Posts from — September 2010

I am a Tom Friedman fan and have been for quite some time. The New York Times columnist and best-selling author is an ideas man with an ability to connect the dots.

His book The World Is Flat is a great example of his ability to see things in ways others do not. And his more recent, Hot, Flat, and Crowded, utilizes the most important word, the real pink elephant in my mind, when it comes to the future of our country and our world: crowded.

In contrast, Michael O’Hare has been and continues to be relatively unknown to me. But he too seems like an ideas man with that same ability.

I became aware of the professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, only by virtue of a piece he recently published, A letter to my students.

He, along with several other professors, blog at The Reality-Based Community. The blog has a most provocative subheader, “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.”

More on Friedman

My infatuation with Friedman comes in great part from his books but it also comes from his occasional column on education. His essay entitled “One Great Teacher” remains one of my favorite educational stories because it serves as a reminder that the best educators have a sense of presence as well as an ability to set high expectations for students.

In his recent column We’re No. 1(1)!, Friedman weaves together a myriad of ideas as he tackles one of our continuing problems: poor student test scores despite spending gobs of money on school reform. Friedman begins by noting the recent Newsweek list of the best 100 countries in the world and the disappointing revelation that America is not even ranked in the top 10.

The New York Times columnist moves on to discuss another article, this one by the Washington Post economics columnist Robert Samuelson. In it Samuelson conjectures that the issue with schools might actually transcend the buildings, teachers and administrators. The idea of school failure could well reside with “shrunken student motivation.”

Friedman quotes Samuelson thus:

“Students, after all, have to do the work. If they aren’t motivated, even capable teachers may fail. Motivation comes from many sources: curiosity and ambition; parental expectations; the desire to get into a ‘good’ college; inspiring or intimidating teachers; peer pressure. The unstated assumption of much school ‘reform’ is that if students aren’t motivated, it’s mainly the fault of schools and teachers.

“Motivation is weak because more students (of all races and economic classes, let it be added) don’t like school, don’t work hard and don’t do well. In a 2008 survey of public high school teachers, 21 percent judged student absenteeism a serious problem; 29 percent cited ‘student apathy.’ ”

The words of Samuelson echoing, Friedman notes what may well be the biggest issue schools face today.

“We had a values breakdown — a national epidemic of get-rich-quickism and something-for-nothingism.”

America’s “Greatest Generation” is revered, notes Friedman, because they faced extraordinary problems (Depression, Nazism and Soviet Communism) and solved them. And they did so by asking people to also do hard things: to sacrifice, and pull together, for the good of the country.

“Contrast that with the Baby Boomer Generation,” writes Friedman. “Our big problems are unfolding incrementally — the decline in U.S. education, competitiveness and infrastructure, as well as oil addiction and climate change. Our generation’s leaders never dare utter the word ‘sacrifice.’ All solutions must be painless.”

Friedman further insists that he “would get excited about U.S. politics when our national debate is between Democrats and Republicans who start by acknowledging that we can’t cut deficits without both tax increases and spending cuts — and then debate which ones and when — who acknowledge that we can’t compete unless we demand more of our students — and then debate longer school days versus school years — who acknowledge that bad parents who don’t read to their kids and do indulge them with video games are as responsible for poor test scores as bad teachers — and debate what to do about that.”

More on O’Hare

The issue of our current generation’s failure to live up to the standards set forth by its predecessors is also the focus of O’Hare’s letter to his student. O’Hare begins:

“Welcome to Berkeley, probably still the best public university in the world. Meet your classmates, the best group of partners you can find anywhere. The percentages for grades on exams, papers, etc. in my courses always add up to 110% because that’s what I’ve learned to expect from you, over twenty years in the best job in the world.”

The positive spirit and upbeat persona end after this single opening paragraph.

“That’s the good news,” writes O’Hare. “The bad news is that you have been the victims of a terrible swindle, denied an inheritance you deserve by contract and by your merits. And you aren’t the only ones; victims of this ripoff include the students who were on your left and on your right in high school but didn’t get into Cal, a whole generation stiffed by mine.”

“… they agreed to invest money they could have spent on bigger houses, vacations, clothes, and cars into the world’s greatest educational system, and into building and operating water systems, roads, parks, and other public facilities, an infrastructure that was the envy of the world. They didn’t get everything right: too much highway and not enough public transportation. But they did a pretty good job.

“…this deal held until about thirty years ago, when for a variety of reasons, California voters realized that while they had done very well from the existing contract, they could do even better by walking away from their obligations and spending what they had inherited on themselves.”

After further taking the current leadership to task, O’Hare arrives at a similar conclusion to Friedman in relation to our political leadership.

“We can afford a government that actually works: the fact is that your parents have simply chosen not to have it.”

And that is not the only fault he finds with parents.

“Many of your parents took a hike as well, somehow getting the idea that the schools had taken over their duties to keep you learning,” writes O’Hare, “or so beat-up working two jobs each and commuting two hours a day to put food on the table that they couldn’t be there for you. A quarter of your classmates didn’t finish high school, discouraged and defeated; but they didn’t leave the planet, even if you don’t run into them in the gated community you will be tempted to hide out in. They have to eat just like you, and they aren’t equipped to do their share of the work, so you will have to support them.”

A Need for Values

While many will find fault with O’Hare for his support of greater educational spending (just throwing more money at the problem they say), it is difficult not to begin head nodding as you read. In essence, he is, in his own way, talking about the current generation in the same manner as Friedman.

But one of the reasons I enjoy reading Friedman is that he goes beyond characterizing and describing an issue to actually proposing some solutions. As he winds down, he gets right at the heart of why America may only be the 11th best country in the world.

Friedman notes that the countries on the rise have “values like our Greatest Generation” had. They have the ability and the “willingness to postpone gratification, invest for the future, work harder than the next guy and hold their kids to the highest expectations.’

No it is not about cheap labor or the chance at a free enterprise system alone. It is about what people have inside of them.

“In a flat world where everyone has access to everything,” writes Friedman, “values matter more than ever.”

Collectively these two men offer a similar vein – improving schools, and ultimately, restoring America’s place in the global order, will come only when we see a cosmic shift in societal attitudes and values.

Perhaps those low test scores are indeed a function of more than just what goes on within the walls of the schools themselves.

I cannot say that I am a fan of my local newspaper the Kennebec Journal. Like most citizens, I subscribe and I dutifully work my way through it on a daily basis.

But it doesn’t take very long to do so. In fact, it seems with each passing year the time spent reviewing the document has dropped significantly.

One reason is that it is no longer truly a local newspaper. Instead, so as to cut costs yet provide a product, several dailies in Maine are now under one umbrella where the content is written once yet printed multiple times across the state.

A second reason is the lack of timeliness with so much of what is published. So many of the printed articles used are available on the web for reading the evening before making what appears in the paper truly seem like old news.

Then there is the editorial board, the one that has delivered so much support for our current Governor (particularly his school district consolidation proposal) pointing out the obvious to us. Sadly, given the state of education in Maine those in the field could not come together in support of a government application seeking federal “Race to the Top” funds.

I am still waiting for this board to question what has happened since Governor King left office. To ask aloud how the state has moved from a position of leadership and high educational performance (one of the nation’s highest performers in fact) to its current position where it is seen as out-of-touch with current reform measures being discussed.

But once in a while the paper does seem to get a piece of the puzzle right. Of course, this time it is yet another case of one editorial being written and resold (in the Portland Press Herald, the Kennebec Journal, the Morning Sentinel) but at least there is some merit to the main discussion point.

In this instance, the editors were discussing the upcoming visit of Education Secretary Arne Duncan to Portland. They nailed the title:

Our View: Duncan delivers dual message to teachers

Because the message being carried from the nation’s capital is one of educational change, the natural tendency is to assume the work teachers have been doing does not measure up. The editors note:

The secretary of education says he supports their work but also asks them to change.

They then correctly point out what is an amazing dichotomy – that educational leadership “must enlist teachers to bring new ideas into the classroom” yet the teacher’s union is opposed to so many of the reform measures being proposed: the expansion of charter schools, tying pay to performance and evaluating teachers by measuring student progress.

How well Duncan can strike a meaningful balance in this arena is critical. It will take enormous skill to walk this difficult line and we will see over the next few years whether Duncan possesses the talent to bring about some much-needed change in our country.

But it will be next to impossible to do so here, in our home state, given the current environment. To get teachers on board, Duncan will first have to overcome the current ill will that transcends the classroom, the pervasive negative spirit that is in place due to a school consolidation manifesto that unfairly targeted rural and less affluent communities, and has been subsequently fueled by deep budget cuts that have made the daily working lives of educators ever more difficult (if not downright impossible).

Sadly, after expressing the challenge so well, the paper rears it lack of understanding. They write:

Duncan’s programs are seen by some as anti-teacher, but they are not. Recognizing and rewarding the highest performers, while weeding out the ones who are not getting the job done, Duncan is betting that schools will be able to decrease the gap between rich and poor.

Furthermore, the issues, according to these editors, must be placed firmly at the foot of those currently in the field and their union leadership:

The onus is now on Maine’s teachers and their unions to explain why continuing to operate under current rules will do more to give children the tools to succeed than Duncan’s data-driven attempt to make room for innovation and elevate the teaching profession.

What a crock of …….

The editors demonstrate a complete failure to comprehend the individuals who have toiled so long in what was once a proud profession. The idea that teachers are not interested in giving children the tools to succeed can only come from people outside this traditionally people-focused career.

Instead, those in the profession are concerned that this rush to improve test scores will in turn lead to fewer students graduating. The concern is always that school is about children first and foremost.

Of course it is highly possible that education can have both. New, innovative methods and different school structures could well mean improved student performances and improved graduation rates (i.e., that what is being proposed is good for all children from all of Maine’s diverse communities).

But leadership must convince the profession that the changes are not analogous to throwing out the baby with the bath water. Leadership must help staff transition to a new era where teachers are in fact paid different amounts based on what they teach and how well they do it.

Those who have worked diligently for 20 plus years to ensure that no child is left behind cannot fathom a model where student performance becomes the one driving focus. Not when their experience tells them that nurturing is a far more important focal point for children from homes where such an element is missing.

No, it is not the teachers that must convince anyone. I would contend that leaders are called leaders because it is their job to help subordinates through challenging times. Even more importantly, leaders are called leaders because of an ability to inspire others to do what is right for the greater good and to put self-interests aside.

Once upon a time Maine was an educational leader – its test scores were among the best the nation could offer and its educational system held up as an innovative model for others.

To get there once more, I contend that the state will need some real leadership once again. It will begin in the Blaine House and spill over to the state’s next Commissioner of Education.

In fact, with the right people at the helm, this incredible dichotomy facing the field just might become manageable.

Flickr photos courtesy of American Progress and jimmywayne.