My Field Experiences

One thing I've come to realize this semester, is just how much being an active teacher is dependent upon one's overall involvement in the community, both inside of school and out. So with that thought in mind, here are some of the community experiences I've had this semester....

Field Trip To Arts High School on 11/29 (see previous blog)

Art Backpacks Program - Franklin Elementary School, Newark (3 visits)

This is a program that anyone who is an art education major at MSU gets involved with and consists of working with 4th graders at Franklin on projects they find contained in an "art packback". Literally, a plastic backpack, each one comes filled with informtion on one artist, suggested projects and some inexpensive art supplies.
Kids take a backpack home with them, work on projects for a week or two and then rotate them with other students. The idea is that all students will get acquainted with many artists throughout the course of the school year. The volunteers from MSU
meet with them at school, collect what they've done, start them on a new in-class activity, and restock the backpacks with fresh paper and supplies, if necessary.
While not exactly a real teaching opportunity, it does put one into the environment of an urban elementary school and provides expose to fourth graders learning about art.

Most memorable moment: In one instance, a girl complained that there was no pink poster paint. When I suggested that she mix it with red and white, she said-- "you mean you can make pink?" When I showed these children how to mix colors, they looked at me like I was some type of magician and they spent the rest of the time experimenting with mixing colors, mostly producing a lot of "mud". It was shocking to me that these fourth-graders were never told about mixing colors -- this is usually first or second-grade knowledge!


Volunteer Experience:
Ethical Culture Society of Bergen County, Teaneck, NJ

I have been a member of this organization for the past several years, and in that capacity sometimes serve as "usher" (collect money for charitable works) and other volunteer opportunities. This fall I also worked with the youngest Sunday School children to create a Fall/Winter craft which was an apple pomander (an apple you stick with cloves and roll in spices to become like a potpourri you can put in a drawer or a closet). Not exactly Habiitat for Humanity I know, but it was good experience for me as an art eduation student. I found that kids easily get bored and after the initial excitement, I ended up finishing the pomanders for most of these kids.


PUBLIC MEETINGS

Town Hall Meeting/Public Forum
Topic: Random Drug Testing
Northern Valley High School at Demarest
November 13, 2007

This meeting, which I attended as both a new town resident and parent of a freshman became both the inspiration and foundation of my inquiry project and presented arguments from both advocates and opponents of random drug testing.

Teacher Meeting
ARTS HIGH SCHOOL, NEWARK
November 29l, 2007

I'm sorry, I forgot what these meetings are called, but during my day at Arts got to attend a type of staff meeting that is held regularly. Staff is divided up into teams to discuss different topics for improving teaching skills. This one was about how to ask better, open-ended questions. It was interesting to see that even when you're a teacher, learning doesn't stop and you still need to attend regular meetings to improve or add to your skill base.

That's All Folks...

Well, here we are at the end of the trail, and the most stressful part of the journey for most of us.

It's now 11:30pm and I have spent most of the day simultaneously working on four differernt projects, in some kind of masochistic marathon. And yet, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and the taste on my tongue is one of satisfaction at having made it through.

As this will probably be my last posting, I just want to say how much I enjoyed being part of this class, my experience at Arts High School and reading some of your blogs.

These last few days have made me question my sanity at going back to college at my age, but as I am now one semester closer to becoming a teacher, my committment is renewed and I am really looking forward to a month of reading great books, painting, doing crosswords puzzles and socializing with friends that I haven't even had the time to e-mail lately.

Whatever turns you on, hope you have a great vacation.

Visit To Arts High School Brings Hope To This Would-Be Art Teacher

Well folks, yesterday was I fortunate to have the opportunity to spend the day with a teacher at Arts High School. In my case, the teacher was Margaret El of the art department.

In a word, Ms. El was "fabulous". (Interetingly, I recalled viewing her classroom during orientation and was hoping I would end up assigned to her. Sometimes the gods work in your favor...)

Anyway, the day began with a double-block session of Art IV, Seniors. This is the main subject course for those enrolled as art majors and I was lucky enough to observe a portfolio review class. (Apparently these seniors were preparing an art porfolio for AP art, for which if accepted, they receive college credit). Ms. El stood on a chair so she could see out over all the student work that had been laid out for review, one student at a time. With a knowledgeable eye, and a pointing finger, she skillfully called "in" or "out" to each piece to help the student put together the strongest portfolio possible, with all explanations clearly given. For some pieces, she suggested how to make them stronger. She was efficient and confident, and I was in awe of her capability. This was not such an easy task, for when you consider how talented these students are, even the pieces that were rejected were pretty great!

The next class I observed, ART I, was totally different. This group of Freshmen were having a multicultural art history lesson using a textbook. After they all went around the room reading aloud (not very strong readers I observed), Ms. El was careful to make connections for them about what they had read. In place of general notetaking, she had given each student a chart with categories such as "object" "who made it" "why" "vocabulary words", etc. and as they discussed the reading she had them fill in key terms on this chart that they would be working with until they finished the multicultural unit.

After this, I bought some lunch from the school cafeteria -- all I will say about this, is that now I know why my daughter never eats lunch at school! However, I brought my lunch back to Ms.El's room and enjoyed some very pleasant chit-chat with her.

After lunch, I attended what they call a PLC meeting with Ms. El and other members of her "team". Apparently teachers attend these "professional learning conferences" monthly and the agenda was about how to design open-ended questions to encourage more critical thinking from students. So "critical thinking" is something we will continue to hear about long after we leave Montclair!

The last class of the day was an "elective" studio art class where I observed students working on watercolor florals. This was a more informal, independent class where Ms. El simply walked around the room making comments and suggestions.

As an art ed major, I felt that I had gotten a really balanced view as I had the chance to observe a critique, a history lesson and a studio class -- all in one day! I really admired Ms. El's style. She was very focused on making learning connections for her students, always careful to point out how one thing was the result of another, or asking questions like, "what do you think would happen if this area was darker/lighter etc."

The kids in the first two classes were totally focused and well-behaved. At one point in the last class (open studio), the talk started going in a direction she did not like and I was surprised at how stern she could be, but Ii have to admit that her reprimand gained control instantly.


In summation, I was very grateful to have this opportunity and it reinforces my good opinion about the quality of the training we are receving at Montclair. I was also thankful to see a successful classroom in action, because a lot of people have been scaring me lately with teaching horror stories and while I am sure there are a lot of them out there, I need to stay focused on the positive aspects of teaching to succeed.

My War On The War On Drugs

This past Tuesday night, I had the "privilege" to attend a town hall meeting where I live (Bergen County NJ) to hear various "experts" give their opinions on the merits and pitfalls of random drug testing in our high schools -- specifically whether or not to institute this policy in the high school which my 14-year is attending. I refer to this as a privilege, because apparently in our country we still maintain the right to voice our opinions on important issues such as this one, although ultimately, I suspect that the school district will do what the school district will do.

The fact that we have this right is no small thing, as slowly but surely the Republican agenda is chipping away at our civil liberties, and random drug testing is just one more example.

I would love to go into all the specifics of the meeting, who spoke, what was discussed, but I have too many projects going on right now to go into the length that I would like, but suffice it to say, that I am totally against drug testing of high school students for several important reasons, the primary one being that it is the last time I checked, it is the role of the school to EDUCATE students not police them. While offering drug awarenes courses such as D.A.R.E. etc, may be considered educational, random drug testing does not fall into this category and in my opinion it is just "McCarthy-ism" in a new disguise -- this time "saving our children from themselves." During the fifties everyone was a suspected Communist -- now every high school student is a suspected drug-user much the same way every Muslim person is a "suspected" terrorist. It is amazing how this same pyschology plays itself out in our country over and over -- paranoia strikes again!

Needless to say, I have made the committment to changing my inquiry topic (originally "why so many new teachers leave the profession) as this drug-testing thing has really pushed my buttons both as a moral issue and on a personal level since this is happening in my town. Therefore my new inquiry question shall be:
"Random Drug Testing & Democracy .... Can They Co-Exist?" (It is interesting to note that with all the emphasis on "democracy" we get in our courses, that people in school administration would even consider something like this!)

By the way... if I wasn't pissed enough about this, I found out at the meeting that NCLB actually funds schools to do random drug testing! How outrageous is that!!!!

Stay tuned for the next rant, coming your way when I come up for air. (These last few weeks of the semester are always killer, aren't they?)

NCLB: Are Test Scores A Good Measure Of Education's Worth?

Just spent some time browsing the Dept. of Education's website and was pretty impressed by the amount of useful content. No matter which of the site's categories you fall into -- parent, student, teacher or administrator, you are sure to find something of value. I know I plan to revisit the site to find information on the college admissions process next year when my daughter is a high school sophmore. Additionally, I found a lot of information on the "first year of teaching",including readings that may be helfpful for my inquiry project. Also of interest to us future teachers were articles and links about where to look for teaching opportunities in your local area. In short, I am confident that we will all be visiting this site again during our time at Montclair and probably afterwards as well.

Regarding NCLB, I learned about this in some depth in my Educational Psychology class last year, but it was good to refresh my memory. I read through President Bush's speech (Sept 2007) about "reauthorizing" this act. I also looked at a brochure written in plain language, explaining NCLB to parents. One question that kept coming up is why the word "reauthorize?" In other words why do we have to reinstate something that is already instated? Perhaps they mean reAUTHORize as in "rewrite". I looked at some of the points from the President's speech and they do not seem to be new ones though, just rehasing of what has already been included.

Anyway, I realize that while data is easily manipulated, it appears that by the government's statistics, the program is really working. (Can something that Bush initiated really be working?!) To hear educators complain about it, NCLB may not be the jewel it appears to be, but I think it is a policy with good, but perhaps not realistic intentions.

Two points here that I would like to raise -- the first one is that we need to remember that the statistics only measure what the policy administrators want to measure in this case, grade level competency in language arts and math. However they don't ask, if kids or teachers feel they are missing out in other areas such as art and music. They also can't measure how much all the testing is stressing out teachers and kids or what they are learning about becoming global citizens. The point here is, there is more to a quality education than good scores in math and English, yet I think that some standards of "accountability" are a step in the right direction.

The second point is that I feel that society-at-large sometimes holds our educational system responsbile for curing all the ills in our society. (Sometimes I think what we really need is a policy to hold parents "accountable" for making sure that their children are going to school, doing their homework, etc.This doesn't just apply to the low income population, I have seen many parents of means who are too self-involved to pay attention to what is going on with their kids).
While raising standards can result in an improved quality of education, it doesn't necessarily follow that more kids from low income schools will be motivated to stay in school or to go on to college. They may have better test scores, but they are still subject to all the forces outside of school - gangs, pregnancy, having to help support the family, drugs,etc. I would like to see some type of legislation put into place that would motivate/reward those students who graduate and give them incentive to go further with their schooling.

What do inquiring minds want to know?

I have been torturing myself for almost two weeks now thinking about the inquiry project. I keep waiting for inspiration to strike in the form of the "big question", but it hasn't, so here I sit with my big question being what my question should be.

Okay enough procrastination already. Sometimes we can't afford to wait for inspiration and just have to plunge ahead without it, so here goes.

I keep coming back to the first reading we did, "The Education Primer" and I recall how surprised I was at the statistic about how many new teachers drop out in the first three to five years. I just rechecked the article and it was 33% (first three years), 46% (first five years).


At the time of reading, I remember being disappointed that the statistics did not go on to cite any reasons for this. I remember wondering if teaching was truly that bad. Were the teachers leaving because the kids were so awful that they went screaming and running from the classroom? Was it because they were frustrated with school administration? Parents? Lousy pay? It didn't say, but I remember feeling afraid when I read this and questioning my career choice.

Therefore, I think I would like to pursue this issue, making my inquiry question "why are so many new teachers leaving the field?" or "what's goes wrong in the first three years?" or something of this nature.

To collect data, I plan to look for articles and statistics as well as inquire from those in the profession as to the challenges facing new teachers Perhaps some of these answers will be observable in field work as well.

I have a feeling that a discussion of all the possible reasons should provide enough fodder for a project of this scope.

Let me know what you think. Thanks, people.

Positive Reinforcement, Anyone?

Yesterday, I had a sort of depressing experience and I just wanted to vent.

Every Tuesday night, immediately following our class, I look forward to my weekly painting class. This class has a mixture of undergraduate students and graduate students including several public school art teachers, my chosen career area.

Well, last night I am painting and chilling out when one of the women starts talking about how much she hates being an art teacher, and how it is the worst career on earth. I jokingly said something like, "hey, watch what you're saying, you have a future art teacher, here".

She then went on to try to persuade me that I should think about doing something else. I asked her if the problem is the students or the administration and she said, "both".

She told me how the students were rude and fresh and didn't want to learn anything.
Then she told me how one boy was making references to another teacher in the school about oral sex. I asked her how old her students were, and she said K-4h grade!

She said that every day she could only pray to make it through that day. She said she would quit but needed the money and the benefits.

She told me that she was sorry, and didn't intend to be mean by telling me these things, but thought that a lot of people choose teachng art because they think it will be rewarding and fun, but she thought that we needed to go into "the mine field" with our eyes open.

This woman says that the elementary school she works in is in Roselle Park, NJ, a place I have never heard of and have no preconceived notions of.

This bit of conversation both frightened and depressed me and I don't know how to process it.

Feedback, anyone?

Thanks!

On The Promise Of Urban Schools

This rather idealistic article informs us that in addition to all the well-documented disadvantages that commonly plague urban schools, the most harmful factor overall may be society's pessimistic attitude towards them.

Contrary to public opinion, its authors point out that urban schools have a lot to offer and can even become ideal models or paragons of education that can benefit the rest of the population. To support this claim, the article cites how cities are influential forces that bring together "vital aspects of social, cultural, aesthetic, political and economic activity". Furthermore they make the claim that the diversity of race, ethnicity, langugages anc cultures found in urban settings provides learning opportunities that may not be present in suburban or rural schools. To this end, the authors (ie: Senior Fellows) believe that the purpose of schools in a democratic society should be to prepare students to play an active role in public life.

The article then goes on to examine urban schools and their relationship with society through the concepts of agency, equity, instruction, and outcome with an emphasis on urban conditions and context.

It seems to me that the bottom line of this study is the question of how these schools (and their students) can succeed when society itself sets up an expectation of failure. On a personal one-on-one level we have all seen the difference a little postitive encouragment can have on an individual and how people themselves only tend to live up to high or low expectations that others have of them. While inbalances of income, resources and skilled teachers are very real, it is perhaps this self-fulfilling prophecy of failure held by many educators, society at large, and even the students themselves that is the hardest to cure.

The authors rightfully suggest that parents and teachers alike must become "agents of change" by acting as advocates for children in urban schools helping to dispel some of these damaging myths.

Changing a long-held opinion throughout society cannot happen overnight. However until there is genuine public belief and support of these schools, it will be difficult for these students to have belief in themselves and what they can accomplish in a (perhaps not so) democratic society.

Putting Our Mouth Where Our Money Is: A Response To Parker

In reading, Walter C. Parker’s essay, "Teaching Against Idiocy", I was forced to think more deeply about both the meaning of the word “citizen” and the role our schools play in fostering the development of one.

In explaining the arresting title of his piece, we learn that “idiocy” in this context, doesn’t define a “moron”, but rather one who is ignorant about the public world outside of themselves -- a phenomenon that exists perhaps more today than ever before, in spite of the plethora of resources that make up the Information Age. Perhaps it may even be a side effect of the Information Age, that allows us to be so informed and yet so insular, as if everything we see and hear in the media is a virtual game whose outcome doesn’t really have all that much to do with us.

Nevertheless, as Parker suggests, I agree that school seems a natural place to teach young people about their role as citizens in a democratic society, because it is essentially a mini-society, the first one to which children belong and learn to cooperate with others of diverse cultural backgrounds.

But treating each other fairly, and celebrating diversity are only part of the picture. Of equal importance, is the message that it is not enough to learn a trade, make a living, and pay our taxes. Each one of us has a moral and civic obligation to play an active role in our legislative and judicial processes, both on a local and national level. This sometimes includes the need to become politically/socially active by standing up for the things we feel need addressing.

This point of view is best reflected by the words of Daniel Kemmis, former mayor of Missoula, Montana in The Good City and the Good Life;

"People who customarily refer to themselves as taxpayers, are not even remotely related to democratic citizens. Yet, this is precisely the word that now regularly holds the place, which in a true democracy would be occupied by “citizens”…"

Mr. Kemmis goes on to comment that while people continue to pay taxes and expect services in return, what they fail to do is govern, or even make an attempt to feign an interest in the workings of government.

This statement resonated with me on a personal level as my only working experience with government took place as a resident in a large, self-governed condominium complex. Here I saw first-hand, that while people paid a considerable monthly dues to live there, for the most part they failed to attend any open Board meetings or volunteer their services to the Board. Yet when a meeting concerned the raising of the monthly dues, you can be assured that all the individuals previously missing in action, could be found complaining about the Board’s decisions. Point here – if you want to have any effect on the outcome, you have to be part of the process.

I relate the above to illustrate that just because people are “anteing up”, it doesn’t mean they are necessarily fulfilling their role as citizens. The strange dichotomy is that while on one hand taxpayers feel the have certain ‘inalienable” rights, on the other hand they are loathe to get involved or put in their political “two-cents” -- at least until an issue affects their wallets. Perhaps the majority of us need to learn to “put our mouths where our money is”, so to speak.

So what can schools do about all this?

I think Parker, while fairly idealistic gives us many practical suggestions for encouraging discussion and dialogue of democratic ideals both socially and across the curricula, but I suggest taking it a step further by turning ideals into action. Action projects could involve having students write their political representatives about an issue that’s important to them, or participate in a field trip to town hall to learn about how local politics work. Students can also hold mock trials and political debates based on either current events or issues at school. Learning about the electoral process and stressing the importance of voting, and not just every four years, is also key for encouraging citizen participation.

The bottom line is, that the possibilities for applying democratic ideals to real-life situations are endless, and for the creative teacher who is willing to go beyond mere dialogue, the opportunity to help mold an engaged citizenry of the future is both exciting and challenging and well worth the effort.

What's Faith Got To Do With It?

Here is a Haiku I composed inspired by our class discussion last week about religion and morality --

What does it matter --
Call It Allah...Buddha...Christ
We're all flesh and bone.

This Haiku reflects my belief that no matter what we each believe about the great "cosmic custodian", that we are all united in our common humanity and that we share the same wants, suffering, needs and yes, morality.

In addition, anyone who has studied the great world religions will come to the conclusion, that despite different names, customs and practices, that they are all more similar in their basic teachings than they are different. This makes it hard for me to understand why so many wars and killings occur in the name of religion, or why one group seems to feel that everyone should belong to the same group that they do.

Regarding religion and education, I wholeheartedly agree with the principle of "separation of church and state and school", not because I am anti-religious, but because I feel that references to God, Christmas, etc. leave out certain individuals who do not belong to those groups, especially in light of all the different immigrant groups that make up our public schools today. For example, if we don't celebrate Ramadan in public schools, why should we make Christmas or Hanukah decorations? (My daughter, the only Jewish child in her Kindergarten class many years ago, was told by a well-meaning teacher that she didn't have to make the Santa or the Christmas stocking, which of course, she-- like the other kids--wanted to make. My questions is, why do we have to go there at all?)

Certainly we can advocate moral values such as kindness, courtesy, respect etc., without invoking the name of the Almighty in our schools. I don't quite understand why there is so much controversy about this and I am open to respectfully hearing others opinions on this subject.

By the way, if you would like to know more about Ethical Culture, also known as "secular Humanism", you can check out www.ethicalfocus.org which is the site of the Bergen County Chapter. There is also a chapter in Essex County as well. Anyone can join or participate regardless of race, religion or beliefs about God. All you have to care about is being an ethical human being.

Thanks for listening!

Martian Posting (Group Assignment)

What are schools like and how did they get that way?

Schools are divided into districts and each district has their own standards and rules for how the school is run. Students must attend school a certain number of years and days per year. They are required to fill certain criteria of what they need to study and the number of years they are required to study each subject. This criteria is set by the federal government and state districts. There are different types of schools including public, private and charter schools. The majority or 88% of the students attend public schools which are free of charge to attend as opposed to the 12% of students who attend private schools that require tuition. The majority of the funding for the public schools is provided by local and state taxes. The schools offer a variety of supplemental services such as lunch programs, health programs, and social services. These services provided are to help children function in the community and society.

Who are the students?

The students are made up of all demographics throughout the country from the highest to the lowest income ratios. The students are made up of all different races and backgrounds. They consist of not only American children whose first language is English but also 19% are immigrants and 10% are English language learners.

Who are the teachers?

The majority are experienced and have advanced degrees in there subject areas. This is to ensure a great understanding in their specific area so the student has the greatest possible understanding of the information provided. This is not the case in all demographic areas in high poverty areas teachers are not always highly qualified in their subject area. Most teachers seem to be young white females. Reasons for this might be that the mind set of American citizens is to make more money, considering the low pay of most teachers may be the reason for this statistic. The high rate of teachers changing and leaving the profession is a question of how the education system is run.

Schools vs. Fools For Citizens: Tyak Article

The Tyak reading was interesting because it raises some important questions that are just as relevent now as they were to our founding Fathers.

On the very first page of this reading we are told that American society was "socially diverse, scattered across a continent, politically contentious, religiously splintered, and averse to government." No big difference there.

We also learn that all forms of education have a hidden (or not so hidden) agenda that may have political, moral or religious teachings at its core, and that public education's early founders were "apt to assume that people like themselves were exemplars of worthy citizenship (page 11)."

Although our forefathers may have been blindsighted in their views, considering the historial context, it made sense for a new nation to be concerned about the civic education of its citizens, and the establishment of public education, with all its flaws was a great legacy that cannot be denied.

So in our class, "Public Purposes of Education", it can be said that the first purpose of American public education was to teach civic duty and responsibility. According to Tyak, sub-purposes of a republican education were to stabalize society (ie: law and order) and to preserve freedom.

On page 12, Tyak makes what I think is a critical point, and that is that education today may have shifted in purpose to one of "economic survivalism". In plain speak this means that schools today must prepare students to make a living and survive in what has become an increasingly competitive "dog-eat-dog" global world -- hence another item to put on the list of "public purposes of education".

In spite of their zeal in perpetuating their agenda, these forefathers being the intelligent men that they were, realized the many shortcomings in a single approach to educating people from so many diverse cultures, and therefore took measures to prevent controversy and to ensure that students became as ethnically cleansed as possible.

By contrast, today's educators place much emphasis on teaching "cultural diversity". So the question is, is there a standard for teaching curriculum that every American citizen should know, that is free of cultural bias while preserving the individual's identity at the same time?
I think the answer is yes and no.

On another classmate's posting, there was a reference to those African-Americans who feel that the public school system is just trying to make them "white" and look with distain to others of their race who are trying to "fit in" by achieving. (And yes, I agree with this classmate, that this attitude is not held by every member of this group). Yet, I do not see what is "white" about achieving good grades, and learning what you need to know to be an informed and contributing citizen.

While hip-hop music, for example, may be cool and may even be considered to be an art form by some, it does not (in my opinion), espouse anything that will help its listeners to get ahead and succeed in the world. Therefore, to some degree, I think we have to stop worrying about being politically correct all the time, (you can't please all of the people all of the time) and agree on the basic values that are common to all humanity-- those that as John Swett astutely identified in 1855 - self-knowledge, self-restraint, honesty, impartiality, patience, courtesy, etc. - have not really changed.

What needs to adapt itself to changing times however, is content knowledge making sure that what is being taught academically is preparing students for the challenging times ahead. Global-warming, its causes and solution, for example is something that previously was not found in textbooks.

So is there room for cultural diversity in the classroom? Yes, I think our cultures can be expressed in our artwork, the foods we eat, the music we listen to, the clothes we wear and in a thousand other myriad ways. But in the end, we are ALL global citizens with much to learn together and from each other both in and out of the classroom.

Hodgkinson On Demographics

How fascinating! Harold Hodgkinson's article on shifting demographics (Educational Demographics: What Teachers Should Know) and the challenges they pose for today's educators was truly illuminating to me, (although I'm sure that for many who are currently immersed in the public education system, it serves to confirm what they already finding out).

This article was infinetly more intersting than our reading from last week because it goes beyond mere statistics to provide a meaningful look at America's changing student population and their needs, and offers what I feel are some valuable suggestions for teachers as well. To some extent this article even goes beyond the subject of education, giving us an extended view of how America itself is an ever-changing global entity, and therefore, one that is increasingly difficult to define.

It was particularly interesting to find "transiency" mentioned as a major obstacle to educators today. This is something I never thought about, but makes total sense. Just anecdotelly, my daughter briefly had a friend in elementary school whose family was always relocating. (This seemed to be not for job reasons, but more about an unstable family situation, but that is a totally separate issue). At any rate, this was one obviously very bright girl, who also happened to be very precocious and popular, but she seemed to be getting in trouble a lot and failing in school (6th grade) because she refused to study or do homework. My daughter and other kids, spent a lot of time urging this girl to do her work because they didn't want to see her get left back again (she was a bit older than them), but she just didn't care, claiming that "what was the point of bothering, her family was just going to move again", and you guessed it -- within a year, her mother had gotten divorced again, and they were history.

The point here, is that regardless of race, socio-economic status or any other factor, no child can succeed in school if they are constantly being moved around for whatever reasons, and according to this article there is a real lot of this. Therefore it is a revealing , though reasonable correlation that "states with the lowest rates of high school graduation and college admisssions are the five most transient states in the U.S."

Equally interesting was the study's discussion of race and how it is becoming less and less important in providing clues to what is going on in our schools. The other makes an argument that this is due in part to the "blurring" of racial lines -- more mixed marriages, people falling into more than one category, yada...yada. (I was shocked by my own ignorance to realize that the term "Hispanic" does not define a race -- I even looked it up in Websters! After a lifetime of seeing it as a race box to check off on forms, I suspect that many others share this ignorance as well. Yet think about it -- it is no more of a race than "Jewish" -- a religion or cultural background, is.) But the key point here is that what affects performance globally in school is not race but POVERTY. This is one thing that unfortunately affects kids of all races and from all countries.

So where does race fit in? Well according to the author, it is not so much race, but culture and cultural-climate that teachers need to be sensitive to and Hodgkinson provides several interesting examples of cultural differences to be aware of and possible ways to respond to them. all of which make great sense to me.

Lastly, the article addresses our aging population and raises questions about the baby boomer generation (over 70 million!) and whether or not they will maintain their interest in supporting public education once their own children have left the school system. With rising costs of health care, medications and the like, along with shrinking Social Security benefits, it is not surprising, nor hard to understand that many seniors who value education, would elect to opt out of paying school taxes if allowed. However the "side effect" of this demographic is critical and could be life-threatening to the future of schools. Therefore in the same way, that public consciousness is being raised about global warming to ensure the health of the planet for future generations, the public needs to be educated about the debt owed to future generations by ensuring the health of our public school system.

In conclusion, this article is not only essential reading for future teachers, but helps to illustrate that demographic studies can be interpreted in many ways and that statistics are more than a collection of numbers--they are indicators of an intricately linked series of cause and effect phenomenon that have implications way beyond the obvious. For those willing to navigate them, they can provide valuable clues that can help make the journey a smoother one.

A Public Education Primer

Although these statistics held few surprises, they were very useful in presenting an overall picture of the state of public education, who controls the purse-strings and where the biases lie.


A few things that I didn't know ---

* over 90% of funding for public education comes from state and local sources
(We don't have to strain our brains to guess where all that federal money IS going....)

*Less than 5% of our Gross Domestic Product is devoted to public education
(Definitely not something to brag about if you ask me!)

*That over 46% of teachers drop out, burn out or switch careers in the first five years! (Low pay? Tough students? Weak teachers? The study doesn't give the reasons for this phenomenon, but I would be interested to see any more detailed studies on "teacher burnout"). Although definitely not a good thing, this does mean that there will be additional employment opportunities for those entering the profession to fill the gap.



The most mind-boggling tidbit --

* Did you know that Camden, New Jersey spends more money per student than any other district in the state? Unless this is an error, the explanation may lie in the footnote that claims that the this may be due to the greatest number of low-income students enrolled resulting in the most federal assistance being given out.( I haven't visited any public schools in Camden, but I wonder if it would be apparent where all this extra money is going). The district with the lowest expenditure per student is Brick Township, NJ.



Of the most personal interest --

Were the statistics about immigration and the direction it is taking.
(Did you know that 1 in 10 public school students is an English language learner, and that there has been a 65% increase in English language learners between 1993 and 2004?)
This is personally significant to be since when I decided to pursue a degree/certification in art education, others already in the teaching field, intimated to me that perhaps it is not the easiest area in which to find employment. Therefore, following a vague hunch, I decided early on that I would pursue an additional certification in TESL (teaching english as a second language) and these statistics seem to confirm the notion that that this is a hot (aka "in demand") area for future teachers. It is my hope that this additional certification will make me a "value added" prospect and provide more opportunity and flexibility for future employment.


Conclusions:

While opinions may vary about the reasons for deficits in our public education system, where the faults lie and on what course of future action should be taken, statistics paint a somewhat clearer picture of the current situation that new teachers are facing, and being forewarned can help one to be forearmed and prepared. Going into a new situation with "eyes wide open" ie: realistic expectations, may help to lessen the new teacher burnout rate that is apparently a huge problem in our schools today.