The great teacher debate is on yet again. The New Teacher Project, which was created by Michelle Rhee, has come out with another slanted study that we are losing "great" teachers as the same rate as "bad" teachers. That being said, so what?

Of course before one can whistle the Ride of the Valkyries the sycophants got their marching orders and were out in full force parroting all the ed deform talking points on how we are not keeping "great" teachers, yet keeping the "bad" ones. So blah, blah, blah.....

Of course the New York Post came out this morning with a guest columnist by a self anointed, self righteous "great" teacher, rather a master teacher (is this a double entendre?) by the name of Lori Wheal.

Who is Lori Wheal? Lori Wheal was an ELA master bat, oops, teacher at MS 391 in the Bronx. She not only coached and mentored other teacher at MS 391, but gave professional development as well. Kudos Lori!

So what is Lori's lament...? I envisioned a long career helping countless children reach their potential and go on to accomplish great things. By all measures, I’m succeeding — but it’s no longer enough to sustain me in this profession. Next month, as teachers and students return to to MS 391 in The Bronx, I won’t be among them.

This will be an interesting blog post, at least in my opinion, so please, be patient and read fully. At the end, you will have an "a-hah" moment.

Today is Geddy Lee's (of Rush) 59th birthday. I made a special morning of it. A cup of coffee, a cupcake with a candle (hoping this time Geddy would stop by) and popping in Rush's latest concert film, "Time Machine 2011: Live In Cleveland." When I got to the last song (before the encore), my mind started to wonder.

Far Cry is off 2007's Snakes and Arrows CD. It was the first single released, and even then when I first heard it, and subsequently live, that summer, I always felt the lyrics are a good allegory, metaphor for what is happening in education today.  Just like 2112 (which will be analyzed sometime soon) that I had thought of, as well as The Frustrated Teacher. 

So let's look at these lyrics. You'll see what I mean.

Pariah dogs and wandering madmen
Barking at strangers and speaking in tongues

In India, feral dogs are known as pariah dogs. The pack, all the deformers everywhere have that pack mentality, with a few, Rhee, Uncle Mike, the alpha males. These deformers are the wandering madman, like in the late 19th century going from town to town selling the magic elixirs, and ministers selling false religion.


They bark, the yell, at strangers, at teachers, at anyone to show that they think they are right. 

Electrical changes are charging up the young

The young are starting to fight back now against these "changes" in education. They are our most need allies. 

It's a far cry from the world we thought we'd inherit
It's a far cry from the way we thought we'd share it

It is indeed a far cry from what we thought it would be when we became teachers. It is a far cry from what students and parents expected from education. 


One day I feel I'm on top of the world
And the next it's falling in on me
I can get back on
I can get back on
One day I feel I'm ahead of the wheel,
And the next it's rolling over me
I can get back on
I can get back on

We at one time felt as teachers we were on top of the world. At one time we had all these ideals which we too soon learn is not enough. We see as teachers how everything is collapsing in on us and know we can get back on the ball, back to where we need to be. But we got to get out in front of that wheel. We need to not be crushed by the uncaring, incompetent, ediots. We can get back on, but only if we all work together.

Whirlwind life of faith and betrayal


Everyone with a stake in education at one time had faith in the system. we have all been betrayed. 

Rise in anger, fall back, and repeat

We try to rise in anger, we keep on fighting. But we fall back for lack of support. From a union that sells us out, to teachers that are afraid, to the media who seeks to hurt us.

Slow degrees on the dark horizon

We see down the road, and it looks hopeless, it looks like things will get worse. 

Full moon rising lays silver at your feet

When we see that full moon it will guide us home, to the promised land of the days when the profession was respected and seen as noble.

We can get back on, only if we are in control. Only if we take ownership of our profession, only if we fight like there is no tomorrow.


For your viewing and listening pleasure...

I never have believed that there is a crisis in education. I mean, a crisis has been created, but that doesn't count. But this created crisis has kept us from discussing and solving the real crisis that is happening right under our noses. The crisis of the family unit, and in particular (nothing against women) the dearth of male role models in the inner cities in our students lives.

Having that dad at home, or even just full time in a child's life, particularly a boys life, has such a tremendous impact, does so much good, that it makes our jobs as educators easier.

But we as educators, unlike the Republicans, choose not to legislate morals or families. We can only do what we can in our little corner of the world, and we have more power than any political party or politician to ensure that our students, especially in elementary education, have that male role model as a teacher.

So what is being done about it? At this time during the summer months principals throughout the City of New York are looking to fill vacancies. Even the charter schools are. Vacancies with new teachers, new blood, fresh ideas. These teachers will be the face of education for their students this coming September.

Unfortunately, most of these teachers will be female (in elementary schools), and white. Oh, and young. Yes, the students of color will identify with the white teachers, increasingly TFA, and young. How could they not? Most of these fresh, white, and young, not to mention elitist young teachers do have something in common with the boys and girls of color in the inner city. Most of these fresh, white, and young, not to mention elitist young teachers have employed, or their parents have, a person of color as a housekeeper or landscaper. It is almost symbiotic.

Never mind that young James has never had a father figure in his life and his life can turn either way. What he needs to see is a successful young white person named Courtney from the Main Line by way of Villanova share with him that the best way to be successful is to have a rich daddy that instills liberal white guilt into her so that James can say, "Dang, White people are whom I should look up to."

Or Jasmine, whose dad only shows up when he wants to get it on with her mom and wishes upon all hope that there was a positive male in her life can't look up to Lance from Yale by way of Hotchkiss, by way of the Vineyard (summers only). Yes, Lance sets a great example of his dedication by looking forward to the time when his commitment to TFA is done in two years and he will be applying to business school. That is if he can get by the weekends doing Jell-O shots on the UES.

Yeah, there used to be a time when if you were male, and better yet a male of color, you can get a job in education at the snap of a finger practically. People, actually veteran educators saw that there was a need to lead and model for the students who through no fault of their own live in a matriarchy. These veteran educators did not give a shit about future salaries of teachers, their pension costs, their thought process. All that mattered was getting that male in that class. Getting these students to see that there was more than the streets they live on in this world. The male teachers of yesteryear were their paths to a unlimited world of possibilities.

Now all our students are stuck with is the politics and business of education which will just entrap them even more and continue them on a vicious cycle in the downward spiral of education brought on by today's so called educational leaders.

Tonight we discuss an exercise from a recent professional development. A question was asked to the teachers, "what do we want our students to be able to be and able to do by the time they leave the school at the end of fifth grade?"

Simple enough question. But without simple answers. I mean the responses were simple, but in the light of ÜberLehrer Sydney Morris, Evan Stone, and the sycophantic anonymous teacher who left a comment earlier tonight, I felt I had get this off my chest.

So to those wonderful third year teachers, Whitney (Why Did My Parents Give Me a Girl's Name) Tilson, Thomas W Carroll, Joel Klein, Mike Bloomberg, Eli Broad, and all of the rest of the EDiots here are the responses. But, please think how these answers will fit into a bar graph or spread sheet. So what do we want from our fifth graders by the end of June?

• Develop higher order thinking skills
• Ability to expand their world view
• Resolve conflicts
• Eating healthy and exercising
• Independent thinking
• Higher self esteem
• Choosing friends carefully
• Strong sense of self
• Importance/Principles of art
• Self advocates
• Role models
• Agents of change
• Dreams
• Goals
• Citizen of community
• Thirst for learning
• Social and global issues
• Learning not rammed down their throats
• Affective issues
• Problem solving
• Writing/reading fluently

So if you really boil it down, out of the twenty one listed, two, yes two have anything to do with academics, and one if you look at problem solving as outside the realm of academics. So what does it mean?

It means that not one teacher said anything about passing the state mandated standardized tests. That the tests, and testing are bullocks. That what teachers truly, really do can not be measured, can not be found on a spread sheet. That we, the PROFESSIONALS see more of what our students should and can be and we fight for that each and every day.

But it is all about to go flushing down the proverbial toilet.We are turning our students into non-entities with all this testing, teaching to the test, pressure to do well on a test garbage. And don't think this will trickle down, to the teachers. Go ahead EDiots, tie tenure, salaries, merit pay to scores and you will have teachers who only see students as some file number that is standing in the way of a job or extra pay. When that starts happening you will have teachers that will cheat, teachers that not work cooperatively with one another, and teachers that won't care about anyone other than themselves.

Teaching is more, so much more about test scores. This is especially true in the South Bronx and I am sure other parts of the city. Yet the EDiots don't see this. There answers, their solutions are a quick fix on what is happening, an easy answer that sounds good in ten second bites.

Yet not one of these EDiots has ever actually spent time in a classroom, except the great Dougie Lemov (but he doesn't count for he was in private school). Why won't these EDiots ever answer a question about their "teaching" background? Because there is none and if they answer they never taught then the emperor will be butt naked and the whole world will laugh at was has been revealed. HA! HA!

What an amazing article in today's New York Times. Susan Engel, of Williams College basically, at least in my opinion, smacked down the whole aura behind testing students in elementary school. I know right now that Bloomy, Klein, Tilson, Carroll, and all the EDiots are just in a daze, readying a response to this professor, thinking they know more.

Engel says that if we want to make sure children can learn we need to, "overhaul the curriculum itself." That testing is, "is completely at odds with what scientists understand about how children develop during the elementary school years and has led to a curriculum that is strangling children and teachers alike."

Think about this. An adult speaking here. Someone with no horse in the race. The curriculum we have is not geared to students learning. It is geared towards students learning how to memorize and perform like trained animals just to take a test so a school district can feel bigger about itself. She says, "what children need to do in elementary school is not to cram for high school or college, but to develop ways of thinking and behaving that will lead to valuable knowledge and skills later on."

A few things in the article really stood out for me.

These kids in the inner city are not having complex conversations at home. We should as parents from the day they are born start their critical thinking skills. And this is done through language. Talking to our children, not at them. They do not get this, nor the vocabulary at home. No matter how many Head Starts there are they still come to school short changed. When a child asks "why is the sky blue?" and the answer is, "how the f**k do I know?" a child eventually learns not to ask questions anymore and loses a component, a critical component in how to think and learn for themselves.

But this is not being done with what is happening in the schools, in NYC today. The higher order thinking skills are not being developed. How can they be developed when all it is is test, test, test. Memorize, memorize, memorize. I remember in elementary school myself teachers telling us how in England and Japan the students have a lack of independent thought because of all the rigorous tests the students take.

She also is a big advocate for play. Yes, play. "During the school day, there should be extended time for play. Research has shown unequivocally that children learn best when they are interested in the material or activity they are learning. Play — from building contraptions to enacting stories to inventing games — can allow children to satisfy their curiosity about the things that interest them in their own way." But the charter folks, and the EDiots don't want that.

Sure, let's have school until 5 PM, and then home for hours of homework. Come in on Saturdays. Three weeks of summer vacation. All this is old-fashioned predicated on when the country was full of farmers. Bullocks I say.

This is when kids learn the best, and put what they learn into use. During play. Just as an aside. I truly believe the lack of opportunity for team sports, intra-mural, inter-scholastic, rec leagues, etc... really hurts students in the inner city. OK, no more digressing. Here is another really neat thing she said, "during the school day, there should be extended time for play. Research has shown unequivocally that children learn best when they are interested in the material or activity they are learning. Play — from building contraptions to enacting stories to inventing games — can allow children to satisfy their curiosity about the things that interest them in their own way."

Seems to make sense. And I don't think she means the 25 minutes of recess. But why can't we implement what she is advocating? Because it is not something concrete. You can't hold her theories in your hands and see that you have something. Tests are concrete. Testing gives the appearance of accomplishing something, anything. Mostly it accomplishes only hurting students.