Revolution in Education

I was thinking about what I had written last night, yes it was a wee bit depressing, and I started to think more about this concept of providing some kind of a revolution in education. The more I talk with any and all of my colleagues, the more I realize exactly how necessary it is for educators to stop being silent about things. For years, educators have been rolling with the punches, and the cuts, and the new legislations; and ever single time, we have been on the losing end of things. More cuts come, more teachers lose their jobs, class sizes go through the roof. We stick with things as best as we can because we know that the kids need us. Well, I think it's time that message was heard in a louder fashion.

I don't know exactly what this might entail, a good start to things would be teachers doing more than just talking with other teachers about all the changes we need to be making. We need to be a more visible group in the public. We need to be in the fact of law makers, and not allow them to push us aside. Perhaps this is just the ranting of an idealist here, but it is time for educators to come together and tell America some of the truths about education.

Some of these truths people don't like to hear. Some of these truths are essentially just good talking points for other people to use while still avoiding any action themselves. One of the main ones you hear; "Schools need to be funded better!" You hear people say this all the time! You know that schools put up votes for bonds very frequently, that do exactly that. Those bonds help fund school renovations, updating of technology, providing adequate text books, etc... Yet, when it comes time to do it, people vote it down because it might slightly increase their taxes.

Probably the biggest truth that people don't want to hear, teachers aren't the only people responsible for a student's education. Accountability is a big buzz word that is thrown around a lot lately. Yet its implementation is flawed throughout education. If students are failing, teachers are demoted, or cut, or the school receives less money. I'm not saying that there is no such thing as a bad teacher, I know for a fact that there is, but to put the entire ownership of the student's success or failure onto the school and, ultimately, the teachers is a mistake. Students have more to do with their own success than any teacher. If a student is completely unwilling to do any work, or to even show up to class, then how can the school be held accountable for that? All of this incentive for the students to do well is thrown at the school and at the teachers, but I think that's a mistake, because teachers and schools already want the kids to do well, and to succeed, and to move from one grade to the next, but this mindless shuffling of kids from grade to grade when a great deal of them are not prepared to move on to the next level is astonishing. I had a colleague tell me that her assistant principal told her, after a grading period, that too many of her senior students were failing, and that she needed to be passing more of them. She showed me her grade book, these students are all missing MULTIPLE major assignments. Some of them hadn't even bothered to show up to class all semester, yet my colleague was being told that too many were failing. Who should be the person being held accountable in that situation? The teacher who actually is doing their job, or the student who has done no work at all?

This will be a process, but I want there to be a revolution in education. It's hard to start such a thing from a blog that most people will probably just jump over, but who knows. Stranger things have happened. Those of you who read this and want to help, please join as a follower of this blog. Give me, or any other educator you know, ideas of how we can make education a priority again.

Long Night, new day...

It's been a bit of a long night, and I feel that I probably won't do much sleeping unless I get this off of my chest in some fashion. My wife and I are currently planning a move. I have accepted a job in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and we are trying to find out how we are going to be getting from Albuquerque up. And, naturally, we've been a bit overcome with the shock of how much it is going to cost. Which ended up leading to a large discussion about money...It's sad how often everything comes down to money, but it's true.

My wife and I ended up having a nice long conversation, a nice long depressing conversation, that has me in a bit of a bad mood, which is what I want to get out here. I grew up as part of a pretty well-to-do family. We weren't rich, but we never wanted for anything. It's a sad realization when you come to terms with the fact that you won't be able to provide as good of a life for your child as your parents provided for you. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't change a single thing about the process that brought my daughter into the world, she is the most precious thing that I have ever known, but I know how good I had it as a kid. I was able to travel, play various sports, take private singing lessons, and get through both my undergraduate and graduate programs without any debt. Unless some kind of a miracle happens, some random rich family member that I never knew I had leaves me an insane amount of money, there is no way that I can give my daughter that kind of life. It's hard to put into words exactly how that feels.

Worse, there's not much I can really do about it. I can go get more degrees, and go deep into debt. I can go to administration, and probably never be as happy as when I was actually interacting with the students and making a real impact. I can try and find something else to do for a living, but there isn't anything else that I would want to do for the rest of my life. So I just have to accept it. I don't necessarily believe that life will be worse for my daughter, but I can almost assure myself and everybody else, that it will be more difficult, and for that I am deeply sorry. I'll just maintain hope, or try to, that people will wake up and begin to value education and educators. I do wish that it were an easier process, but there needs to be some kind of a revolution in regards to education. Something that will lead to a new and better day for the very students that America is leaving behind...

Cuts, Cuts, Cuts

Firstly, apologies for not posting in a while. Things have been insane as of late, and are just now starting to calm down a bit.

Well, it's no secret that our economy has been insane lately. And it's definitely no secret that everybody is feeling the squeeze. Well, as you know I do my best to try and keep things anonymous as far as exactly where I work so that I don't name names and give too many specifics. I feel I've done pretty well. This will probably be the most specifics that I give.

I have mentioned, in previous posts, that I currently work in New Mexico, in Albuquerque to be exact. Well, I work for the Albuquerque Public School district which is feeling the strain of budget cuts in a rather insanely huge fashion. My mother works at my old high school in the English Resource Center, and has shared with me that her district is having to cut $13 million. A healthy amount, but one that isn't going to find major, and deep cuts. I tell you this as a means of comparison. We've been told, since December, that cuts were coming to APS, but we weren't certain of how much until recently. $43 million dollars....Let me say that again, 43 MILLION DOLLARS!!! The worst part of all of this isn't that we aren't getting 43 million less in funding, it's that about 13 - 20 million dollars of this is from mismanagement of funding from previous years. That means our cuts could have been lower, this means that fewer teachers would be out of work, this means that class sizes might not be so crazy next year; but no, the people that are overpaid to make sure stuff like this doesn't happen, didn't do such a great job.

The bottom line of this is that they are expecting to lay off about 600 teachers, and won't refill the positions of those teachers who are retiring or leaving the district. So that ends up being about 1200 fewer teachers in the district next year. Obviously this is a result of a larger problem of how people view education and teachers in general. But the only response I have to this, because I know it isn't just New Mexico feeling this, is don't complain when your students aren't as prepared as you were. People don't want to pay the extra taxes to help fund the schools, but they want the schools to be better. It doesn't happen for free folks, and the ones that lose in the long run, are your kids.

Just food for thought.