On Rhetorical Battlegrounds, "Reform" Proves Potent Weapon

The author illustrates the importance of using the "buzz" words that become popular with any issue in politics.  It was interesting to see how both parties lept on the reform bandwagon, using vocabulary such as "the establishment/bureaucracy", "reform", "status quo", and "putting students first" to prove points on wildly opposite spectrums.  The use of rhetoric in politics is nothing new; in fact, since the days mudslinging became popular it is about all they do.  Hiding true agendas beneath shiny catch phrases that snatch public awareness and fire up personal opinions is the basis for most political pandering.  The attack and defense on the current educational system is no different.  While both sides of the arena desperately attempt to make clear their intentions on improving education for students, it is their actions and policies that must be put under the microscope. This is why learning critical thinking while in school is paramount, so that future generations can peer through the haze and search for facts to come to their own conclusions rather than simply gobble down the ego satisfying nuggets tossed at will by their chosen party.  For example: Republicans Tom Luna and C.L. Otter tout their "Students Come First" proposal, which would increase class sizes, limit teachers' collective bargaining rights, institute merit pay and virtual education.  How does this put students first?  Why don't you try increasing funding to urban schools, after school programs, and additional technology in classrooms?  But it sounds pretty, and if you oppose it, then by virtue of its title you are not supporting students.  The Democrats are little better; President Obama's Race to the Top speeches are rife with statements that bemoan our acceptance of "status quo, even when the status quo isn't good."  My guess is neither party really knows what needs to be done to properly "reform" education; they need to speak more with teachers currently in the classroom, and less to their administrators and special interest groups.

A Progressive Approach to Discipline

This article focuses on the use of Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports, or PBIS, in a Washington school district.  It utelizes an approach that combines daily monitering of students by the school counselor in tandem with their teachers to be sure they are on track with their behavior, and minding their five P's: being prompt, positive, polite, prepared and productive.  The teachers rate a select group of twenty students each class on a scale of 0 to 2 for each P, and the student is to report back to the counselor at the end of the day for a debriefing.  There are incentives, such as prizes and time in a game room at lunch, and class wide rewards such as hot chocolate day if they comply. 
This is an interesting form of classroom management that would have our dear Alfie rolling on the floor in agony.  And yet two of the students interviewed by the columnist declared they find it very helpful, as they can see the improvement in their own behavior over the months since the program's inception.  I have no problem with this type of system; my step-son had a similar approach last year, when all other efforts failed and his behavior at school worsened almost daily.  It did work - and in spite of Alfie's insistence that once the rewards end, the good behavior does as well, this year he has had very few issues and the program had ceased.  Now, it could be his teacher this year has a better hand on class management, or a better rapport with him than his last.  Building trust with a child can be a long, tenuous process for some, while others seem to do so easily and quickly.  But I think these types of programs can be extremely beneficial when implemented school wide and with the notion that there are underlying issues greater than the behavior, and that some students simply need to be aware of their disruptions and effect on others to have them improve. 

US Teachers Seize "Teachable Moments" In Egypt's Revolution

I would love to be a humanities teacher right now.  The current uprising in the Middle East is such a ripe opportunity for current event tie-ins to a wide range of lessons, from geography to history to sociology, that I get giddy just thinking about it.  Not surprisingly, many other teachers have seized this opportunity, highlighted throughout this article.  While the author doesn't go into much detail, there are some examples of ways various grade levels are integrating these events, including group architecture projects, connecting to the Declaration of Independence or the Boston Tea Party, US interests in the area, policy decisions the US now faces, and economic repercussions.  I have no doubt that the images of the protests will have a great impact on these students, and bring depth and understanding to lessons that may have once seemed irrelevant.  Bravo!

GOP: Slash Current Aid

I used to enjoy politics, and the wrangling rhetorical rants therin.  But lately, my inevitable nausea each time I see what belittling, thinly veiled attempt by the GOP to crush the very last drops of lifeblood out of the middle and lower class in this country sends me running.  This article is no different.  Yet again, under the thread-bare guise of "fiscal responsibility", the Republican party is working on sticking it to the less advantaged.  And by that I mean those who gross under $500,000 a year or so.  Their latest attempt is aimed at the Department of Education's budget, where they seek to slash spending for Title I schools, special education, Pell Grants (which of course are for moderate to low income students), a plethora of literacy programs (because being Republican and literate - or logical - is the ultimate oxymoron of course, and they have to breathe new life into their party somehow), Head Start, the Education Technology State Grants, and Race to the Top.  Now I'm not about to say that all of these programs are necessarily run with precise fiscal mechanics, or that there couldn't be better ways to spend their current budgets.  But frankly it makes me so enraged when they nonchalantly kick poor kids to the curb in favor of tax cuts for the extremely wealthy (which, by the way, would pay for a LOT of this) that I hardly feel coherent. 
Now, I've tried to keep my own political meanderings out of this blog as much as possible, but at long last I can no longer hold back.  It seems too sinister, almost conspiracy theory-esque, and yet how else does it make sense?  The GOP doesn't want an intelligent, critically thinking citizen base - it would completely devalidate their party as a whole.  They run off lies and deceit, relying on Glen Beck and Fox News to pander to the masses in dribbles they lap up without question, as they never learned (in school!) to think for themselves.  I will not stand for it!! THIS is why my classes will learn the value of thinking for themselves, of seeking out information from multiple sources, and of questioning everything they hear and see.  But if the GOP has it their way, in ten years time our country will be so mired with sixty to a room classes and soup kitchen lines stretching for acres that no one will listen to me above the growling of empty bellies and leaking hovels.  It needs to stop.