Looks like and just in time for January鈥檚 , which has been kind of overlooked this year what with the inauguration, the Women鈥檚 March and the general chaos of living in this new America.
I have been fascinated by 鈥淐hecker鈥� Finn since the early 1990s, when he was the role model for elite edu-pundits in the emerging reform debates, writing books and anchoring panels and working in various government roles. For a time, I clipped articles he鈥檇 written, wondering: How is it that this guy, with a year in the classroom, got to be the go-to mouthpiece for All Things Education?
Here鈥檚 a response to one of Checker鈥檚 many confident pronouncements on the state of education, Lessons Learned (from Education Week nine years ago):
Oh, Checker, Checker. You and I have led such different lives. I appreciated your summative verdicts on the worrisome state of education, which seems to be a chronic condition, in your view. Because the piece was all about your 鈥�57 years in education鈥� (going back to 1st grade), it was a ripe opportunity for me to compare myself (a small-potatoes education blogger and 30-year veteran of the classroom) to you (an internationally famous education reformer).
While I toiled away at what you termed the retail level, you studied the research, analyzed the data, and made pronouncements impacting education across the nation. It鈥檚 interesting to think that you have, in many ways, shaped the work that I actually did. For decades.
I love the first sentence of your mini-memoir: 鈥淕reat, committed teacher/adviser/mentors, high standards, a focused curriculum, a culture of achievement, and plenty of hard work by students well aware that real consequences attached to their performance鈥攚hat more does a successful school need?鈥�
What more, indeed? You then proceed to suggest that only a handful of schools today provide this strong, thoughtfully tailored academic program, and toss in a bit of nostalgia about exclusive, expensive private academies and Catholic schools in the 60s being the pinnacle of exemplary scholarship.
You make the pitch that kids who are not willing to demonstrate effort, early on, are not entitled to the intellectual and pedagogical goodies. This argument suggests that educational meritocracy might be the morally correct thing. Being a 鈥渄emocratic equality鈥� kind of gal myself, my perspectives on education in America are a little different.
Those young delinquents in your Outward Bound group? I went to high school with them. At my 35-year high school reunion, we honored dozens of boys in my class鈥攎any now grandfathers鈥攚ho fought in Vietnam (and a couple who didn鈥檛 come back).
Lots of students in my school were leading what I鈥檓 sure you would see as 鈥渢ough lives"鈥攅specially if you define a tough life as zero family connections or prospects for a lucrative professional career. Most of my classmates were aiming for a good job at the bowling-pin factory, but a handful of us went on to state universities. I was one of the lucky ones, attending college on scholarship, and finishing with a teaching degree
Blue Collar Public High prepared me surprisingly well for the rigors of college; nearly all my high school teachers were thrilled to provide extra challenges, extended assignments and encouragement for those of us willing to take a stab at moving out of the working class, albeit into pedestrian occupations like teaching.
I will never win any smarter-than-thou contests, Checker, but I made good use of my free and low-cost public education. In the post-war decades there were millions of teachers like me: upwardly mobile, hard-working, intellectually curious, dedicated to the idea that education is the ticket out of poverty, and committed to kids who are less than interested in a classic, liberal-arts college-prep curriculum, getting up at 3:00 a.m. to read Beowulf.
Sorry that your first teaching job didn鈥檛 work out, what with all those discipline problems, probably resulting from kids already irreparably scarred by their dreadful public school system. I鈥檓 not so sure that a strong syllabus or demanding accountability measures would have made a difference in your sense of accomplishment鈥攁lthough a good mentor may have helped.
One of the lessons I鈥檝e absorbed is that nobody learns how to teach well in a single year. I am always mystified by pundits who suggest that putting graduates from our most prestigious colleges into our toughest schools with little training or on-site assistance is a good idea.
My first year of teaching wasn鈥檛 all that I hoped for, either, but I stayed with it, because (as you yourself noted) persistence counts. I came to love teaching, and was very good at it, for more than 30 years. I stuck with it, because I had tangible evidence, every day, of my impact on real children in a real school.
Later in my career, I worked for four years at two education nonprofits. I attended lots of conferences and meetings, saving the world one white paper at a time, but discovered that the real juice in education reform comes from the work with kids. So I went back to the classroom.
As for American parents being 鈥渦nfussy鈥� consumers of scholarship, once offered a market-based option to choose, you and I both understand as parents that what matters most are smart teachers who are committed to our unique children, and push them to learn, whether they鈥檙e skilled test-takers or good at other things.
For parents in my neighborhood, what you sneeringly label 鈥渃onvenience鈥� was the only factor in where (or if) we went to school, since transporting children to/from school or paying tuition were not options. Features judged unimportant in your programming hierarchy (sports, for example) are considered essential character-builders, even scholarship opportunities, in mine. And character counts.
I鈥檓 not willing to relinquish my belief in a free, high-quality public education as the thing that sets America apart from other countries around the globe. Yes, I am aware of all our failed national educational experiments鈥擨 lived with them, daily, for 30 years鈥攂ut don鈥檛 we have an obligation to keep trying?
Like you, I have made many errors in judgment, over the past four decades, but most of my 鈥渕istakes鈥� graduated, went on to colleges and jobs, and live productive lives. Can you say that?