Music in the Dark

Darkness allows you to focus on the words
on the beat
on the emotion.

At a dance or club
when they turn the lights down
for a slow dance

Driving down the road
heading home
or away
Street lights and head lights
keeping  rhythm with
heart beats
Moving pictures of
the mind

Music surrounds
connects
embraces

And music always remembers

End of Round One

Testing is over.
Except for the make-ups.
And I have some thoughts.

We've all seen the meme with all the animals lined up and they are being asked to climb a tree. I think we all agree on how idiotic this is, yet here we are participating in the lunacy.

We work every day to find out how each child learns best and would do so even if "differentiation" weren't the buzz word of the day. Some go to extreme lengths to help kids find their best learning environment, such as Starbucks seating and ambient lighting. We teach them to go back in the text and highlight essential information. We teach them that team work is essential. We teach them to use resources. We teach them to ask for help on things they don't understand.

Then because the government wants data, We put them in a room in desks that are now in rows. We cover the resources on the wall we've encouraged them to use all year. We give them the number 2 pencils to use and collect them at the end. We tell them to clear their desks. We tell them stray marks will harm results so they can't highlight or underline or circle important information. We read from the same script as every other teacher in the state (and if we were to all be common core and taking the same test we could be reading in unison with the entire country). Then we say, "You may begin."  We circle the room stopping when a hand is raised to say, "I'm sorry, I can't tell you. Just do the best you can."

And we die a little inside.

Studies have shown a person tests best in the environment in which they learned the material. So, we pull the kids who have accommodations and have them take the test in a different room with a teacher who is not their own.

It's wrong.

But not just because it's not appropriate. It's wrong because it is data for data's sake. The tests supposedly reflect how individual teachers are doing and how the school and district fare. But how does this affect how we teach?

For some reason "we've" decide the curriculum isn't "rigorous" enough. And we now have kindergartners writing persuasive letters using at least 2 reasons why or why not. Because it will be important when they first take the test in 3rd grade? Knowing their address is no longer relevant, but knowing how to write an informational text such as Penguins can... Penguins are... and Penguins have... is very relevant.

1st graders read and discuss "The Lemonade Wars" because it fits the economics portion of first grade standards. As if first grade needs economics.

We complain. We say we are disheartened at what it does to our kids.
And then we put the "TESTING" sign on the door and remind them that once we start handing out booklets there is to be no talking.

We admire those who post their letters of resignation and applaud their courage. What if we joined them before it came to feeling like giving up is the best option and fought for the change we know needs to happen? To paraphrase Margaret Mead, "Could a group of  thoughtful committed citizens {change education}? Indeed they are the only ones who ever have." I'm afraid the answer is no. Too many of us are sheep and those who would lead the charge to change can't afford to take on the issue alone.


So today we put the "TESTING" sign back in the box.
In another month or so we'll take it out again for round 2.
It will still be inappropriate.
We'll do it anyway.

Why?

Bucket Filled

Youngest had a band concert tonight. Or should I say he participated in a band showcase. Every band the high school performed tonight. Advanced (son's group), 8th grade, and Jazz in the auditorium then Color Guard, Winter guard, and percussion in the gym, then Jazz band 2, Intermediate band, and 7th grade band in the auditorium, and finally Winter percussion and Winter Winds in the gym.

As we waited for the program to start, I saw one of my kids who is now in 7th grade. I said Hi, and he came and sat down with us. He is one of those kids that drove everyone crazy. He likes to put one toe over the line with a smile on his face to see where the line really is. Some felt it disrespectful. We had discussions on knowing when to stop -- that point being before the head of the adult in charge exploded. He is funny, and smart, and just a little bit of an imp. Love him. He told me he and one other from our school were in the high school winter percussion and invited me to see him perform.

I decided to stay a while and hubby and son came home. I spotted one a girl from school. Her sister came over at that moment and I suddenly felt like a rock star. She gave me the biggest hug and then drug me up to some others who had also been in my reading group last year as well as others from my school that were now 7th graders. I told them I would stay to watch them play. They were really good even though you could tell they were nervous. More hugs before they left with their parents.

The winter percussion was starting so I stopped in for a minute before I left for the night. Oh my stars were they awesome! (although I might choose different costumes).

After a day that had its ups and downs,  seeing such passion for creating music and best of all seeing kids that mean a lot to me ended it on a high note. I think I just may be a part of somebody's "educational story" and that feels pretty good.

Parents are the problem

Here in Indiana we had storms move through overnight, so I am tired and grumpy. Maybe not the best way to kick off writing month because the frustration is more raw.

So many educators push back against criticism of the education system laying the blame on poverty. Yes, there are hungry children.  Yes, there are homes where kids lack shelter. And absolutely a child can't learn if he is hungry or she is homeless. We need to help those children.

But, I am going to be controversial and lay the criticism at the feet of parents. Children are not a "To-Do" list item to cross off your life goals list.

 "My body- my choice" should not refer to the life that grows inside a woman. The choice a woman makes should be to have intercourse or not.

Most birth control is pretty effective if used correctly. Not having sex is 100% effective. Choose the father of your child carefully. They will be a part of your child's life for the rest of your life.

Once you have children, they become important. Yes, you need to remember who you are, but who you are is not the same as the you before kids. Kids shouldn't necessarily be the center of your universe, but they should rank above your sex life. Kids have steps, Halfs, and mom's boyfriend's kids that they call a sibling. A child should have a home. Not a favorite suitcase.

The latest movie may be something you are looking forward to. Hire a baby sitter. Dead Pool is not for 8 year olds or 7 year olds or 6 year olds. Dead Pool is rated R -- that means you should be over the age of 17. That should be a hint that you maybe at least preview it-- to see if it would be ok. And for the record, it still isn't for a 6, 7, or 8 year old.

My husband went to a presentation a long time ago where they discussed  poverty. The notion that people in poverty live for NOW. If they get money they spend it right away on "fun things" because they don't know when they will get money again. My friends who have been teaching for a long time confirm this.  They say they will visit a family at their home and there will be a big screen TV and multiple game consoles and games. However, the kids won't have a bed. And there isn't a table or chairs where they can eat. Where does the concept that an adult's happiness overrules their responsibilities as a parent? And why do we let it slide with a shrug of the shoulders or a frustrated sigh and think if only the parent(s) had more government money things would be better for the children?

We can throw all the money in the world at the poverty dilemma, but it won't change the mindset.

I grew up with government cheese and powdered milk. My dad hated having a boss telling him what to do, so he worked for himself a lot. Christmas was thrift store finds or homemade gifts. As soon as I started babysitting at 11, I was, for the most part, the one who bought my own clothes. I heard my mom beg for more time to pay bills. I know she was embarrassed when she had to use food stamps.  Because they didn't have much money or any real financial stability, when my dad died my mom negotiated a bargain price on cremation based on the fact the funeral home had handled many of her family's funerals --and locked in the price for herself. I have been there-- in the poverty cycle. And I don't feel sorry for myself.

My parents didn't provide monetary things. My parents provided stability. They provided expectations. They provided boundaries.  There was a point in time that I thought them selfish for not providing for us all the things I thought I "needed." After working with kids whose parents get more government money than my parents ever did, but spend it on fun-- not caring they aren't providing for their kids, makes me grateful. I am grateful that while I still think my dad was selfish for not keeping a job because he didn't like being told what to do, they put food on the table and gave us values. They stayed together for nearly 60 years until death parted them. And that is after losing a child when she was 5. They didn't give up because things were hard.

So stop putting the blame on the government not doing enough, or having a high enough minimum wage, or think throwing more government  money at people who still manage to fund cigarettes and beer is the answer.  I am not smart enough to say what THE answer is, but I honestly believe making excuses isn't it.

Why the diatribe? It gets frustrating when kids are rude, disrespectful, and even violent and we don't want to bother the parents. These incidents have happened this week. Obviously I can't go into details but the one in particular is not even from poverty. The one is from selfish parents who put their own needs before their child's. And will continue to do so because parenting is hard. And parents aren't expected to put in their best effort if they don't want to.

"You can't tell a parent how to be a parent."

Maybe not. But maybe there could be a rubric?

I'll be less grouchy tomorrow.

Testing Season

It's Indiana
Friday we didn't need coats at recess
Saturday it snowed
Sunday was sunny but windy
Monday was beautiful for a day in February
Today- Tuesday- it was supposed to be a high of of 64
it wasn't
Instead it was damp and windy and cold.

It is currently raining.

So you may wonder
what Season it is...

It's the beginning of March
in Indiana

The weather may be unpredictable
but the one thing we know for sure...
               It's testing season.

Unexpected

"Hi. I just inherited a box of photos from my great aunt and I saw that you had an individual on your tree that matches the family and I was wondering if you are connected and interested."

This is the gist of an e-mail I read on the way home from running errands with my husband.

My head exploded with excitement! If we had been driving a team of horses I might have snapped the reigns.

This person is a member of Ancestry and saw on my Ancestry tree that we had the same relative in common. A relative who moved from my hometown to the Kansas prairie and started a family. He mentioned he had photos from Kansas as well as my home town. The possibilities running through my head were endless but the dream I mentioned out loud to my husband was the possibility that it was of my great aunt's wedding and that it might include a photo of the family altogether so I could see what my relatives looked like.

I told him my connection and he agreed to e-mail me photos.

Later that afternoon I received a few from Kansas.  And that night he sent me twelve from my home town. And you know what? There was a photo of a couple with the woman in a wedding dress!

Freak out!

I opened my family tree and got to that branch of the family to try to match faces to how old they would be approximately. Going on the assumption that the couple were my great aunt and her new husband I figured out who would be married and therefore with a spouse, who would have had kids by then and how old they would be, and who else might be there and photographed considering it would have been 1889. Some things were a bit off but others meshed. The crazy thing was the woman in the photo did not look like the one in a photo from Kansas several years later. Some of the kids with parents didn't look old enough. And my great- grandparents who had married two years earlier were no where to be seen.

So I allowed myself to go down the "what if" road.

What if the wedding couple was actually MY great- grandparents? Things fall into place if this is the case. If the wedding couple is my great- grandparents then I have all of my great- grandmothers siblings and their families if they were old enough at the time. And a photo of my great-great grandmother who would have been about 53 in 1887.

Some people that were photographed are unknown to me. More detective work is needed. But the scenario in my head is this:  My great grandmother's family was rather poor. My great-grandfather's family were fairly prosperous.  Maybe his family paid for the photos. Then, when younger sis married and moved to Kansas she took the photos of her family with her, since heading to Kansas with her Lutheran preacher husband meant it was unlikely they'd be back anytime soon.

This is the story in my head. The story I want to be true. But that makes it hard to make an unbiased opinion on the photos taken 30 years apart that I am comparing to decide if they are mine.

Does she look 50ish?

Do these people

Look like 2nd woman from left and 4th man

How amazing is it if these are actually my great grandparents in 1887?


And that leads to the next question.
The next quest.
The next obsession.

If the photos sent to me represent the great grandma side, and
it actually was my great- grandfather's side that paid for the photos, where are the great grandpa side of the family photos?  Because both of my great-great grandparents on that side would have been alive at that time.

And Oh how I'd love to see them!

It starts here -- Wherever that is

The big news today is, of course, the appointment of Betsy DeVos to Secretary of Education. And apparently this is the end of public education as we know it AND that should make us: sad, mad, outraged, and void of all hope.

I honestly don't care if she is Secretary of Ed or not. If she had been rejected I would not have cared.

However, I do have questions of those who feel so emphatically that DeVos is just one of the atrocious choices made by an administration that is less than three weeks old.

What was education like before The Secretary of Education became a cabinet level position? If I am reading the history correctly, President Carter made it a cabinet level position in 1979. I am guessing in an attempt to ensure that poorer states and districts had opportunities that government could provide?  This is an admirable attempt to try to provide equity in opportunity.

 Has it succeeded?

One of the top concerns of those opposing DeVos is her support of Charter Schools. The belief as well as truth is that Charter Schools take money away from public schools. So I've done some research.

The first Charter school was opened in the 1990's under President Clinton  as a way of expanding public education. President Bush allowed it to be an alternative for parents in failing districts. In this article

 https://www2.ed.gov/news/pressreleases/2009/06/06082009a.html

not only does it state that President Obama and his Secretary Arne Duncan were in favor of Charter schools, they also tied the expansion of Charter Schools to their Race to the Top replacement of No Child Left Behind established by President Bush.

This link

 https://www.edreform.com/issues/federal-policy/race-to-the-top/

and the links within, demonstrate how states who did not allow the expansion of Charter Schools would be penalized on the rubric determining federal dollars that would be distributed by the Department of Ed. to those attempting to obtain Race to the Top dollars.  Did everyone march in the streets to protest Charter Schools at that time?

The other main criticism is her lack of experience in public education.

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2016/02/education-secretaries-who-were-also-teachers.html

In the above article, they go through each Secretary of Education and their experience level.

The first, Shirley Hufstedler, was a lawyer and a judge. She served under Jimmy Carter.

The second-- Terrell H. Bell-- was a teacher and superintendent and is credited with the report A Nation at Risk. The article says many believe it was at this time the persistent bashing of public education began. He left in Regan's second term because Reagan still meant to dismantle the department of Education.

William J Bennett who served under Reagan didn't have any K-12 experience but did have some at the college level.

The same is true of Lauro F Cavazos who served under Bush 41 and taught at the college level with a medical background.

Ted Sanders did have a K-12 background and served interim under Bush 41.

Then Bush 41 appointed Lamar Alexander, a politician who had made education reform a cornerstone of his Govenership in Tennessee but had no personal experience.

Clinton had Richard Riley who had also been a Governor ( in South Carolina) and had made Education Reform part of his platform.

Roderick Paige, who served under Bush 43, did have a K-12 background. But Margaret Spellings did not-- and she is credited in helping draft No Child Left Behind. She was, however, the first mother of school aged children to serve as Secretary of Education.

Obama had Arne Duncan who had been in charge of the Chicago Public Schools and had experience in other administrative rolls pertaining to education. He helped draft the Race to the Top initiative.

Obama also had John B King as an interim Secretary and Mr. King had taught High School.

So, Mrs. DeVos is not the only Secretary to not have classroom experience in a K-12 setting or for some, in any setting. I could argue some of those who had experience made things worse.

And if you think locally, when was the last time your Superintendent or Curriculum Director were in a classroom? The further from experience they get the more "expert" they feel they are. Perhaps Mrs. DeVos, because she doesn't have experience, will be more willing to listen to those of us in the trenches.

Educators seem to be digging in to defend an education system that is broken. If it worked parents wouldn't be trying to escape it. To say it isn't fair to the poor kids or the inner city kids or the  fill in the blank kids, is not an accurate assessment. THOSE kids deserve the opportunity to escape as well. And if I am being completely honest, I am glad our youngest is a junior. If the changes going on now, where we are, had started when the boys were in elementary, we would be looking for a different district. I can care about the kids in our care, in our community, in our state, in our country, in the world even, but if it comes down to a choice between what is best for my child or ensuring my kid is lockstep and on par with every other child -- even if that means swimming in a sea of mediocrity, I'm sorry -- my kid comes first.

We can all name what is wrong with public education. Many are--in all forms of social media. How many are doing more than just angrily  lamenting all with which we disagree?  I wish all the educators who called congress about saying No to DeVos would call their representatives about reforming education in their states and districts.

Because when your really get down to it, it is the states that interpret what the federal government says and the districts who interpret what the state says and the principals who interpret what the district says. We can't fix it by trying to control one person in Washington.

How many are willing to get together with your colleagues and march to the principal's office and demand support? How many are willing to get together with your district and storm the superintendents office and tell them how you wish to be represented to the state? What change that really matters to you and can really make a difference in your classroom and maybe even to your personal health and emotional well being are you willing to fight for in your school?

Start there.