Dialogue with my Blog

‘How come everyone who writes about school reform works some place other than a school?’

BLOG:  Welcome.

ME:  Forgive me, Blog, for I have not written. It has been … 278 days since my last post.

B:  Do you feel you need forgiveness?

M:  Of course.

B:  Why have you not written?

M:  I was busy.

B:  With what?

M:  With teaching. With grading. With differentiating instruction. With diagnosing at-risk kids. With trying to motivate middle-of-the-road kids. With making sure I don’t ignore the “top” students. With creating lesson plans in a new format mandated by the state in our school restructuring plan. With digesting all of the requirements and changes coming from Race to the Top, Common Core Learning Standards, APPR, SLOs. With spending hours justifying, no proving, that I am an “effective” teacher. Oh, and with being a parent, of course.

B:  My, you were busy. With all of that, why did you ever go into teaching?

M:  I remember I was thinking about a career change, what I could do, and all of my goals fit education.

B:  What were your goals?

M:  For as long as I can remember, I wanted to be able to share what I knew, to make people laugh, and to be a positive role model.

B:  And have you done that?

M:  Other than making people laugh. My jokes tend to meet with blank stares. What do you think: “Don’t read Crime and Punishment too quickly, scholars. Just because it’s Dostoevsky doesn’t mean you have to go Russian through it.”

B:  …

M:  Sorry.

B:  Do you agree that all these school reform efforts are making school better?

M:  No. I disagree with many of them, at least the way they are implemented at the local school level.

B:  So what do you do to change things?

M:  I try to meet them as best as I can, and to adapt the ones I can to the needs of my kids. (And ignore the ones I can’t. Shh, don’t tell.) It’s all about the kids in front of me.

B:  Okay, why do you write?

M:  Because I like it. It’s my passion. It’s my release.

B:  And what do you like to write about?

M:  “About life, education and the amazing interconnectedness of everything in the Beginner’s Mind.”

B:  Really?

M:  Okay, about whatever’s happening to me, whatever I’m thinking about.

B:  And what are you thinking about?

M:  Usually school. The past year. Successes and failures. Students. Preparing for the coming year and the new students.

B:  You said students twice. Do you make them write?

M:  Of course, I’m an English teacher. I have some in-class assignments and also make them write 20 minutes a night exploring their thoughts in a Writer’s Notebook journal.

B:  And is writing their passion?

M:  Usually not.

B: Do they like to write?

M:  Usually not.

B:  Do you find that they are less busy than you?

M:  Not really. Some of them have crazy schedules, between school, extracurricular activities, work, and family. And many of them have some incredible pressures from friends, family and community. In the past year alone, I faced students who talked about suicide, pregnancy, abortion, dealing with child care, drinking, drugs, sexual relations, divorced parents, parents in jail, parents who were deported… the list goes on.

B:  Wow. And with all that, you still make them spend their time writing? Why?

M:  It’s important. They need to take the time to practice so that they get better at it. I need to get them in the habit of writing beyond one or two short-answer sentences. They need to move past the snap impressions that they make in a few seconds. They need time to explore their thoughts, to explore new and/or difficult thoughts. They are our future. They are the ones who can create the changes we need for a better society. Who knows, maybe one of them could have a scientific discovery, a major medical cure or even an inspirational poem or novel in their future, if only they let themselves explore the workings of their own minds.

B:  And you believe they can create this change with their writing?

M:  Absolutely.

B:  What’s holding them back?

M:  Many of them lack confidence in their own ideas. They don’t see themselves as potential agents for change. They don’t see themselves as writers. I remember the author Neil Gaiman once writing that everyone has ideas, sometimes even the strange ideas that result in imaginative fiction, and the only difference between them and “writers” is that the writer writes down his ideas.

B:  Do you see yourself as a writer?

M:  I’d like to think so.

B:  And do you have confidence in your ideas?

M:  Usually.

B:  And do you see yourself as a potential agent for change?

M:  Yes, but …

B:  I’m sorry to interrupt you, but what makes you different from the people who are making these changes in education? Recall that article in The Voice, in which Joe Check, the teacher/author who heads the Boston Writing Project, discusses the question: “How come almost everyone who writes about school reform works some place other than a school?” He said, and I quote, "In our ongoing national dialogue on school reform, there are few voices from `the bottom' that matter. We are missing the unmediated voice of practitioners who are actually attempting reform, achieving it, failing at it, or partially achieving it and wondering why they haven't done better."

M:  But those guys have the time to think about these issues and write about them. That’s their job. My job is to teach, not tell stories.

B: But Joe Check says it’s not about storytelling, but that well-written narratives about what’s actually happening in the classrooms trying reform “create communities by compelling attention and response. They advance dialogue that makes change possible." Don’t you try reform efforts in your class?

M:  Yes, but …

B:  And do you agree that it’s important to add the voices of practitioners into the mix?

M:  Yes, but ...

B:  And if it’s important, isn’t that something, and I quote, “they need to take time” to do? Like writing, for your students?

M:  …

B:  Forgive me, but how long has it been since your last post?

M:  268 days.

B:  As penance, I want you to keep writing, so you can be a positive role model for your students and your fellow teachers on “the bottom.” I want you to publish, and share what you know, what you’re learning, what you’re thinking. I want you to be the change that you want to see. And, heaven forgive me, I want you to make people laugh. But really work on that last one.

M:  No promises.

B:  Okay, I expect to see you tomorrow.

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