Apparently, teachers aren’t supposed to take it
personally when someone says public schools are broken and failing.
And when we call someone out on that nonsense publicly... someone who has a big
microphone... well, something’s going to hit the fan.
Let me back up. I was
listening to a talk show host who, as much as I would LOVE to name names, I
won’t. Because this host has called me
enough names and I don’t need any more hateful name-calling. The host’s guest was someone who has started
some charter schools that have made several amazing claims. Unfortunately, as with all charter schools
that make these miraculous claims, the claims turn out to be “not so
amazing.” (I am not going to name the chain of charter schools here, but here is a great site with links to many of these
charters who make such claims – “Miracle Schools.”
As I listened to the broadcast, I asked a question on
Twitter. The second I posted it, the
guest addressed it - weird coincidence. The response from the
host was swift and snarky, tweeting that I should go back and listen again. Ummm..... OK. Thanks for the assumption I wasn't listening. I continued to listen to the entire
broadcast and really wondered about this “Miracle School.”
When I got home I started researching on the internet, and
found just what I had suspected. No
miracle here. I tweeted my findings out
to the host, and as I did, I noticed that during the broadcast the host
had tweeted "public schools are broken," and later tweeted "public
schools have failed."
So, I decided to ask the question: “Where is your data to
back up the claim public schools have failed?” The response was
basically, “I never said that.” I love
Twitter. As I retweeted the host's tweets, I
started tweeting research showing that public schools are in fact NOT failing;
the problem is actually poverty.
Then it started. I
was called a troll, sensitive, wrong, scary, part of the problem, irrational,
and ignorant. (To be fair, I said the
host looked ignorant by claiming failure without data. I suppose I can’t be too mad about being called ignorant.) I was told I had misdirected anger, and the
host wondered how well I convey information to my students. I was accused of coming into the middle of a
conversation, popping off half-cocked, and was then accused of not even
listening to the show. That was followed
by the accusation that I didn’t do my homework and my comprehension is sketchy;
this was stated because the host claimed no one was blaming teachers. Finally, I was accused of not being part of
solutions, just there to defend myself.
During all of this I was tweeting data,
articles, and research findings, none of which the host read. The host claimed to have data, although none
of this data was shared. Then after
repeatedly insulting me, the host blocked me on Twitter, ending any hope of the research being read.
Once again, as happens so often in education, we have someone who has never taught a day claiming to know all there is to know about public education. A “hero” is brought in who has started some charter schools with yes, great results, but when you dig deeper, you find a lot of dirt. A lot. But who cares, right? The end justifies the means? The hell it does.
Once again, as happens so often in education, we have someone who has never taught a day claiming to know all there is to know about public education. A “hero” is brought in who has started some charter schools with yes, great results, but when you dig deeper, you find a lot of dirt. A lot. But who cares, right? The end justifies the means? The hell it does.
How do we as teachers change the narrative with these folks
with big mics? I’ll admit Twitter is
probably not the best place to have such a dialogue, but for this particular
host, it’s the ONLY place to engage.
(I’ll just let you come to your own conclusions on that one.) It is so easy for people to spout off “Public
schools are broken” and “Public schools are failing.” Society blindly accepts it as truth, and everyone
shakes their collective heads in sorrow.
When those of us with actual data and research show what is really going
on, we are silenced. Humiliated. Dismissed.
I suppose that’s where we start. We cannot allow ourselves to be
silenced. We have to stand up and be
heard. We must tweet, blog, post on social media, and write.
We cannot afford to close our classroom doors and simply teach. (Hell, we haven’t been allowed to
do that for years anyway.) We cannot
naïvely state, “I don’t get involved in the politics of education.” Education IS politics. Most important, we cannot live in fear
anymore.
When you blame public education, you are blaming
teachers. When you make sweeping
statements about the failures of public education, you are making sweeping
statements about teachers. And when you
refuse to listen to a teacher who is giving you data and research, you are
embracing continued ignorance. Teachers
ARE public education. We need to change
the narrative. No one else is going to
do it for us.
A Note About the References:
I am not going to post the references I tweeted that were specific to
the charter school chain that was the topic of the talk show. But the site “Miracle Schools” has a
great deal of this information about many of these schools. The rest of the references were ones I
tweeted about public education, achievement, international comparisons, and
poverty. All of them are below.
References
Fiske, Edward B., and Helen F. Ladd. "Addressing the Impact of
Poverty on Student Achievement - EducationNC." EducationNC. Education North Carolina, 10 Feb. 2015. Web.
<https://www.ednc.org/2015/02/11/addressing-impact-poverty-student-achievement/>.
McNeff, Mike. "Beyond the Classroom: Poverty Impacts
Achievement." ThePierceCountyTribune.com.
Pierce County Tribune, ND, 12 Sept. 2014. Web.
<http://www.thepiercecountytribune.com/page/content.detail/id/509981/Beyond-the-classroom--Poverty-impacts-achievement.html?nav=5005>.
Miracleschools -. N.p., n.d.
Web. .
Phillips, Mark. "8 Myths That Undermine Educational
Effectiveness." Edutopia. N.p.,
10 June 2014. Web.
<http://www.edutopia.org/blog/myths-that-undermine-educational-effectiveness-mark-phillips>.
Rabinovitz, Jonathan. "Poor Ranking on International Test Misleading
about U.S. Student Performance, Stanford Researcher Finds." Stanford News. Stanford University, 15
Jan. 2013. Web. <http://news.stanford.edu/news/2013/january/test-scores-ranking-011513.html>.
Riddile, Mel. "PISA: It’s Still ‘Poverty Not Stupid’ |." Web
log post. The Principal Difference.
National Association of Secondary School Principals, 12 Feb. 2014. Web.
<http://nasspblogs.org/principaldifference/2014/02/pisa-its-still-poverty-not-stupid/>.
Walker,
Tim. "Shameful Milestone: Majority of Public School Students Live in
Poverty - NEAToday." NEA Today. National Education Association, 16 Jan. 2015. Web.
<http://neatoday.org/2015/01/16/shameful-milestone-majority-public-school-students-
now- live-poverty/>.
