The academic session recorded in the immediately prior article posted on this blog was just one of three that I ran on that Sunday, 7 February.
The other two also featured very needy cases >>>>>
My second academic session was with a Grade 6 girl, Janine (data privacy pseudonym, as in all cases of students and their family members about whom I write on this blog), who has languished in unchallenging special education classes since she was in the early grades; the third academic session involved two more parents of students, neither of whom advanced beyond Grade 10 in school.
Even as my days become full beyond full, I could not turn the entreaties of these aspiring students down:
The Grade 6 girl lives in the adjoining apartment in the run-down building where Evelyn and family live; her Mom is gravely worried about the girl if her educational prospects don’t rise above those with which the mother herself was inflicted by terrible schools. Janine is tall and stout for her grade level. She is the frequent target of physical bullying and verbal taunts.
Janine is functioning far below grade level in math, reading, and by extension all of her other subjects in school.
But she proved herself highly capable in my initial academic session with her in the room that I use for small-group tutoring at New Salem Missionary Baptist Church:
I put her through my quick-acquisition method for learning multiplication tables; Janine gained firm mastery over seven such items that had long proven vexing for her.
We then read an African American folk tale, "The People Could Fly," which Janine loved and read orally quite well, with a bit of pronunciation and vocabulary instruction from me. With regard to the latter, I noted the words with which she struggled and went over the meanings of these very carefully in a list that I constructed on the spot. By the end of the two-hour academic session. Janine could define and spell all of these words--- and use them in sentences.
Assuming that I am now able to keep Janine in my universe of students and families as I typically do for the long haul in the New Salem Educational Initiative, the productive future that her mother wants for her daughter will come to pass.
Janine is yet anther case of a student consigned to the graveyard of special education who can reach her potential, given an atmosphere of confidence and sequentially designed and demonstrated progress.
...................................................................
My third academic session after church attendance on this Sunday, 7 February, was with two mothers (Carla and Sonia) of my younger students (these young ones, numbering five in all, filling two of my other academic sessions), adults in their early 30s who can triple their current pay as health care workers if they are able to get their GEDs. They are rooted in an immigrant family from Mexico, hard workers giving life everything they have to forge a better future for their children.
Sonia could not remember multiplication tables beyond those with the number five (5) when we began our session; Carla was shaky in her mastery of those beyond six (6). Within 30 minutes, though, they had both mastered all multiplication tables for the numbers one (1) through nine (9).
For the remainder of our two hours together on this Sunday evening, 7 February, we carefully went over multiplication with two-digit numbers top and bottom and three-digit numbers top with two-digit numbers on bottom.
Both of these parents-become-students attended the Minneapolis Public Schools in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Carla finished only Grade 8; Sonia dropped out in the middle of Grade 10. They both told tales of schools (Green Central K-8 and Washburn High School) in behavioral turmoil, staffed by teachers too often indifferent to the academic needs of struggling students.
They acted as if I were a miracle worker in teaching them to multiply.
But I have no doubt that both Carl and Sonia will soon be on a course to obtaining their GEDs and that they will move thenceforth toward advanced study with me as we travel through the exciting world of knowledge that I have compiled in my book, Fundamentals of an Excellent Liberal Arts Education.
........................................................................
Thus, these two parents are now also my students, among the 55 that I now enroll in the New Salem Educational Initiative small-group program--- in addition to the 25 who participate in the New Salem Tuesday Tutoring Program attended mainly by children of the church.
As an extension of my work with these students, I also keep track of those who have now graduated from high school and were among the participants in the New Salem Educational Initiative, monitoring their progress in college and university attendance and continuing to help academically as necessary.
One twenty-one year-old male, for example, started as a student of mine at Grade 6 and is on the throes of getting his bachelor’s degree in Public Relations but needs a math credit in College Algebra; so we are meeting two hours a week as in days of yore, reviewing the concepts in quadratic equations, functions, and the like that he needs to master as he goes online to get that final credit.
And so it goes with an approach that seeks to serve multiple and varied requests, in a program that manifests the love that never goes away.
Because my efforts in the New Salem Educational Initiative are well-known in North Minneapolis, I get requests all the time to address critical academic needs of the moment, or to help families work through difficulties of many kinds. I have knowledge of, and connections to, many government and social service agencies, so that in addition to offering my personal counsel, I can act as a resource referral unit to families in need.
In all, I have 125 people in my personal network of academic instruction and counsel.
I envelop all of these people, both those I see every week and those I see in the midst of particular crises, in the spirit of love that abides eternally.
All students deserve this experience, an education of excellence and enduring relationships in the context of the love that never goes away.
And this is the sacred mission with which we must imbue personnel in the Minneapolis Public Schools.
Feb 10, 2016
Feb 8, 2016
A Mother of a Student Becomes a Student in a Recurring Pattern of Life Transformation in the New Salem Educational Initiative
[Note: Names used in these and other such articles on my blog are data privacy pseudonyms.]
A chief tenet of the New Salem Educational Initiative is my permanent relationship with students once they have entered my academic and personal universe. Now, a particularly satisfying phenomenon is gaining multiple manifestations as numerous parents of my students request their own two-hour weekly academic sessions of study with me.
Just last evening (Sunday, 7 February 2016) as I write this, I got home (at 9:30 PM) from a remarkable day of small-group tutoring.
As usual, I departed sanctuary services at New Salem Missionary Baptist Church about 1:30 PM, then drove over to the apartment building occupied by the economically poorest students whom I have ever taught, keeping in perspective that my whole teaching career has been dedicated to teaching the most impoverished and historically underserved members of our society. This is the residence of Damon Preston (Grade 7) and Javon Jakes (grade 1), whom I followed through four different living units in (mostly North) Minneapolis before they moved to their current bedbug-ridden apartment on the East Side of St. Paul.
I had actually worked with these boys the day before (Saturday, 6 February) and on this Sunday of the day after was making this trip back to St. Paul, acceding to a request from their mom, Evelyn Patterson, to admit her to my small-group program for the purposes of studying toward her associates degree.
Evelyn is thirty-three (33) years old and the graduate of a high school in one of Chicago’s roughest South Side neighborhoods. She actually rung something approaching an education out of the teachers at that school and proceeded upon graduation to attend community college. She did this while working over a five-year period and apparently amassing almost a year and one-half worth of credits.
But her education was disrupted when her mother died, a cataclysmic event in Evelyn’s life since after several years of estrangement this young woman and her mom had just begun to reestablish a relationship. Soon thereafter, Evelyn committed time to helping her ill and convalescing maternal grandmother who had raised her during a late childhood and adolescence of estrangement from her mom. But then other members of the family transported the elderly woman from Minneapolis (to which Evelyn had moved from Chicago) to Atlanta; soon after the move southeastward, this beloved grandmother died, causing in Evelyn an array of emotions grounded in guilt and a sense of loss.
It was about this time that Damon entered my program as a six year-old at Grade 1; Javon was just a newborn in arms at the time. I have thus known Evelyn, her significant other (Marcel Gifford), and the boys for six years now. These are highly intelligent people from families to whom history has been unkind. But the boys are thriving academically in the New Salem Educational Initiative, recording accomplishments more typically associated with children of upper middle class parents.
Now Evelyn, who for many years has been so very thankful and proud of the success of her children--- but for whom life had sent her on a personal descent into drug abuse and mental illness--- has gathered the courage to put her life back together, continue her education, and get her boys out of that cheapest rental unit in the poorest area of St. Paul where bedbugs sidle up to children in the middle of the night.
I appeared at Evelyn’s apartment at 2:00 PM, I drove her over to New Salem Missionary Baptist Church in North Minneapolis, and as we drove we reviewed both the gloomy past and a prospectively better future. Then we went into two hours of intensive math review. Evelyn needed review of all basic mathematical operations involving addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division; but these came back to her quickly. We went as far as three digits top and bottom in multiplication after reviewing multiplication tables with my quick-learn method; then we went on to decimals, the relationship of fractions to decimals, place value of mixed numbers with decimals, and all operations with both decimals and fractions.
This was astounding, even by the standards of my efficient methods that I have developed for skill acquisition and recovery. Evelyn is whip-smart and highly motivated. When I told her that we had just risen through the mathematical ranks from lower elementary school to a level approaching Grade 7, she beamed. When I told her that with two more weeks of two-hour academic sessions we would rise into high school for a study of algebra and geometry, I could see life transformation in Evelyn’s eyes. When I walked Evelyn up to her apartment at 4:30 PM on that Sunday, 7 February, she thanked me profusely, wiping tears from her eyes but wearing a broad smile on her face.
As soon as she closed the door behind her, I could hear her proclaiming to Damon, Javon, and Marcel:
“I climbed seven different grade levels today--- and next I’ll be in high school, then back in college!”
How many Stacey’s are there in our society who have been abused by lousy schools and historical circumstances--- but whose children and personal lives could be transformed by the power of better K-12 education?
Legions.
The revolution that must come in K-12 education is our most profound domestic duty for public policy in the United States. This is the next, long-delayed, Second Stage of the Civil Rights Movement.
I must not fail.
You must not fail.
We must not fail.
A chief tenet of the New Salem Educational Initiative is my permanent relationship with students once they have entered my academic and personal universe. Now, a particularly satisfying phenomenon is gaining multiple manifestations as numerous parents of my students request their own two-hour weekly academic sessions of study with me.
Just last evening (Sunday, 7 February 2016) as I write this, I got home (at 9:30 PM) from a remarkable day of small-group tutoring.
As usual, I departed sanctuary services at New Salem Missionary Baptist Church about 1:30 PM, then drove over to the apartment building occupied by the economically poorest students whom I have ever taught, keeping in perspective that my whole teaching career has been dedicated to teaching the most impoverished and historically underserved members of our society. This is the residence of Damon Preston (Grade 7) and Javon Jakes (grade 1), whom I followed through four different living units in (mostly North) Minneapolis before they moved to their current bedbug-ridden apartment on the East Side of St. Paul.
I had actually worked with these boys the day before (Saturday, 6 February) and on this Sunday of the day after was making this trip back to St. Paul, acceding to a request from their mom, Evelyn Patterson, to admit her to my small-group program for the purposes of studying toward her associates degree.
Evelyn is thirty-three (33) years old and the graduate of a high school in one of Chicago’s roughest South Side neighborhoods. She actually rung something approaching an education out of the teachers at that school and proceeded upon graduation to attend community college. She did this while working over a five-year period and apparently amassing almost a year and one-half worth of credits.
But her education was disrupted when her mother died, a cataclysmic event in Evelyn’s life since after several years of estrangement this young woman and her mom had just begun to reestablish a relationship. Soon thereafter, Evelyn committed time to helping her ill and convalescing maternal grandmother who had raised her during a late childhood and adolescence of estrangement from her mom. But then other members of the family transported the elderly woman from Minneapolis (to which Evelyn had moved from Chicago) to Atlanta; soon after the move southeastward, this beloved grandmother died, causing in Evelyn an array of emotions grounded in guilt and a sense of loss.
It was about this time that Damon entered my program as a six year-old at Grade 1; Javon was just a newborn in arms at the time. I have thus known Evelyn, her significant other (Marcel Gifford), and the boys for six years now. These are highly intelligent people from families to whom history has been unkind. But the boys are thriving academically in the New Salem Educational Initiative, recording accomplishments more typically associated with children of upper middle class parents.
Now Evelyn, who for many years has been so very thankful and proud of the success of her children--- but for whom life had sent her on a personal descent into drug abuse and mental illness--- has gathered the courage to put her life back together, continue her education, and get her boys out of that cheapest rental unit in the poorest area of St. Paul where bedbugs sidle up to children in the middle of the night.
I appeared at Evelyn’s apartment at 2:00 PM, I drove her over to New Salem Missionary Baptist Church in North Minneapolis, and as we drove we reviewed both the gloomy past and a prospectively better future. Then we went into two hours of intensive math review. Evelyn needed review of all basic mathematical operations involving addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division; but these came back to her quickly. We went as far as three digits top and bottom in multiplication after reviewing multiplication tables with my quick-learn method; then we went on to decimals, the relationship of fractions to decimals, place value of mixed numbers with decimals, and all operations with both decimals and fractions.
This was astounding, even by the standards of my efficient methods that I have developed for skill acquisition and recovery. Evelyn is whip-smart and highly motivated. When I told her that we had just risen through the mathematical ranks from lower elementary school to a level approaching Grade 7, she beamed. When I told her that with two more weeks of two-hour academic sessions we would rise into high school for a study of algebra and geometry, I could see life transformation in Evelyn’s eyes. When I walked Evelyn up to her apartment at 4:30 PM on that Sunday, 7 February, she thanked me profusely, wiping tears from her eyes but wearing a broad smile on her face.
As soon as she closed the door behind her, I could hear her proclaiming to Damon, Javon, and Marcel:
“I climbed seven different grade levels today--- and next I’ll be in high school, then back in college!”
How many Stacey’s are there in our society who have been abused by lousy schools and historical circumstances--- but whose children and personal lives could be transformed by the power of better K-12 education?
Legions.
The revolution that must come in K-12 education is our most profound domestic duty for public policy in the United States. This is the next, long-delayed, Second Stage of the Civil Rights Movement.
I must not fail.
You must not fail.
We must not fail.
Feb 5, 2016
Message of Deepest Hopes for Genuine Happiness in the Life of a Beloved Student
February 5, 2016
To a Beloved Student---
I hope that you have taken genuine enjoyment in these first few weeks of second semester in your first year as a university student.
Approached in the correct manner, the university years are very precious. There is an opportunity to meet new people, develop a diversity of friends, align your time so as to interact with people of high moral character and driving intellectual interests, and move toward those stratospheric heights of humanity that Plato sees beyond the Cave, pondering the realm of Ideal Forms; and that the psychologist Abraham Maslow identifies with the "self-actualized" person.
There is also the opportunity to develop those life values that Robert Kennedy attributed to those of moral courage, that Albert Schweitzer associated with those who know that happiness lies in serving others, and that Martin Luther King envisioned at the mountaintop of human experience.
We have only one chance at this earthly sojourn.
....................................................................
I have loved you as a daughter ever since you first entered my world at Grade 3, now going on eleven years ago. I have striven to give you my very best in academic instruction, moral counsel, and practical advice.
I will always be ready to help you in any way that I can.
In these respects you are to me as is my beloved son, Ryan--- because as fervently as I love my precious son, I have loved you in like manner.
....................................................................
In the ideas that I presented to you from great thinkers in that radiant spring 2015 of your senior year, and in my Meditations on the Art of Living document that I generated for you last summer--- my motivation was to communicate to you the joy in striving for life at the mountaintop, the life of moral courage, the full internalization of Schweitzer's dictum that "The only ones among you who will be truly happy are those who have sought--- and found--- how to serve."
Remember always to be a person of love, caring deeply about other people, treating them with kindness, sharing ideas and experiences of your own and thinking carefully about what other people have to say.
I am very proud of your perseverance during your first year at the university, and I am glad that you have been able to maneuver so as to handle the financial aspects of being a university student.
You have given yourself a chance to succeed, and to lead your family toward a better quality of life.
........................................................................
My most important counsel to you continues as ever, extended in an enduring spirit that wishes you all best in every activity >>>>>
Enjoy your life.
Treasure each moment.
Embrace the good, the wholesome, and the uplifting on this one earthly sojourn.
Give thanks to the Divine in a spirit full of gratitude for the abundant opportunities bestowed on you in the course of this academic year.
As you move deeper into second semester, put that great brain to work in full measure while building relationships with intellectually astute and ethically principled people.
Be joyful and blessed in all that you do, knowing with each careful step you take how much I love you---
Gary
To a Beloved Student---
I hope that you have taken genuine enjoyment in these first few weeks of second semester in your first year as a university student.
Approached in the correct manner, the university years are very precious. There is an opportunity to meet new people, develop a diversity of friends, align your time so as to interact with people of high moral character and driving intellectual interests, and move toward those stratospheric heights of humanity that Plato sees beyond the Cave, pondering the realm of Ideal Forms; and that the psychologist Abraham Maslow identifies with the "self-actualized" person.
There is also the opportunity to develop those life values that Robert Kennedy attributed to those of moral courage, that Albert Schweitzer associated with those who know that happiness lies in serving others, and that Martin Luther King envisioned at the mountaintop of human experience.
We have only one chance at this earthly sojourn.
....................................................................
I have loved you as a daughter ever since you first entered my world at Grade 3, now going on eleven years ago. I have striven to give you my very best in academic instruction, moral counsel, and practical advice.
I will always be ready to help you in any way that I can.
In these respects you are to me as is my beloved son, Ryan--- because as fervently as I love my precious son, I have loved you in like manner.
....................................................................
In the ideas that I presented to you from great thinkers in that radiant spring 2015 of your senior year, and in my Meditations on the Art of Living document that I generated for you last summer--- my motivation was to communicate to you the joy in striving for life at the mountaintop, the life of moral courage, the full internalization of Schweitzer's dictum that "The only ones among you who will be truly happy are those who have sought--- and found--- how to serve."
Remember always to be a person of love, caring deeply about other people, treating them with kindness, sharing ideas and experiences of your own and thinking carefully about what other people have to say.
I am very proud of your perseverance during your first year at the university, and I am glad that you have been able to maneuver so as to handle the financial aspects of being a university student.
You have given yourself a chance to succeed, and to lead your family toward a better quality of life.
........................................................................
My most important counsel to you continues as ever, extended in an enduring spirit that wishes you all best in every activity >>>>>
Enjoy your life.
Treasure each moment.
Embrace the good, the wholesome, and the uplifting on this one earthly sojourn.
Give thanks to the Divine in a spirit full of gratitude for the abundant opportunities bestowed on you in the course of this academic year.
As you move deeper into second semester, put that great brain to work in full measure while building relationships with intellectually astute and ethically principled people.
Be joyful and blessed in all that you do, knowing with each careful step you take how much I love you---
Gary
Feb 3, 2016
Interview with Minneapolis Public Schools Office of Black Male Achievement Director Michael Walker
My readers should enjoy my interview with Minneapolis Public Schools Office of Black Male Achievement Director Michael Walker, seen on my show, The K-12 Revolution with Dr. Gary Marvin Davison on MTN Channel 17, this evening (Wednesday, February 3rd) at 6:00 PM.
You are only able to see the show in real time at 6:00 PM every Wednesday, either on television or live streaming at http://www.mtn.org/on_air/channel-17-webstream.
The show featuring Michael Walker will be at the standard time this evening (February 3rd), accessed as indicated, either on television or live streaming at the website.
When you tune into the show, you'll see one of three types of episodes >>>>>
>>>>> Interviews in the manner of the conversation with Michael Walker.
>>>>> Comment on philosophical matters pertinent to K-12 education, with applications to issues of current interest regarding the Minneapolis Public Schools and relevant to academic institutions across the city, state, nation, and world.
>>>>> Academic sessions as I am conducting them with my students, ranging from kindergarten through Grade 12, college and university age, into adulthood.
Readers of my blog know that this television show is one of many venues that I have created for conveying my ideas regarding a knowledge-intensive K-12 education with teachers retrained at the level of the central school district who will have the knowledge and pedagogical skill necessary to delivering an excellent education on the basis of knowledge and skill intensity.
An Exchange with a Friend Regarding Reading Instruction for an Adult
I am sharing the following exchange, typical of many requests that I get daily from people of all ages, from the K-12 years, college and university settings, and living in the adult workaday world--- all seeking academic help that they are not getting or did not get while attending public schools. While I get these requests from across the Minneapolis-St. Paul Metropolitan Area, and even beyond, most of my students are currently attending in the Minneapolis Public Schools--- or are adults who attended (many even graduated) from those schools without getting anything resembling a decent education.
Here is the exchange:
Hi Gary.
I have a client in need of help improving his reading skills.
Do you guys handle that at New Salem, and if so what days and times?
Please advise at your earliest convenience.
Thanks a lot,
[Your Brother at New Salem Missionary Baptist Church].
February 3, 2016
To [My Brother at New Salem Missionary Baptist Church]---
I was happy to have your email.
Your client should start attending Tuesday Tutoring at New Salem, held every Tuesday evening. We start at 6:00 PM and go until 7:30 PM on most Tuesdays. The exception is the second Tuesday of the month, on which we start at 6:30 PM and go until 8:00 PM. This latter schedule will be the one to follow next Tuesday, February 9th.
The reason for the later start on the second Tuesday of the month is to allow me time to make Public Comment at the meeting of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education before buzzing over to the church to run the tutoring program.
So I'll be looking for your client next Tuesday at 6:30 PM.
If your client needs more intense personal help, I'll do what I can to work him into one of the 17 small-group academic sessions that I teach each week. I run two or three sessions each day of the week, after school, in the evenings; all day Saturday (up to five different academic sessions on Saturday); and after church on Sunday.
You'll need to give your client lots of encouragement, and so will I. Catching up on reading is a daunting prospect for an adult who was disserved by our terrible public schools (not just in Minneapolis, but across the nation)--- the reason for many of my efforts in agitating for big change in the way the Minneapolis Public Schools are run. In case of folks such as your client, they tend to get discouraged with the slow progress that necessarily is the reality when people are far behind because of abuse by the public school system and because, by definition, they are largely nonreaders due to ability and habit.
But I thrive on such challenges and will do everything that I can to help your client to succeed.
You would likely enjoy my interview with Minneapolis Public Schools Office of Black Male Achievement Director Michael Walker, seen on my show, The K-12 Revolution with Dr. Gary Marvin Davison on MTN Channel 17.
You are only able to see the show in real time at 6:00 PM every Wednesday, either on television or live streaming at http://www.mtn.org/on_air/channel-17-webstream. The show featuring Michael Walker is this evening (February 3rd), accessed as indicated, either on television or live streaming at the website.
Be blessed, my brother--
Gary
Gary Marvin Davison, Ph. D.
Director, New Salem Educational Initiative
Here is the exchange:
February 3, 2016
To [My Brother at New Salem Missionary Baptist Church]---
I was happy to have your email.
Your client should start attending Tuesday Tutoring at New Salem, held every Tuesday evening. We start at 6:00 PM and go until 7:30 PM on most Tuesdays. The exception is the second Tuesday of the month, on which we start at 6:30 PM and go until 8:00 PM. This latter schedule will be the one to follow next Tuesday, February 9th.
The reason for the later start on the second Tuesday of the month is to allow me time to make Public Comment at the meeting of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education before buzzing over to the church to run the tutoring program.
So I'll be looking for your client next Tuesday at 6:30 PM.
If your client needs more intense personal help, I'll do what I can to work him into one of the 17 small-group academic sessions that I teach each week. I run two or three sessions each day of the week, after school, in the evenings; all day Saturday (up to five different academic sessions on Saturday); and after church on Sunday.
You'll need to give your client lots of encouragement, and so will I. Catching up on reading is a daunting prospect for an adult who was disserved by our terrible public schools (not just in Minneapolis, but across the nation)--- the reason for many of my efforts in agitating for big change in the way the Minneapolis Public Schools are run. In case of folks such as your client, they tend to get discouraged with the slow progress that necessarily is the reality when people are far behind because of abuse by the public school system and because, by definition, they are largely nonreaders due to ability and habit.
But I thrive on such challenges and will do everything that I can to help your client to succeed.
You would likely enjoy my interview with Minneapolis Public Schools Office of Black Male Achievement Director Michael Walker, seen on my show, The K-12 Revolution with Dr. Gary Marvin Davison on MTN Channel 17.
You are only able to see the show in real time at 6:00 PM every Wednesday, either on television or live streaming at http://www.mtn.org/on_air/channel-17-webstream. The show featuring Michael Walker is this evening (February 3rd), accessed as indicated, either on television or live streaming at the website.
Be blessed, my brother--
Gary
Gary Marvin Davison, Ph. D.
Director, New Salem Educational Initiative
Feb 2, 2016
An Article Engendered by a Question from One of My Readers >>>>> Teaching as A Sacred Mission Calling for Conscientious Transmission of Knowledge and Deep Respect for Students as Human Beings
I had such a thoughtful question from one of my readers in response to one of my articles ("Focus, Focus, Focus, and Cut the Hocus Pocus") that I wanted to share our exchange as a mainline article for posting on the blog, as follows:
The reader's question:
"I liked your approach to students (as given in the article, 'Focus, Focus, Focus, and Cut the Hocus Pocus') and the way you're motivating them to be more productive!
"Sir, I have a question for you:
"As a professional educator, what in your opinion are the qualities of a good teacher?
"And what if the teacher is bullying the students and harassing them?
"How can one deal with this kind of problem?"
My Response
Thanks for your comments, and for your question >>>>>
In many places on my blog, I define an excellent teacher as
a professional of deep and broad knowledge who has the pedagogical ability to impart that knowledge to students of all demographic descriptors.
Education professors have ruined generations of teachers and other professionals in the education establishment by devaluing knowledge and asserting that the role of a teacher is to guide students in their personal quest for information on topics of burning interest.
This is nonsense.
The proper role of the teacher is to transmit knowledge that has accumulated from centuries of experience across the globe and to ignite student enthusiasm in many realms of knowledge--- rather than to focus exclusively on the particularistic interest that most animates a student.
Thus, we want our students ultimately to pursue their own passion on the basis of a comprehensive knowledge base from the liberal arts (natural science, mathematics, history, economics, literature, fine arts, world languages), as well as acquiring skills in the industrial and technological arts.
As to a teacher who is bullying and harassing students, she or he should be removed from the classroom and given a chance to change the behavior through counseling--- but then to be terminated in the teaching position if the behavior persists after high-quality counseling. There is absolutely no excuse for bullying and harassing students. A true teacher loves knowledge and the students to whom her or his knowledge is being transmitted.
The teacher's mission is sacred, and every teacher-student interaction should be considered correspondingly sacred.
Jan 29, 2016
While the Protracted Search for a Superintendent Continues, Academic Quality of the Minneapolis Public Schools Remains Low
One year ago, I counseled members of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education not to engage in a protracted search for a new Superintendent.
My observation, detailed in many articles on this blog, was that nothing in the way superintendents are trained works to produce the kind of professionals likely to articulate a program for bringing excellence to the public schools.
We got lucky with Bernadeia Johnson, who included in her professional history experience outside the education establishment, so that she was able to elude the heavy odds prevailing against those whose professional trajectory follows more traditional routes.
Superintendent Johnson did identify the most vexing problems facing the Minneapolis Public Schools (and all centralized public school systems) >>>>>
>>>>> She recognized the need to slim the centralized bureaucracy and move sources close to the classroom in her Shift program.
>>>>> She acted on the long-prevailing need to address low academic achievement at schools with high enrollments of students from families of low income and frequently dysfunctional home situations by elevating attention to those needs after identifying High Priority Schools.
>>>>> And she addressed the curricular inconsistency long endemic to the Minneapolis Public Schools, especially at the K-5 level, by establishing the Focused Instruction program for implementing cohesive grade by grade curriculum throughout the K-12 years.
If we followed through on those programs established during the Bernadeia Johnson tenure, we would overhaul the Minneapolis Public Schools in such a way at to establish the knowledge-intensive education that students of all demographic descriptors must have--- the system of education that I have presented in many articles on this blog.
But now, just when members of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education seemed to have followed through on the protracted process against which I argued in such a way as to arrive at a viable selection in Sergio Paez as Superintendent--- the process became vitiated, much bungling ensued, and a situation even worse than that which I feared now abides. And as the search now appears likely to drag on into summer, personnel at the Minneapolis Public Schools are not acting vigorously enough to move on the promising programs from the Bernadeia Johnson years.
Meanwhile, all of the old conditions endemic to the education establishment and the debased culture of the Minneapolis Public Schools remain unchanged >>>>>
>>>>> Teachers are still trained terribly according to the errant philosophical precepts and programs of professors in departments, schools, and colleges of education.
>>>>> Once in the classroom, most teachers prove to have too little knowledge and to be mediocre at imparting necessary knowledge and skill sets to the students with whose education and therefore lives they are entrusted; a few teachers find their way to excellence, but a like number are so inept that they never should have entered the classroom.
And, specifically, in the schools and classrooms of our students at the Minneapolis Public Schools,
>>>>> too many videos or DVDs are shown;
>>>>> too many worksheet-filled “packets” are distributed;
>>>>> too little discussion and teacher-dispensed knowledge occurs;
>>>>> too many field trips occur in which students have little preparation and limited idea of the purpose;
>>>>> too many students endure the presence of inept substitutes due to teacher absences and midyear resignations;
>>>>> and students move forward on a very slim skill base in mathematics and reading; and abominable training in literature, fine arts, natural science, history, government, economics, psychology, world languages, and the industrial and technological arts.
The pool of possible superintendents is unlikely to produce any candidate who is a sure bet to have the training and experience necessary to address these problems that are at the core of the public schools dilemma. Whoever is selected will need lots of help from a few capable people able to point that superintendent in the right direction. Thus, the real task before the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education is to opt for the least objectionable selection from a murky pool of candidates; then to train attention on the vexing and long-abiding problems detailed above and identified by Bernadeia Johnson in the programs of Shift, High Priority Schools, and Focused Instruction.
To move the Minneapolis Public Schools in the direction of delivering knowledge-intensive education with retrained teachers possessing the knowledge necessary to impart such an education; and bequeath to our students that excellence of education that will send them forth culturally enriched, civically prepared, and professionally rewarded;
we must cease distractions presented as we lurch from unnecessary crisis to unnecessary crisis; select the best candidate for Superintendent available; but in doing so know that any such person will need the counsel of the few apt educational professionals and knowledgeable people able to guide and support the new leader in addressing the problems and furthering the programs that can lead us to excellence in education in the classrooms of the Minneapolis Public Schools.
My observation, detailed in many articles on this blog, was that nothing in the way superintendents are trained works to produce the kind of professionals likely to articulate a program for bringing excellence to the public schools.
We got lucky with Bernadeia Johnson, who included in her professional history experience outside the education establishment, so that she was able to elude the heavy odds prevailing against those whose professional trajectory follows more traditional routes.
Superintendent Johnson did identify the most vexing problems facing the Minneapolis Public Schools (and all centralized public school systems) >>>>>
>>>>> She recognized the need to slim the centralized bureaucracy and move sources close to the classroom in her Shift program.
>>>>> She acted on the long-prevailing need to address low academic achievement at schools with high enrollments of students from families of low income and frequently dysfunctional home situations by elevating attention to those needs after identifying High Priority Schools.
>>>>> And she addressed the curricular inconsistency long endemic to the Minneapolis Public Schools, especially at the K-5 level, by establishing the Focused Instruction program for implementing cohesive grade by grade curriculum throughout the K-12 years.
If we followed through on those programs established during the Bernadeia Johnson tenure, we would overhaul the Minneapolis Public Schools in such a way at to establish the knowledge-intensive education that students of all demographic descriptors must have--- the system of education that I have presented in many articles on this blog.
But now, just when members of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education seemed to have followed through on the protracted process against which I argued in such a way as to arrive at a viable selection in Sergio Paez as Superintendent--- the process became vitiated, much bungling ensued, and a situation even worse than that which I feared now abides. And as the search now appears likely to drag on into summer, personnel at the Minneapolis Public Schools are not acting vigorously enough to move on the promising programs from the Bernadeia Johnson years.
Meanwhile, all of the old conditions endemic to the education establishment and the debased culture of the Minneapolis Public Schools remain unchanged >>>>>
>>>>> Teachers are still trained terribly according to the errant philosophical precepts and programs of professors in departments, schools, and colleges of education.
>>>>> Once in the classroom, most teachers prove to have too little knowledge and to be mediocre at imparting necessary knowledge and skill sets to the students with whose education and therefore lives they are entrusted; a few teachers find their way to excellence, but a like number are so inept that they never should have entered the classroom.
And, specifically, in the schools and classrooms of our students at the Minneapolis Public Schools,
>>>>> too many videos or DVDs are shown;
>>>>> too many worksheet-filled “packets” are distributed;
>>>>> too little discussion and teacher-dispensed knowledge occurs;
>>>>> too many field trips occur in which students have little preparation and limited idea of the purpose;
>>>>> too many students endure the presence of inept substitutes due to teacher absences and midyear resignations;
>>>>> and students move forward on a very slim skill base in mathematics and reading; and abominable training in literature, fine arts, natural science, history, government, economics, psychology, world languages, and the industrial and technological arts.
The pool of possible superintendents is unlikely to produce any candidate who is a sure bet to have the training and experience necessary to address these problems that are at the core of the public schools dilemma. Whoever is selected will need lots of help from a few capable people able to point that superintendent in the right direction. Thus, the real task before the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education is to opt for the least objectionable selection from a murky pool of candidates; then to train attention on the vexing and long-abiding problems detailed above and identified by Bernadeia Johnson in the programs of Shift, High Priority Schools, and Focused Instruction.
To move the Minneapolis Public Schools in the direction of delivering knowledge-intensive education with retrained teachers possessing the knowledge necessary to impart such an education; and bequeath to our students that excellence of education that will send them forth culturally enriched, civically prepared, and professionally rewarded;
we must cease distractions presented as we lurch from unnecessary crisis to unnecessary crisis; select the best candidate for Superintendent available; but in doing so know that any such person will need the counsel of the few apt educational professionals and knowledgeable people able to guide and support the new leader in addressing the problems and furthering the programs that can lead us to excellence in education in the classrooms of the Minneapolis Public Schools.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)