Day 133 Friday, February 19, 2010: Lie To Me or Won’t Get Fooled Again
Today is Day 133 of my time left at Fremont.
When it was proposed that teachers and other staff and select parents step up and join the “committees” to design the New Fremont, there were few takers from the faculty. Many of the faculty felt that if their roles were to be purely advisory, that participation did not guarantee re-employment, then why go along with the sham. And there are those unfortunate few individuals who feel it is not an “employee’s place” to dictate policy.
We’re not “employees,” except in the strictest of senses. We’re not parts that can easily be replaced like the way my Ukrainian immigrant dad kept his fleet of 70s Datsuns (yes, I said Datsun, not Nissan) running. But evidently we already have been replaced. Encouraged to reapply, we have been warned by the administration that there exists the magical organization ready to supply Fremont with 150 fresh new faces, that on Tuesday, Day 136, that 100 applications to reapply at Fremont have been turned in—on the same day that the Pathways and Humanitas C SLCs marched in en mass to have their transfer papers signed.
And now we see the plans for the New Fremont at http://teachinla.com/makeadifference/fremont/new_fremont_sh.pps#347,1,Slide 1
Looks to me like those committees really were window dressing after all. Looks like there is no input from faculty, staff, parents, students, community—you know, what’s that word that gets used during accreditation visits or gets trotted out by administration and LAUSD whenever people see a need for change… Ah, “stakeholders,” yeah… Where was the input from the stakeholders in this vision of the New Fremont?
Did LAUSD have this plan already in place when they asked teachers to join the “committees”? If so, why ask us to rubber-stamp it?
If the plan was quickly assembled in the last couple of weeks, without faculty or parental or student or community input, then certainly the “stakeholders” do not matter in this. I certainly am inclined to believe these groups do not matter, anyway, because LAUSD revoked permits for UTLA rallies, which would have offered dissenting opinion to district policy, have revoked a permit for a parent/community meeting, which was far better advertised and announced that the sham meeting a handful of parents attended.
Why does LAUSD not want the parents and community involved? Could it be that when this travesty was attempted in Chicago, that some of the neighborhoods organized and said, “No”? Why does LAUSD fear the word “No”? Why do they fear even the thought of hearing another opinion?
Let’s time travel. Let’s look at the New Fremont.
A lot of the numbers will have remained the same, for Fremont will still be in the same community, so we’ll see (I’m pulling these “stats” directly from http://teachinla.com/makeadifference/fremont/new_fremont_sh.pps#347,1,Slide 1) :
A high school in District 7, run by Dr. George McKenna III, and no reason to expect he’ll treat the new staff any differently than he does the current faculty;
4600 students oin a 3-track, year round calendar;
92% Latino, 8% African-American;
85% socio-economically disadvantaged;
10% Special Education students—500+;
37% English Learners—1700+;
Math and Science Magnet—280 students;
240 certificated teachers and support staff;
150 classified employees.
There will be a new schedule—4x4 Block, with 90 minute periods, capable of bending time and space as easily as any Star Trek engineer, cramming 14 classes a year where only 12 existed before, and the remaining 12 SLCs (since the Magnet school gets to remain with their 300 students) will be collapsed into 5 Academies of 500 students each, and the 9th graders will be placed in “Centers”—and there will never be a 9R! How miraculous is that?
But since classes will be longer (and they already are longer than classes at traditional schools, which makes the absenteeism even more crucial), each day a student misses school, they will have missed that much more of instruction. Our classes are 59 minutes long, while traditional periods are shorter; to miss a couple of days at a Concept 6 school actually creates a greater impact than at a traditional school, if you think of minutes of instruction—and we are frequently reminded by the administration to have “bell-to-bell instruction.” Or is what we do that easily replaced, eh? So, given the average student misses 25-30 days of instruction in a 162-day Concept 6 year (the Good Doctor’s figures), imagine the impact of missing 25-30 days of 90-minute periods.
Let’s look at the 9th grade “centers” (why aren’t they “academies—perhaps the question is merely… academic?): We had the attempt of the 9th-grade house, where teachers were given an extra period to counsel students who were in trouble academically (and Lord knows how many other ways a 14-year-old can get into trouble); there were successful advances, but when the funding dried up for that extra attention, there were those 9Rs (and we have been promised “No 9Rs” in the New Fremont). They will be isolated from the rest of the population and serviced (anyone else hear Beevis and Butthead?) in a Pyramid of Success by everyone except teachers, as has been observed by at least one observant 9th grade teacher. By the way, lots of pretty pyramids and circles and flow charts on the Powerpoint, but as with most Powerpoints, pretty and vague brushstrokes and not much substance; guess that’s kind of like a Monet (I think I just quoted “Clueless”—I’m so ashamed…)—very pretty from far away, but up close is a very different picture.
Look again:
There are 240 certificated teachers and support staff, and 150 classified staff. Remember that there are these magical organizations ready to jump in at a moment’s notice to replace all those lazy Fremont staff. So let’s pretend those 150 teachers who are ready to go, do just that—go to the Mont. That leaves 90 experienced teachers, while a bunch of enthusiastic recruits fresh out of college will be in overcrowded classes. Wait, the classes are still going to be overcrowded, right? Or did the budgetary problems which caused as the RIFs (hi, Cynthia Rosado and Oscar Navarro—everyone else reading can add their own names to the “Comments” section) and which threaten more this year reverse themselves and we might actually lower the student-to-teacher ratio (is it “lower” when there’s fewer students?).
So let’s picture a 10th grade world history class: At the beginning of each semester, there are usually 40+ in my classes. It generally takes me a few weeks to get enough seats for everybody, crowding the kids around the tables in my room. Let’s assume this will remain the same, except someone new will we in my old room, the “O-Zone.” New teacher (maybe first or second year), 40+ students (constant movement there because some disappear, others move in, others get dumped in). No working phones or speakers in either of the rooms that were designated the O-Zone, so there goes contact. Every morning, whoever is teaching there will get to reassemble the room because of the ravages of adult school or Saturday school—Beyond the Bell in all its glory—and will have to leave shortly after school. Under the current situation, I would know which teachers to check with and to plan cross-curricular teaming to solve problems in class, and to plan vertical teaming for the students’ following years. Kiss that goodbye, for the 13 SLCs are not collapsed into 5 academies and the Magnet school. The subjects go back into isolation, no longer visibly connected for the kids. To give you examples, Ms. Naneka William’s teaches the book “Things Fall Apart,” while I cover the historical aspects of imperialism and colonialism. Ms. Edelman teaches mythology and I cover the Classical World (I teach in 2 SLCs, so I can reach more 10th graders); she teaches Shakespeare—I cover the Renaissance. Simple, yes? The kids make connections between the subjects.
That goes away, wished into the academic cornfield of LAUSD’s Twilight Zone. Mine is not the only case. Most of us are doing this very thing, but next year you will have 150 new teachers (62% or something like that—remember I don’t get ratios) teaching in isolation in overcrowded conditions. And be expected to increase the graduation rate and raise test scores.
But don’t worry. Next year will only be a “period of adjustment,” while LAUSD and the Fremont administration “irons out the problems.” (Hey, maybe we can just go out an buy the solution from Scholastic Books… ). So if you are a parent or a student at the New Fremont, you just have to be patient and understanding. Transitions take time… You can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs… So what if your children get a quarter of their time at Fremont written off.? The year after next will be better… Oh, yeah, the year after next the population of Fremont gets divided between Original Fremont and the two new high schools, so Fremont will get to play that game all over again… And, after all, you have to be patient that year, too; each of these schools will really be THREE NEW HIGH SCHOOLS with faculty, staff, students, parents and community all adjusting to the changes together.
My, what a bright, rosy future those teachers who are reapplying, and those 150 new teachers and support staff and 150 classified staff have to look forward to.
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Day 136 Tuesday, February 16, 2010: Teach Your Children
Today is Tuesday, February 16, 2010 and Day 136 in my time left at Fremont. I got my transfer papers signed, which was coincidently the day the applications for the “reapplication process” (redundant, eh?) were placed in our mailboxes. Two of the SLCs marched in en mass and had their papers signed. I went in solo—better that way, I guess. It did allow me to see one of my favorite kids as I came out the principal’s office.
This child was a major irritant to me the first ten weeks of school. You know the species: 15-year-old eye-rolling chatterbox addicted to her Ipod and Iphone and so lazy you’d have to tell her to breathe. Then there was some miraculous understanding in week eleven, where I stopped longing for her to be absent and instead of jumping her case about being LATE, she’d be a minute late to first period and I’d raise a Mr. Spock eyebrow. She’s also a “B” student—might even get an “A” this semester if I know my kids, and I’ve been teaching since 1983 and I usually watch them come ALIVE in my class second semester. She asked, “Are you making trouble again?” We matched grins. You see, she understands why I am doing this.
Kids like this mean a lot to me. As I’ve said before, I feel good teachers teach life lessons all year long—they just use their subject areas as the vehicles to do so. Another kid, who’s playing basketball, got into a massive yelling match in September, which was especially painful because this is another of those “lazy” kids who eventually earned a “B” and I fully expect to get an “A” at year’s end (the joy of 10th grade—first semester is a nightmare and second semester I watch them bloom) expressed his concern for me a couple of days after the Cortines bombshell. “Hey, O, you straight?” It took a while for me to reply, but did my usual minimizing what’s going on with me. He didn’t buy my bull and told me, “Hey, it’s not your fault.”
That’s two reasons right there.
Another set of reasons comes from a lesson I do annually, this happening a couple of years ago. When I teach the Cold War, my all-time favorite lesson involves giving the kids lyrics to a dozen songs, with images of the time. I play the music, starting with “For What It’s Worth” (all the youngsters can stop rolling your eyes now); on that day, all the kids have to do is read the lyrics, listen to the music and look at the images, sort of a multi-media romp through the Sixties and Seventies. In twenty six years of teaching, I only have had to shut down this lesson TWICE out of all of my classes. In the year in question, most of the Fremont staff participated in a one-period boycott. Students and community members watched us as we demonstrated; those of us who did taking the loss of an hour’s pay. The lesson? Everything comes with a cost. In the words of Stephen Stills: “Find the cost of freedom buried in the ground.” But that day, those kids heard the music—really heard it—and saw what we were doing—for them! After one period, I had a couple of girls come up to say, “No one in our lives has ever taught us like that. Thank you.” There’s intangible rewards. Yeah, I’m not one of those teachers who gets praise from colleagues or administration—the previous principal pretty much denigrated me for five years. But I’m not doing this for him. It’s for those kids, hoping they can take my lessons and go further, kind of an Isaac Newton, “We stand on the shoulders of giants” sort of thing.
That’s why I’m doing what I am doing. This isn’t to feed my ego and have sixteen-year-olds praise me. It’s to have them see the life lessons. One of my kids said today (I saw an amazing number of them today): “You don’t give a damn what anyone thinks.” “Not true,” was my reply, which came from the heart. Does it matter what others think of me? Of course it does. But what matters more is to be the person I was raised to be; there were lots of hands in that process: my parents, my sister thirteen years my elder, the example of my stiff-necked grandfather who died in a gulag, teachers I have known, science fiction writers I have met, other writers I have only known through their works, such as Tolkien (and for the record, I look like Gimli, think Aragorn/Strider is the coolest one, but it is plain old Sam Gamgee who is the real hero), poets, musicians, comic book characters (for the record, again, Green Arrow, because he has always fought for those who need a champion)… and those I’ve met along the way in the Society for Creative Anachronism. All of these shaped me, gave me my pain-in-the-butt, devil-take-the-cost attitude.
This, too, has been my favorite teaching “gig,” sixteen years’ worth. That’s also why I had to put in transfer papers today. If I stood by and did nothing, EVERYTHING I TAUGHT MY KIDS WOULD BECOME A LIE! And I firmly, passionately believe in what I am doing and what I am teaching. I must teach and lead by example. There another couple of quotes that come to mind:
“When one man says no, Rome begins to fear. We were tens of thousands who said no. That was the wonder of it.”—Kirk Douglas in “Spartacus”
"I think there's only one thing that a father needs to leave his son, and that's a good example of how a man should live his life. Anything else, the son can learn for himself. The greatest gift my father ever gave me was the courage to trust my own abilities, and I learned that through his example."—Fraser, Due South (The Gift of the Wheelman”).
I haven’t lied to Mr. Balderas. I haven’t lied to the kids. I’m not about to start.
While a number of us have been stumbling across reconstitution in the media (and some of it is about the Mont), I thought I’d post a few links (many of the Fremont faculty have seen these—some are repostings of my writing, but there are comments and insights to think about):
This was from abc7.com: the December 16 Rally held to save FremontHigh School jobs:
http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/video?id=7173389
Anthony Cody, Teacher Magazine, has reposted several of my musings, relating our challenge:
Day 168
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2010/01/how_does_it_feel_to_be_reconst.html
Day 152
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2010/02/the_battle_for_fremont_high.html
He has also written an article on reconstitution, bringing in a broader perspective, as well as publishing a couple of pictures from the February 9 rally that almost wasn’t:
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2010/02/reconstitution_there_has_got_t.html
In addition, Susan Ohanian, reposted Day 168 and discusses reconstitution:
http://susanohanian.org/commentaries.php
And Education Notes Online reposted Day 152:
http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/
An article about how reconstitution at a high school in Seattle didn’t work: http://www.theskanner.com/index.php/article/view/id/6642
Happy Mardi Gras.
--Chuck
Day 136 “Teach Your Children”—Chuck Olynyk—was reposted by Anthony Cody at Teacher Magazine as “Fremont High, Day 136: Life Lessons From A Reconstitution”
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2010/02/fremont_high_day_136_life_less.html
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Day 137 Monday, February 15, 2010: Another Brick in the Wall Pt 2
This is Monday, February 15, 2010 and Day 137 of my time left at the Mont. In “Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 1” (hey, I’m entitled—there were three parts to “Another Brick in the Wall” and yes, to the non-Social Studies part of the Mont faculty, I played Part II during the department meeting as our soundtrack in December AFTER the infamous Cortines Speech—always thought Life ought to have a soundtrack…) we examined the idea of walls and fences throughout history, with discussion of a couple of famous walls and Fremont’s own “RIF-proof fence” which will miraculously save teachers and staff from receiving the nasty pink slips which a bunch of classified received in December (see the L.A. Times for Sunday, St. Valentine’s Day—could we call this the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre of 2010? Just an idea, eh?).
No barrier will keep out an idea—or the truth.
The word has been put out that “anybody stupid enough not to reapply will be sent to…” a particular middle school which won’t be named (along with “they want to keep 70% of us—they only want to get rid of the bad teachers”—the Fifty?); there’s a certain bit of humor in this (okay, I see it as humorous in a twisted sort of way), as so far there are approximately 120 out of something like 240 faculty who have signed The Pledge not to reapply, so loading 120 of us onto the symbolic train bound for the gulag (now you know why I fixate on gulags) the district will make of this middle school doesn’t quite work, especially when you consider that the school in question is reconfiguring from 6/7/8 to 7/8, requiring an even smaller staff…
The word is out that if we fail to reapply, we face the danger of being RIFfed (sorry, I never am quite sure how to spell that). A couple of problems with this, one of which I’ve discussed (district seniority). But here’s an important one: it looks real good that there will be NO RIFs for secondary teachers, according to Mat.
He writes: “Perhaps as many as two thousand elementary teachers are on the list, however, even with the shortened school year proposed but not yet negotiated or voted on. Still what this means for Fremont is one key administration ploy is dead!” I‘ll take the liberty of translating Mat-isms into O-isms: administration reads as D7 (Dr. George McKenna III) or LAUSD (or Superintendent Cortines, on the BOD of Scholastic Books—ooh, was that in the times recently?), although some have already heard it a bit more locally, eh?
“Mister Worf, villains who twirl their mustaches are easy to spot. Those who clothe themselves in good deeds are well camouflaged.”—Captain Picard to Worf, Star Trek TNG (“The Drumhead”)
So when someone comes to you, pulls you aside and tells you to reapply for your own good, for the economy and the odds are against you, sit back and enjoy the ride.
"This is what's wrong with you, Fraser. You see a problem and you have to fix it. You can't even go to the men's room without stopping to tell some simple stupid charmingly witty Inuit story that inspires people to take on the world's social ills." –Ray Vecchio, Due South (“An Eye For an Eye”)
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Day 139 Saturday, February 13, 2010: “Another Brick in the Wall”
This is Saturday, February 13, 2010 and Day 139 of my days left at Fremont. The “restructuring” timeline appeared in the mail a couple of days ago, and the community meeting was held, as well, shifting venues from FremontHigh School (where it was originally scheduled) to Praises of Zion Church a few blocks south of the Mont. The room was pretty full, my guess was that the teachers present made up 20-25% of those in attendance.
What I’m actually writing about tonight are walls and fences. See, we’d been forced to make banners and flyers advertising the shift in venues and had to tape them to fences and buildings; certain fences required different techniques of taping and this sent my easily-distracted mind winding down other paths.
Walls and fences are barriers, but when you construct them, you have to keep in mind what you want to keep in—or out (ask anybody with a child—or a pet, I suppose…). This got me thinking about walls and barriers through history (it is my subject area, after all).
Hadrian’s Wall… The Great Wall of China… Ultimately, both of those failed through a lack of manpower of keeping the enemy OUT. The Berlin Wall, designed to keep people IN, also failed; it was a symbol of the Cold War; the only time I remember my parents dancing was when the Wall fell in 1989. Then there’s the RIF-proof fence around Fremont.
Oh, you never heard about that one? No, it’s not the fence Auggie Herrera built that same year he put up the mural on the gym which now only exists in pictures like the one on the website, nay, nay. This is the fence we are being told exists for those teachers who re-apply to teach at Fremont. Never mind that RIFs are based upon start date as certificated employees; that means LAUSD looks at the DATE you started service—not WHERE you are employed.
Just another random thought: walls and fences are built as a desire for protection, which can often come from fear. So who’s afraid here?
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Day 139 Saturday, February 13, 2010
HOW DID MY PRINCIPAL BECOME MY ADVERSARY?
An open letter to my principal, Mr. Balderas.
At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed.Frederick Douglass Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them.Frederick Douglass
No man can put a chain about the ankle of his fellow man without at last finding the other end fastened about his own neck.Frederick Douglass
Dear Mr. Balderas,
You lost me today. You lost me with the fear- based rhetoric in your interview with the Magnet Chronicles. And it’s hard to lose me. Just ask some teachers who knew I supported the last principal when most others did not. So I don’t say that lightly. Losing me is really hard to do- but you did it. And this is actually hard for me to write because you were very compassionate and supportive when my father died, and I really appreciated that. It meant a lot to me. It shows that you have empathy and understanding, which is why your words in the paper came as somewhat of a shock.
I was shocked by the obvious disrespect you showed to veteran teachers in the interview as if we can just be replaced by new “people” without missing a beat. I recognized your arguments immediately as fear –based rather than persuasive and inclusionary. You see that’s what a good education does for you- it makes you a critical thinker.
Let me back up. I think of a principal as someone who supports the profession of teaching instead of obstructing it, someone who supports good teaching instead of pointing out that one in a million case of the “charmer teacher” who fails 92% of their students; someone who inspires using their background, experience and philosophy instead of doing the bidding of some higher up bureaucrats for the district because maybe you have been promised something if you just tolerate Fremont for the next three years.
You started off pretty strong. Many teachers felt you respected them more than the last principal and that is a positive thing. But then Cortines showed up and made his big announcement. I think most teachers were still in your corner for the next few weeks, but then the shock wore off and the actual critical thinking began. I know one question I had that I never asked you is, “What did you know and when did you know it?” Did you always know from the day you set foot on this campus- a campus that obviously means quite a different thing to you than it does to me- that this would happen?
“The district is ready.” Ready for what? Is this some kind of war? And I thought I was coming in to school everyday to prepare young people for the future, not wage a battle against my own district - the district that until recently, I felt loyalty towards.
“They are going to announce more budget cuts…..So would you want to come back and work and reapply and try to get a job now that there are less jobs out there?” But yet in the next breath you mention that there are “people” (note you didn’t say teachers) from UCLA, Teach for America and Cal State Dominguez Hills ready to go! And the best part is those TFA “people” won’t have permanent status, too much life experience or opinions! That must be an administrator’s dream come true! And better yet is their low price tag. Well then, if you’re all set and ready to go with these “people” why try to scare us teachers into reapplying with the budget argument? Is it because you know that you might actually need some real educators to begin the school year?
Without uninvolved, overworked, working –class parents, you and district officials could not threaten a successful magnet program that sends the vast majority of its students to four– year colleges over the issue of one piece of “data” – a word you seem fond of. You seem very well educated. Certainly you know that judging students or teachers on one piece of data is neither reliable nor valid. I know you learned that somewhere in your education. So the question is, why are you pushing to close a magnet school based on one piece of data? You know that normed- referenced tests will always put 50% of students below the average. Pretty soon, every school will be a “failing school.” The difference is in other geographic areas, the parents would never allow bully and thug- like buearacrats to disrespect their schools or teachers. They would be much more willing to challenge their authority. It’s what you and the district have counted on would not happen here in south Los Angeles. You are counting on a passive populace.
I wonder if your child was attending a magnet school if you would feel good about some bureaucrats who have been out of the classroom for years shutting down the program based on a CST score. “No” you would argue, look at all the other benefits the program has. But somehow it is fine for other people’s children to lose opportunities, as long as they live in an urban area with lower income parents.
Education is about relationships- relationships with students and staff- it’s what makes it worth it to actually show up here day after day. And when all of a sudden you realize that certain people are no longer there- it leaves a hole- I can think of a few names right off the bat- they mean nothing to you but they do to me- Sharonne Wells, Sarah Knoppe, Jack Baroutjian, Roman del Rosario- when Fremont loses certain people, we also lose qualities that can’t always be replaced in the exact same way. Which is why losing a whole bunch of people like those above would be devastating. Now of course you have those “people” waiting in the wings- I just hope they cherish the students I have seen make big strides in the same way I cherish them- but I doubt they will. They will be too busy just trying to keep their heads above water their first year teaching- and where does that leave my students? The learning curve at Fremont is at minimum 1 year- and that’s just to figure the place out. To become a truly competent teacher takes about five years. And you have no guarantee that the new “people” will even stick around that long.
Have you ever asked your self why teachers from high API schools like El Camino and LACES aren’t beating down the doors of Fremont to get a job here? You know the answer to that. Because the same teachers you disrespect have one of the most difficult jobs in the world- and you refuse to acknowledge that with support mechanisms –instead you insist that any new “person” can do our job.
I am the ultimate believer in redemption and I still hold out hope that instead of the corporatist “anyone can be replaced” mentality you are espousing, that you will come to see that you are painting yourself into a corner when it comes to relationships with teachers and building a vision for the school. Even teachers rehired will be embittered and not likely to support a principal who denigrates a profession he himself came from. But maybe you don’t care because you know that in most reconstitutions the majority of the staff won’t stay or won’t be rehired.
Have you ever considered the fact that the district is using you as the fall guy for this disaster –that they are putting you between themselves and the angry mob because they don’t really have a plan? Because those are the thoughts that came to my mind when I would ask Dr. McKenna a question and he would always try to refer me to you. I realized then that they want to call the shots but they don’t really want to be responsible for them.
Personally, I didn’t enter the education field to sell my soul or to sell out. I entered the field of education so I wouldn’t have to. How about you?
I’d like to believe that the words I read in the paper didn’t really come from you- that maybe you were just speaking something you were told to say- because somehow I can’t reconcile the principal who has always been respectful in person to the one who showed disrespect and arrogance toward my profession in the article. I’ll give you and anyone a chance to make it right- everyone deserves that- no one is perfect. Fremont is a pressure cooker and we are all bound to react in ways that we often might not otherwise. I believe that if you change course and let Dr. McKenna and Mr. Cortines know that they are disrespecting this community and that the school belongs to everyone in the community and not to Mr. Cortines personally, then I think teachers could be back on board.
When I see you in the halls, I’ll still say hi and I’ll still talk to you because I want to believe that you are a better human being than the words you spoke in that article- but maybe you won’t want to talk to me- and that’s understandable.
But I will talk to you with the uneasy feeling of not really knowing where I or anyone else stand at a school we love. Because I know you have the “confidential data” on me and that might tell a very different tale than the one my students might personally tell, but we know real, live breathing students don’t matter- only the data does.
Some of my “data” says that I gave D’s and F’s to 44% of my students – a fact I was confronted with in my Stull meeting. There’s just one little problem with that “data” – 1/3 of those F’s were students who haven’t shown for anywhere from 6 months ago to 3 months ago. One hadn’t shown since last year.
At least fortunately for me, my supervisor was unable to obtain my test scores from the 5 million dollar My Data system (I wonder how many teachers’ jobs could have been saved with 5 million dollars?) I say fortunately because even though I teach US History, every kid that was a 10+++ last year took the World History test (50% of my students), even though they sat in my US History class all year long. Add to that the 25% transiency rate in the rest of the population of my students, and the kids who entered in the middle of the year to take the second half of US History without having taken. the first part. Do you still think it is fair to judge me and other teachers on “the data?”
And that’s not to mention the numerous criminals who suddenly appeared at my classroom door within a span of two weeks this year, covered with gang tattoos and sporting attitudes with registration forms, no pens, no paper and no folders. When I asked them what they had done to have been in jail, none could meet my eyes. And after numerous attempts, I still can’t find out which ones have violent histories, something I and my students have a right to know. Suddenly, I totally understand why those teachers from LACES and El Camino High aren’t beating down our doors.
I attended the community meeting a couple of nights ago – one that many teachers worked very hard to organize – and it was a resounding success. It was a success because the parents found their voice-because they realized that if this was an “affluent community”-as one parent put it- you and the district would never get away with this. And they realized that they are being taken for fools. As another parent put it- the district thinks parental involvement means to “sew, crochet and cook”- but not be heard. It was a harsh assessment but quite on target. I hope you find your real voice- the one that supports teachers and inspires students and supports and respects the community. I still have faith that you will.
I really struggled with whether to publicly post this. I thought it might just inflame things or make you feel cornered or defensive, but ultimately it was the complete tone – deaf nature of your attitude toward teaching and the teaching profession and the fact that you don’t understand the importance of having a large cadre of veteran educators at Fremont, coupled with the fact that you are using fear to intimidate teachers that caused me to write this.
My job is difficult enough; I don’t need my own principal trying to scare me and intimidate me.
You’re not supposed to be my enemy. So why are you acting like one?
I wrote this letter out of love for Fremont High, my students, my colleagues and you Mr. Balderas, because I still believe that you can make a positive difference here. The ruthless corporate downsizer role doesn’t really suit you very well. Try the inspirational principal with vision who is willing to challenge the out of touch, local district bureaucrats. I think that role would fit you a whole lot better. What do you think?
Sincerely,
Ms. Stam
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Day 142 Wednesday, February 10, 2010: “Join Together”
Today is Wednesday, February 10, 2010 and Day 142 in the Countdown on my Fremont career, the-more-so of a Countdown because there is a timeline issued by the Powers-That-Be on when and where we should be jumping—and how high.
We survived the rally! Mother Nature brought thunder and lightning and I quoted songs just to annoy Mat Taylor as he chain-smoked and glared at the rain (alright—“Thunder only happens when it’s rainin’”—he finished it—and “It’s like thunder. Lightning. So very, very frightening. Knock on wood.”). We did not get the thousand teachers we were hoping for, but look at what we did get (I’m a glass half-full sort of guy):
The permit which was previously approved—and paid for—was revoked. The media which was hoped for was at one of the other rallies being held in LAUSD, I think on the West side. The rain relented, though not before soaking through my no-longer-rainproof duster. The rally happened anyway, with representation from South L.A. and the Harbor area.
The faculty was being kept in P.D.s (why, when we’re not going to be there in 142 days?) for their SLCs (why, when the SLCs will be thrown upon the dung heap of LAUSD plans in 142 days—ohh, I forgot, we’re cross-pollinating… Sorry) and was supposed to remain in meetings after 3:04, but came out to join us. A number of students and parents were there as well, including two sisters who were former Fremont alums and employees—one RIF-ed last year. This put us around 200.
Dr. George McKenna III, mini-superintendent of mini-district 7 was on campus, standing in the breezeway behind the locked gate and the school police who formed an impressive line across the entrance of the school. Hey, what’s up, Doc? Were the school police there for our safety again (reference Day 156 “Just Because It Doesn’t Make Sense Doesn’t Mean It’s Not Logical”)? Were they protecting the school from the teachers—or the community the school and LAUSD serve? (“The hardest tumble a man can make is to fall over his own bluff.”—Ambrose Bierce)
Add this one in: last week, I believe, a meeting was scheduled between LAUSD and UTLA over the Fremont issue. It was supposed to be taking place today, 2/10, but was called off by the district because of a “previous engagement.”
The permit for tomorrow’s parent/community meeting, which was supposed to occur in the cafeteria (or the auditorium, if available, although I know there was construction going on in there) was revoked. So the parents who are sending their children to this school are not permitted to meet with those who work with their children to receive information about major changes afoot?
My reason for saying the glass is half-full? Ideas have to stand strong on their own. If you are afraid to expose your ideas, your beliefs, your plans to any sort of criticism, then you probably have some bad ideas. That idea is like a genie in a bottle. You won’t be able to contain it forever, Dr. McKenna. Nobody heard you offer up your famous, “Let’s dance.” Instead, you stood with a locked gate and school police between you and the community you are assigned to serve, the same community you will not allow to meet with teachers on the very campus where they work. “Both oligarch and tyrant mistrust the people, and therefore deprive them of their arms.”—Aristotle. Or the truth?
“This, to me, is the ultimately heroic trait of ordinary people; they say no to the tyrant and they calmly take the consequences of this resistance.”--Philip K. Dick
Anthony Cody later published a picture from the February 9th rally with an article on reconstitution in Edweek.org: http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2010/02/reconstitution_there_has_got_t.html
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Day 144 Monday, February 8, 2010: “Haven’t We Lost Enough?”
This was meant for Monday, February 8, 2010 and Day 144, but due to a meeting and yesterday’s rally in the rain, it’s going up now, as a stand-alone, because I think it give most of us our perspectives on our own Small Learning Communities.
The following was sent to me February 4. I asked Margherita Moraca, known as “Humanimama” by many of Humanitas students, if I could re-post it (Now I sound like a Seinfeld episode—“He re-posted?” “He–reposted!” “Oh my God, he’s a re-poster!”). Rita is one of those rare birds (and now endangered species at Fremont) who remembers days predating our SLCs and predating the Concept 6 reconfiguration of Fremont:
I have been sick for the major part of January and am still not top notch yet. However, after I started to feel a little better, I read all of the emails that came to me and I can't say they did much for my well-being or helped my recuperation. I didn't have the energy to reply to any of them-not that I didn't feel the urge to do so. Then, as I was washing up one morning, this song popped into my head..."The Impossible Dream" from the "Man of La Mancha," the musical about Don Quixote. I thought "this has been the theme for my entire career at Fremont!"
"To dream the impossible dream, to fight the unbeatable foe, to bear with unbearable sorrow, to run where the brave do not go. To right the unrightable wrong, to be better far than you are, to try with his last ounce of courage to reach the unreachable star...This is my quest, to follow that star, no matter how hopeless, no matter how far. To fight for the right without question or pause...to be willing to march into hell for a heavenly cause. And I know if I'll only be true to this glorious quest, that my heart will lie peaceful and calm when I'm laid to my rest. And the world will be better for this, that one (man or woman) scorned and covered with scars still fought with his last ounce of courage to reach the unreachable star!"
Forgive the drama, but this is how I really feel. I have been at Fremont longer than some of the newer teachers have even been alive. When I started there I was a child...right out of college. I didn't have much, if any, experience, but what I did have was PASSION for teaching.
I came into the situation having quite high expectations of my students because the titles of the classes I had been assigned sounded awesome. Then, my students arrived and I got a dose of reality! None of my students had had any art classes before, much less the pre-requisites for the "advanced" classes I was supposedly teaching. That's when you know if you're cut out for this kind of work. You "adjust" your curriculum and start playing "catch up" so your students have some idea what the class is all about. Sometimes you're successful. Sometimes you're not. I'd say, for the most part, I had been relatively successful.
Then, I was confronted with HUMANITAS. When I finally decided to become involved in that, I was in "Heaven" because I experienced the kind of educational situation I, as a new teacher, had expected when I first started teaching. We had Teacher interaction, collaboration, planning, colleagiality and support. I believe we felt that we were more respected as Professionals and that made us push harder to become more involved. As a result, we all experienced the greatest Student success that had ever been imagined before that. That's when we had been allowed to do things OUR WAY. Over three graduation classes, we had a 99% graduation rate. People assume that we got the "better" kids. WE DID NOT! We got the same kids as everybody else. We just worked together for a common cause, and we beat the system! We changed it to address the needs of OUR students. We worked together and the students appreciated our efforts and did their best to live up to our expectations of them. They did!
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Day 145 Sunday, February 7, 2010: “Superman or Green Lantern”
Today, Superbowl Sunday, marks Day 145 in the countdown of my time at Fremont, and I’m racing to get out these thoughts and questions I’ve had before I join in the festivities.
Superintendent Cortines appeared (is “appeared” the correct word, since this is a non-visual medium?) on NPR Friday, Day 147, in the one o’clock hour. In this appearance, he spoke of the Mont and blamed teachers for the problem, pretty much a small group—I think we agreed to call them “the Fifty”—who were responsible for “obstructing change and reform” at Fremont High School. Picture one of your students, yes the annoying one in the back who always wants to speak. I’m that kid right now, hand raised, arm waving, the other arm trying to support it.
“Oooh, Oooh! If it’s a small group, who are they? Can we know? Tell us!” Hey, didn’t Dr. George McKenna III (kinda rolls off the tongue, eh?) speak to the faculty, mocking them by saying, “Oh, so we’ve found the villain, have we?” Is it the faculty? Who amongst the faculty is a villain?
“Oooh, Oooh! How long has this been going on at Fremont? Why did LAUSD allow it to continue if they were hurting the school so badly?” Has LAUSD been powerless, been impotent (I admit I wanted to use the word) to deal with a small group of teachers? Has this, indeed, gone on for years? Why didn’t the district choose to “dance” (in the eloquent language of Dr. George McKenna III) with those individuals before?
“Oooh, Oooh! What specific changes did ‘They’ halt or obstruct. Or derail?” Which of the many magic bullets in the clip of educational reform did these villains deflect? Concept 6 (still there, at least until the two new high schools open, whoever gets them, eh?). DigitalHigh School? Block scheduling? No librarian (left behind?). Hooker's hall pass debate? AP classes (still there)? Unpacking the Standards? Instructional Matrix? Block scheduling? Thinking maps? Posting the Standards? Two Principals? The SIFs? First Things First? The Coalition for Essential Schools? Bulletin 1600 and the Small Learning Communities (13 of ‘em still there, like fragments of the former Soviet Union)?
Nine-step lesson plans which devolved to seven-step lesson plans? Read To Achieve? What Fremont calls Instructional Learning Teams (ILTs), but most schools call them Learning Communities (still doing them—I know, I’m a facilitator for a World History ILT—even though an administrator called them “mediocre at best”)? Which of these many magic bullets this They deflect?
Here’s a goody I was reminded of this weekend: a group called Architects of Achievement worked with administrators and SLC lead teachers in designing a New Fremont (the administration is speaking now about a New Fremont—does that make it a Newer Fremont? Newest Fremont? New Coke—I hope not, NOBODY liked that…). The New Fremont would have had structures erected around the campus which would house the “pods” (I always want to burst into whale-song when I hear that word)—groups of SLCs; each area would bear the logo of the SLCs housed there, as I recall; designs for the logos were worked on/revised ad nauseum; pod offices were created to house the podlings—the administrator assigned to the pod (now I’m thinking about vegetables, God help me), the pod-appropriate counselors, clerical staff. The offices were created, doors painted in distinguishing colors and a number of those offices houses other entities the administration felt more appropriate. How did the teachers derail that one?
“Oooh, Oooh! How did They do all that?”
“Oooh, Oooh! Did this happen because there have been so many principals in 16 years, averaging 23 months each? But wasn’t the first in that string there for four years and the last one there for five? Which excuse is going to be trotted out for the success of these villainous acts? Which is worse—a string of principals unable to follow through or a principal there for five years unable to succeed?
And in all this time, LAUSD either was unable to stop that group of teachers or was unwilling to stop them? And the response is to “reconstitute”—oh, wait, we were told it’s not “reconstitution”, but “restructuring.” Having teachers (guilty and innocent alike), cafeteria workers, clerical, security, support, counselors, yes and even administrators ALL reapply?
With such a lackluster series of performances, it would not be surprising to learn that the permit for a UTLA (United Teacher of Los Angeles) rally scheduled for February 9 on the stadium at Fremont High was pulled—what was that I said in an earlier posting “Just Because It Doesn’t Make Sense Doesn’t Mean It’s Not Logical” about the French Revolution and chaining the doors shut? Hey, take it from experts: “The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant."--Maximilian Robespierre.”The best way to keep one’s word is not to give it.”—Napoleon I
When are the parents, whose children we are educating, when is the community, whose future we are entrusted with, going to get all the information, instead of inviting a select few parents on short notice (as happened in December)?
“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”—Voltaire (Hey, look, no comic book or movie references…)
--Chuck Olynyk
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Day 149 Wednesday, February 3, 2010: “The Drumhead”
Today there remains 149 days of my career at Fremont.
So there was a mouse on stage, upstaging the administration? And the topic was committees (remember my reference to Robert Heinlein—“A committee is an organism with six or more legs and no brain”)? Reminds me of the old joke: “What do you mean ‘we’? Do you have a mouse in your pocket?”
I could have gone further back: The Lone Ranger sees he and Tonto are surrounded by hostile Indians. He says, “Tonto, we are in trouble.” “What do you mean ‘we’, white man?”
I’m sure there are jokes about the Pied Piper of Hamelin out there which we could also apply, but I’m just not that witty…
It’s pretty hard to join a committee when your future is uncertain—even if it is the Committee to Save Fremont. Some of us want to—need to—play it safe. I understand, especially if you usually have either gotten along with the powers-that-be for your academic career, or if you’ve just never crossed their radar before.
Lately I’ve been hearing that this stunt being pulled by the district is… let me think (something I don’t do too often)… “to remove a group of teachers who have been obstructing reform at Fremont.” There, I said it.
So if this is about a small group of trouble-makers (I heard something about 40-50 of them) why are 240 teachers, plus I have no idea how many counselors, clerical staff, cafeteria workers, custodial staff, security and school police—and administrators, too—being asked to re-apply? I’m also now hearing that there’s a deadline to re-up (something like March 18th) or it’s “Going South” time…
If you’re one of the … Fifty (as good a name as any—reminds me of the ones executed in “The Great Escape”—true story and the movie is dedicated to their memory—by the Nazis), I suppose it would be kind of flattering to think that all this fuss about reconstruction/reconstitution/revisionism/some-other-r-word would be about THEM (I just heard the little girl screaming from the movie, “It’s Them! It’s Them! It’s Them!” Veteran teachers should now take a few moments to explain to the young teachers the movie I referenced so wittily—‘Them”). That’s akin to burning a house down and proclaiming, “See? No more rat problem!”
So all this drama (Remember Dr. George McKenna III on 1/26 in his opening remarks at the faculty meeting? “If you want to transfer, let’s dance now!” “Nah, Mongo straight.”—“Blazing Saddles”) is to “get” 40-50 of those evil teachers who actually model the behavior they are supposed to teach their students by having opinions and voicing them? Aren’t there other, more efficient ways to deal with the perceived problems? (Oh, yeah, we’re not terribly efficient at Fremont—money’s been misspent, the district doesn’t know what happened, but somehow the teachers who have no freakin’ access to the money somehow squandered it.)
“And while they’re at it, throw in side issues like uniforms, block scheduling, and taking away golfcarts from security to distract the public and the staff and create sideshow fronts which waste energy and get us to turn on each other.
And now the faculty (and staff, I presume) are to be called in one at a time to meet in the office and say “Yea” or “Nay” to re-applying. Admittedly it will be harder to say “Nay”, especially in what might be a star-chamber situation (a star-chamber is when you get called in and face an inquisition completely on your own, if you’re not getting the reference, like being told you have to meet with Mr. Higgins at 6:30 a.m. alone in his office before even God gets up to discuss an observation and standards—like I did).
I guess that’s when you find out who you are. When there is no one there to hold your shield, you yourself are a battlefield wherein your ideals and morality and your reality are at war with each other. As Bob Seger said, “When you don’t seem to have that much to lose, strange how the night moves…” But when you sit there in that office, remember those ideals we are teaching—it’s not just about data and standards to raise test scores. We teach life lessons every day. We use our subjects as the vehicles to teach life lessons.
We want to create independent thinkers and life-long learners. To do it, we have to model behaviors we hope the students see as worthy of emulating. Funny how Ray Bradbury wrote Fahrenheit 451 about censorship, but some school districts get the heebee-jeebees about teaching the book, while we talk about evil totalitarian governments using censorship. We have to have opinions, and let students see them, in order to teach them HOW to form opinions. We teach students about idealism all day long, all year long, throughout our careers (just flashed on “The Breakfast Club”—“When you get older, your heart dies.” Speaking in quotes, see “Just Because It Doesn’t Make Sense Doesn’t Mean It’s Not Logical”). I always talk to students about a choice they have before them: get their education and then cut and run, never looking back at the neighborhood—or coming back and trying to change things, harkening back to the Ukrainian proverb I’ve mentioned before, that even a drop of water can wear a hole in a stone. Students have asked why I don’t leave. My answer: If I leave, that makes all of my words about them coming back and making a difference a lie.
Now I am faced with the decision: which is the bigger lie? Should I sell my ideals and remain, supporting what I consider an evil, cynical lie—but remaining in the neighborhood I’ve worked in since 1987—or do I have to model the difficult decision and refuse to lend credence to the lie I might be asked to support. Which teaches the students the greater life-lesson? (I’m blaming my sister, just told her this is all her fault—she took me to see “Spartacus” in the theatre when I was four—for those of you working out the math, “Spartacus” came out in 1960; having a Ukrainian immigrant for a father who made me watch “Taras Bulba” with him didn’t help.)
I think it might be a little late for me to reboot, get a do-over. To quote “Babylon 5”: “The avalanche has started. It’s too late for the pebbles to vote.” Yeah, I guess when I pushed that “Send” button a couple of weeks ago, I knew there would be turning back only with the greatest of difficulty. But I guess I’m still stuck on all those damned ideals I kept getting exposed to and why I will have to give the answer I must. “With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably.”—Captain Jean-Luc Picard, , Star Trek: The Next Generation, (The Drumhead)
Hold your shields high!
--Chuck Olynyk
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Day 152 Saturday, January 30, 2010 “Should I Stay Or Should I Go?”
Today is Day 152 of my time remaining at FremontHigh School.
Friday, we had a productive, but depressing workshop: “How to Transfer,” hosted by Chris and Josh from UTLA. Productive because we had over seventy faculty and staff in attendance, so obviously there was interest rather than the shell-shocked apathy we were immersed in during December. Productive because if we actually wanted to leave the Mont (calling it FHS has never really worked, like assigning a nickname that doesn’t fit and insisting upon using it) we could see how to.
Depressing in other ways. Depressing because the subject was about leaving. It’s funny how we talk about doing it, about strategies like not reapplying, of signing petitions or pledges not to do so, then the inevitable that comes with such gestures.
“I don’t want to leave.” Picture a whining voice in your ear. “I want to stay here…” Yeah, guess what? We all do (well, mostly). A number of us envisioned finishing out our careers here at the Mont, but Superintendent Cortines would have it otherwise in his grand publicity stunt. Yes, Dr. McKenna (III, in case you need to figure out which one) “encourages” us to all “reapply,” if you were at Tuesday’s meeting. Does it actually make sense to ask us all to reapply if having us all together is such a bad thing for Fremont? Oh, wait, I remember… “Just because it doesn’t make sense doesn’t mean it’s not logical.” Yes, Mr. Balderas also is asking us to reapply. Can you blame him? What might look like a dream-come-true for a principal—hand-picking your faculty—is really a nightmare, with a bunch of us with experience saying, “Okay, pick a school for me, since I suck so bad and have no idea what I’m doing.” My sister is an M.D. and she likens having the majority of experienced people leaving to staffing a hospital with interns and medical students; sometimes experience matters.
“I’m not worried. I’m so good I know they have to hire me back. Only the bad teachers have to worry.” Assuming you are re-hired, under what working conditions will that be? Dr. McKenna says that it’s “a work in progress, subject to revision.” So you want to sign on, while the “contract/compact” is under revision? If so, can I get you to sign a blank check for me? Won’t you already be committed to working here and THEN you find out what the conditions are? What do plan to do then—leave? We need to know what the conditions are—and one of the conditions is that WE stay. (I think I’m channeling Lee Marvin in The Dirty Dozen—“This is one time we’re going all the way with the Army’s starting line-up?” “Even Maggot?” “Even Maggot.”)
If we are all being encouraged—no, begged—to remain, then we cannot be the problem. But if we are not the problem, then why the wholesale forced exodus, why the Trail of Tears, why the Stalinesque deportation to an educational Siberian gulag? Dr. McKenna, you need to stick to one story. If we’re being removed from Fremont because we have created a “culture of failure,” then why are we being encouraged by you to reapply? Why has it become so important for us—teachers, counselors, clerical staff, food services, security, school police, custodial, and assistant principals—to reapply?
Day 152 “Should I Stay Or Should I Go” was previously reposted:
By Anthony Cody at Edweek.org: http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2010/02/the_battle_for_fremont_high.html
And Education Notes Online reposted Day 152: http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/
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