"Over one quarter of all public school teachers in the United States will retire in the next decade. This can provide a great opportunity for the development of energized, young teachers who, as future leaders, might revitalize public education and redefine progressive education according to current needs and struggles. Or, as in California, it can be used as an excuse to mold a new teaching profession that knows only increasingly parsed standards, high-stakes testing, rigidly structured Eurocentric curriculum, English-only learning, and a highly controlled, punitive, banking-system education." Kohl
How have we been doing so far? In two years this text will be a decade old.
"The boundary between teaching students and testing students is becoming increasingly unclear, and the performance gap is increasing. Many people already teaching are demoralized." Kohl
"I learned that unless you knew and cared about your students outside the classroom, about their strengths, dreams, and aspirations as well as their problems, you could easily limit what they could do as students and miss the opportunity to develop a learning community where they could act as themselves and not according to some image they had developed of how children should or shouldn't behave in school. I came to understand that the ability of children to act naturally and at ease with themselves, their friends, and teachers within a learning environment is the key to effective education." Kohl
"it seemed to me that learning outside of school was a rich and unexplored place to experiment with new models of education." Kohlless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj anderscj
"It is a call to act for justice and equity in the schools, but not a promise of success. Persistence and renewal are necessary." Kohlless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj anderscj
@anderscj I can see the high poverty thing if they havent been there before.. but w clinicals+student teaching I guess I'm missing somethingless than a minute ago via webRon Amundson mnphysicist
@anderscj with all the publicity on education as of late, its strange that people refer2test scores, even teachers use them 4 comparisonless than a minute ago via webRon Amundson mnphysicist
This is a fantastic example of one way tests are inaccurate measurements:
"One question on the test showed a woman mopping the floor. The question was: She likes to: a) cop, b) hop, c) mop, and d) pop. Julia and the rest of the girls in the class refused to answer the question, informing me that she does not like to mop. They could read. But they rejected the premises of the questions. And they felt that truth was stronger than testing. They were six years old." Kohl
@anderscj the trust and comfort building aspect is something flight instructors are not taught either... gotta learn it the hard wayless than a minute ago via webRon Amundson mnphysicist
"The imagination gives rise to the idea of possibility, and to the contrast between what is and what might be." Kohlless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj anderscj
That is a beautiful quote. To bad I can't measure it or proven it with numbers. Then maybe we would grow and nurture this capacity in children in school.
"If we were not able to imagine the world as other than it is, then change in which we take an active role would be unthinkable." Kohlless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj anderscj
This is why people in education who previously supported Obama are beginning to loose hope:
"By valuing imagination, we empower ourselves to dream of the world becoming a better or more decent place, which provides an opening for us to act to transform it." Kohl
The official stance on education crushes imagination and seeks to objectify everything with "proof in numbers."
"One has to learn to live within rule-governed behavior and also learn to function when rules no longer hold." Kohlless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj anderscj
"Because of the often complex and unarticulated structures that govern behavior, imagination is necessary in children's lives." Kohlless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj anderscj
"Teachers and parents and all the rest of us need to be as imaginative as our children, to nurture their imaginations as well as our own, and to keep on, no matter the circumstances, dreaming and acting for a more decent, compassionate, and equitable world. In hard times, this is one of the finest gifts we can provide for our children, for other people's children, and for ourselves." Kohl
Worrying: Notes Toward a Moral Education Curriculum Post-9/11
"The line between proof and conjecture, which is agreed upon by most mathematicians, is not clear when values are at issue." Kohlless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj anderscj
"What size sample would be necessary to establish a universally applicable statement about all children?" Kohlless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj anderscj
After reading his book 36 Children, I decided I still needed to hear more from Herb Kohl, perhaps something more recent. 36 Children was written in the 1960s very soon after his experience in that classroom, I wondered what a few decades might have done with his perspective and stance on issues. Afterall, there does appear to be a shift among many education writers over time. Neil Postman is a good example as the tone and message in his early work seems to be slightly different than the books he wrote in the latter half of his career. Diane Ravitch is another good example. I am not quite sure I found any difference in perspective but I still really enjoyed this book and in many ways find it more on point with current struggles we face in education policy and reform.
"The stupidity game is painful to play, but more and more teachers who are forced to teach against their conscience and pedagogical experience are playing it because they do not want to give up on their students." Kohl
"They develop a cynical attitude toward their profession while trying to maintain their love of teaching." Kohlless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj anderscj
I certainly have seen this happen. I have felt within myself.
"Living with stupidity alienates teachers from their work and is perhaps one of the main causes of teacher turnover among people who love children and find teaching magical. It certainly is what motivates many young and gifted teachers, who want to teach in the most undeserved public schools, to migrate to charter schools and private schools and to open their minds to working in voucher-based programs, or leave the profession altogether. Many intelligent and caring teachers simply do not want to pay the price of making themselves stupid as the cost of teaching in public schools." Kohl
Just had a conversation yesterday with a veteran board certified teacher about just this issue.
"Becoming stupid can be demoralizing. But it can also be a call to resistance and the rebirth of teacher militancy." Kohlless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj anderscj
Isn't this why most of us who are engaged in these online social spaces like blogs and Twitter do it? Shouldn't it be our calling to bring more educators into the fold?
I think we need to collect data that proves this to be true and paste it up everywhere there is a data wall:
"The students face the same cynical forms of schooling and react in the same ways. They are trapped in a system that claims to have their learning and success in mind, though really it is designed and administered as a failure system with high-stakes testing, 'teacher-proof' curriculum, unrealistic standards, and punishment for so-called underperforming schools that serve children of the poor and working class." Kohl
"The distinction between failing in school and behaving stupidly in order to avoid failing is not often discussed by educators." Kohlless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj anderscj
Lets repeat this one because it certainly is relevant today in the state where I live and work:
"as one reads on does it become clear that the way eight thousand new 'qualified' teacher candidates were identified simply by lowering the standards for certification. Qualified candidates now include people just entering teacher education programs, Teach for America recruits with no qualifications but special variances from the schools, and other people whose ability to teach poor children is no greater than the so-called unqualified teachers of the past." Kohl
