America .... You've Got Trouble

Dear America;

    First off happy birthday today and thanks for your hospitality. In the past few year, I've visited you a few times for both business and pleasure and I've met some great people. I'll be spending some more time with you in the next little while and we always have a good visit. But I have to be honest with you America, I think that you've got some trouble that you need to be looking at.

    I've been lucky enough to meet some of the most innovative, inventive people involved with your education system America. They are kind, bright, and open people. willing to share and willing to think in new ways; you should be very proud of them. But I don't think you're getting it. People like David Warlick and WIll Richardson keep telling their concerns about how the world is changing. But I don't hear many people talking about classrooms, or about how these concerns and worries about a changing world look like in practice. Many of your educational thought leaders are frustrated by a system that doesn't seem to honour them and their creativity. They are hampered by the complete dominance of artificial testing and by corporations who are controlling the debates that surround change. Many of them have unfortunately been driven out of your classrooms, right where you need them the most.

    You have the vision and can see the problems clearly America, but people don't seem to be able to see the day-to-day processes and classroom life that support the kinds of changes that you need. It curious that as outsiders, Canadians, Australians and people from the UK can see these things, but you have trouble looking inside yourself and supporting the people who have the vision and the ability to help you out the most.

    Your teachers need you America. They are trying to help you. But I get the feeling that you're not helping them as much.

    I don't mean to be critical America, but I do think that you need a critical friend. I'm hoping that as someone who is an outsider, but also a neighbour who sees what is happening in your house, you'll understand that I am worried about you. The world has changed around you America. The debates have changed. We are past dealing with flashy tools and are more interested in debates about pedagogy and learning instead of testing and controlling.  Transparency, openness, and sharing the learning are the fastest way forward and this means that you need to change your thinking.

    A birthday is often a good time to look back over your time, but also to look ahead, to look at where you want to go in the days ahead. So, happy birthday America and I hope you have some luck with making a few changes.

Tags: DavidWarlick, Will Richardson, education, learning, schools, teaching, change

Comments

[Wendy Drexler]

I made a 140 character comment on Twitter that may require some explanation. I wonder if Canadian schools really get it. I don't mean that in a disrespectful way at all. I would truly like to learn how to facilitate change in my school. Are most of your colleagues on board? How is school different? How are the teachers different? Perhaps we can learn from our neighbors.

[Tracy Rosen]

Is it so different here? We have some good school systems trying to make a difference, but we also have some mediocre ones and some downright bad ones. Is it very different in the States? Standards are creeping in to the picture more and more (in Quebec they are called competencies - but the stakes are just as high). There are teachers (and administrators and school boards) who want nothing to do with the new literacies, while there are also teachers (and administrators and school boards) who strive to work with them.

[Brett Hinton]

1st time commenting here - but long time reader. I love my country (USA) dearly, but agree, we have significant problems to work through educationally. We do have some great educational thought leaders (among whom are certainly Will R. and David Warlick). I think the challenge is always in the implementation. The devil is in the little details and, unfortunately, in our educational system there are lots of those little details.

Real transformation in any large established system has generally always taken time. I think the feelings about this year's NECC conference might be indicative of the fact that educators who want this change are coming to grips that this change is going to take some time. Sustained effort and patience are going to be equally necessary components to accomplish the change we want to see. Hopefully people like Will and David and the many others don't lose patience and give up. Change is happening, but slowly, and we will get to that tipping point we want if we just keep plugging away at both implementing these ideas and sharing them with others.

[Richard Kassissieh]

Bingo! You've got it, Clarence. In the U.S., many instructional innovators leave schools entirely and become educational consultants. I struggle to imagine how individuals not in schools could cause schools to change. Fortunately, I am pleased to follow many exciting educational innovators who do work in schools. I get a lot more out of reading their blogs, because they are making the change right now. Will they change the overall educational landscape? Probably not. But I would argue that it is more important to change your local educational context.

Richard

[Mike]

Thank you for sharing your observations. Many of us can give you the words from all the right books and blogs, but few of us have successfully changed what students and teachers do every day in our classrooms.

In our district, we're trying by focusing on what young people need to know and be able to do to have options once they graduate. But, it is difficult to maintain this focus with competing demands, diminishing resources, and the push to put technology into classrooms because it is perceived as important to do not because we have identified how it will influence learning.

[Jim Walker]

The people with the most power to effect real change are the parents, yet many don't know the power they have. I have been connecting friends/parents to educational change bloggers like Will, David, Clay, Steven, etc. They always thank me for opening them up to a new world of thinking about education.

[Brenda Dyck]

I don't disagree with your assessment of the state of America's educational "troubles" but I think its important to add that Canadians are suffering from many of the same maladies. Its no secret that Canada has a history of following the States in their decision making (albeit is usually somewhat delayed- 3 or 4 years later), that the same American policies and decisions seem to eventually make their way up north.
Be assured- the culture of testing is alive and well here in Alberta, Canada. With our current preoccupation with assessment and numbers, Americans might actually feel right at home. The tone of "America... You've Got Trouble" gives the impression that the "curious outsiders" spoken of in the posting (Canada and the UK), have a bird's eye view of America's education moves which can lead to the natural assumption that we're acting on this in our own Canadian backyard.
From where I sit, I'm not so sure Canadians are especially adept at supporting their schoolhouse Visionaries and Change Masters. I think we're as prone as anyone to following the educational status quo, partially because we are stuck in the same industrial model that plagues America and partially because, as Gloria Steineim pointed out, "The first resistance to change is to say it's not necessary".
~ Brenda
Calgary, Alberta, Canada

[Clarence Fisher]

Sorry I've been slow to support the conversation here, I've been trying to have an offline few days after returning from NECC. A comment especially to the Canadians who have responded to this post: While there is no doubt in my mind that many, many Canadian teachers and schools are not moving in the right directions, I still believe that things are different here compared to down in the US. We have some forms of standardized testing in my district as well, but the pressure is just not as high. No portion of my salary or the price of my house is tied to these results. While people are certainly interested (and sometimes critical of the results), it is just different. I also find here in Canada that many of the debates among forward looking teachers and districts are once again, simply different. We are past looking at tools and are concentrating on pedagogy and what actually happens in classrooms. I agree that we have some distance to go ourselves before we are even close to being a critical mass of teachers looking at these changes, but I have the feeling that we are moving in these directions from both classrooms and departments of education.

[Debb]

Thank you for the birthday greetings we all need frields to watch out for us. Inertia fights change. I find that at our school some people are too comfortable with how they do things, others are too intimidated by current federal mandates. Sometimes I want to find a closet to scream into.
I am hoping moving one step at a time we can change the environment locally and nationally. It is really the only way change happens and the only hope.

[Ginny P]

As both an educator and a parent, I have to say Canadian education is doing something that better prepares their top students better for the rigors of college than the U.S. does. Perhaps they've got the 'differentiation' thing down, maybe discipline is not as much a hindrance, or is it the use of vocational high schools... I'm not sure. But my daughter chose U of T (Toronto, not Tennessee or Texas, fellow Americans)over the northeast schools to which she was admitted. She found the going extremely tough and barely squeaked by in a couple of classes. Having graduated 6th in her h.s. class with a GPA of 4.7, she expected to fit right in with her Canadian classmates. It wasn't a question of use of technology, but of rigor. AP classes, of which she'd had many, seemed the norm of college prep classes in Canada; the number of math classes taken by Ontario/Canada(?)high schools apparently is much greater than our one-a-year in the U.S.
Several years ago I had a Canadian girl come to my seventh grade Lang. Arts class and be astounded she scored 100s on several quizzes and projects. "That just never happens in Canada" said her mother. "That is a perfect score, and everyone knows that is not achievable by a student learning new material. 80% is usually an "A-", and anything in the 90s is astounding."
I'd like to hear Canadian classroom educators' opinion of grading, expectations, etc. in the U.S. and Canada.

[Dorothy Stahlnecker]

I'm a first time reader, mother and grandmother. Schools here in the US have become too political. Causing stress on the already burdened teacher with the lack of control (lawsuits) and money to adequately teach their students. Our state of affairs in the Buffalo New York systems is a shame. Many of our teacher are biding time until their retirement as the student seems to be the last thing on the minds of the administrators. I'll keep reading looking for ideas as I believe our children are our worlds future. Our teachers the hope that they will learn and become future scientists, leaders, teachers, caregivers, filled with values and information to make our future and our world a better place to live.

My best,
Dorothy from grammology
remember to hug your gram
grammology.com

[Dorothy Stahlnecker]

I'm a first time reader, mother and grandmother. Schools here in the US have become too political. Causing stress on the already burdened teacher with the lack of control (lawsuits) and money to adequately teach their students. Our state of affairs in the Buffalo New York systems is a shame. Many of our teacher are biding time until their retirement as the student seems to be the last thing on the minds of the administrators. I'll keep reading looking for ideas as I believe our children are our worlds future. Our teachers the hope that they will learn and become future scientists, leaders, teachers, caregivers, filled with values and information to make our future and our world a better place to live.

My best,
Dorothy from grammology
remember to hug your gram
grammology.com

[Dorothy Stahlnecker]

I'm a first time reader, mother and grandmother. Schools here in the US have become too political. Causing stress on the already burdened teacher with the lack of control (lawsuits) and money to adequately teach their students. Our state of affairs in the Buffalo New York systems is a shame. Many of our teacher are biding time until their retirement as the student seems to be the last thing on the minds of the administrators. I'll keep reading looking for ideas as I believe our children are our worlds future. Our teachers the hope that they will learn and become future scientists, leaders, teachers, caregivers, filled with values and information to make our future and our world a better place to live.

My best,
Dorothy from grammology
remember to hug your gram
grammology.com

[Dorothy Stahlnecker]

I'm a first time reader, mother and grandmother. Schools here in the US have become too political. Causing stress on the already burdened teacher with the lack of control (lawsuits) and money to adequately teach their students. Our state of affairs in the Buffalo New York systems is a shame. Many of our teacher are biding time until their retirement as the student seems to be the last thing on the minds of the administrators. I'll keep reading looking for ideas as I believe our children are our worlds future. Our teachers the hope that they will learn and become future scientists, leaders, teachers, caregivers, filled with values and information to make our future and our world a better place to live.

My best,
Dorothy from grammology
remember to hug your gram
grammology.com

[Dorothy Stahlnecker]

I'm a first time reader, mother and grandmother. Schools here in the US have become too political. Causing stress on the already burdened teacher with the lack of control (lawsuits) and money to adequately teach their students. Our state of affairs in the Buffalo New York systems is a shame. Many of our teacher are biding time until their retirement as the student seems to be the last thing on the minds of the administrators. I'll keep reading looking for ideas as I believe our children are our worlds future. Our teachers the hope that they will learn and become future scientists, leaders, teachers, caregivers, filled with values and information to make our future and our world a better place to live.

My best,
Dorothy from grammology
remember to hug your gram
grammology.com

[Dorothy Stahlnecker]

I'm a first time reader, mother and grandmother. Schools here in the US have become too political. Causing stress on the already burdened teacher with the lack of control (lawsuits) and money to adequately teach their students. Our state of affairs in the Buffalo New York systems is a shame. Many of our teacher are biding time until their retirement as the student seems to be the last thing on the minds of the administrators. I'll keep reading looking for ideas as I believe our children are our worlds future. Our teachers the hope that they will learn and become future scientists, leaders, teachers, caregivers, filled with values and information to make our future and our world a better place to live.

My best,
Dorothy from grammology
remember to hug your gram
grammology.com

[Rena Franco]

As a former student of the United States public school systems and a teacher in training I have to agree with this statement. As a future teacher I realize that education policies come and go and that the only way to combat the problems in the school systems is for me to be the best kind of teacher I can be. It is up to every individual teacher to break through the bureaucracy and provide quality education to their students. It may not fix the national problem but at least some of us will be educating the future leaders of this country and hopefully they too will help make a change.