education Feed

The Fault in Our New Semester

    The roll out of new semester instruction looks rushed and shallow. When we only share the surface of a meaningful text and overlook the author's importance to our history and landscape of letters, we do our students an injustice.

    When we privilege test-prep style analytical writing over expressivism, we fail our students. To learn to write well, students must practice traditional essay forms on subjects that are cared for, that spark enthusiasm and-self discovery. Analyzing, and then trying to crank out a five-paragraph essay about nothing, is the fastest way to teach a student to hate writing.

    This type of instruction builds anger and frustration over an art form (the essay) that generally lends itself to joy and learning. Writing to learn develops the mind, bringing clarity to new concepts and highlighting patterns and plausible outcomes. Reading a boring text (all texts are boring if you are only dipping into the surface), and then trying to write about the text without adequate information, is a complete waste of time.

    No wonder so many of our marginalized students in public school reject literacy as a tortuous, outdated, concept without relevance. No wonder our students resort to plagiarism and artificial intelligence to complete assignments.

    I am perplexed by school hierarchies. People with obvious qualifications and experience are set aside in favor of people with really nothing. These people with really nothing simply recycle mistakes. If they are in charge of an entire subject at their school, why do they not take extreme measures, like investing in a real education in that subject, so their teachers and students can benefit from knowing them? Teaching a subject in a high school must mean that the teacher loves the material and knows it well. I rarely meet anyone working in my literary and cultural field that truly knows what they are doing or how important it is.

    Some of the incompetence that I have witnessed over these years of public education horrify me. I love books and letters, and to see people trash our treasures in this way confuses and depresses me. My students deserve a better education, an education that will support them in the pursuit of their personal goals and dreams; and selfish adults only care about their paycheck, job security, and that tiny bit of power. Why do they not make a personal investment to find out what they don't know? It's as if the subject of English urges anyone with a dose of Dunning-Kruger to apply.

    And finally, I am far from teacher of the year, but I am also a subject area expert. My philosophies of composition and education collide with the mismanagement and incompetence that I regularly resist and write about. If my magic wand could make changes, it would start at the top. Treating teachers and students like scores is at the root of this problem because this is why we have a shortage of real professionals.

    Highly qualified experts go elsewhere for employment. If I didn't care so much about my students and my subject, the mismanagement and disrespect of both, I would too. I consistently dedicate myself to bringing awareness to this problem and advocating for change. Change means asking that instructors and curriculum writers at the high school level achieve a subject area masters.

Books


Nightmares in English Education: The Sorrows

    My old lawyer and I, Chris Tritico, went to a meeting together with the dumbest principal in the history of Houston Public Education. She came to her employment after a stint at a downtown charter school that was shuttered because of falsified records, including entire classes that students had no knowledge of ever taking. She worked as a "pretend" English teacher, as many people do now, in this environment of fake classes and forged records.

    Months before her arrival to the district, the school support officer hired me after I modeled a lesson on Lucille Clifton's poem, Sorrows, to a group of tough, urban, high school kids. Soon after, this amazing leader left the district with the promise that I, and other staff members, would be granted an experienced and competent principal. Instead, we ended up with this fake English teacher that was only 28-years old and had zero knowledge of anything. We all recognized this immediately, and I thought back on my choice of poems and what an ironic warning it was. I think of how these Sorrows continue and what they mean for our society and our children.

    She wanted to fire me because I implemented ten minutes of silent reading time at the beginning of class, and this activity contradicted what she was reading in Doug Lemov's book, Teach Like a Champion. I've met Lemov, and I believe his book has some great ideas in it, but his important book is not that one, but Reading Reconsidered instead. In the latter book, he studies and researches 300 experienced English teachers of merit. But she wanted me doing test prep as a daily warmup. At our meeting, Tritico slides the stack of research across the conference table to her, the research that shows that sustained silent reading improves fluency, vocabulary, stamina, and a host of other good things. She angrily shoves it back to him. He asked her, "Don't you even want to look at this?" She responded with a firm no.

    At that time, most decent school systems already implemented some sustained silent reading at the beginning of class. This idea was not a new innovation, and it was not my sole idea. In fact, my mentor taught me the importance of this and why I should do it. The standards didn't change to include this requirement until much later in 2017. I like to think that me and my powerful lawyer contributed to these needed changes in state standards. I had students in my classes that had never owned a book, had never read a book, thought reading was an uncool waste of time, and, in some cases, wanted to read but didn't know how. In my classes they started to argue over the books. I heard them talk excitably and passionately about plots and writers for the first time. Because of the excitement, my donor and I packed my classroom full of books and Scholastic Magazines, and I tried to continue with the silent reading. The principal would strut into the classroom with her squad and denigrate me in front of my students. I received frivolous write-ups and hateful emails. The students would ask me why the principal didn't like me. Thirty-percent of the campus population received special education services, and the evils of poverty crept into everything. My students came to school with trauma, hunger, and homelessness. Many of my kids suffered from illnesses that are now connected to a nearby toxic dump in their neighborhood.

    My program worked, and my scores climbed, but the problems with poverty and trauma manifested in all classrooms. The squad tried to tweak my benchmark exam results, but the explanation failed during the meeting. My kids told me "we tried for you." I wanted them to try for their community, for themselves. The students asked me again and again why she didn't like me. The fact that my students worried about this is a testament to her incompetence. No responsibility like that belongs on a student's mind. She owes me an apology, especially after the standards were rewritten in 2017 to include silent reading. She owes those children a debt. But, of course, she was later discontinued for her continued incompetence. My lawyer and I lost our small battle in the beginning, but we can enjoy this victory for students and teachers. It is, at least, a massive, "I told you so."

    The issue in public education is a lack of real expertise. Now that the English major has been hollowed out and watered down, now that the emphasis is on skills that are rapidly replaced by AI and other technologies, we face a new crisis: friends of friends, and friends of those friends, and friends of relative's friends, climb eagerly into administrative positions with the speed of lightning. They might have a few English credits, so they might teach a few years, enroll into a master of education in curriculum or leadership, and then fly away like little bugs. They know so little about the subject of English, they aren't even cognizant of their own learning gaps. Because they have no knowledge of what they don't know, they teach for years and years and still learn nothing new. They sit comfortably spewing dummied down nonsense while making a big check off the taxpayer. The whole thing is absurd.

    For example, if a high schooler knows nothing of irony, satire, and ambiguity in texts, then how in the world do they comprehend anything complex? But I was told the other day that they need not know because they can tell it's there. It's like they have a sixth sense of these technical text attributes. That is one of the dumbest things I ever heard. And the source of this comment is making more money than I am and sits around in a powerful campus position. This is like the time I sat in a meeting and was told by my department chair that "we aren't cramming this crap down our kids' throats" in regards to whole class novels. If you aren't consistently and repetitively taught the parts of a text, then how are you to write with style and voice yourself? When people sit around unaccountable, all this means is that the ignorance rolls around like jeans in a dryer, making noise while slowly drying up.

    When someone like me comes around that truly loves their subject, the posers instantly recognize their own inadequacies and begin to take offense to any suggestions no matter how mildly put. This is a form of imposter syndrome, this willingness to attack someone for their accomplishments. I don't know if anyone understands the problem, but the whittling away of the English major presents with some truly horrifying social problems. Even mainstream publications are beginning to write about incoming college students and how they cannot read nor write. These publications, such as The Atlantic, point out that professors actively dumb down the curriculum to accommodate these new learners that are in some cases nearly illiterate. Meanwhile, real English teachers get pushed aside because of their intensity and love for the subject. This crisis isn't just an inconvenience, nor a disservice to our students, but it also magnifies a truly dangerous outcome: a country full of people that cannot distinguish between reality and conspiracy. After decades of neoliberal austerity, our society is under attack because people cannot differentiate between fact and fiction.

    I climbed down from a nice paying position into one that I believed would accommodate my new health concerns only to discover that the problems with expertise exist in unexpected spaces and would continue to cause me Sorrows. I am now an older teacher, but unable to retire. And if I retire this year or next, does this mean I failed or gave up? Maybe not if I keep sharing these stories. Parents understand that something is wrong with public education but placing inexperienced, under-qualified people in high schools is not a solution. If the public took the English major seriously, like they do the math major, then maybe some issues with literacy would resolve.

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Let English Teachers Teach: the audacity of non-experts

Let English Teachers Teach: the audacity of non-experts

Sadly, sometimes, micro-managers will try to control, even minimize, what figurative devices and literary tropes students learn. This urge to undermine faculty and micro-manage instruction leads to comprehension gaps. Imagine that I’m deep into a discussion about a text, and my students have no knowledge of the writer’s tone. No matter how hard I work the text, no matter the many times students test and write to learn, the subtle meanings, the inferences that lead to an understanding of what lurks between the lines, or even an understanding of author’s message, will become unattainable for my class. Tone is essential to understanding, yet I have been ordered to withhold instruction for this skill and others. I don’t see how an understanding of tone, a thorough and chronic teaching of this, could lead to anything negative.


This type of disturbing micro-management reveals a lack of trust in the classroom educator. Why would any senior educator ask teachers to delay badly needed concepts or insist on a lock step pedagogical approach when each teacher and each class will present with widely different gaps and interests?

It seems like sabotage.

I wonder why school districts move regular teachers without subject area degrees into executive positions when they really need expertise and experience in combination. No matter how many years you’ve been teaching a subject, if you think that withholding skills that aid comprehension supports any retainment of information, or an understanding beyond the surface, then you are completely wrong. Tone, irony, diction, metaphor, parallelism, and so forth, are all skills that require more than one or two mini-lessons to conquer. These literary devices, tropes, and motifs, require constant and chronic re-visits.


Secondary schools face two extreme challenges: the talent drain and a lack of content area specialists. Content area specialists typically earn a terminal degree in their subjects, not in education or some other off market degree that isn’t specific. A master of education is nice to have, but it isn’t the same as a subject area degree. You can teach a subject at the secondary level for decades and still not know much about what you convey to students if you refuse to invest in your own advanced education in a thorough and dedicated way.


What if you tried to teach Swift without first teaching irony and satire? Your students would think that people in 1725 were actually dining on fresh babies to avert the famine. This example, while it may seem a bit odd, is not that original and encapsulates this problem. Without a full and rigorous understanding of an author’s technique, students are left in the dark and become bored with challenging materials. You might wonder why I care, but this is my last act; I am older and becoming impatient with public school antics. Reforming education isn’t about the classroom as much as it is about the leadership.

When leaders resort to toxic and non-productive mandates, no matter the subject, students suffer and fall behind.

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Fake Grammar and Writing Rules are Killing My Career

Dear Gentle Reader,

What? Oh wait! Yes, I did watch the ending of Bridgerton, and I am overjoyed that the script focused on the blurry space and often fraught relationship between audience and writer, a communal, quiet and thoughtful void that stresses importance on the humanities and our fundamental rights as thinkers and readers. But I work in the real world of education, and it is here that pedagogical change must happen. I am so tired of the lurid and chronic sing-song voices of incompetence meddling around in my students' writings. Academic work is creative work. If I'm writing a poem, I am sending a rhetorical message. Yes, it qualifies as something creative. If I am writing a paper that questions how nonfiction texts are truly high literary art, I am doing creative work again. In all writings, poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, I am making an argument. If I am making an argument, then I must use the tools of the trade. If I use the tools of the trade, I am using creativity. In fact, the whole process of writing is creative work.

Today I overheard someone new to the art of teaching talk about how one must never use personal pronouns when writing to the state standardized test. This nonsense must stop. The state exemplars are full of plural personal pronouns and singular personal pronouns (I and we). The idea that someone in authority would demand that students write from some abstract and distant voice is completely ridiculous. You can't read an effective argument that positions itself above and beyond its readers to convey its message, no matter how convoluted or abstract the base material or evidence. These types of papers are usually written by scientists for scientific audiences, and we in the world of English composition sometimes pull those out and dust them off just to get a good laugh at the sheer pretentious style in that kind of composing. Pretense fails to adequately communicate anything except attitude and maybe some boring facts.

I am equally sick of fake grammar rules. And I really mean this. People new to the art of teaching and writing will argue all day that you can't start a sentence with the word "because." I hate to bust their bubbles, but "because" is perhaps the most important word in all of rhetoric. If you use the word "because" at the beginning of your well constructed and arguable thesis statement, then you automatically set up a cause and effect pattern of arrangement. In times of stress, especially during an exam, a "because" statement can help you arrange an argument that will win the reader over to your train of thought while demonstrating your ability to write and think. Because so many new English teachers lack basic composition theory classwork, students experience extreme bouts of writer's block, struggle with grammatical construction, and almost never write beyond standard sentence constructions.

Peter Elbow, and other prominent scholars, argue that these fake grammar rules, that spread like fire and gossip, pose a severe problem for beginner writers. Students read stories and essays that are written by professionals. Professionals know these grammar rules are fake. When you read something one way, and then you are forbidden to do it yourself, a confusion lurks under the surface of your consciousness. This confusion becomes a barricade to good writing. Students dawdle around and worry more about breaking silly rules than cranking out good content. They start to write, and then suddenly, they start to think: "Oh Wow, I don't think I can start a sentence with a coordinating conjunction. A coordinating conjunction is only for sentence combining." Dear Gentle Reader, that is bogus rule numero uno. And I know this for a fact...so do you, under the surface of your consciousness.

Splitting an infinitive? Please do. Kicking adjectives for action verbs? Do it every time!

The problem with teaching is that too many spoons are in the soup, and many of these spoons are bent or full of holes. You want a spoon that incorporates all of the good things into one big blob. What you don't want is an essay full of cheesy and superficial, thin transitions. I read papers that are emblazoned with firstly's, and secondly's, and thirdly's. First of all, don't. I see a ton of in-conclusions, to conclude, to sum up, and sometimes, and this really upsets me, I will see a student completely rewrite the thesis statement because they've been told year after year to restate it at the beginning of their conclusion. Restating your thesis in your conclusion is so silly, especially in a short paper. In the kinds of papers that kids are writing, you can usually look up and reread the thesis without even turning the page. Why in the world would you need to restate for your reader? If you're writing a dissertation, well maybe you should restate your thesis, especially if your dissertation is full of fake grammar rules and bores your reader to death. They might have forgotten what they're reading by the end of the 256th page.

The year is just getting started. I know I have a ton of work to do. I hope my writers will believe me when I tell them to use the word "because." Last year I had to make a whole presentation to convince my kids that the word "because" was a widely accepted word that had not done significant jail time. Those coordinating conjunctions suffer the same fate, a misinterpretation of their portability and usage. To boldly go where no man has gone before. Or to go boldly? You decide. I'm going to split.

Happy new academic year! Go Yard Birds!!!!

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Cat Stories and Guest Writers

Everyone loves a good cat story and my friendly writer from Norman, Oklahoma, likes to publish her feline companion tales wherever they are needed. Her stories are little bright spots in my world of climate change, disruptive people problems, and political faux pas, and her kind and gentle nature is a contrast to my often misinterpreted academic style, an issue I am too adrift to work on.

She is no slob behind the pen, so I am including her thoughts on what it means to become a fully invested and devoted writer. First, lighten up with her little cat musings. It's a hot Sunday afternoon on a summer day. It's a day for the porch, iced tea, and cool chicken salad sandwiches on white bread.

Why not read something?

...

Who ever sent me the book about the naughty cats that are trying to bump off their owners, this story is for you. Since the book's arrival, You-You, the cat, has arisen from his deathbed inspired with new ideas. As you know, he delights in tormenting me, but has slacked off due to infirmity. Now, he simply contents himself with lying on the kitchen floor wherever I need to be. For example, if I am cooking, he sleeps in front of the stove. If I'm washing dishes, he camps underneath the sink. So far, I haven't stepped on him.

Yesterday, I set down piddle pads on the floor for him to use. (He is in the pee-off-the porch-level of old-cat-man decrepitude.) Suspicious that he would be complying with any idea about using piddle pads, I followed him and watched in horror as he lunged toward a cell phone that had somehow fallen on top of the pads. I only managed to whisk the phone away before the great cat deluge began.

To my horror, I discovered that it was my phone that he had nearly deactivated by drowning. I was so angry that I cursed, especially, when You-You stood on the pads but aimed his stream at the carpet. Over my shouting, I could hear Lee, my husband, calling from the other room, telling me to calm down before I had a heart attack.

Yes, the book worked. It gave You-You a new reason to live. He is outside now, happily lounging on the porch, revived by my near brush with death of his own creating. Bless his evil cat heart. I love him so. ~Jennie

 

Writing, In a State of Flux

A few days ago, acclaimed Native American mystery novelist, Sara Sue Hoklotubbe, shared a great meme with fellow writers. It said, to wit: “To write something, you have to risk making a fool of yourself. At the end of the day, every single thing that you, the rhetorical you, put down on paper is a risk. You risk making a fool of yourself, you risk rejection, and you risk failure.” The former is valuable wisdom, as stated by the late, great Ann Rice, noted Vampire lady, and her warning resonates--with me at least. My family is distantly related to Edgar Allan Poe, and I was warned by my own mother to never put anything down on paper. Looking back on Poe’s private life, I’ve often wondered what in particular prompted her to say that—but then, as an artist, Poe had a lot of baggage to work with. However, as Poe is relevant to this day. It seems that all the very best artists have had issues! We see that working through one’s issues through the written word may lighten the burden for others who are overwhelmed by their journey.

As for myself, I plan to just keep on writing. I figure that, since I make a fool of my own self at least nine or ten times a day anyway, all without really trying, I might as well make a career of it. Indeed, Anne Rice’s insights into both human and vampire nature warns that I will probably indeed make an ass of myself. Therefore, I will giddily take my MILWAUKEE INKZALL, ultrafine, black, red pen to hand, and throw caution to the winds. (One wonders, is that popular term a repeatable idiom or verboten cliché?) I will defy my parent’s attempt to shield me from ridicule and prove Rice’s theory correct. In retrospect, I’ve made a fool of myself many times before. But I have always survived the humiliation, and, so, will you.

We bravely say that writers write to encourage others on, however, why would any relatively sane individual offer up their private thoughts on paper and open themself up to public derision? In short, just why do writers write? We write because we love to write, and, because, I fear, that we have a compulsion—a creative compulsion—that’s almost bipolar in nature. The sheer act of creating is a joy—giving character’s being and words and a destiny is heady stuff. Sadly, this high is followed by the “drop”, where you release these creations upon the world. It is probably called the drop, because your insides fall to the floor and turn flipflops like a fish out of water, while you are waiting for validation or lack of it. (Again, I love me some good cliches, can I use fish out of water as a metaphor?)    (Oh, wait, I already did.)

Believe me, I’ve asked some trusted sources and the drop provides the same traumatic experience for successful authors and unpublished writers alike. So, here we are angsting, after releasing our child of the mind into the void. We experience the dark night of the soul as our characters did, while we breathlessly wait to find out, as in the words of songwriter Celldweller, “Am I in Sync?” Here, the artist anxiously questions if anyone else out there will “get” him? In Celldweller’s case, many do. Celldweller’s personal voyage through pain and despair gives others courage to pull the stake out of their own heart and place it firmly through their tormentor’s. Celldweller’s words take away his abuser’s power to harm him. If you read the comment lines on his releases, there are many people who appreciate the singer-songwriter giving their personal trauma validation—yes, they’ve been unfairly victimized and they’ve been through something. No, it wasn’t easy surviving. However, these victims are slathering lotion on scars, they haven’t been silenced, they are still here, their feelings’ matter, it is not a pity party to embrace personal pain, and damn all the condescension from those compassionless judgers, who have never suffered, straight to hell.

But, now you say, “So, catharsis is well and good, but, why should I bother to write at all, when the world is literally and figuratively melting around me?” Just like in Run The Jewels’s musical offerings, Indie-musician Blue Stahli’s anthem, “ULTRAnumb,” or Miyazaki’s movie, “Nausica,” the atmosphere quivers with fury. Everything is polarized and vice versa: right is angry with left, left is angry with progressives, this religion is angry at that other religion, vegetarians despise omnivores, mask objectors hate mask wearers, yin is yang, and, etc.

However, humanity is self-aware. We anticipate that the end is coming. We are threatened by the existential doom of our way of life that so many politicians and business people happily destroying along with the resulting wild ride to destruction. Writing can help you make sense of your OWN life and not be at the mercy of every nutjob that comes along touting a baseless conspiracy designed to hold you sway. Behold, the great and powerful Oz! But, pay no mind to that man lurking in the shadows behind the curtain!”

Now, back to that end of the world thingee that I mentioned before. Let it bring out the best in you; we are a mortal species that have always lived under the specter of death. It’s a given that nothing lives forever, and even our sun will go nova one day. Nothing is different, except for the rate of change, which has sped up to an astronomical mind-bending rate, on our self-inflicted pathway to extinction. Perhaps, this is what the song of the whales’ mean—death is coming for you and me, lets pause and enjoy our cool blue sea, let us celebrate our mutual beautiful company. Existential threats serves to make everything, somehow, more poignant, more meaningful, more bittersweet than ever before, and writing provides a sea anchor to slow us down on our way over the abyss’ edge and into the unknown, much as the blue whale stands on tail and pours his heart out to his lovers in the sea—“Whales Weep Not”.

So, by now you are pouring yourself a good stiff drink or something of that nature. Fine, the relaxation might provide you some unique insight to put into your project. Strange times call for even stranger measures, so, I will call upon the notorious legacy of actor, author, and screen writer Ed Wood Jr. for inspiration. Ed Wood, tortured creator of “Plan 9 from Outer Space”, admonishes new writers to “Just keep writing.” He says that your story may not get any better but you will. It is reported that Ed Wood’s death mask expression looked as if he had seen into the pits of hell.

Sadly, Wood led a tortured existence and I guess that he wasn’t quite through wrestling with his private demons before he jumped onto the next phase of his karmic wheel. However, we are still on this mortal plane, where writing is the preferred method of demonic wrestling. I would recommend it to the real thing--having done that in a dream, I must warn you that those little devils can inflict a lot of physical pain on your way to the truth. Sadly, you most likely will need to wrestle your demon, in order to get at the truth of what you are trying to say and a writer should always tell the truth--no matter what.

At this point, you are saying, “but, I’ve got nothing important to say; I personally don’t care to wrestle with demons, and, everything is going to hell anyway, so what’s the point?” Before you give up writing to take up drinking on a full-time basis—remember, that the “truth will set you free.” Consider this nugget of advice offered up by poet Sarah Webb.  Out of an outpouring of compassion, Webb has declared that a writer should keep on going, because there may be someone out there who needs to hear just exactly what you have to say.

Dr. Webb is an author who walks her talk (Oh, oh is that slang, an idiom, or a cliché?). She reaches out to fellow victims, by publishing a poetry book, that describes how she finally found the strength to walk away from the man, whom should have cherished and protected she and her child and did anything but. Sarah’s confessions are some of the bravest things that I’ve ever read, and I admire her sacrifice completely. She put the complete truth out there for the entire world to benefit from her experience.

You might ask yourself, why would anyone deliberately put themselves through all that emotional pain again just to tell their truth? Certainly, purging oneself of haunting memories is healing. However, the poet could have just as easily journaled her experiences and then burned the papers that they were written upon and experienced catharsis just the same. I believe, the poet shared her pain, because, of her unique gift—the ability to weave a story that lifted others above their own trauma and allowed readers to also heal. We writers can explain that there are many who have suffered, and when their readers learn that they are not the only one to be degraded, then, perhaps, they can rise above the shame that their abuser has used to control them, and spring others out of their eternal hell, too.

Writing is a paradox; by showing ourselves at our most vulnerable, we can achieve Maat. The willingness to go on in the face of adversity, the nobility of sacrificing ourselves for others is strengthening. The bravery to spit non-existence in the face and say that though we are winding down the path of entropy, though, the moon is full of grief, and the birds no longer sing, though, the sun who gave us life will mean our death, the human condition is sacred. We are meta. We acknowledge and value our beautiful place in the universe. Our souls are full of love for our fellow man. When we overcome our differences and hatred, we will mirror and pour our beauty out until the end of our time. My friends, take hold of that universe and wrestle it into being.

~ Jennie

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Trump Trial Cliffhanger and the Consequences

Trump Trial Cliffhanger and the Consequences

Everyone makes a mistake now and then, but usually these mistakes don’t include six-figure payouts to porn stars while campaigning for president. Americans that care and understand the consequences sit in anticipation of the hush money trial verdict, a decision that could impact American democracy and cast a cloud of immorality and unethical compromise on our standards for leadership and politics. In other words this decision can dramatically hurt or dramatically improve the future of our country. Americans will begin to view leaders through this lens of compromise because the barriers and norms, the moral and ethical expectations for political leadership collapsed with Trump’s cruel, under-educated rhetoric and illegal, authoritarian mandates.

If the jury decides not to convict, autocrats like Trump will rejoice. The standards for leadership, fractured and in steady decline, will ultimately collapse. Our future governance will offer opportunities for profit and power to the exact wrong personality type: more Marjorie Taylor Greenes, more Lauren Bobarts, more strong men icons; a future of chaos and cruelty will become the new norm during a now unavoidable climate crisis. Some argue that this condition of cruelty and chaos, this collapse into civil unrest is a consequence of 9/11 and the political mistakes that followed the misguided war in Iraq. Others argue that this turn in society is non existent because the United States never provided a beacon of hope, that it has always, since slavery, been nothing but a cruel sham.

When I first started to analyze Trump’s speaking style, I considered him a buffoon, a simple minded, blathering idiot, that spewed nonsense and superficial vulgarities. But now I see him differently; I see him as a tool, most likely a Russian tool. The autocratic oppressive mind believes in Trump, whether it be a MAGA follower, an insurrectionist fool, or a power seeking greedy governor. Trump is a destructive, yet perfect, fun way to indulge in your lowest hateful tendencies. Fictionalizing threats, pretending pizza places are porn hubs, denying the death and murder of dozens of school children, and demonizing public sector workers, makes the meaningless mindless every day cycle of work and taxes more palatable for the ordinary, low income adult. Low income adults, people making less than a hundred k in our inflationary, capitalistic society, under a Trump tax plan will carry the debt burden.

Just as it was in the floundering decades of the Roman empire when dictatorships suppressed forensic and deliberative rhetoric, when discourse slipped into frivolities, and democratic ideals became misty memories, the era of Trump performs the same autocratic function, to stifle civil harmony and promote chaos and unrest. Violence is escalating and our civic values of honesty and fairness, compassion and empathy, flounder amidst the negativity. Each citizen must take a new oath, the oath of truth and freedom for all. No matter the outcome of the hush money porn trial, whether Trump steps forward as a presidential candidate, we all must maintain our humanity and continue to fight for equality. Only truth and equality will support civil stability in the new apocalyptic future.

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The Sin of Low Expectations: Is it a trap?

Okay, I know it's true, I am thorny. I am thorny by design and not by choice. I am thorny because of my experience and what I know. I am justifiably thorny. Open your eyes to the potential in front of you, and then ask yourself if you are committing the greatest sin of all, the sin of low expectations. What if someone wants you to accept low expectations, low expectations for job satisfaction and unity, student achievement, parental involvement, equity, and social justice? I heard someone remark one day that, "Our kids are not there. These are not the kids we have. These kids cannot do this." I thought it was the most idiotic statement because an individual can only have limited knowledge of student learning styles and potential in a broad way, and students present with an unlimited variety of possibilities. We can never know how far they can go. 

I sometimes become frustrated with the superficiality of what I see and what I hear. The mundane and hollow, pretentious and predictable, sad blasphemy committed against my subject by people that barely understand its complexity or purpose; I believe this is proof of some type of sabotage. This blasphemy spills from the minds and mouths of people that are in powerful positions. How can we be so deluded? We can never know all of this. What are we thinking? Why are we here? Why do I tolerate this lie, this blasphemy?

My subject is a key that opens the door to power and democracy, equality and justice. Without the key, people suffer. Even if you possess an extraordinary key, one that is gifted and complex in design and purpose, it still might fail to render the best outcome. The key I offer my students is never guaranteed, but it certainly remains their best option for solving difficult personal and social problems. This key opens a gate to the pathway of knowledge, so how can its value be measured by people that claim it as a part of them, but then prove by their actions and words that it is something foreign and unfamiliar instead? This key, when used for good, opens the door to true power.

I'm tired of the charade. I am becoming convinced that the opposition's failure to attack with an effective offensive assault resulted in subterfuge and duplicity instead. Certain powerful individuals look only at abstractions and spreadsheets, when instead they should look inside the organization, into the head of the fish. But what would I know? Maybe I know because I recognize the sheer absurdity of what is happening. I see through the haze of mendacity straight into the eyes of the aggressor. I'm swatting flies.

Many nights and days are devoted to my key. I hold it in my palm like a precious jewel. I share my key with the people that need to unlock the gate to knowledge. I tell them to write to learn. They do it. 

IMG_2567Credit to unknown meme artist


Working on National Board Certification: Lost and Adrift

This year I am going to try and complete two National Board components. Last year I successfully sat for the Component One exam and that provided evidence of accomplished teaching. Component Two is designed to prove that I fairly provide differentiation for all of my students. My worry is that somehow my featured activity/lesson/artifacts will fall short of the requirements. I'm not sure if National Board envisions a large project activity or some small specific skill, whether it can be an outcropping of some paper through a writing conference, or if it must entail a specific standard and strategy. I'm skipping over Component Three and moving ahead to Component Four, which my coach encouraged me to do. But now that I've watched some YouTube videos on this subject, I am wondering if she actually misguided me. The problem is that I have only 2 more years to get these done, and they are only approved yearly in December. 

In my program, I am lacking an English coach. They did assign me one, but she failed to stay with the program. My official coach is a middle school math teacher, someone that truly doesn't seem to understand the kind of advanced English classes that I teach. My work products are possibly a bit foreign to her. She already downgraded one of my practice submissions which is a final exam paper followed up with feedback and then a student written reflection with specific prompts. Most of my classes are dual credit anyway, and this kind of lesson might have seemed extreme to someone that doesn't teach much writing.

Even worse, I am receiving no support at all from my campus or my district. Other teachers around my area receive extra planning time, financial compensation, and assigned cohorts in order to achieve this difficult certification. My district refuses to even accept the micro credentials that I complete for Board certification practice, even though the rigor is extremely high, possibly higher than anything else a teacher can do other than the actual Board Components. 

I'm not confident that I will achieve a National Board Certificate because of the time frame and my lack of support, but I'm going to try anyway even though it has been thousands of dollars out of my own pocket. I am learning to become a better teacher by engaging with this process even if my participation is only superficial because of my challenges. 

As a young twenty-something living in Oklahoma, I abandoned any dreams of ever becoming a teacher. The low pay and the location interfered with my idyllic imagining of a bright and wealthy future. I wanted to make "as much money as the men." I often felt insecure and homeless, a possible feeling of negativity left over from a difficult childhood. Later, after I partially completed my first degree, I started to imagine myself as a teacher again. But I ended up returning to my previous work because money was tight, and I had my little boy to worry about. 

Finally, I managed to navigate myself back into education. Now I am happy with my choices. Even so, I am always critical of myself, so I am possibly feeling unworthy of National Board Certification, and maybe that is why I feel so lost in the process and need additional support and encouragement.

I know I can do this; I know I can learn from this experience; I know my students will benefit; I know I have to try.

01Rose


Working on My Subject Area Masters and the Devastating Consequences (with update)

My health went down when I worked on my subject area masters. Different than an M.Ed, a subject area masters requires you to become an expert, contribute to the academic discipline, and develop a thesis and area of study. As an undergrad, my interest in composition theory, education, and recidivism, led me into a series of interesting papers that felt easy to write, and my department chair and professors supported me with anything I wanted to do, whether it was in the education department or in the English department. For example, I enjoyed the experience of working as a visiting teacher at our local alternative school, and I split my observation schedule between 12th grade English and Kindergarten; splitting that observation time enabled me to imagine vertical alignment and see the big picture as it pertains to childhood development and literacy. I worked on a series of lesson plans for English with another teacher, and I created a lesson plan portfolio on our twelve domains that I donated to the education department when I graduated. Overall, the experiences, the practicum in English, the composition theory classwork, the writing, and the childhood psychology and development classes helped me become a better teacher. When I moved to Texas, I had to basically revisit all of that in order to feel qualified and effective. I worked on weekends, nights, and at all kinds of odd times in order to prepare for my masters. I read incredibly difficult writers and thinkers, such as Kenneth Burke, in order to prepare myself for teaching rhetoric and composition at the college level. I dug into the Theory of the Novel by Lukács, and I reread all of my old college textbooks in order to prepare myself. I worked on my writing using the theories that I learned. I published with my audience in mind, fellow teachers and instructors, and I watched as my writing became more professional and academic. I finally felt prepared.

My health slipped away. On weekends, while other people were out walking and enjoying the beautiful Texas weather, I hunched over my desk. I neglected my child, and I became surly and over-stressed. Taking him to his guitar practices felt like an intrusion on my study time, and working at my school on Saturdays interfered with my writing time. I gained weight. I became unhappy, but I loved my classes with a passion I hadn't felt since I taught English at the alternative school. I inserted the concepts, the beautiful ideas that I learned, into my ninth and tenth grade English classes. I started to teach Advanced Placement English. I navigated the hoard of people that judged me without knowing my struggle. I felt misunderstood. An over zealous and abusive administrator mismanaged me, one in a series of new underprepared principals that I endured early in my teaching career. I started to think that nothing that I did would matter to the world of education because it catered to a long line of people that, in my opinion, were unworthy of their position and relied on connections, instead of expertise, for employment.

The years went by and I became a better teacher. I paid for my own professional development at expensive places like Bard College and Rice University. I earned some scholarships from Bard and Rice, and this extra work helped me become even more professional. I even earned a scholarship as recent as this year from the College Board in order to study in a cohort with a mentor. 

But, apparently, somehow, this year, I am not worth as much to my institution. My institution wants to squabble with me about my adjunct pay. The community college that hired me as an adjunct issued a raise, but none of this money trickled down to me; this raise never trickled down to my fellow coworkers that earned the difficult subject degrees that allowed them to teach dual credit classes. Not only that, my institution wanted to pay me for one less section than last year, even though my enrollment increased substantially, and my students are struggling harder with the material. I wonder where the money is going. I wonder why I am not paid more for my education, the sacrifice that I made for my students, the ongoing cost to my physical health which is now named by my doctor, Type 2 diabetes. To define how this has made me feel, this attack on my professional life, could only be described as depressing. This feeling of unfairness, this disregard and disrespect for my contribution, causes me to feel like leaving my institution, the institution that has become so familiar and family like. Meanwhile, this steady parade of people barely making a contribution seems to increase in size.

(Update) Apparently someone on my campus made a little mistake that affected my pay and this issue will be resolved. Still, adjuncts did receive a raise that the district did not issue. Teachers at all levels are trying to achieve a healthy pay schedule so that they can afford to work and live in their districts among the students, typically inner-city, that need professionals the most. Civil workers deserve a decent and dignified retirement. Anything less is an attack on democracy. Imagine if only novices without college degrees are the main source of our education workforce. What would that look like for our children?

Full time teachers that work hard to improve deserve respect. This practice of underpaying teachers and demonizing them must stop. The endless menagerie of toxic people installed into roles they are literally not educated for, these people that make it a habit to undermine the faculty, need flushed from the school system. People that underpay teachers to the point that teachers can't even afford a home, should be removed from the school system. Politicians that attack teachers and insult them by calling them childish names like "groomers" and "Marxists" must be voted out of public office. People that would restrict a students' right to read the books of their choice, should be forced to read the books themselves, write a lengthy report, and then file their dubious and silly claims. The attack on intellectual life, the attack on writers and thinkers, is a sign of authoritarianism and fascism. This is unacceptable. Installing people into roles that they are not qualified for is another sign of fascism. 

Lift up your real teachers. The teachers that are real, that want to remain in the classroom and not jump out into administration, are worth your protection. Show your respect by calling them teachers, call them faculty, stop calling them staff, provide them with moments of happiness that make them feel special. Pay them what they deserve without trying to find an excuse to take it away. Treat teachers with humanity, dignity, and respect. Remove people that micromanage and ridicule your teaching staff. Provide meaningful professional development opportunities, not busy work.

EnglishLessonShutterstock


Interesting Vaccine Mandate History that Everyone Should Know

JUST GO BUY A BOAT 

~ Professor Lee Hester, author

Due to personal stuff I haven't posted much... but I'll post this note out of frustration concerning people who are against Federal vaccine/masking mandates.

I don't know why there is even a question, legally. Jacobson v. Massachusetts, 197 U.S. 11 (1905), made it clear that states could mandate reasonable regulations for public health and the case was SPECIFICALLY ABOUT VACCINES. The plaintiff arguing against vaccination provided evidence that some medical professionals thought the vaccine was potentially harmful or ineffective. The court ruled that these objections were not well-founded given the overwhelming bulk of scientific evidence. Face it, there will always be naysayers, or conspiracy theorists. No matter what, you can find someone to gainsay anything. The court made it clear that states could follow the lead of the best science, rather than fringe groups in deciding policy.

The person that penned the decision, John Marshall Harlan, was a REPUBLICAN. He was nominated to the court by Rutherford B. Hayes... another REPUBLICAN.

Four more Republicans joined Harlan in favoring public health mandates along with two Democrats. Only one Republican and one Democrat dissented.

At one time, Republicans were not only the Party of Lincoln, but also the Party of Science and Reasonable Government it seems.

Some may say that this decision was only about state mandates. But that is silly, especially in the U.S.. With no borders between states, a single state passing such a mandate would constantly face the problem of infected people of neighboring states coming in.

A 50 state mandate of the Polio vaccine literally ERADICATED IT FROM THE U.S. The only cases recorded since 1979 were brought in from outside.

When we can't get 50 state mandates. we may need a Federal one.

Morally, it has always been clear to me that one person's rights end when another's begin and my right not to be infected greatly outweighs another's right to not get a needle prick, wear a mask or quarantine.

I've had three shots of COVID vaccine. Three FULL doses, not just half-dose boosters. I haven't grown tentacles and as far as I know, the NSA can't track me or listen in on me with some microchip. If you are so worried about that GET RID OF YOUR CELLPHONE. A vaccine is the least of your worries. You might also want to check with a mental health professional.

Of course some people cannot be vaccinated for valid health reasons. That is not a problem and would be covered in any reasonable mandate.

We are all part of a society, not individual atoms. We all affect each other, whether we like it or not. We can't all have absolute freedom because of that interaction. Regulations exist, in part, to ensure a balancing of individual freedoms. As an example, traffic laws restrict your freedom to drive 70mph across town without stopping, but they help ensure your freedom to drive across town at a slower rate with a much less chance of getting killed. And face it, realistically we can't all go 70 and not stop.

I'm tired of it. The people that hate mandates should think about whether they can even live within a civil society. The kind of freedom they want can only be achieved by living alone on a deserted island. Perhaps they should buy a boat.

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Professional Development: How Bard's Institute for Writing and Thinking is Helping Me on Day One

It is impossible for me to quantify the many various ways that Bard College IWT has helped me become a more effective teacher. In the past, I participated in three week-long summer workshops on their campus that guided my pedagogy and introduced me to a bevy of other teachers from around the world that shared their own best practices and innovations. Today we did several activities that will inform my future teaching, including a loop writing activity that I must admit that I have neglected to incorporate into my own classroom. 

The theme for this workshop is "margins" and "centers," a confusing concept for someone that might not teach. But for me this poses a true reality as I think about what exists in the margins of my classroom and what exists in the center. I decided to share, verbatim, a couple of excerpts from my loop writing from today because I want you to possibly use this technique to improve your own classroom or workspace.

My teacher asked us to write about what is in the center of our classroom. 

The students are at the center of my classroom because, of course, I am a student-centered teacher. I want every student in my class to feel valued and appreciated so that they can have enough self-esteem and confidence to forge ahead and become happy, productive members of society. The goal, in my case, is to make my students be able to yield power in nonviolent ways by using the pen instead of the sword. I think humanity is tired of the sword.

One of our team members attending from Israel had an interesting response to this question. He wrote that the text is the center of our classroom, the reason we meet at all. I think we both gave pretty good answers. A class needs cohesion, so this emphasis on fragmentation, lit circles if you will, interferes with advanced interpretation and significantly reduces the possibilities of creating a valuable community in a challenging environment. A shared text brings the class together.

My teacher asked us to write about what is on the margins of our classrooms.

I am on the margin of my classroom because this is my students' high school experience. Even though I advocate for them whenever possible, I want them to solve their own problems and be active learners. That can't happen if I don't step into the margins. I don't want my students constantly looking to me for the answers. I want them to take my guidance and then create their own compositions based on what they believe to be true about the text, or I want them to be able to use style and voice to explain what they like or dislike about the text. I want argumentation and persuasion, and that takes confidence.

We did several more loops today, and then we used a metacognitive strategy to analyze what we had written. 

The loops gave me a way to visualize the interplay between myself, the students, and the materials presented. This activity also enabled me to visualize strategies used by my workshop colleagues as we shared our writings. The loops served to fine tune my planning--helped me access those murky spaces in my pedagogy.

We analyzed a visual. I am sad to admit that this has always been an area that I ignore or only briefly examine. My teacher used a photo that had meaning to me personally. Of course, my teacher doesn't know me, so he couldn't have known that this visual would lead me into some interesting ideas...in short, this activity is going to help my students on their exams. This activity is going to help my students with inference, symbolism, and interpretation. 

The pandemic created a climate of confusion and distraction for almost everyone. Thanks to Bard, I am finally breaking out of my cycle of confusion and distraction that haunts me continuously and rediscovering my ability to get in the zone and write. 

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