"Anyone capable of getting himself elected president should on no account be allowed to do the job." Words of wisdom from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Sometimes it takes quirky British humour/science fiction from a now-dead-guy to put things into perspective.
I'm voting Obama tomorrow. Then I'm going to Starbucks. I'm announcing this because, as a traditionally Republican state, my vote in Utah probably won't actually have any sort of impact on whether or not he gets elected.
I don't agree with Sean Hannity that Obama is working to deny us our freedom. And I highly doubt that his first order of business will be to deny Good Ol' Mr. H his constitutional right of freedom of expression, take him off the air, and turn Hannity into the William Wallace of the "conservative underground, the conservative resistance."
Sure, Obama has some "radical" ideas about the way things are being run. One of these "radical" ideas is to overhaul the No Child Left Behind law. Right now, a school can be considering a failing school because one of the 50 checkboxes is not checked. One year, Clearfield failed because only 93% (instead of 95%) of their math students took the test. All of the other boxes were checked. The average score was above the passing mark. CHS scored a 98% for their annual yearly progress. Do you know what the public heard? "Clearfield failed. School on probation. Funding yanked." This is a system that wants us to treat every child the same regardless of disabilities and requires us to teach all students. And when these schools have problems with this, like getting their tenth grade special education students to the same level as their nondisabled friends, they are punished. Yet this same system, when a bunch of banks (who actually get to choose their business practices, their customers, and who they lend money to) started going under, this same system threw money at them. And these same CEOs who ran these companies into the ground were originally going to be keeping their very large salaries.
McCain wants to pay teachers based on test scores--so I, who don't get to choose my students, am held responsible for the scores of all of them, even the ones whose parents don't have any interest in their education and enable them in their skipping of class on a regular basis. If I have trouble teaching these students, my $35,000 a year (with three years experience and a master's degree) will be slashed. He wants to throw more money into the private school forum instead of using it to help me do my job in public education. He wants to simply "tweak" the NCLB.
Honestly, I do love my job. I love it because it is exhilarating to watch my students thrive. I love it because it is academically stimulating. I love it because of the discussions and thoughts that fly around when we really latch on to an issue. And I'm a good teacher. I'm not full of myself. I'm a good teacher because I try hard. I read the research. I implement researched teaching strategies and best practices. I base my curriculum on what my students have shown me they don't know through formal and formative assessments. Luckily, I still have some freedom as to how I go about passing these skills on to my students.
If we continue to put so much emphasis on testing, and start paying teachers based on their students' scores, we're going to see drill-and-kill classrooms. School will be boring and worthless to both students and teachers. And if it gets to that point, I see myself packing up and leaving because I need a job that is fulfilling. Getting students to open their eyes and think--that's what makes teaching worthwhile in spite of the paltry salary. Preparing them for standardized tests? Boring drudge work. And standardized tests pretty much prove only that we have developed students who know how to choose "C" when guessing and to always choose "all of the above" or "none of the above" when it is an option. Most of what makes education worthwhile, and most of what students take away from their years in the system, cannot be accurately tested in a multiple-choice format.
In all likelihood, if I do end up in another profession, it will be because McCain was elected, he didn't try to fix the education system, my job became tedious and boring, and I was held accountable for factors that are beyond my control while parents were not required to take an interest in their kids' educations. And I'm not alone. If you have kids or are thinking of having kids, you have to consider what schools will be like without an overhaul. And private schools and vouchers aren't the answer. As soon as private schools take government money, they are under government scrutiny--which means standardized testing. Private schools know that. When we fought the voucher issue here in Utah, the majority of private schools said that even if vouchers were available, they wouldn't accept them. And guess what--as a private industry, private schools have the right to turn away government funding.
Education is my issue and Obama is my guy. I don't agree with everything he stands for, but I'd really like to see my job become more meaningful, education become more fairly balanced, schools and teachers become better supported, and more great new teachers enticed into the field rather than repelled away from it.
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3 comments:
oh, and by the way- congratulations. Ouch, that was hard to say. We'll talk again in four years, well we'll talk before then, you know what I mean....
I much prefer good reads, such as Moiraine's (who reminds me of a horn toad, by the way) silly pregnant behavior than to ones on Mr. Obama's silly behavior.
But I will admit, I will be right there hoping with you, every bit of the way.
He wasn't my choice, but I'll give him a chance & I hope he proves me wrong.
Stephen is a stubborn one. He went to Starbucks and paid for his coffee. He said that he didn't want to be a sellout since they lean to the left and all. I thought, "it's a free cup of joe, who cares?". He did, I guess. *grin*
Actually, this entire post is about the "silly behavior" of the Bush administration and my hopes that Obama's progressive views (as opposed to McCain's stagnant ones) will make a difference.
NCLB has great intentions and is asking amazing things of educators. Unfortuntately, the way it is set up is thwarting those intentions and making even the most heroic attempts a moot point. When you look at the specifics, they are literally asking for impossible results. I won't go into details here, but I can if you'd like. The Republican view is to simply ignore the problem. I'm not sure why--maybe it's an I-don't-see-you-so-you-don't-exist kind of thing. Meanwhile, Obama wants to reform NCLB so it has the chance to work. I'm not naive, I know that things won't ever be perfect. But I do know that they can get much better, for me AND my students.
McCain proved to me that he didn't care about educators or education when he ignored the NEA's request for a statement on his education views. This is the largest national union of educators out there and he just let them go right on by. Obama responded, spent time with them, and made reforming education one of his top priorities. Will he do everything he's proposed to do? Of course not. With time, funding, and red tape, it's not possible. (Plus, some of his ideas are just too grand-like a free college education to all aspiring teachers.) But he's aiming high, which means if he hits somewhere in the middle, things will be better. He's my best chance that good things will happen and I'll remain happy and fulfilled down here in the trenches.
So Obama actually reached out to educators instead of ignoring them. Is that silly or what?
I'm confused. I'm assuming that Stephen is pretty far to the right. I would think he'd rather "steal" a cup of coffee from a left-leaning company than pay for it. Maybe he's just not about "sabatoge." Or maybe there's a part of the story that I'm not considering. Just curious.
Let me know if you ever get back to the Salt Lake area. I'd love to see you.
Yes, I do realize that your post was about Bush...I was reffering to the potential of Obama posts, this being the 1st I have seen on your blog. It was a lame attempt at a joke (as my friend Mrs. Palin would say).
My union group, of course, was for Mr. Obama too. I got my share of being hammered for not agreeing with them. But I figure that if the company we work for is taxed more then our union will be there only to squeeze blood from a turnip, on my behalf.
I think you have great and rather fair ideas on education, I'd love to hear them all. You're a bright chic and I am very interested in your ideas...I am all ears.
P.S.
Stephen says that Starbucks has never before offered a promotion like this, pointing out in their ads "that it was more important to vote in this election than ever before" so important that they were going to give you a free cup of coffee if you did vote. Starbucks, a left-leaning company of course supports Obama, so he wasn't going to take their bribe ;) Besides, he feared that if he ordered the Obama coffee that it would have been a little weak ;) So he just stuck to paying for a cup.
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