(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)
The battle for education reform in Louisiana is fully engaged. Governor Bobby Jindal has gone all-in for tenure reform and increased parental choice. State Superintendent John White wrote the following letter to the editor, published in the Baton Rouge Advocate. It is one of the most direct and effective rebuttals of the Ravitch-zombie mindset I have seen:
The Advocate has recently published several letters to the editor on public education. I have to say as an educator, I’m disappointed with the prevailing tone and content of those letters opposing change.
Here are some passages that illustrate a common thread:
“We, the public school teachers of East Baton Rouge schools, can’t educate children who don’t want to be educated. We can’t educate children whose parents don’t care and are not involved.”
“ … the state is going to require that very poor students take the ACT … . The weaker of these students are not college-bound students who have no intention to attend college, yet he has to be compared and compete.”
And one writer simply stated, “Poverty is a significant factor affecting academic scores,” leaving it at that — as if that absolves us of any responsibility to educate the child.
I’m so disappointed in these comments for two reasons. First, they betray a mindset that forsakes the American dream. They show a sad belief among some that poverty is destiny in America, defying our core value that any child, no matter race, class or creed, can be the adult he or she dreams of being. Yes, poverty matters. Yes, it impacts learning. And that fact should only embolden us to do everything we can to break the cycle of poverty so another generation of children does not face the same challenges.
Second, and perhaps more disappointing, is that these letters were written by professional educators. The media would have you think that most educators oppose change. Even The Advocate editorial board used the number of teachers showing up at the Capitol during a weekday as evidence to prove teachers’ collective objection to change.
But as an educator, I can tell you that our views are as varied as are the individuals in the profession. There are 50,000 teachers in this state, and it demeans them to say that the loud voices of those who chose to take a day off speak for the majority, who spent that day working with children. It further demeans them when they are represented in these pages as excuse-makers who see poverty as only a barrier to success and not as the reason to do the job in the first place.
Not all teachers support all of the proposals. Some support none. But all deserve better representation in these pages. Our teachers are soldiers in the fight for social justice in America. As with all soldiers, they joined the battle for different reasons and have different stories to tell. But they have not given up on winning. That’s the real story. The media should start printing it.
John White
state superintendent of education
Baton Rouge
Jay P. Greene's Blog 
Walk into many classrooms today and you see chaos. Teachers are forced to become “guides on the side” instead of “sage on the stage”. Group learning, Constructivism, etc add to the chaos.
I can sympathize with teachers who cannot successfully teach under these circumstances.
Administrators used to require discipline in the classes and would offer back-up to teachers when needed. Good luck with that too.
Sadly the Unions do not expose the conditions teachers are now required to work under. Glorified babysitting and hoping students can construct their own knowledge is a recipe for disaster.
Although in order for the Govt. to come in and reform this disaster, they must first CREATE the disaster.
Wasn’t it Harry Browne who said something about the Govt. breaking your leg then handing you a crutch and saying…see we fixed it.
It is true that teachers can’t MAKE students learn. We can’t MAKE parents be more attentive to their children’s education. But our government officials can get their attention, as Gov. Tommy Thompson did in Wisconsin 20 years ago. For example, if a girl got pregnant, the boy’s parents had to pay child support until their son got a job and took care of his financial responsibility. If a child of welfare became a chronic discipline problem, the parent(s)’ welfare check was reduced by a certain percentage until the child complied with school rules. There were other actions taken, but these are the ones that I remember. Needless to say, his was not a popular move but it supposedly worked, at least while he was in office.
I also remember in the late 1970’s when Ross Perot had been asked to head a task force to find ways to improve education in Texas; that is, having graduates who could actually read, write and do math. One of his suggestions was that parents who had refused to be involved with their child’s discipline problems, and whose child had failed the year or a course, had to pay the cost of the student’s repeating that grade or course. Oh, my goodness! The screams that came about poor parents not being able to do that were heard throughout the country. His response was that being poor did not justify the parent(s) lack of interest in a child’s behavior.
Of my 28 years in public education, I chose to spend 19 of them in high-risk schools, primarily at the middle and high school levels. My gang kids joined gangs to have a “family” with distinct rules and responsibilities. There were clear and consistent consequences if they broke those rules.Teachers who are allowed to have the same environment, with the teacher being the “leader” of the group, can actually get teaching done. (Please watch the movie, Stand and Deliver, about Jaime Escalante in the barrior of Los Angeles and the movie, Lean on Me, about principal Joe Clark in New Jersey.)
So, the true bigotry is among those who give poor people a pass on their behavior. Our job is to change that behavior and a mighty job it is–for the state and national leaders, not just for teachers. Mandatory programs that teach people how to parent and work, and that give them consequences when they refuse to participate, could help prevent the cycle of a poverty-thinking culture that continues with their children.
Lastly, about this article: The superintendent’s letter shows there are many of us who do not think Diane Ravitch is a force for good in education today.
MWAB-
Isn’t ironic then to see these people furiously protesting to preserve the broken status-quo that you describe? Moreover, given the distribution of political power and interest in K-12 policies, the unions may have not caused all the problems you describe but they have done precious little to nothing to fix it.
Niki-
Thanks for your comment. I’m always stunned by these fatalistic Ravitch zombie arguments- far-left meets far-right at far-gone. Taken to its logical conclusion, academic fatalism falls right into the hands of Charles Murray bell-curve thinking that poses the question: why have public schools for poor children at all?
Bobby Jindal and John White have a plan to improve Louisiana public education, which is a great deal more than I can say for the union leaders in the state.
Every student deserves the opportunity to succeed. That means access to high quality schools and effective instruction with the potential to achieve the highest levels, including AP/IB/CE classes. Any resistance to that goal is absurd.
However, any reform effort must emphasize the word opportunity, and advocates should be quite wary of any guarantees of high achievement – especially bachelor degree-focused reforms – for all students. While teachers are rightly criticized for not believing all kids can achieve, reformers are far too often not criticized for ignoring the unique challenges of of socioeconomic social ills.
The United States does an exceptional job with schools with less than 30% poverty. And our top 30% of schools are models of academic excellence with the expansion of AP/IB/CE classes. The challenge for medium and high poverty schools is to offer every opportunity for achievement, and a refusal to accept failure. However, the existence of failure is not, and should not be, an automatic indictment of systemic inadequacy.
There is a difference between a certain degree of failure in student achievement and a failure in teaching, pedagogy, and professionalism.
“Our teachers are soldiers in the fight for social justice in America.”
Hmmm….wasn’t this Saul Alinsky’s idea? Umm…I don’t think I’m for teaching teachers, students and parents to ‘arm’ up for ‘fighting’ social injustice on my tax dollars. Actually…so alarmed that people aren’t getting the whole class warfare dominated discussions which are quickly becoming the NEW basis for public education reform as the shiny on the ‘old’ (everyone should be equal – national standards and all) is finally wearing off now that people seem to be catching on to the machinations behind them – machinations that allow ‘social justice’ in classrooms/school buildings to become a reason for more rules, regulations and lack of local (parental) control. Welcome to life in America under the Obama Administration. Polarize, divide, conquer, end of discussion.
Please tell me how many years and where John white taught!
Try googling “John White bio.” John taught high-school English in New Jersey.