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Blog: FCAR
Speakout
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The writing's on the
blackboard: Listen to teachers
By Marion Brady
*March 8, 2005
My late mother didn't talk much about herself. However, if she thought she was
good at something, you'd eventually hear about it in a casual, off-hand kind of
way.
I recall, for example, a brief discussion years ago about her new car's
automatic transmission. She mentioned that, back in the 1920s, not only was she
the only girl in her high school who knew how to drive, she was equally
comfortable with "stick shifts" or Model-T Fords with their floor-pedal-actuated
gears.
In the 1960s, she was teaching fifth grade in an elementary school on Florida's
west coast, and was quietly proud of her work. Near the end of just about every
year she'd mention that the sixth-grade teachers were again politicking the
principal, competing for her fifth-grade class. She didn't have to say it was
because they all coveted her well-prepared, easily taught kids.
Research testifying to the importance of the teacher in learning is unequivocal.
Although no one has yet succeeded in nailing down exactly what combinations of
which qualities make a teacher effective (and probably never will), there's no
denying the difference a good one makes.
Which is why, in the current education-reform brouhaha, I pay a lot more
attention to teacher than to politician opinion.
A few days ago, I got an e-mail saying something Floridians need to hear. The
teacher who wrote it has given me permission to quote her, asking only that I
not disclose her name until the end of the school year. She writes:
"I have been teaching high school English for seven years. It is a second career
for me, and one that required my returning to school. Between my education and
teaching experience, I have invested 11 years of my life in the teaching
profession.
"This year will be my last.
"When I began teaching, I taught Shakespeare, Dickens, Poe, Hawthorne -- poetry,
creative writing and business writing. I taught my students to fill out
employment applications, create resumes and understand symbolism in literature.
I took joy in watching them grow. I have always received excellent evaluations
and have been well thought of by my students, their parents, and my peers.
"Now I teach FCAT prep -- only. It's still called English, but it isn't. I was
given an instructional calendar at the beginning of the school year that laid
out, week by week, which FCAT skill I was to cover. I was told not to use the
literature books in which our county invested thousands of dollars. I was told
not to teach a novel and to concentrate on FCAT-length non-fiction passages. I
was also told that I was to provide 'direct instruction,' every day, from bell
to bell.
"I have been 'caught' twice this year allowing my students to read FCAT passages
silently and respond to FCAT questions. I was told, verbatim: 'Your room is too
quiet.'
"I was told my students should not be reading silently in class. (Um . . . isn't
that what they are required to be able to do on the test?) I was also told that
I was not saying the word 'FCAT' enough during instructional time.
"Now I am being told that my reappointment for next year is in question for the
above transgressions. But regardless of my reappointment for next year, I will
be leaving at the end of this school year. Enough.
"Although I am trying to see my departure from teaching as an opportunity to
grow, I am also heartsick. I will miss the students, their youth and vitality
and creativity, and even their attitudes and problems. I can't believe that
after six successful years, I have, overnight, become a bad teacher. Even though
I try to have perspective, I still feel like a failure. I guess I, too, have
failed the FCAT."
Dear Reader, forget for a moment your Democrat or Republican persuasion. Both
parties' leaders share the blame for the current No Child Left Behind fiasco.
Both parties' leaders buy the simplistic "standards and accountability" line.
Both parties' leaders are too clueless about education to even be embarrassed by
the mess they've made.
Next time you hear a speech or read a news item, editorial or op-ed piece
tossing off FCAT-score information as if it actually had something to do with
education, think about my file of letters like the one above. I could write a
year's worth of columns about teachers who are leaving and won't be back,
teachers not interested in competing for the "Robo-Teacher of the Year" title.
If you care about America's future, think about the kind of people willing to
replace them in your children's and grandchildren's classrooms.
*Originally published in the Orlando Sentinel. Published here by
permission of the author.
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