Practical Theory

I was going to write a long impassioned screed about the latest Time magazine article about Michelle Rhee. But then I saw that Dean Shareski already did, so I thought I'd first link to that.

I'll add a few more points, however, but they deal with the tenor and tone of the conversation right now, both in Rhee's words and in the tone of the article.

I worry about an educational leader who would speak like this to a reporter:

Let's admit that educational ideas are controversial. Let's admit that no one side of this argument has a monopoly on "right." Let's admit that we can work as hard as we want in service of an educational idea, but that we still don't know for sure that we're doing it right way. And let's let that back-of-the-mind doubt humble us, so that we remain open to learn, because in the end that's what we want our students to do.

And to Time Magazine, if you are going to have a reporter write an editorial, call it an editorial, because when you allow reporters to write statements like this without citing any research at all, you undermine your magazine's credibility:

Mixed in with the platitudes there are some very questionable statements. (I'd argue some of the best teachers I've ever seen teach learned how to never be in a hurry. In fact, I'd argue that 'being in a hurry' can often be an impediment to great teaching, because a) that's about you, not the kids, and b) you miss a lot of details when you're in a hurry, and details tend to be important when you teach.) I'm fine with them on the editorial page -- or on a blog -- but not in a piece of reportage. And again, making those statements as blanket truths is reductive -- it makes it seem like the way to great teaching and great schools is just some magic algorithm that everyone knows already but just for some perverse reason is unwilling to implement.

We need fewer know-it-alls in education today. We need thoughtful, humble people who are willing to acknowledge their uncertainty and still do what they believe to be right. We need people who do understand that bludgeoning our way to school improvement probably isn't going to get us there. And we need people who understand, like Tom Sobol once said,

That perspective -- given near the end of a long heroic career in education -- doesn't get you in Time magazine, and it probably doesn't get you meets with both Presidential candidates during election season, but it's what's needed.

I admit... when I saw the headlines earlier this week about another $800 billion for the bailout, I started to get angry. I understood, from talking to friends I trust in the finance world and reading as much as I could get my hands on, that the first bailout was necessary. But the more I read about corporate retreats and corporate jets, the more angry I get about spending $1.8 trillion dollars on the bailout. Somewhere, somehow, the folks running these companies just flat out don't get it.

So here's my proposal -- continue the bailout because we cannot allow these markets to collapse, (and put some intelligent regulation and oversight in, please!) But any company that takes federal bailout money must put a cap on salaries. No one at any company that takes federal monies can make more than the President of the United States.

I think it's fair. That's a $400,000 salary. That's fair. That's livable. (Heck, I'd love to learn how to just get by on $400,000.) And more importantly, it sends a clear message -- the era of greed is over.

I know there are some who say that the market can bear a higher price, and that's what is necessary to get the brilliant minds we need to run these companies, but I'm unimpressed with the folks running them so far, and, honestly, President Obama is, by all accounts, a very smart man.

I know there are those who will feel that this doesn't go far enough -- that the CEOs of AIG and BearStearns should be forced to give back salary back. I think that's a fight we won't win.

This makes sense to me -- if you take bailout money, you pay anyone in your company more money than the highest paid federal employee -- the President of the United States -- and that includes stock options and such -- for the next ten years.

To me, this sends a message to the American people that the executives at these companies are willing to sacrifice like so many Americans are right now. And that's important, since we are bailing them out with enough money to insure every American, fully fund every school or invest in Social Security so that it's there when my generation retires. These are all things we were told that the American government couldn't afford, but now the money is there. It's only right that everyone takes their share of the hit on this one -- and that should certainly include the business folks who oversaw this disaster in the first place.

And if the executives don't want to do that, well, no one is making them take the federal dollars, are they?

Tags: bailout

"We should tolerate flaws in other people in the vain hope that they will tolerate our flaws." -- I don't remember who first told me that, but it made a ton of sense to me.

One of the things that never seems to amaze me is when I talk to teachers and hear them talk about holding students to standards of behavior and work that they would never hold themselves. Ask yourself, in your school, does the teachers with the most draconian lateness policy often show up late to meetings? Does the teacher who makes a big deal about food in the classroom often leave trash all over the faculty room? Do the teachers who have the strictest policies often resist any administrative policies? And how many of us have made it through an hour-long PD session without passing a note or sending an email or daydreaming? And yet, so many schools expect kids to do so five, six, seven times a day. (And how many people -- aside from teachers -- go home from work and then work another three hours at home? And yet, we expect kids to do that every day...)

One of the things I love about SLA is that we try to remember everyone's humanity -- teachers and students. We talk about the things that frustrate us... students handing in stuff late being top of the list for many of us, but when we do, we try to remember how many deadlines we miss ourselves. Remembering the shared humanity of everyone in the building can really lead to putting in place policies that are humane. We must expect our students to work hard, we must expect our students to learn to make deadlines -- we must set the bar as high for our students as we set it for ourselves, but we must also remember to set up structures that help students when, inevitably, they sometimes miss the bar. We should do so if for no other reason than we hope someone does that for us when we fail.

Tags: compassion

The non-SLA sessions for EduCon 2.1 are up on the site! Check out the Conversations page for some incredibly exciting sessions.

I tried to make a list of all the sessions and people I'm excited to see, but really, the post got too long too fast. It's going to mean that people are going to have to make some hard choices, but we are holding to our structure of longer sessions, fewer sessions a day, time in between, and sharing meals so people have time to talk.

There's more to post... more sessions coming... panelists announced... dinners planned, but we've got the first HUGE piece of the content of the conference up, and I couldn't be more pleased.

Hope to see you in Philly... it's going to be an amazing time!

Tags: educon, educon21

Barbara Barreda, ed-tech blogger and principal, lost her house in the California wildfires today. I've been lucky enough to meet Barbara and spend some time with her. She's a wonderfully kind and smart educator, and I can't even imagine what she must be going through.

So Jen Wagner and Clarence Fisher have set up a way for people to help. Read Clarence's post first or just go right to Jen's page for the fund, but if you know Barbara or if you have read her blog and you can spare some money, please do.

If you've benefited from the edu-blogosphere, this is a wonderful way to say thanks by helping out one of the community's wonderful members.

Educators write pretty mission statements. But the problem with so many educational mission statements is that they sound good but bear little resemblance to the real world. This is part of the reason why good ideas get reduced to being called "edu-babble" because the words get invoked but never put into practice, so they lose their meaning.

But ideas have meaning if we let them.

So I have an idea -- whenever we hear or read schools or districts or teachers or administrators make a claim that their school / district / PD session / whatever is about "21st Century Learning" or "Life-Long Learning" or "Project-Based Learning" or whatever claim we may see or read, our first question should be -- "Where Does it Live?"

Educational ideas only have lasting power if they exist within the systems and structures of institutions that claim them. Everything -- every system, every policy, every structure -- in schools represent a pedagogical choice, and we don't take advantage of that. The classes we choose to schedule, the length of the classes, the times they meet -- every possible permutation privileges certain kinds of learning and makes other kinds of learning harder.

So, for example, at SLA, we say that the way we treat each other is based on the ethic of care -- the idea that caring relationships are at the heart of creating healthy learning environments. That idea has to live somewhere or eventually it will get squeezed out or only live within the people who came in already believing it. This is why we have Advisory -- a four year relationship between a group of twenty students and a teacher that ensures that every teacher has a group of kids for whom they are responsible and every students has an adult in the building who will always be their advocate. We had to plan for caring, we couldn't just assume it, and we certainly couldn't just say it.

All schools should be able to point to the places, the systems, the structures that prove that the words we say we believe truly live and are systemized in our schools. If we do this, those edu-bingo words will stop merely being buzzwords and, instead, will give us the rich language we need to teach and learn.

So what does your school claim to believe and where does it live?

The words of my students:
"I feel as if I can really do anything in the world now."
"Lehmann!!! We did it! President Obama!"
"We did it!"

But as President-Elect Obama said, it's not over now. The real work begins tomorrow... o.k., maybe Thursday.





And Theo gets his piece of history too... look at the screenshot of tonight's Philly.com:



And look at upper right hand of the frame. We're so proud.

Tags: politics

[A note -- I used to blog much more about my personal political views when I was a teacher, not a principal. As a principal, I blog much less about my personal beliefs outside of education for a lot of reasons. But in the end, this blog isn't a school blog, it's my personal blog, and I asked myself tonight why I had no ideas to blog about this week, and it's because I, like most of America, have been watching this election so closely. I respect that not everyone thinks that I should write publicly about my political views, and I respect that not everyone shares those views -- and not everyone at SLA shares those views. That's o.k., but I need to write this anyway.]

The McCain commercials that have been airing in Pennsylvania this week have been about fear. I saw my first 527 Reverend Wright ad tonight. I watched McCain surrogate "Joe the Plumber" question Obama's patriotism. And I've been offended and frightened. Offended because I cannot believe that John McCain has been willing to stoop so low, and frightened because it has worked before.

So I watched Obama's speech in Ohio last week. If you can't watch the whole thing, watch the last seven minutes.



And then read this -- My Wife Made Me Canvass for Obama.

And remember, that we as Americans have a choice about our nation. We can make a choice this week to believe in the best that we can be. I believe that this election has the chance to revitalize our political process. I believe that if Obama wins, we will have invited a generation of young people to the political process. I believe that if Obama wins, we will have invigorated people all over the demographic map - people like my mother who has spent hundreds of hours volunteering for the campaign. I believe that these people have worked for Obama because they were inspired by him.

And that's the thing. I want a political who inspires. I am envious when I hear my mother and father talk about what it was like to listen to JFK's inaugural speech. I remember the hope I had for Clinton.

And I remember watching Obama's speech in Philadelphia and thinking that I was hearing something truly different than I had ever heard from a politican in my lifetime.

We have the chance to vote for someone who believes in the best of what we can be. We have the chance to vote for someone who believes that the American Dream must be open to all who are willing to work for it. We have the chance to vote for someone who believes that politicans of either party have an obligation to work for all Americans.

On Tuesday morning, I'm going to take Jakob by the hand, down to my polling place, and I'm going to take him into the ballot booth with me as I vote for Barack Obama. I hope that, years from now, he remembers the moment as a powerful piece of his own and our country's history.

Tags: politics