Oklahoma Turns Against APUSH?

January 27, 2015June 4, 2023 ~ Blue Cereal ~ 2 Comments

Oh Senator, you certainly do manage to stay colorful, don’t you?

In case you don’t recall, Senator Brecheen was the figure kind enough to spend 10 minutes on the floor being shocked that somewhere deep in Appendix G of the Common Core standards, among a few hundred various books, poems, and documents cited as examples of different reading levels, Toni Morrison has written a dirty book.

The only logical solution is to read it on the floor, complete with gasps and euphemisms mostly made up of first initials and the word “word” – “N-word”, “A-word”, “K-word”, etc. Therefore, Common Core was all about promoting rape and sodomy and undercutting American values. His solution was quote Elijah from the Old Testament, who insisted the impure be chased down and executed by sword.

Needless to say, our repeal of Common Core may have saved many lives.

Now he’s after AP-USH, no doubt mostly because we’re tired of Texas having all the fun and looking the craziest. Here’s the text of SB650 as he’s proposed it, although it was no easy task hunting it down. I don’t know how OkEd and Swisher do this full time.

STATE OF OKLAHOMA
1st Session of the 55th Legislature (2015)
SENATE BILL 650
An Act relating to schools; prohibiting state funds from being used to support certain U.S. history courses; prohibiting the State Board of Education from awarding certain grants until certain course framework reverts to framework in place at certain time; directing the State Board of Education by certain date to adopt certain history program; establishing criteria for program; allowing display of certain grade-level documents; providing for codification; providing an effective date; and declaring an emergency.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA:
SECTION 1. NEW LAW A new section of law to be codified in the Oklahoma Statutes as Section 1210.704 of Title 70, unless there is created a duplication in numbering, reads as follows:
A. No state funds shall be used to support advanced placement U.S. history courses in Oklahoma schools as the courses are designed as of the effective date of this act.
B. Beginning with the 2015-2016 school year, the State Board of Education shall not award any grants to school districts or make any expenditure of state funds, as authorized by Section 1210.703 of Title 70 of the Oklahoma Statutes, for equipment, instructional materials, course development, professional development or training, examination awards or examination scholarships for advanced placement U.S. history courses until the framework for the course is changed and reverts back to the course framework and examination that were used prior to the 2014-2015 school year.
C. Prior to the 2015-2016 school year, the State Board of Education shall identify and adopt an advanced placement U.S. history program and corresponding assessment that:
1. Are not in contradiction with the subject matter standards for U.S. history adopted by the State Board of Education; and
2. Include the following foundational and historical documents as part of the primary instruction in any U.S. history, honors U.S. history, and advanced placement U.S. history course offered in Oklahoma public schools:
a. organic documents from the pre-Colonial, Colonial, Revolutionary, Federalist, and post-Federalist eras of the United States,
b. major principles in the Federalist Papers,
c. the writings, speeches, documents, and proclamations of the founders and presidents of the United States,
d. America’s founding documents that contributed to the foundation or maintenance of America’s representative form of limited government, free-market economic system, and American exceptionalism,
e. objects of historical significance that have formed and influenced the United States’ legal or governmental system and that exemplify the development of the rule of law, including but not limited to the Magna Carta, the Mecklenburg Declaration, the Ten Commandments, and the Justinian Code,
f. U.S. Supreme Court decisions,
g. acts of U.S. Congress, including the published text of the Congressional Record,
h. United States treaties, and
i. other documents, writings, speeches, proclamations, or records relating to the history, heritage, or foundation of the United States, including, in whole, but not limited to:
(1) the Declaration of Independence,
(2) the U.S. Constitution and its amendments,
(3) the Mayflower Compact,
(4) the Bill of Rights,
(5) the Articles of Confederation,
(6) the Virginia Plan,
(7) the Northwest Ordinance,
(8) the motto of the United States,
(9) the National Anthem,
(10) the sermon known as “Model of Christian Charity” by John Winthrop,
(11) the sermon known as “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” by Jonathan Edwards,
(12) “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death” speech by Patrick Henry,
(13) “Remember the Ladies” letter by Abigail Adams,
(14) the writing “Common Sense, Section III: Thoughts on the Present State of American Affairs” by Thomas Paine,
(15) the essay “Federalist Paper No. 10” by James Madison,
(16) George Washington’s farewell address,
(17) Monroe Doctrine,
(18) at least a complete overview of the book entitled “Democracy in America” by Alexis de Tocqueville,
(19) the document known as “Declaration of Sentiments” by Elizabeth Cady Stanton,
(20) Independence Day Speech at Rochester by Frederick Douglass,
(21) “House Divided” speech by Abraham Lincoln,
(22) the “Gettysburg Address” by Abraham Lincoln,
(23) the Second Inaugural Address by Abraham Lincoln,
(24) the “Surrender Speech” by Chief Joseph,
(25) the poem entitled “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus,
(26) “The Gospel of Wealth” by Andrew Carnegie,
(27) “The Significance of the Frontier in American History” by Frederick Jackson Turner,
(28) the “Atlanta Compromise” speech by Booker T. Washington,
(29) the “Cross of Gold” speech by William Jennings Bryan,
(30) Roosevelt Corollary by Theodore Roosevelt,
(31) “New Nationalism” speech by Theodore Roosevelt,
(32) “Peace Without Victory” speech by Woodrow Wilson,
(33) First Inauguration Address by Franklin D. Roosevelt,
(34) portions of the book entitled “The Grapes of Wrath” by John Steinbeck,
(35) “The Four Freedoms” speech by Franklin D. Roosevelt,
(36) “Day of Infamy” speech by Franklin D. Roosevelt,
(37) “The Sources of Soviet Conduct” by George Kennan,
(39) the address that became known as the “Truman Doctrine” made by Harry S. Truman,
(40) Address on Little Rock by Dwight Eisenhower,
(41) Farewell Address by Dwight Eisenhower,
(42) Inaugural Address by John F. Kennedy,
(43) “The Decision to Go to the Moon” speech by John F. Kennedy;
(44) “Letter From Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King, Jr.,
(45) “I Have a Dream” speech by Martin Luther King, Jr.,
(46) “The Ballot or the Bullet” speech by Malcolm X,
(47) “Great Society” speech by Lyndon B. Johnson,
(48) “The American Promise” speech by Lyndon B. Johnson,
(49) First Inaugural Address by Ronald Reagan,
(50) “40th Anniversary of D-Day” speech by Ronald Reagan,
(51) “Remarks at the Brandenburg Gate” speech by Ronald Reagan; and
(52) the address to the nation speech made on September 11, 2001, by George W. Bush.
School districts shall permit teachers to display grade-level appropriate excerpts from or copies of the documents, writings, speeches, proclamations or records listed in this subsection in school classrooms and school building common areas as appropriate.
SECTION 2. This act shall become effective July 1, 2015.
SECTION 3. It being immediately necessary for the preservation of the public peace, health and safety, an emergency is hereby declared to exist, by reason whereof this act shall take effect and be in full force from and after its passage and approval.
55-1-396 EB 1/27/2015 3:31:09 PM

This deserves commentary by those much smarter than myself, although I’ll of course rant about this more soon. My favorite part is that getting these documents and the accompanying silliness into law is “immediately necessary for the preservation of public peace, health and safety.”

That’s right folks, funding be damned – THIS is an EMERGENCY.

RELATED POST: Nooobody Expects the Spanish Inquisition!

#EdReform is NOT that Difficult

January 22, 2015June 4, 2023 ~ Blue Cereal ~ 4 Comments

Sometimes we just make things too complicated.

How do we this? How do we that? How can we overhaul our public education system without changing anything about it? How do we reach diverse students from inequitable backgrounds and make them all the same person by 3rd grade? How do we recruit and retain higher quality teachers without increasing fiscal incentives, but while stomping out every last vestige of the things that used to make it a fulfilling career?

How do we patch up old wineskins to endure new wine without bursting?

Simple – we don’t.

But that’s OK, because the old wineskins have outlived their usefulness. And just between you and me, new wineskins needn’t be all that complex or much more expensive than the old – and they might just lead to much better varieties of wine.

My Five New Wineskins of Public Education – none of which are all that crazy or even particularly expensive compared to what we spend on, say, testing vendors.

New Wineskin #1: A few key districts simply refuse to administer any state standardized tests. It would be better if there was PTSA buy-in, and the younger the age group, the better. It would be more effective if there were 3 or 4 districts of some size, at least one of which is generally very successful at such things and another of which is not. Unite, refuse, then see what happens – it’s on the state to make the next move.

Upside: Everything’s better with numbers, and a little diversity refutes any suggestion this is about who’s ‘winning’ or ‘losing’, or who has ‘high standards’ and who doesn’t. The state could, of course, refuse to issue diplomas to hundreds or thousands of children. They could defund entire districts, maybe even seek legal action. But that’s some pretty harsh PR, going up against educators and parents ‘standing up for the children’.

Downside: Requires a lot of people to agree to take a huge risk all at once, trust one another to hold the line, and possibly all lose our jobs. So, that would suck. Then again, we all talk a good game about standing up for what we believe. I’ve read your motivational posters and sig files, so… will you?

New Wineskin #2: Districts start offering different types of diplomas. Students planning on going full legit university take full legit academic classes. They AP, they IB, they read and write and inquire and think – they can even Common Core if you wish. Those thinking they’d prefer something more practical or vocational will still be exposed to basic science and math and such, but we don’t need to drag them kicking and screaming through a complex thesis sentence or Algebra II before cosmetology school. Our cultish obsession with ‘core subjects’ can be replaced with something useful – not coldly utilitarian, but based on where students are going and what they want to do.

Upside: Dialing back our obsession with the full Enlightenment Era / factory model “core curriculum” would allow us to teach useful math through shop or repair classes, practical reading alongside a touch of ‘real’ literature, or otherwise manifest our idealism in more balanced fashion. We could offer curriculums students might not hate and find absolutely pointless all day every day. Students strong in traditional subjects could do more than endure hours of mediocre instruction as their teachers struggle to manage and cajole the kids who simply do NOT want or need to be there.

Downside: Tracking has a poor history, rife with unintended negative consequences. Schools would have to figure out logistics of such variety, and perhaps cooperate with neighboring districts. We’ll all be accused of giving up on kids and not caring about high standards because we’re no longer requiring our kids to do a bunch of stuff none of the people making the laws can do either.

New Wineskin #3: Universities should stop requiring high school diplomas and businesses should stop requiring degrees. Let’s be honest – that stuff is mostly a convenience for the institutions rather than real requirements for what students or employees will be doing. We’re always hearing universities complain the freshmen all require remediation anyway, and it seems few companies hire based on WHICH degrees you have – they’re just happy you have… something. Institutions and industries can come up with more appropriate entrance expectations or preparatory training.

Upside: Doesn’t require legal changes or universal buy-in. A generation ago, many organizations had their own competency tests based on the actual job. Problem was, there were racial disparities in the results, leading to civil rights issues. So… new system – require college degrees! It was overkill in most cases, but also shifted the ‘qualifications’ burden to the universities (without actually resolving the disparities). It’s a new age in terms of how companies deal with diversity – let’s ditch this unnecessary complication.

Downside: Might threaten current socio-economic caste system.

New Wineskin #4: Allow teachers to teach the subjects they want and students to choose what they want from those offerings. Like colleges do when trying to garner all that scholarship money by wooing new students with those colorful course descriptions, let high schools offer shorter, more interesting options from which to choose. Some should be close enough to ‘core subjects’ to expose students to the fundamental tenets of each, but generally the framework should be flexible enough that everyone involved doesn’t hate themselves for being there. You take 3 or 4 weeks, then you sign up for new selections. Some may build on one another; most could stand alone.

Traditional cores would still be offered for those so inclined, or for students unwilling or unable to flourish either academically or behaviorally in more interesting classes. Don’t get your panties in a wad about this creating a ‘caste system’ or ‘tracking’ – that’s pretty much what ‘on-level’ classes are now. We’d just be allowing anyone who wishes to escape that limitation and actually learn stuff without requiring the rigor of AP or IB to do so.

Sorry if it chafes to let ‘normal’ kids have an enriching classroom environment also.

Upside: Much higher interest and engagement, by both teachers and students. Core ideas and skills can still be taught, but as they arise naturally and in context. Stronger students can discover the ‘fulfilling’ aspect of more challenging classes when actual choices are involved, and weaker students who gravitate towards something less rigorous will still be exposed to ideas and skills they’d not be encountering otherwise.

The focus would be on learning, and on moving forward from where you are rather than dying in the ditch of ‘where we wish you were’.

Downside: Unless other factors are addressed to improve teacher motivation and retention, there’s potential for ‘blow-off’ classes for both the teacher and the students – you know, unlike currently. The freedom to have excellent classes also means the potential to increase inequity. One advantage to forcing every student in a given state to endure the same outdated, tedious, pointless curriculum is that no one school or any one teacher can be all THAT interesting or successful; there’s a certain ‘unity of mediocrity’. Removing the rusty anchor of ‘standardization’ allows some classrooms to be amazing, meaning others are less so by comparison.

New Wineskin #5: Put me in charge. Unlimited legislative and judicial authority, and extensive resources. Perhaps a concubine or three.

Upside: T-shirts for everyone.

Downside: Oh, please.

Roster Villification

November 19, 2014June 4, 2023 ~ Blue Cereal

Note: After losing most of this blog and website just before Halloween of this year, I’ve been rebuilding it from salvaged text cut’n’paste into long documents with some pretty strange formatting. Since I’m having to redo any posts I wish to retain anyway, most are getting fresh edits – or at least being shortened a bit. Many are simply not being reposted.
This was going to be one of those.
But this week two First Grade teachers in Tulsa, Oklahoma, took a principled stand against subjecting their students to any more abuse in the name of standardized testing. Their story and the letter they sent home to parents made waves, and they are likely to be fired for doing what’s best for their students.
I couldn’t help but remember a few months ago when I did the opposite, and caved in the face of almost no pressure. I’m reposting this as a confession in contrast to their courage and their conviction. My other rebuilt posts retain their original posting dates for logistical reasons; this one will not. It was originally posted April 16th, 2014.

Roster Vilification

Right now I hate my job.

I like my co-workers, my administrators – even the nice lady from the ESC who had to talk us through Roster Verification this morning. I may hate myself a little, now that I think of it.

I don’t even teach a tested subject this year. State law as it stands this week (it’s been rather flaky lately, so who knows what 30 days from now might bring?) says I can pretty much make up my own standards for VAM in my department, while my friends down in the Math & Science halls are tied to tests already taken and cut scores which are determined by random rolls of leftover D&D dice sometime in July.

What do I care, seriously? What difference does it make what bureaucracy I agree to, just to move things along? Why am I blogging this only so I don’t write my 2-week letter – THIS time of year of all times?

I just looked through a list of 168 students and confirmed with God as my witness that I am 100% responsible for everything they’ve ever done or will do, good or bad. Kids I haven’t seen in months. Kids who’ve been through weird circumstances, or who haven’t but have just shut down anyway. I’m also taken credit for kids I don’t think I’ve really taught much to – they’re just ‘those kids’ who show up and do most of what I ask.

They may have 102% in my class, but I don’t think they’re leaving with a love of learning so much as reinforced cynicism about just playing along with the system.

Which is what I just did.

This is wrong – this electronic tying of each teacher to each kid based solely on who’s on your grade book at a given point. It doesn’t matter that I have upper middle class white Methodists from two-parent families who only miss school for golf or family vacations to Europe, while the guy next to me has kids suspended so often he has more class admit forms than completed assignments.

There’s nothing in the measurement to indicate where a given kid might be mentally, or emotionally, or how often I’ve even had them physically in front of me. I don’t even recognize some of the names I just said were mine.

But I agreed to it all.

I agreed to it all because refusal doesn’t make things difficult for the State – it makes things difficult for my building principal, who I love and respect. It makes things particularly difficult for the nice lady from the ESC who started off so determined not to take my comments personally, but who hasn’t dealt with me often enough to know how unrealistic that was. (She actually did very well until my first effort to submit everything locked up the network – probably at the State’s end – and we had to reboot and start over.)

I agreed they’d been with me in such and such class all year, even though first semester was an entirely different course with a different name and number. I agreed although 140+ kids from various teachers including myself were pulled out of our sections in November and given to the new guy – but I couldn’t remember which ones and didn’t want to try to dig through old records to fix it. I agreed even though it was wrong – wrong mathematically, morally, pedagogically, and emotionally.

I agreed because refusing to cooperate wouldn’t change anything, and would be a huge pain in the ass for people who aren’t actually the ones causing the problem. I agreed because realistically this won’t even affect me that much – I teach Social Studies. No one cares what we do most of the time. We don’t get much support or respect compared to other cores, but we also don’t get called to the same meetings or face the same stress. I’m 47 and tenured, and could probably make the same money doing workshops and PD full time. I agreed because this isn’t really my problem.

Which is the opposite of what I teach my kids all year. It’s the antithesis of that stuff that helps maintain the thin illusion that anything we’re doing here matters, or has value, or could change anything. “Don’t rock the boat – it won’t help!” That should replace the other posters in my classroom for the last two weeks. Just sit in the back of the damn bus. Just finish the wire transfer from the hidden account. Just ignore the policies that maintain poverty for political gain, or segregation for social stability. Just walk past the problem.

You don’t even have to pull the trigger – just don’t step in front of the gun. You’re not that important – you can’t change something this big with some small, symbolic gesture that’s going to do nothing except make everyone around you have to work harder because you’re an ass. Pick your battles, dude – just click the ‘Submit’ button. This is Oklahoma – what are the chances that whatever policy is going to save us all this week will even be around in a year?

So I went along with it. I did what the instructions said, cynically, but in order to move along – much like my most successful students, now that I think about it. They do it because we tell them to, and that’s how you get an ‘A’. I fight it all year, wrestling for their academic souls, and just gave mine away for a bowl of convenience stew.

None of my kids will know, or care. My co-workers get it, but figure – correctly, no doubt – that I’m overreacting. My bosses might even agree, but can’t come out and say so.

But none of that really matters, because right now I hate my job. I hate my state. I hate the naiveté that’s kept me doing this for so long as I move past my otherwise employable years. I hate the other professions I turned down because I thought I was that f***ing important – a difference maker – a world shaker. I hate how when that little moment of decision came, I did the easy thing because I didn’t think the big thing was even a possibility. I just fed the machine, and it let me go back to class.

I have students coming in 15 minutes, and we should be discussing what we’ve read so far in The Grapes of Wrath. I’d meant to talk about “Joe Davis’s boy,” who drives the tractor that’s tearing up their land and down their homes, and I’ll ask them whether he’s part of the problem or not.

They’ll say he is, most of them. And they’re right.

We’ll talk about the ‘monster’ that’s bigger than the people who work for it and in it, and – being young – they’ll take a more defiant stance than the characters in the book are able to at this stage in the story. A better stand than I did today. Eventually, maybe, they’ll learn to just… go along. I can hardly steer them otherwise.

I hate myself today. And I’m sorry.

By Any Means Necessary

October 28, 2014June 4, 2023 ~ Blue Cereal

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world…
The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity…
(“The Second Coming”, W.B. Yeats)

My historical heroes are all pretty standard – Joan of Arc, Malcolm X, Abraham Lincoln. All three were murdered as a result of their convictions, but they were more than simply creatures of ‘passionate intensity’. They were strange animals in their day who rejected easy answers for the possibility of better ones. None were content to merely overcome those in their way – they sought something richer… they pursued mutual enlightenment. Maybe mutual respect.

Even if they killed you while doing it.

Joan demonstrated repeated personal mercies and grace even for her enemies, all while leading the French army to slaughter those filthy English. Post-Mecca Malcolm sought collaboration – or at least detente – from those he with whom he disagreed – even some he found culpable in existing wrongs. Lincoln was a man of great conviction as well, but regarding people and their viewpoints, values, and druthers, he was quite broad-minded for his time. Consider this bit from his Second Inaugural, given a few months before his death:

Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes…
With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

Not as rousing as “We’ve almost got ‘em, now let’s CRUSH the Motherf*ckers!” but it served his purposes.

See, Lincoln was always looking past the current strife to the solution, the next step, the reconciliation or improvement. He did not wish to confuse the struggle with the goal. It was how he practiced law, how he navigated interpersonal conflict, and certainly how he approached the Civil War.

Of course he wanted to win – believing profoundly that his cause was just – but he kept his larger purpose in view. He wanted the Union preserved, the nation whole. When the opportunity came to free slaves as part of that, all the better – the Maker thus working out the parts we cannot while demanding of us all that we can.

I want my students to emulate this. I want them to strive to understand why the hell people believe and do the weird, stupid stuff they believe and do. Most of it, of course, isn’t actually weird and stupid to the people doing it, and even when it is, it’s still worth a little analysis before we attack. It’s too easy to mock, vilify, or dismiss those who stray too far from our socio-political comfort zones. It’s too easy to reduce important complexities to ‘us’ and ‘them’.

Complicating my idealistic little group hug is the fact that in any field of dispute – science, ethics, education reform, etc. – there are unjust players. Someone’s always trying to rig the game, beat the system, manipulate the field for personal payoff. It’s naïve to pretend all voices are genuine. Sometimes the man behind the curtain is a pretty good wizard, but a very bad man.

Further complicating my utopian dreamland is the reality that not all ideas or understandings are equally true or even equally valid. They’re definitely not all equally useful. Just because I understand the skepticism about climate change by my friends further right doesn’t mean they’re correct. It doesn’t even mean the truth is “somewhere in the middle.” They may be dangerously, delusionally wrong – but it’s still better if I ‘get’ where they’re coming from. Show a little respect.

I humbly suggest that energy spent trying to understand the potential validity of viewpoints, belief systems, or courses of action we find distasteful, rather than spent ranting against them, has at least three advantages:

(1) They might have a point. If they’re not entirely right, they may not be entirely wrong, either. Likely they see something you’ve missed, or see it differently in a useful way. People who surround themselves only with supporters end up weird at best and corrupt at worst (think Justin Bieber or Kim Jong-il).

I’m a big fan of asserting antagonistic things to smart people and taking notes as they eviscerate me. I don’t keep many friends this way, but I learn a great deal.

(2) The better to persuade you with, my dear. If the goal is to implement policy you find most correct, or promote beliefs you consider important, you’re unlikely to win over opponents through your clever use of Willy Wonka memes to mock their most fundamental values. The sort of ‘red meat’ we throw one another when in likeminded groups can be emotionally satisfying, but it’s not particularly useful in building consensus.

(3) The Universe punishes vanity. Whether you put your faith in the Bible, history, science, or James Cameron movies, the fall which pride cometh before is a cantankerous b*tch, and neither you nor I are excluded from her twisted mockery.

Many things stirring passions today are more complicated than they seem. The ‘War on Terror’ is an easy example – the President all but admitted going in to this most recent bombing campaign against ISIS or ISIL (or whatever they are this week) that we can’t win this way, we can’t win other ways, and we sure as hell can’t not try at least some of the ways. All roads lead to WTF – we’re just trying to prognosticate the least-worst details.

Anything involving social mores and legal precepts is subjected to the worst sort of grandstanding on all sides – “I don’t believe government should legislate morality!” Yes you do. You just have different things that make you go ‘ick’ than whoever you’re mad at this time. “I want to see America return to the values on which it was founded!” No you don’t. We had some great ideals but made horrible compromises with the norms of the day. You’d be miserable, and quite possibly burned at the stake.

“Well I just don’t see how anyone could think -“

Exactly. Therein lies the problem. Because you really should.

School reform is almost as complex as these other areas, although with less stuff blowing up and fewer citations of Old Testament law involved (except of course by Senator Brecheen, who wants Common Core supporters hunted down and killed with swords).

Higher standards, whatever those are, might be delusional or harmful or wrong, but it’s hard to make the case that state-by-state standards are always much better. Mass testing is just evil, but complete lack of accountability doesn’t seem to have consistently led to much greatness in the past. There are some charters doing some interesting things, and I’ve even met ACTUAL TFA-ers leaving their all in the classroom every day trying to reach kids no one else seems able to reach.

I’m not suggesting all parties are just, or even sincere – merely that our ongoing outrage suggests a simplicity I don’t think is there.

Unless it’s MY outrage – my outrage is pretty damn ON most of the time.

I respectfully suggest we might see a bit more clearly and accomplish a bit more if we dial back our conviction enough to allow some uncertainty or complexity into the conversation. Maybe not everyone is either good or evil, not all ideas either stupid or obvious. Maybe we can maintain passion for our goals – which probably have to do with our students and the future and buckets full of flaming starfish – without taunting the Universe to go all karma on us before we can reach them.

Advice for the Next State Superintendent of Public Instruction (OK)

October 18, 2014June 4, 2023 ~ Blue Cereal

I should begin by saying that this post is in no way intended to advocate for one candidate or the other in this race. Not that there’s anything wrong with a little political editorializing – but this mini-trove of wisdom is here for THE WINNER, whoever that may be. If you want to talk substantive issues in depth, search Twitter – that’s what they do there. Or I guess you could go to HIS WEBSITE or HER WEBSITE and read up on the candidates yourself.

(We’re not actually big fans of that here in Oklahoma – the whole ‘inform yourself before you take a vitriolic stand on something’ – but, whatever. You’re reading this blog – that makes you informed enough, in my book.)

But Mr./Ms. NewSupt – let me help you out. You’re walking into a no-win situation in many ways, but that’s OK. We’re teachers and we know all about devoting time and energy to futile efforts. In order to help smooth your transition to power and better navigate the rocky political shores of #oklaed, I’ve compiled a handy dandy guide for your pedagogical and popular success.

This is not a countdown – you may move these around as you see fit and the blinding wisdom stays just as blinding. There’s no cost for these, either. I’m not seeking patronage or fiscal gain. This is for you. And our teachers. And Oklahoma.

This is for… *sniff*… THE CHILDREN.

(1) Pay attention to our teachers. There’s an enormous pool of talent and experience scattered across this state, much of it combined with the sort of missionary zeal necessary to teach here on purpose. Actively seek input from professionals actually doing the work in and around the classroom, and from the many different types of districts and classrooms you’ll find here. Strong leadership means being willing to listen, and learn – maybe even change some of the assumptions you had going in.

(2) Don’t pay too much attention to teachers. I love my profession and my peers, but there are some real weirdos in the mix, and they tend to be loudest. Besides, none of us can quite agree even what we think school is for – you can hardly expect us to have a coherent message how to best make it happen. Strong leadership means doing what’s best for the kids, long-term – not what’s popular with the entrenched majority. Sometimes teachers need to be willing to listen, and learn – maybe change some of the assumptions they’ve held for so long.

(3) High expectations lead to high achievement. You remember all that stuff about the Zone of Proximal Development from teacher school, yes? Kids are wonderfully gifted at doing everything possible to convince us that they’re the most helpless, hopeless, clueless little darlings on the planet, exerting all of their available resources merely to mouth-breathe. They want us to think they’re beyond stupid – so we can’t possibly expect much of them – and to their credit their methods are impressively varied and resolute.

But they’re not stupid. They’re loaded with all that potential we talk about even when we don’t always believe it. Many are actually rather brilliant.

No trophy or grade or diploma is nearly as rewarding as actually accomplishing something. Anyone who plays a sport, an instrument, or a video game knows this – the learning happens in the struggle, and the struggle is part of the reward.

(4) You can’t grandstand about ‘high standards’ and beat kids up with bubble tests and think it solves anything. Your constituency wants simple answers and ‘strong leadership’, but kids are complicated. Learning is weird, and a few platitudes won’t cut it. Some of the darlings entrusted to our care spend their two mites daily just trying to survive – emotionally, physically, socially, whatever.

The ones we too-easily reward need to be pushed and challenged and made uncomfortable; many of those we ignore or condemn need to be fed or hugged or listened to. It’s hard to give substantial damns about Algebra II when your world seems to be caving in on you, and our concerns are not always their concerns. “I’m sorry about your real life, but I assure you in three years this boring bit of otherwise irrelevant knowledge will be PRETTY IMPORTANT for your post-secondary pursuits, so let’s try to focus, shall we?”

Let’s not pretend that Social Darwinism or any other thinly veiled ‘–ism’ is actually just ‘high expectations’.

(5) With great power comes great responsibility. The Epistle of James (that’s in the BIBLE, for you non-Okies who might be reading) says that teachers will be judged more harshly for the positions they hold. You are in that position a hundredfold. James goes on to suggest that anyone who can control their tweets has self-control in all things. Be aware that everything you say, post, or do, sends ripples across more time and space than you’d ever intend.

(6) You’re not that important. Don’t get too full of yourself, just because you have a fancy title and a little power. The state legislature is still necessary in order to do REAL damage to schools and students across the state (which they’re all too happy to do), and no matter what the reaction you receive when you show up somewhere, most of us go about our day doing pretty much whatever we want without actually thinking about you one way or the other.

(7) Throwing money at a problem doesn’t fix anything. Tons of statistics show little correlation between $$$ expended and student achievement. We can’t pretend it’s all about money. It doesn’t buy happiness, and it’s a poor substitute for hard work and good decisions.

(8) Starving out our schools is absolutely positively guaranteed to make everything worse. Tons of statistics show the correlation between adequate investment in students NOW and the fiscal impacts – positive or negative – in a decade or two. I’m sorry the state is poor, but we MUST have funding. We can’t pretend it’s not about money – funding and resources are ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS major factors.

People who don’t think money matters always have lots of money which they hang on to as if, you know… it matters.

(9) Don’t limit yourself to people you like. Good people do stupid things. Counterproductive things. Evil things. Assume the best intentions of others – even when they’re annoying – unless they make it absolutely impossible to do so. Give those who disagree every reason to assume the best of you as well. The most irritating sometimes provide the most essential challenges or insights.

Resist the temptation to take the cheap, melodramatic road. Anytime we slide into ‘us’ and ‘them’, it’s over. At that point we can only ‘win’ and ‘lose’ – we can no longer create, solve, or celebrate. At the same time, your good intentions are no substitute for good decisions. The road to now is paved with good intentions, and they won’t cut it any longer. We need right actions.

(10) Question everything. Are this set of standards or that set over there really THE KEY to Oklahoma’s success? If we can just find the right curriculum to post, are our biggest problems basically solved? Are “Oklahoma Values” something we wish to define and defend, or just something that sounds anti-something else? Is everything local wholesome and wise… everything national evil and dark? Are those of us raging against ignorance really SO willing to base future-shaping decisions on whether or not listing Thomas Jefferson in Paragraph 19 Subsection C is THE primary cause of Americans joining ISIS?

Maybe we can’t hold back the muddled darkness, but need we embrace it so eagerly?

Surround yourself with people who challenge you and won’t accept on faith every word you utter with dramatic conviction. Move boldly ahead, but with inner fear and trembling. Respect the possibility that you’re so very wrong – or that if you’re right, you are insufficiently so and it simply won’t be enough. Treat this position not as a stepping stone to something greater, but as a calling in and of itself.

Sure that’s melodramatic – but internal framing like that is about the only thing keeping any of us in this profession ’round these parts.

You’re representing thousands of teachers and kids and possibilities and shortcomings and breakthroughs and nonsense and hope. Chances are good no matter what you do, we’ll all have turned on you in a matter of months and will repeatedly mock and condemn you. Don’t expect us to feel too badly for you on that count – remember, teachers here. That’s our daily existence.

I hope you find this list helpful and insightful. Really, if you stick to these ten, you should be good. I am of course available for further insight and wisdom should you require my services. The link to subscribe to my blog should be up there on the right-hand side of the page somewhere.

Good luck.