“A CRISIS is tearing through the American public education system like a tornado,” writes John Green, a member of the California Teachers Association State Council. “It threatens to uproot and overturn everything in its path.” He asks where the California Teachers Association is while teachers face budget cuts, high-stakes testing, the shredding of collective bargaining agreements, more and more charter schools, and pay-for-performance schemes. He sees his union cutting deals with politicians and paying lip service to effective collective action.
It’s a worsening problem. Pride and job satisfaction among teachers is going by the boards, and it’s being replaced with a grim resolve to make things OK for kids while we figure out how to work around the disintegration of social support systems from inside a bureaucracy with a chokehold on anything that looks like common sense.
I learned the other day that homelessness is on the rise in our community; the average homeless person, now, is a single mom with two elementary-aged kids. Alaska is ranked 10th in the US for homelessness.
But then today, while I was driving around listening to the radio, I learned about a movement called Housing First, which aims to put homeless people into long-term housing as quickly as possible rather than using the stop-gap method of providing temporary shelter and counseling, the current standard, despite its poor track record.
The combination of housing relocation services and home-based case management enables homeless families to break the cycle of homelessness. The methodology facilitates long-term stability and provides formerly homeless families who are considered at risk of another episode of homelessness with the support and skill building necessary to remain in permanent housing.
This is remarkably similar to the Broader, Bolder Approach to Education, and results are encouraging, with up to 89.5% of participants remaining consistently housed after completing the program.
This makes me take a little hope from power of collective action. And so, Woody Guthrie comes to mind as he shows these fascists what a couple of hillbillies can do.
If you liked that, there’s a great little Woody Guthrie documentary (suitable for kids, even) that was put together by Melissa Mergner in 2006, when she was 14 years old.
More Guthrie goodness can be found in the Smithsonian Folkways Collection, available as a series of podcasts. The Guthrie podcast is Episode Number 8.
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It’s a nightmare.
Speaking of this I had in my class last year a child in foster care-really in pain. His parents lost their home and lost their children. Literally allowing that care over life in a car. That’s where the parents were.
Such a good post.
I don’t know where the union’s been about any of this.They lop people and in my District keep a healthy reserve. Thy could go decifit for a bit and a real leader would. But instead busting class-sizes up while still spending on coaches and consultants and with no cuts in the District Admin.
It’s been a real crisis in understanding the role of unions I think. You just can’t accommodate as much as they have.Lost the meaning of a spine.
Such a straightforward good post.
Where was anyone?
Sarah,thanks. We can’t wait for unions, or administrators, or anyone else to do what we plainly see needs to be done.
There’s plenty of hurt going around, and too many kids are denied good things that all kids should have. It’s probably healthy for us to nurture a certain level of outrage. I have this blog to vent on every so often, and it’s always encouraging to see a little spunk coming from some other quarters, too, eh?
Yes, you know I love that outrage part of both of us.
And getting beyond it I still can’t understand how to express the human dimension well enough for it to be understood.
Or rather perhaps I get stuck in a desire that it be cared about.
I wanted to add that they took away literature, music and art from our kids.
I thought about that a long time.
What would be the reason? On the surface we are told “time.”
and in a way one day I’ll examine that perspective.
But beyond that the arts are a pretty powerful communication tool. Within the arts we address things that just aren’t addressed-a part of our humanity speaking. I think there is a very real “reason” it’s being taken away-sorry. I do.
At least m Dad’s kin folk could gather round and sing the songs of their folks, times. I’m so glad my own children still had band, art, so on….so glad my son right this second is strumming his new guitar. Singing a little bit tonight. Those messages go pretty deep. As he practices his mom’s oldies…
As hard (and sometimes stupid) as it is, I think it’s important for us to keep writing on these blogs. I imagine some day, someone may look at them as a form of folk art, seeing there were other points of view re. how it’s ’spoze to be.
I suspect that music outside the school matters far more than music within. (Don’t misunderstand me, the arts need to be an integral part of any education that hopes to go beyond mere indoctrination.)
The way to effect change is to change–go get a banjo and join your son’s strumming. Ask a neighbor to sing along.
Turn off the radio, the television, the iPod, the computer and recognize the sound of your own voice again.
If we all did that, we’d have a shot at reclaiming democracy.
(This land is our land after all….)
“Singing in jail, in mass meetings, and on marches, I found that people had to walk through the sound of our singing before they could reach my body – singing extended the territory we had to move in …” -Bernice Johnson Reagon
The Highlander Center uses singing as a way of bringing people together. They even hold singing and song-sharing workshops, which tells us how important they believe music is.
Another voice from California, Doug, with much appreciation for your recognition of the educational crisis happening across our state right now.
I don’t know where in California Sarah Puglisi is from(I’m in northern California, in the south Sacramento area), but she has nailed it with her reference to the plight of foster children. But the pain has spread to so many groups. What do you say to the 4th grader (not even in a Title 1 school), for instance, who shares with you that her family just moved out there home into an apartment – which will not allow her to keep her dog?
indoctrination
That’s it.
That’s what this script is like.
It’s like saying jump if i say jump, put your arm this way, look at me, and it offers so little. It doesn’t care.
I’ve heard people say of kids that are in serious jeopardy-references to their tests. First thought.
One coach told me yesterday that “literature and care” hadn’t worked.
She was talking about my kids in south Oxnard that have never seen books, some from broken difficult homes, talking of years of my work that did “work.” Because she is justifying Distar whole school. I have a reader beyond 6th grade level. She needs no “Corrective Reading.” But thats tough.
I look at what I see developing as resistant behaviors.
I just long for the arts.
Next year as it all collapses here, and especially so in my District I wonder….
Gail, meet Sarah, your neighbor to the south. I lived in California – when I was in high school – and the schools were great then; I learned a lot. From what I read now, though, things are much different than they were.
But that’s true here, too. The problems that kids are bringing to school are more serious than they were a couple of decades ago.
@ Doug
Love the post. Thank you for sharing this powerful example of student work. I always enjoy reading your work.
Be well!
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