I’ve done quite a bit of thinking about educational reform over the years. Although I am a product of public schools and have been a principal/leader in public schools, I don’t pretend to be an expert on all things public or educational. What I do know is that the federal government’s attempt to compare apples to apples with state testing is a good thing. However, state or national tests are not nearly enough. We have nearly twenty-five years of bad governance to begin to dismantle.
What I’d like to see? More reporting on what’s actually being taught in K-12 schools rather than the cases of bullying and harassment that people seem to be enthralled by. I’m not saying that those issues are not important. Indeed, they are critical to maintain healthy and safe schools. Yet, I’d like to see more coverage on innovation and on the development of what makes great teachers great.
I stumbled across a Facebook page for my old K-8 school in Harvey, Illinois: Carl Sandburg Elementary and Junior High Schools. I started at Sandburg in 5th Grade—Mrs. Delaney’s classroom. Even though we were in the midst of some pretty aggressive white flight at that time, those teachers—mostly white women and men—were committed to educating all of the children they had in front of them. I was impressed by their encouragement, support, and no-nonsense way of promoting what they loved and what they had to teach. My sixth grade teacher Mrs. Mullins used her famous “Mullins Bucks” to tempt us all to do better and try harder. Although I am not a firm believer in rewards as motivators—grades or scip systems—I do believe that those candy bars, pencils, and books that we bought in sixth grade had many of us trying harder. On the other hand, Mr. Love, the science teacher and basketball coach, quite literarily kicked us in the ass when we were messing up. I do remember banging hard on the door to get in after one lunch period. Mr. Love opened the door and hauled us in and said, “What and the hell are you doing?” He pulled two of us in the resource room, closed the door, and prominently kicked us in the posteriors. Talk about corporal punishment. I remember being shocked and amazed that he would do something like that. But I never told my folks. I guess I thought I deserved the swift kick for being so obnoxious. By eighth grade, Anne K. Bentley inspired me after I finished with all of my SRA independent reading cards. I could boast that I was reading at a 12th grade level—according to the cards. Indeed, I did love to read. She put me into my own independent reading group, handing me Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “House of the Seven Gables.” I’m not sure if I was the best independent learner, but I felt special and different. I was ready to learn.
So, what does all of this memoir stuff have to do with reforming the educational system of this country? If you put good teachers who can think and reason for themselves in front of the children of other strivers, you get magic. It’s all about fearlessness, trying something new, being aware of the cultural landscape (even as the ground is shifting), and doing a good and credible job. Did I get everything that I needed then? Perhaps not. Yet, I loved those men and women who tried to do their best at Carl Sandburg Elementary and Junior High School. I wish them eternal peace and give them my promise that I’ll try to continue the work that they began.
