Why I Will Never Retire. Can you spell F.R.E.E.D.O.M?

Almost every day, whether I am playing tennis, giving a speech, or to taking my grand daughter to track practice, someone asks me if I plan to retire. " No, I tell them, I plan to keep working as long as my health holds up and I still enjoy going to work."

Most people find my answer puzzling. At a time when many teachers are leaving the profession, why do I plan to keep teaching till I'm 80? It's not because of financial considerations- I have made such large contributions to my pension plan that I can retire at full salary. It's not because I lack interesting and enjoyable things to do off the job- I have standing invitations to join the boards of 3 Bronx organizations the day I retire and I have a wonderful time playing tennis and golf and helping my grand children launch their own athletic careers.

It's all because I love teaching, whether large lecture classes, small seminars or one on one tutorials with undergrad and doctoral students. Having great students and supportive colleagues certainly helps. But the main thing that keeps me going is that I have complete freedom to shape what goes on in my classes. No one reviews my syllabi. No one observes me. No one requires me to document what students learn in my classes. Because I went through an arduous and demanding tenure process, people at my university trust me to give my students the best possible experience I can offer. And I try to do just that. Every day. Not because I will be paid more if I am effective-since merit increments at my university are almost entirely based on research- but out of professional pride and a love of watching students learn and grow and teach me things I didn't know before. To me, nothing can match the thrill of using lectures, readings, films and music to get students excited about history, and then to giving those students the power to reshape the class by introducing ideas of their own. Because I am given freedom, I extend that freedom to my students and as a result everyone learns a little more than they expected, and has fun doing it.

I wish the people that are running education in the US would learn something from this experience. They act as though the only things that can motivate people to teach well are fear, and hope of a financial reward. They micromanage teachers, require them to produce endless paperwork documenting what students learn, and evaluate them based on student test scores, with the fear of termination, and the hope of merit pay allegedly providing motivation.

What they don't realize is the greatest motivation for teachers may be things hard to quantify - professional pride, creative freedom, and the sense of excitement you get from helping students learn new things and find their own voic

Why Remnants of the Occupy Movement Should Join the Growing "Test Revolt"

There is no sphere of public policy, with the possible exception of housing and bank regulation, where the extreme concentration of wealth has produced more damaging consequences than in education. A bi-partisan coalition of billionaires has united to imposed a regime of testing and teacher evaluation on the nation's public schools which is driving teachers, students and families into revolt. The remnants of the Occupy Movement, which still exist in almost every section of the country, need to join this revolt. Support families who Opt Out. Help organize student strikes against testing
Join the movement to stop the Common CORE. And demand that policy makers allow local communities have the option of creating "test free schools" where the creativity of students and teachers can be unleashed! As we used to say in the Sixties "Dare to Struggle, Dare to Win"

Education Jargon That Gets You An Immediate " No Thanks!"

About three of four times a day, I get an inquiry from an Education organization, sometimes a non profit, sometimes a private corporation, that wants a contribution or access to my students. I now filter these organizations through a series of code words. If you use any of the following terms in your promotional literature, you will never get any money from me, and will never get access to my students

1. School Reform. I would rather support a drug dealer than a School Reformer. Drug Dealers do less damage.
2. The Achievement Gap. There is no Achievement Gap, there is an Income Gap and an Opportunity Gap.
3. Data Driven Instruction. What this really means is Data Driven Destruction, of students, teachers and families.
4. Outcomes Assessment. You try to Assess me and Out Comes my Fist
5. Accountability. After you do that for Bankers and Government Officials, then you can try it with teachers.
6. Student Learning Objectives. This is a euphemism for a strategy to take all creativity and autonomy from teachers and have them justify every single thing they do to a "higher authority"

I also have no use for the Gates and Broad Foundations, Students First, Stand for Children, Teach for America, Pearson and McGraw Hill, and the US, NY State and NY City Departments of Education.

Tough times require tough people. I have my standards

When Education Policy Promotes Rigidity, Rebellion is the Only Option

It is astonishing to me that we as a nation have embraced education policies which promote extreme uniformity and rigidity at a time when we face problems such as Climate Change, Extreme Economic Inequality, and Growth of the Prison Industrial Complex, which will require unprecedented levels of creativity and active citizenship if we are to find solutions which minimize the damage they are doing. We need young people's imaginations to be freed, their minds unleashed, their courage honed by asking difficult questions. Instead we are forcing them to sit still, absorb and regurgitate huge amounts of information, and face sharp disciplinary action if they deviate from the plans made for them. This type of education, intentionally or not, is designed to insure that the status quo, no matter how damaging it is persists without significant challenge. That is why we must not only encourage our young people to rebel against this stifling educational regime, we must set an example for them by rebelling ourselves.

Other People's Children- The Basis of the Vietnam War/School Reform Analogy

Other People's Children- The Basis of the Vietnam War/School Reform Analogy

For some time, I have argued that School Reform is the most destructive bi-partisan initiative we have suffered in the United States since the Vietnam War, a policy which has, and will continue to inspire mass movements to limit the damage it is inflicts through universal testing of the nation's children, and the humiliation and micro-management of the nation's teachers.

Some have argued, correctly, that people have not lost their lives as a result of School Reform even when schools are closed, teachers are fired, communities destabilized, instruction has been reduced to test prep, and young people's minds turned into mush by relentless testing. That is certainly true. But one thing does seem similar. Both produced PTSD. All over the nation, teachers are under a doctor's care for stress, anxiety and depression due to public demonization by School Reformers and their acolytes, along with policies that have undermined their professionalism, erased their job security and subjected them to relentless supervision. There are also more and more signs of such clinical symptoms spreading to children, as pre-K to 12 testing becomes the rule in every state in the nation, and subjects like art, music, and physical education become sites of high stakes testing used for teacher evaluation as well as student placement. Children all over the nation are starting to dread going to
school, some breaking down from the pressure of the tests,, other just sinking into apathy from the boredom of a school day dominated by test prep. And this is only the tip of the Iceberg. As the Common CORE standards are implemented, and tests multiply, depression and test fatigue will both multiply

Moreover, the power of the analogy rests on a few chilling similarities. Both policies are thoroughly bi-partisan- the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and No Child Left Behind were passed by huge majorities that crossed party lines. Both relied on euphemisms to mask ugly consequences; policy makers claimed we sent troops to Vietnam to protect "the freedom and independence of South Vietnam" when in fact we were suppressing a nationalist revolution; and officials of both parties now say "School Reform is the Civil Rights movement of the 21st Century" when their policies destabilize poor communities and inflict a regimen of test prep on the nation's children which destroys their joy in learning.

But the most powerful analogy is that both policies were meant for "Other People's Children." Vietnam was a war fought by draftees from a cross section of young people from the nation's working class neighborhoods- the children of Congressmen and Cabinet Officers all got deferments. Similarly, the children of the Presidents, Governors, Mayors, and Billionaire business leaders pushing for School Reform, never take the tests their policies require because they all go to private school.

A democratic society is fatally corrupted by policies whose architects are immune from the consequences they produce. It is even more corrupt when children, or innocent youth ( the average age of the ground soldier in Vietnam was 19) are the major victims

May 2, 2013

Where My Right to Criticize Comes From- A Message to Duncan, Rhee and King

If you're going to be a social critic or an activist, you need to have a moral center, a place where the integrity of your position of affirmed. Mine is teaching. This is what I do. This is what I love, This is how I have validated myself for nearly 50 years. So when I scrutinize, and find lacking, the actions of an Arne Duncan, or a Michelle Rhee, or a John King, I don't do so by an abstract standard, I  make my reference point the interactions I have had with thousands of students, both during and after I taught them, interactions still going on as I write these words. Those who seek to reshape this experience without having lived it are not only dangerously misguided, they are dangerous. I say this with total confidence. To quote JZ

"Can't stand in my pants, can't walk in my shoes, bet everything you worth, you'll lose your tie and your short."

Teachers. stand up. Speak out! Don't let false prophets lead us over a cliff!

"Rainy Day Reformers" A Song About Testing by Kenny B and Notorious Phd

Rainy Day Reformers"- With New Lyrics by Kenny B!

Sing Along If You are A Bob Dylan Fan!

Well they’ll test you when you’re entering Pre-K
They’ll test you instead of recess and play
They’ll test you during music and art
They’ll test you and tell you you’re not smart

They’ll test you, your teachers to assess. Let's Give every child a test

They'll test in place of what our children learn
They'll test and it makes our stomachs churn
They'll test and it makes the children cry
They'll test them and not care the reason why

They’ll test you, your teachers to assess. Let's Give every child a test

They'll test you and force teaching to the test
They'll test you then they'll get rid of the best
They'll test your kids right into the ground
They'll test until new teachers won't come around

They’ll test you, your teachers to assess. Let's Give every child a test

They'll test you and get rid of your retirement
They'll test you right into the basement
They'll test you until all the teachers are gone
They'll test you even thought they know its wrong

They’ll test you, your teachers to assess. Let's Give every child a test

They'll test you then they'll want to use the data
To cut your job and say you're over-rated
They'll test you knowing its absolutely wrong
Yes, They'll test you until all the teachers are gone

YES, They’ll test you, your teachers to assess. LET'S GIVE EVERY CHILD A TEST!