returned in the rental car and he resumed his complaints and continued in his funk for the next few days.

When the normal car returned, so did the little boy's smile. He hugged his mother goodbye and recited his special farewell for her, the one he did every time he said goodbye, but that he had not uttered during the duration of the rental.

"Bye bye, mom. Bye bye purple car."

I had missed it, thought it was as plain as the nose on my face. Not only had this little boy's routine been disrupted by the change in cars, so had the way to properly say goodbye to his mother. No wonder, he was so upset.

Two lessons. 1) Pay attention to details. What seems little to you may have great significance to someone else. 2 Routine is important to people. You can teach flexibility, you can teach flexibly (sometimes I teach an entire lesson in Lotus position) but there needs to be some reliable structure.

Apparently, I don't know Everything

A little boy was filling me in on what he learned at school. I had never been to his school, didn't know his friends or his teacher, so it was all new to me. This was all well and good until I demonstrated my ignorance on one particular topic.

"Don't you know who Hashem is?" he asked.

"No," I confessed.

"Why Hashem, he created this table. He made that chair you're sitting on...."

As my student went on to list the amazing achievements of Hashem, emphatically extolling the virtues and educating me, I realized he was talking about the entity I would call God. In utter disbelief, this little boy caught me up to speed on what I needed to know to get by. He had to teach his tutor.

My first thought was that I just told this little boy that I didn't know who God was that I was ignorant to the concept of a creator. I might as well have been an alien arriving from another planet, maybe another dimension. Here, I was an authority math and reading, but I didn't really know anything.

Now, he wasn't proselytizing. He wasn't coercing me to convert or selling me on the idea. He was explaining something he understood and sharing something that was important to him and his family. That was what made it special. Education should always be about the sharing of knowledge and experiences, never indoctrination.

What I did witness was a little boy come to life as he found someone in need of learning and he had the information, and the responsibility, as well as the joy of enlightening me. Playing my part as a student when I teach opens up a dialogic discourse (Freire)in which I am ready and willing to learn from my student.

Watching the little boy come to life as he, the relative expert, informed me reminded me of how wonderful it feels to teach as well as the unique relationship between an educator and student.

It started because I was unaware of the name this boy used for the creator of all. In other words I don't know everything.

Deconstructing a Defense

I just read the NY Post's editorial in defense of its publication of the evaluation ratings of New York City School Teachers (link at the bottom).

As well as having an interest in this piece because of its relation to education, I also found it exemplified some of the qualities of written work that sometimes go unnoticed by laymen and laywoman who don't spend all their time writing and editing. I believe breaking it down might shed some light on the choices and possibly punch holes in the intent.

"It's about transparency," starts the editorial which makes me laugh as it is an editorial not attributed to any single author. I'm not so sure I would say that was the paper at its most transparent.

"It's about accountability."

This is the second line of the two-line grabber. The opening is supposed to set the table for the essay to follow as well as intrigue. One of the cheapest ways to intrigue is to write nebulous statements with highly subjective words. Freedom, Justice, Love; all powerful words, all subjective and all definable in myriad ways. You have to read just to see what the writer is talking about.

The editorial goes on to say that doctors face this sort of public scrutiny, as do individual schools, a bit of double dipping in my opinion as we are talking about the teachers in those schools, and restaurants. However, what this indicates to me is that every other profession on Earth is not subject to evaluation through a test followed by published results of the process. So, the case is made that this is a unique effort on the part of the paper focusing on teachers.

"But parents have been kept in the dark for long enough."

Really? That's right, everyone raves about the New York City schools. This is a powerfully dramatic but completely unsubstantiated statement. If you buy the premise, then you get upset and not coincidentally support the point of view of the editorial, but how were parents kept in the dark?

Which brings me back to the issue of accountability. Who was hiding? The test scores are not where people want them. The tests themselves are flawed. I think this was well known. The issue is blame. People want someone to blame. It makes it easier to deal with a situation if there is someone to blame. This is a natural reaction, but it also does nothing to solve the problem.

"The union has fought every effort at genuine education reform — mayoral control, charter schools, closing failed schools, releasing evaluation ratings — because each of those initiatives boiled down to increased transparency and accountability."

This part is particularly problematic. One, it uses the word "every." It is impossible that the union has fought every effort because that would indicate they've exhausted all the possible ideas. I don't believe we have. However, an editorial cannot be wishy-washy.

Furthermore, it claims to know the reason for the union's objections. If not provided by the union, those should be proven, otherwise they are just speculation, which is never concrete.

Look, unions would certainly act to preserve themselves and protect their members, but to say that the teacher's union is doing this at the expense of the children requires hard evidence to back it up. And, solutions do not come from vilifying or alienating one of the key constituencies involved.

"And if some teachers are put on the spot in comparison with other, more effective, teachers — well, too damned bad."

The editorial looks to justify what it did, which makes me wonder if there is some guilt on its collective part. The use of the preceding line tends to make me think that there was. It is such a strong, emotional statement made from a side that claims to have won the battle. It might have been nice, and quite bold, for the paper to say they had mixed feelings about this, but a strong editorial doesn't allow for that.

"Teachers are public employees, paid with tax dollars — and information about them is a matter of public record.

The courts have made that clear."

The extra space is to make it more poetic, more powerful and eat up lines where nothing could be thought to be said. These particular lines also suggest two things. One, because it could be done, it should be done, which is absolute nonsense. Crimes can be committed, but that doesn't mean they should be. And, two, pass the buck. Mentioning the courts is like saying well, Mom said I could. The editorial loses authority deferring to an entity, particularly one that it butts heads with over issues of free speech.

Now how should the editorial end? Something pithy and powerful: Hey, remember how you opened the piece up with two powerful, vague words? Well, let's call back to them now creating symmetry in the prose. But two is a tandem, a series requires at least one more and, just as the punchline follows the joke, the last in the series should be the most powerful statement of all.

So transparency won, accountability won and ...

"So did the kids"

What's more powerful than advocating for children? And who would be against that. But what exactly did the kids win? The newspaper published a list of names accompanied by esoteric statistics, created acrimony in the teachers and hurt a lot of innocent people unnecessarily. So, again, this helps, how?

The editorial requires a lot of work o the reader to fill in the blanks. The content is shaped by the requirements of the editorial form and the content is informed by the actions of the paper already in progress. Editorials always run the risk of being self serving, as do blogs about tutoring, so my problem isn't with their attempt at the defense, but rather what they are defending.

The editorial and my answer are just rhetorical games that I am happy to play but neither solves the problems in the schools.


Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/editorials/see_through_ratings_N1ankCsHn7B9usMwujsCzH#ixzz1nv1dpI8d

Questions about the Worst Teacher in New York

The New York Post recently labeled Pascuale Mauclair New York "city's worst teacher."

Such writing is evocative of the snarky style prevalent on the Internet which has bled into the print media. I'm not against snark, but I do think there should be some consideration as to when and where it is applied. Entertainment stories sometimes require a bit of snark to digest. Sports has it's moments, too. Politics is almost always laughable, otherwise you'd cry. However, why use it here?

Such a label creates a character, just as the Internet does, just as reality television does. The incestuous media picks up on the character and uses it for its own needs. Characterization is a concern of writing and serial writing benefits from an established character. There is no need to do work explaining or creating the character. You can jump right into the story. It saves valuable space on the paper. Sometimes the character, or rath the particular characterization catches on. British tabloids called Michael Jackson "Jacko" first, US tabloids followed).

In nay case, sensationalism has always been a part of journalism and also has a long history. Red Scare, Yellow Journalism, these themes sold papers, changed policy and hurt countless innocent people. In this case, the New York Post targeted a single individual.

So, since the Post isn't the only paper doing and, and this isn't the first time, I guess that makes it okay, right? Did the paper do its job?

Here's my question to the authors of the articles as well as the editors and the unseen forces that created this title for this woman: Does the reporting of this story fix the problem?

I assume the problem is low test scores. First, I would argue that the tests are faulty, not indicative of the takers ability let alone the ability of the teacher to teach. We can't ask the world to be experts in everything, so you can't expect the journalists to know that there is a vocal lobby that denounces these tests. So, let's just continue.

My next question is, since higher test scores seems to be the desired result, does the reporting of this story help achieve that goal? Does it improve the teacher's ability or shake her confidence? Does it somehow better prepare the students? Does it fix the fundamental flaws of the test? Does it educate the public about the situation that lead to the result? I see a lot of opportunities for stories, but I don't see a lot of interest in pursuing them.

A reporter might argue that his or her goal to inform. Fine. After, this article who was informed that didn't already know? Do these new people have the power to fix the problem? I know it upset some parents. I saw one parent suggest that the teacher be fired and her salary given back to the school. Okay. If we do that, how does that improve the scores to the tests?

I see a lot of reactions to incomplete information and no solutions to the real problems. And, I do realize that many would argue that the problems have little to do with the tests themselves and more to do with factors out of the control of educators. However, I do believe that educators should continue to find solutions. Humiliating a human being is not a part of the solution.

I don't know this woman I have never been taught by her and I've never observed in her class. I have, in my travels, encountered teachers I did not like personally, teachers who were poor communicators, and combinations of the two, but none of them deserved this treatment. I do not see how the public humiliation of a woman leads to her being a better teacher? I don't see how her removal guarantees a better performance on the test in the future? I don't see how any of this helps the children who took the test achieve better test scores.

And even if somehow the test scores are the most important thing to you, and somehow, you can prove that this woman was the sole reason the goal was not achieved, let me ask you this, after all the teachers you've encountered, all the stories you've read involving teachers: Is this woman really the Worst Teacher in New York? The Worst? Really?