Illinois Principal’s Association, 2007
Peoria
My 1st grade bean… Mrs. Walker had us plant a bean, put it in a cup and place it on the windowsill …we put our name on our cup. I couldn’t believe that on the second day nothing had happened. Not even on the third. I didn’t know for sure but I’d heard that my friend Darold was peeing in my cup during lunch hour. Every morning we’d rush past the playground and go right to the bean cups.
We had a bean ceremony every morning. After the pledge of allegiance we’d hold hands, face our row of beans and shout, “Wake up little bean! Time to grow!” We even named our beans. Mine was Fred after Fred Mertz on I Love Lucy.
And here’s the strange part: Mrs. Walker told us practically nothing about beans. Or as we used to say in Pike County, she didn’t tell us beans about beans. She told us how deep to plant them and when to water them. That was it. But every member of the 1st grade class of Perry Grade School, 1954 knew everything about beans. We couldn’t help it! We just couldn’t stand to have a bean …our bean...growing just six feet from our desk and not wonder what was happening. My bean knowledge came from a very ancient set of The People’s Encyclopedia. I told all my friends. My friend Roberta was lucky. Her uncle worked for the Extension service and he told her all about beans and she blabbed it all over the lunch table. Gary’s dad worked for Pioneer so he already knew. But everybody found out how a bean grew. I made a quick mental count this week and figured that I have taken 15 science courses since first grade. I have no idea what happened in any of them. But by golly, I know how a bean grows.
The U of I recently hosted a group of Japanese businessmen to Central Illinois. Part of their tour was near my home in Arenzville and I was asked to join the tour. I told the Japanese how a bean grew. Thanks to me, the entire nation of Japan now knows its beans. I feel personally responsible for Tofu.
I recently asked an elementary teacher if they still grow beans in 1st grade. They didn’t. It’s not a part of the state plan until 3rd grade. The kids have to go two whole years without knowing how a bean grows. I asked her if they did like Mrs. Walker and just planted it..then talked to it every morning. She laughed. No, the bean planting is now goal-specific. I’m not making this up. And they’re tested on it… and they have a practice test.
I’ll bet the kids hate their damned beans.
Test-taking has now become a subject ranking alongside math, English and science. According to TIME magazine, teaching kids how to take state exams is now a $50 million business. $50 million. Three years ago, the great God of test-taking-teaching, Sylvan Learning Center introduced a program to prepare your third grader for state tests: $900.
When President Bush signed the law in January of 2005 requiring annual reading and math tests in grades 3-8, the price of the Sylvan course went up to $1200.
But don’t worry! The feds will fund part of it.. the law pledges up to $1000 a child with low-scoring skills to teach among other things… test-taking.
The Princeton Review offers a primer for parents includes such advice as “make sure your child eats a large breakfast.” The cost? A mere $1950. Some schools are already paying over $20,000 a year for test-taking-teaching.
Deborah Holmes, principal at Jefferson High School in Washington D.C. had the choice of buying more computers or paying $21,000 for a test-taking program. She said, “I guess we’ll buy the computers another year.”
I’ll save you the money…here are the things being taught. Kaplan: learn to skim instead of read thoroughly The quickest ways to fill in the bubbles on the answer sheet Don’t dwell on spelling and punctuation when writing essays No mention of actually learning anything.
Summed up by principal Ron D'Incau who recently had his school throw out three of weeks of study of Greek and Roman culture to make room for test-prep classes. “Some teachers want to teach things that are nice to teach but aren’t really standards.” The stupid jerks! (I added that) He went on to say, “You might teach a tremendous unit on dinosaurs, but nothing in the standards calls for knowledge of dinosaurs so you have to take it out.”
We are now in Round 349 of the re-vamped plan for School Improvement… we’ve been promised that this is the final plan. If you remember, plan # 345 was the (USIP) Ultimate School Improvement plan #346 Was the USIPR… Ultimate School Improvement Plan, Really! #347 was the …. WNK , The We’re not Kidding this time! #348 the JSUDO “Just Shut Up and Do It”
Why don’t they just come out with the #350. Called: “Look, the manufacturer’s lobby put pressure on us and we had to do something or we’d loose their political contributions!”
I have devised an IGAP test to send to each educator in Illinois: Question # 1) How many hours have you spent on the SIP program? How much smarter are you kids as a result? 2) Now that you’ve taught them to write to pass the state standards way how many have died from boredom? 3) How many Nobel laureates, Pulitzer Prize winners or Rhoads Scholars have you turned out since they learned to skim the material and fill in the bubbles more clearly? 4) If it’s called the School Improvement plan, please list the ways your school has improved.
My audience today is administrators who are powerless to pass or destroy legislation. I don’t blame any of us for this mess.
Chill. Instead…. I propose subversion. A return to Mrs. Walker and her beans. The French did it successfully right under the nose of the Nazi regime. It should be easy to fool the legislature. And the Nazi’s were more organized.
Like many of you, I’ve lived and taught through DLO’s, PLO’s, SIP’s, STP’s, BVD’s and the various SOB’s who’ve managed to take a heck of a lot of our time without making a heck of a lot of difference. I know that with the next administration will come up with a new and improved mandated plan.
Like you, I’ve been lied to repeatedly. “No! No! These Learning Objectives will never become actual state goals!” then “No! No! These state goals will not actually be used to rate schools!” then “No! No! None of this will in any way be tied to funding!”
Okay… this is the point in my speech at which you are saying one of these things to yourself: Well, he’s just a teacher and he doesn’t know the realities of the situation. (You’re wrong…I do… But now I’m retired. I can talk freely.) I’m going to retire in a few years and I’m tired of fighting windmills. (Wake up, you coward! Go out with a bang!) He’s right, but there’s nothing I can do to change things. (That’s a better answer..now keep listening.)
So what I’m suggesting here is more subtle…not a nuclear bomb.. more like sugar-coated anthrax. It’s a … blessed subversion.
There is an alternative route.. Play the game if you must, but encourage your teachers to keep teaching. Remind yourself that test-taking is a science and a rather useless one in the large scheme of things.. but Teaching and learning.. are Art.
I want to speak to you about The Art… not the science of teaching.
One of the most gifted teachers I’ve ever known, Ed Anderson, puts it well. One of the goals of the newest education plan is to make the school teacher-proof. Design a plan that any idiot could follow and be successful. Not the student, necessarily, but the teacher.
I’ve driven through the Rockies in Colorado and the Alps in Switzerland. The big difference..you can see the Alps. Many roads in the Rockies… safety barriers. …must stop and park to look over them. The Alps…no way, baby. You drive off the road, you plunge off an Alp. Of course the barriers won’t actually stop you, but it gives you a feeling of safety. The Alps…not only breath-taking, but they make you a very good driver. Pike’s Peak …brake check. Alps… brakes give out… you’re in for the most exciting vacation of your life. Let’s return to the Alps. Let’s return to some chance-taking in teaching.
Let us chip away at the safety barriers in our teaching… that little bureaucrat on our shoulder during a lesson on dinosaurs who whispers, “But this can’t be tested!”
I saw the ultimate consequence of that two years ago at Triopia. Speech is currently not tested by the state or federal gumbahs. So…two girls, in order to avoid actually getting up in front of an audience, found a community college that offered speech online. They found a speech class where they didn’t have to give speeches!.. But it could be tested!
Learning is an Art, not a science. Living is an Art. Teaching is an art. Quick test: Think of the best class you ever took. …. It was the best because of the testing methods, right? WRONG. Your teacher was an artist. He was creative. She was inspiring. You thought little of the testing. Quick…think of your finest teacher…. He or she was fantastic because of their knowledge of the state standards, right? WRONG> He never stopped looking for ways to excite you. She never took a day off and resorted to busy work.
I had a unique position. I taught 7th-graders and seniors. I greet them as they enter our building and wave goodbye as they leave.
One question I ask of seniors in their final year: “What was a defining moment in your education? A single day, a single class, perhaps a single moment that 1) you’ll remember for a very long time, and 2) somehow changed your thinking.. determined your course.”
Some answers from last year: The day Mr. Anderson stood with us on top of the Hill Prairie near Meredosia and showed us how the glaciers carved out my hometown, then had us lay on our back for a very long time, just listening to the wind and trying to imagine what it must have been like to come across this prairie in a wagon. (no..sorry.. that’s not covered either) The day we spent in the nursing homes, dressed as clowns in 8th-grade.(In other words, the day they learned the joy of serving others…which by the way cannot be found in the state goals and standards) {Brian} The night I got to start in basketball because we had a flu epidemic in the school. (oops..missed again) The day the English teacher picked me to tutor 3rd-graders on their math. The day Matt played his baritone in class. (Tell the story.) When my fourth-grade teacher sent a note home saying that I really seemed to care about other people. I didn’t know it was important until then. The day the singers came to our school. (a group from a local college) (Did I mention that the first programs often cut from schools to make way for testing classes are the arts?) The day our teacher sat us down in a circle and spent the whole period helping us find out why we didn’t like each other. (sorry.. not tested)
I taught for 35 years. I asked that question for at least 20. Never have I heard a response to that question that mentioned anything covered by the state goals and standards and very little which shows up on any standardized test.
The grade school teachers in our district love to scare the Jr. High staff about what’s coming. A group of 7th-graders I had several years ago who were alternately touted as… The slowest …The hardest to reach …The hardest to control and the most distracted class to ever pass through our system.
I found that the grade school teachers often exaggerate. This time they didn’t.
This class wore their Attention Deficit Disorders like designer jeans… you really aren’t somebody unless you have a pair of your own. They did not do well on the required tests.
But you know what? I can’t remember having such a successful year and that success will never show up on a state test. Jason learned to stop hitting people as soon as he got to school..he learned to wait until he got to P.E. One week Josh kept his finger out of his nose for an entire period. There’s a lot to be said for duct tape. Mick developed at least a two-second wait between the time a thought hits his brain and when it comes out his mouth. Don’t laugh. This was a major victory. Megann no longer sat in the back of the class, covered her head and cried when called upon. She didn’t get an answer right all year long and did terrible on her test scores, but she learned to raise her head and smile.
Why? Because I’m a miracle worker? No. Because I taught with artists, not scientists. I taught with people who care more about the child than the child’s scores on any particular day. Because we had an athletic director who came to the music programs because he cares about the whole child. Because we have a girls basketball coach who once wouldn’t let them practice until their speech contest material was memorized.
These people are………… Artists! They know the art of encouragement They know the art of teaching self-discipline They know the art of reading a child’s actions and emotions And most of all, they know the art of teaching…and not testing.
Such things are possible, my friend. These things are not peculiar to Triopia. They are present in every school district represented here.
You have artists in your school. You have teachers who know that watching the bean grow, living life right alongside the bean, talking to the bean, discovering…the bean..is what makes the child grow. Not a quick check of the standards and goals then a drill on how to take the test.
Find your artists. Encourage your artists. And most importantly, as the Baby Boomers leave a huge hole in the Illinois teaching force, create your new artists. I learned from my artists.. and so did you. I learned from Paul Heck, a high school physics teacher who told us to rip out 24 pages in our physics book because he discovered that that knowledge was of no possible use to anyone. Of course we immediately went home and read those 24 pages. I learned from Frank Neil who knew that in order to teach me piano, he had to stand behind me and beat out the rhythm on my back with a rolled-up Weekly Reader… and that a cold bottle of Pepsi would dry up even a ten-year-old’s tears and make him want to try it again. I learned from Gwendolyn Woods who taught me that you could learn Latin better by ignoring the textbook and reading the advertisements in magazines. I learned from a marvelous man named Dr. Charles Frank who never gave us a test all year long then for the fun of it, gave a quiz at the end of the year which we found out was our final exam. We were having so much fun with Chaucer that we had no idea he was teaching us.
Bob Slavens story…. How did I know to do that? Because when I was his age, someone showed me the art…. Of teaching.
Do standards and testing in and of themselves kill the art of teaching? Not necessary. It’s the time testing takes. It’s the meetings, and committees, and paperwork and baloney that kills…the art of teaching. It kills the time to plan, it kills the time to teach, and in the worst case scenario, it drives people from the profession. It’s the implication to a beginning teacher that meeting the set of goals is of primary importance that kills… the art of teaching. It’s the wrong-headed notion that anyone who doesn’t know your kids, somehow knows what’s best for them that’s killing… the art of teaching.
I should add that my bean died. Every time Mrs. Walker would leave the room to take the lunch count, I rushed to my cup, pulled out my bean and checked to see how it was doing. I tested it….. to death. I knew everything about beans, but I killed it with testing.
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