I am a teacher in APS. My job has become a burden to me. A big, heavy burden. It never was before. Teaching has always been a lot of work, and has consumed much of my time. But it was never a burden. It was stimulating, satisfying, though often frustrating, but not burdensome in my life. Now it is. I spend hours and hours, on things that have practically nothing to do with children learning.
I want to teach children what they need, in the way they need to learn. That means I learn each child, and adapt and create activities so each one can, and will, learn.
Two days ago I heard our principal say that “we can’t change the program” to enable one of my students to better learn. It was at a SAT (Student Assistance Team) meeting, which has as its aim to address the particular situation, problems, and needs of an individual student. My student knows very little English, and is way below his grade level in all areas. As the principal explained, we are not a dual language school, we are a maintenance school, and therefore he must be taught math in English, even if he would understand math concepts better if taught in the language he knows best. I said, well, our question is whether our goal is to teach him math, or to teach him English as a second language using math. Her answer was, “This is our program. We can’t change our program.”
As we teachers talk to those in charge of passing on the latest “received wisdom,” we are used to hearing such pronouncements. As we ask questions about the purpose of practices or mandates, or about the origin of these, we get the most strongly stated, kneejerk platitudes, replete with the latest “in” jargon. This jargon is particularly offensive to me, since it originates in Defense Department and business practices. (Oh yes, we know these two entities have been so successful!!!) Education now is supposed to take direction from these, because they know better about “systems.” Terms include “deployment,” “clients,” (parents and children), “product,” (what children do in school), “stakeholders,” (everybody?), and so on. I keep thinking that “parents,” “children,” or “students,” “kids’ work,” used to be quite okay terms. We all knew what we meant, and they were real.
Our principal one day told me that we needed to do Continuous Classroom Improvement because it is proven to make systems work better. I asked her if teaching children was a system. She unblinkingly replied, “Yes, of course.” I said nothing. You just have to take it in, because any further questioning or reply only evokes more and stronger platitudes. They truly are like “good Nazi soldiers.” Or any participants in authoritarian power systems. Repeat what you are given from “above,” pass it on with fidelity, and actually end up believing it yourself.
