Sanitized and ready for occupancy

A lot of what you’re about to read is an arrangement of things that I have said, heard, read, argued, or extrapolated about in the last couple weeks. I can’t really say that any of it is necessarily original, but I feel compelled to put this down for my own sanity.

When I pulled this tag off my door at the end of last year, I thought this will be a neat reminder of what things were like. And when I uncovered it in the drawer of my desk this week, I was filled with rage thinking about how this is still going on.

We are about to enter a third year of schooling during a deadly, global pandemic. In many ways this current moment feels far worse and far more terrifying than it did when we were in this similar situation last August. Last year we at least did what we could: we masked up, spread out, and tried to be responsible with testing, reporting and tracing. A lot of us anyways. Not all of us, that’s been made clear. But now we’re set to reopen public schools in about 5 days with absolutely no requirements for protection whatsoever. No requirements for masks, no requirements for vaccinations, and a policy that says you should be masked if you’re unvaccinated but can go unmasked if you are vaccinated but no way to verify if the right people are complying. And I think it’s safe to assume that the majority of the unvaccinated are not complying since they’re the ones who were too pathetic and cowardly to wear mask in the first place.

And guess what, I’m fucking mad. Like real big mad. Let me tell you why.

We did our part, my partner and I, we wore our masks to work everyday and masked up our kids everyday when they went to school. We stayed home as much as possible, and limited contact with people outside our immediate circle of family. We got vaccinated, and even then dutifully continued to wear our masks in our classrooms even as the rest of the world gleefully abandoned any attempts at protection and mitigation. But that’s not even what I’m mad about, because I’d do it all over again if that’s what’s needed to put this wretched virus to bed.

What I’m mad about is that now my kids, 7, 4, and 5 months, are now directly in the crosshairs. They are the ones at risk of getting Covid, and struggling to breath, or having long term symptoms, or developing an autoimmune disease or neurological disorder, or ya know they might FUCKING DIE. And it’s not because we did the things we needed to do to keep our community safe. It is because there are too many selfish people out there, who are too interested in their own auto-fellating ideas about freedom to care about other people and get vaccinated.

Several years ago, I came across the idea that American’s have become addicted to freedom. And these past 18 months have really born out the truth of that statement. While we may be racing towards a terrifyingly autocratic future, we still enjoy a great many degrees of freedom in this nation. But, what I mean by addicted to freedom is that people will choose freedom at all costs. Except our idea of what freedom means has become so warped. We have been molded into a society that worships the individual at the expense of the community and the greater good. To put it plainly, what I want is more important than anything else. It’s the idea that the needs of the individual are more important or more valuable than any need from those around them, from their community, or from their society. And it is the lynchpin of neoliberal individualism, but I’ll save that for another day.

Like, this idea is such bullshit. I’m a dad with a spouse and three kids. Trust me I know all about how what I want is no longer important. My kids, my wife, my mom, in-laws, friends, coworkers, students, and community members all have needs that must be served in kind. And ya know why? Because when the time comes, I want to make sure they’re there for me when I need them, to like I don’t know watch my kids when they’re sick and I have to work, or pick me up after surgery and take me home because I’m doped up on anesthesia, or give me the time on a Saturday to spend hours in a Zoom class for my PhD, or support me in my decision to take 30 days of paternity leave. See how that works? It’s not that I don’t have needs, but if we’re not considering the needs of those around us then why would they show up when you need them?

Then when you take this idea of addiction to some maligned and distorted idea of freedom, and mix with a desire to resist government control you get some people who really sound like a bunch of idiots. You’re don’t like the idea of the government telling you what to do? Cool. Have you ever stopped at a red-light? That’s you listening to the government. Ever taken your shoes off to get on an airplane? That you listening to the government. Have you ever spent $32.50 on a yellow sticker for your license plate? That’s you listening to the government. You want to rebel, grow your own food, sew your own clothes, use your extra money to support mutual aid funds. There’s nothing strong or rebellious about refusing a vaccine that could save your life, the lives others, and help snuff out a virus that has, by some reports, killed almost 1,000,000 Americans and globally over 7,000,000.

But now children are at risk, most notably young children because they can’t get vaccinated and many of those eligible haven’t gotten their shot yet. For most of the last 18 months, the number of children with Covid has remained low. Because of that, this narrative developed that kids don’t get Covid or don’t get sick from Covid. And while research has shown that kids don’t get as sick as often, the real truth is much simpler. Numbers of child cases stayed low because for the last 18 months we’ve done everything we could to keep them safe. We kept them home, inside, and safe for first 5, and then masked and sanitized in schools for the next 11. Unfortunately, we’ve committed ourselves to the virus being over and the world being open again, so now even as cases rises faster than ever and the number of children becoming infected and hospitalized is skyrocketing the leaders of the world seem to have thrown up their collective hands and said “oh well”. And man, let me tell you, FUCK THAT.

A new way to a better library

I’m not even going to waste your time and bury this link at the bottom. Rather I’ll post it upfront, and you can decide if you’d rather read the rest of it if you want to. In fact, let’s put it right here: https://tombolobooks.com/lists/uqs7DpWUXd8

Let’s talk about changes first! Biggest thing is that this year we are NOT ON AMAZON. I have partnered with our wonderful local bookstore Tombolo Books and built my wishlist. It may not have the innate ease, swiftness, and rock bottom prices, but I’d much rather be supporting a local business in this endeavor. When you order a book it will get delivered to the store (if it’s not already in stock) and I will go and pick them up. At checkout, if you could just put a little note in the notes box that it is for my classroom that would be great! Anyways, that’s really the only change, but one I wanted to be clear about, and also that I am very happy and excited about.

So, last year this didn’t happen. It almost did. I briefly entertained the idea in late May when there was that brief window where we thought things might be getting better. Of course that quickly changed, and we ended up with the absolute train wreck of a year that schooling was. My bookshelves spent the better part of the year turned around facing the wall so students couldn’t access “shared materials”. And even once they finally did get turned around it was too late in the year to really get the culture and consistency needed for a great independent reading piece.

The silver lining is that I spent the entire school year thinking about the role and importance of this part of my classroom and my teaching. How could we do it better? Could I make it the main focus of my class? What would monitoring and assessment look like? And I think I’ve got it figured out. I think this year is going to be the best one yet.

But the key to all of this has always been having the ability to cast the widest net possible to snag these kids into finding a book they’ll love. While we’ve built a pretty wide net, I’m back again to ask you to help me make it even wider.

In the past y’all have shown up big. Like really big, and it has always been such a strong reminder of the goodness in all of us and our innate drive to help and support one another. I also know that this past year has been hard for a lot of people, so if you’ve contributed in the past but it’s just not in the cards for you this year please please don’t feel bad about it. The biggest thing that can be done is to share this list with anyone who you think might be willing to help out.

I’m gonna thank you all now, and I will also of course be thanking you all again and again and again every time I pick up new books.

Anyways, in case you missed it here’s that link one last time https://tombolobooks.com/lists/uqs7DpWUXd8

Not the end, the beginning; a dark road to hope

Yesterday, man what a world yesterday was. It was a short lived world bursting with the kind of unrepentant joy that flows from a long held moment of uncertainty.

Yesterday was wild, it was warranted, it was welcome.

But, like always Yesterday is now gone and we are left with the world we have. It may feel as though there was an Ending that happened. That foes were defeated and victory is at hand.

I propose that it was not the end. Too many things have been let out of the box and they will not go back in quietly. Some of them are new, but most of them were already here working quietly in the shadows where we have now shone the light: systemic racism, police brutality, economic inequality, eco-fascism, misogyny, on and on. These things do not go away simply because we've begun to say their names out loud. Also, all those people who believed 45 a demi-god? They don't just go away either. QAnon and MAGA flags, Proud Boys and Three Percenters, "Back the Blue", "Fuck your feelings", and "Liberal tears" aren't going to simply evaporate. If anything they stand to grow, finding new figure heads to lead their movement

And Biden will not save us from them. His presidency is likely to achieve little real change, even less knowing that his opponents control Congress. His opponents will grow off a likely strong electoral backlash in the 2022 mid-term elections. Mitch McConnel, Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio are all still in power, and they have no intention of cooperating. More than likely they'll be joined by proto-Trumps who will start running for office hoping to harness the anger of his cult.

What Biden's victory does give us is some breathing room. It gives us room to finish building the movements that have gained renewed focus and new momentum during the last four years. To engage with and tackle racial injustice, climate change, and economic injustice. But if we have learned anything, it is that the status quo no longer serves the majority of the people. Neither in this country or in the world. And so it is time for us to stop trying to find our way back to what we thought worked.

It is time for us to start carving new paths forward, instead of building bridges to the other side.

It is time for us to dare to imagine new ways, new systems, new worlds, instead of maintaining those that failed us long ago.

It is time to dream of new ways to care for each other, to heal each other, and to teach each other.

It is time for us to walk forward. Those who wish to walk with us are welcome, those who do not will remain behind.

And so I challenge you to to dare and dream and walk forward with us.

Today is Jan 13, but what happens on Jan 14?

Part of me feels premature in writing this. We should be focused on the 13th, on channeling our energies, promoting awareness, and trying to recruit every last body to march with us.

The other part of me knows that we have to already be thinking beyond the 13th. 

If this is but one day of action, a single day of a sea of red politely milling in front of the capital building, then we will be dismissed swiftly and derisively. 30+ years of one party rule in the state of Florida should have made it clear that they don't care about teachers or education.

Many of us are looking at a long bus ride to Tallahassee on Monday morning. One in which we will be groggy from early wake up times, but giddy and electrified for a day of action. On the way home we'll be weary, but most of all we need to be resolved. There are many issues we need to come together around, but the main one right now is this: this has to be a battle we are willing to fight for the duration. Right now, up through, and beyond November 3rd. When all of this comes to a head they need to look back on the 13th and simply recognize that it was a warning, a shot across the bow.

These are my proposals:

1. Regular, consistent, and growing local actions in every county, at least once a month. If your local community leaders, representatives, senators, and so on support you, make sure they are there with you. Put school board meetings on your calendars and SHOW UP. Fill the room, make them open the annexes, make them kick people out, wear red, get loud, demand our voices be heard. Show up to your local representatives offices. The people who pass our budgets, our taxes, our millage rates, they have names, offices, and phone numbers. Recruit them or picket their offices and drown them under letters, emails, and phone calls.

2. Get the community involved. We need more and more support from people who are NOT teachers or our peers in the field. Actions moving forward need to be filled, flooded, and led by parents, students, business owners, community organizers and anyone else who recognizes the value and importance schools bring to our communities and education brings to our society. When the time comes to really push back on Tallahassee, we need to make sure that we are backed by the people we serve as teachers.

3. We need to form a consistent, clear, and comprehensive vision of what is needed. It will not be concise, because the issues we are fighting are myriad. Crumbling infrastructure, dismal pay for all educational personnel, unmanageable work expectations, burdensome student loads, loss of educational freedom, loss of professional contracts, etc. The list can go on and on, but the demands need to be named and known.

4. We as a movement, need to be prepared for a true strike. The legislature may say we're not "allowed" to, but our numbers are our strength. And the reason we are barred from it is because it was so successful last time when we did it in 1968. We need to be ready to use the full force of our numbers, teachers, staff, parents, community members to show our leaders our power. We have a precious window, especially this summer, when the political primary process can be leveraged to help bring attention to these issues. We need to use it.

Whether you're riding to or from Tallahassee. Whether you're in the classroom, or on the bus. Whether you're in education or not. I ask that you consider these things. Mull them over. Let them roll around in your head. Sleep on them.

Because tomorrow, the real work begins.

The end of a decade

The last ten years were a ripping wildfire of a decade. It started with the ringing of the Bosingak bell alongside the love of my life, great friends and a few thousand strangers in the center of Seoul, SK. Came home 8 months later and got engaged. Got married to my amazing wife in 2011. Was crushed by the loss of my father in 2012. Had two unimaginable daughters in 2014 and 2016. Spent 4 years failing spectacularly in sales. Found myself in teaching in 2015. I completed my masters in 2018, mentored a good friend through her undergrad thesis for her Bachelors in 2019, and even managed to be asked to teach an online college course at USFSP these last few months.

But the last 12 months have felt more like the waning edges of the blaze, when the flame has died out and the heat is hard to feel. I've felt isolated in a lot of ways, my closest friends are far away, and even though we see each other and talk often I can't help but miss regular contact with some of the people that mean the most to me. I've been buried under a myriad of obligations. I work 3 jobs because teacher pay is shit, support my partner in all the amazing things she does as a teacher, and try to carve out as much time as possible for my daughters and family. I had gotten into a good work out habit, but then was waylaid by injury. While I was fortunate enough to have the ability to seek medical care and surgery right away, I've been unable to engage in strenuous physical activity since mid October. I've had no time for any creative work, and I've been feeling increasingly listless and despondent about what comes next in life. 

Most of my adolescent and adult life I've wrestled with self doubt and self loathing with hints of depression. But this past year those emotions have really been dialed up, along with throwing in what I can only guess is some version of imposter syndrome. It's been tough. Especially since asking for help and communicating how I feel have never been among my strengths.

However, the last few nights I've spent mostly alone around small fires trying to clear and prepare my mind for what comes next. And what I've been reminded of is that often when the fire seems spent and close to ash, underneath are the most potent embers. Those pieces that represent that most significant sources of heat.

I realize that the wildfire of the last ten years has only been preparing me for the long burn of what is to come. Burning away the excess and revealing what is core to myself, and for what needs to be done. It's removed the chaff of all the things I thought were important, or thought I was supposed to think were important. In turn it's left me with a set of values and beliefs that I know will serve me well. Our world is changing, and if we want it to be for the better we have to fight for it. And I, for one, am ready for those fights.

Top Books of 2019

At the beginning of the year I set a goal of reading at least 10/pgs day, and of 24 books for the year. According to Goodreads, I've read 61 books so far this year. A number which, honestly, surprises even me. If you've talked to me this year, more than likely you've heard me talk about what I've read or what I was currently reading. But you're not here to listen to me talk about how many books I've read, you’re here to find out which ones I liked the most.

12. Cutting School by Noliwe Rooks

I originally started reading this book in 2018, but found myself getting so upset with what I was reading that I had to take a break. Rooks takes a retrospective look at the longhand of privatization in public education and the impact it has had, especially on people of color. If you have ever really wanted to understand exactly why there is so much pushback around charter schools, etc. this is the book to read. It’s also a handy introduction to how education was/is weaponized to disadvantage minority communities.

11. Red Rising Trilogy by Pierce Brown

This arc of books was one hundred percent my main, solely for pleasure read of the year. Brown constructed a grand and glorious sweeping space opera that just pushed all the right buttons from me. It's a broad, intricately constructed world inhabited by a wild variety of characters. An interesting look at the future of humanity, and the vicious cycles we continue to fall into.

10. The 57 Bus by Dashka Slater

Rarely does a book catch me off guard, but The 57 Bus was one of those books. A true story, it follows the twin narratives of two teens involved in a horrific incident on a public bus in Oakland. One telling us the story of the victim, one the story of the perpetrator. But overall it's a story of the challenges we face in this world, the unfairness of it all, and how some people work to look past that and help one another. This is a book so powerful that I've often told people that if everyone read it, we might finally be able to start working on getting ourselves back on track.

9. They Both Die At The End by Adam Silvera

Set in a semi-futuristic world in which you get a phone call on the day you will die, Silvera drags you into a heart wrenching story of star-crossed lovers far more compelling and relatable than Romeo and Juliet. 

8. White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo

If you are white, this book is required reading. No matter how much you believe you understand racism and your role in it, you do not until you have read this. FULL STOP. This book connected the dots on a variety of disparate ideas in my mind, creating a vivid and fully conceived image of what white supremacy is, how it operates, and how it is no longer enough to be 'not a racist', but rather how now is the time to be anti-racist.

7. The Grace Year by Kim Liggett

I added The Grace Year to my classroom library based on a single, one line review. It did not disappoint. A fascinating YA tale that is equal parts Crucible, The Village, Hunger Games, Handmaids Tale, and Lord of The Flys, it makes for a gripping feminist parable. The Grace Year was riveting (I finished it in 24 hours) and all around enjoyable.

6. The Nyxia Trilogy by Scott Reintgen

When I was first writing notes for this post, I added this series and next to it I put "Like Avatar, but not dumb".  A neatly concocted “triad” about a corporation that selects a group of teens to travel to a distant planet to help harvest a new material with incomprehensible powers. Of course, along the way a menagerie of lies and secrets are revealed. Reintgen gives us a fresh take on teens in space while also addressing some excellent underlying themes around exploitation of nature, colonialism, and many others.

5. Arc of The Scythe Trilogy by Neal Shusterman

Shusterman is no newbie to YA, having penned close to a dozen books, but Scythe (book one in the series) introduces us to a peculiar and fascinating future in which a benevolent singularity is essentially humanity's caretaker. In a world that has essentially eliminaed worry, fear, and death the only thing left to try to curb overpopulation is an elite group of humans called Scythes. The Scythes are responsible for choosing and 'gleaning' those who will die. This series is a fascinating take on a myriad of issues, and has underlying themes for days.   

Disclaimer: I have not yet actually read the final installment of this series, "The Toll". However based on the quality of the first two books, and the lack of uproar from fans, I can only assume that it was a satisfying conclusion.

4. The Overstory by Richard Powers

Winner of a Pulitzer Prize and also a NYT best seller "The Overstory" is the only book I read this year that I would describe as fiction for adults. And not in an NC17/XXX kind of way. It is simultaneously a book about people and connections and also a book about trees, nature, and our inexcusable disregard for the natural world. Powers manages to neatly weave together the stories of 12 different characters into a menagerie of heart wrenching stories.

3. Where Do We Go From Here by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

This book changed me. As a white boy who grew up firmly middle class, surrounded by mostly other white people, and went to predominantly white schools, you only get one version of history: Brown v Board made all schools equal and the Civil Rights movement made all people equal. This book was a giant plunge into undoing the American mythology around race relations, labor relations, and capitalism that I grew up with.

2. PET by Akwaeke Emezi

Man, this book straight up pulled the rug out from under me. A book that clearly understands that sometimes a straight line is the best way to tell the most important stories. I still don't really know how to talk about this book other than to just overenthusiasticly point and wave at it to try and get you to read it.

1. Deep Work by Cal Newport

This book absolutely changed the way I look at work, at focus, productivity, at my time, and how and where and to what I am applying myself.  Newport makes the argument that our modern world, regardless of our field or career, has fractured our ability to focus on meaningful work for extended periods of time. And not just like 45 mins of interrupted work, but hours if not days of critical, focused attention on that which matters most to us. If you feel like you can never focus, never get anything done, or are constantly starting and stopping and getting distracted, then read this book. 

I also read his follow up book, Digital Minimalism, which focused more on the personal life aspect of this philosophy, but it really should have been an additional set of chapters in Deep Work. Same principles, just different context.

If you made it this far, drop a note in the comments. Have you read any of these books? What did you think? What were your favorite books of 2019?

In Response to Governor DeSantis's Teacher Pay Proposal

In the wake of Governor DeSantis’s proposal to increase teacher base pay in Florida to $47,500, Bay News 9 reached out to ask if I wanted to offer a comment. The parts of the interview that made it into the final clip last night do carry my general sentiments about the proposed increase: that it is a nice gesture, but overall it’s fairly hollow, disrespects our existing and veteran teachers and falls well short of what is needed.

When they call you mid bedtime routine to come give a quote, this is what you get.

What did not make it into either interview I’ve done recently are several key points about what needs to be done. As a person who strongly dislikes when someone comes across as only pointing out problems without offering any solutions, I want to assure you all that is not the case. A few proposals in brief

1. A doubling, if not tripling of our current education budget. This ties directly into the next few lines.

2. Salaries for not just instructional staff, but all staff needs to be increased. Our support staff in ESE, ESOL, Behavior Specialists, bus drivers and para-professionals is criminally low. In addition, our on-site staff, the plant operators, secretaries, data entry technicians, and beyond are also woefully underpaid to point that long term retention is very difficult.

3. School infrastructure is disturbingly far behind in many schools. Whether its broken AC systems, flooding grounds, or simply decrepit buildings beyond due for update, the physical structures of education are falling farther and farther behind. New schools are built at a snail's pace, and old schools often stave off refurbishment with a new coat of paint and a replacement of some doors.

4. We need a staggering increase in the number of schools, teachers, and staff so that we can reduce the student:teacher ratio, have smaller schools, and better community engagement that will boost education in all forms.

And as always, the people want to know, where will the money come from. First, minimize waste in state and district Education budgets by eliminating all standardized testing and superfluous data monitoring. Second, end the siphoning of public funds into private hands through our states growing adoption of charter schools. But beyond that, Florida is now the 3rd largest state in the US by population and we are the 3rd fastest growing state by population according to US Census data. All of the people who want to inhabit this state, visit this state, or do business in this state need to contribute to its success. A tax on business, a tourism tax, maybe we can finally legalize recreational marijuana and tax the heck out of that just like Colorado and other states have.

The US is the wealthiest it has ever been. It’s not a question of is there enough money, it’s question of how to extract it, and not allow it to be hoarded by those who are purposefully dodging their responsibility to pay their fair share.

And a final piece that got left out, which is something that I’ve repeated often, is that it is time for teachers and those who support us to stand up, speak out, and push back against our state leaders. It is time for us to use collective action to make ourselves heard and demand better not only for ourselves, but for the students, residents, the economy, and the future of our state.

Politics, Platitudes, and Teacher Pay

Over the weekend, my wife Sam gave me a heads up on a tweet from Democratic nominee Kamala Harris that had caught her attention. Ever since I’ve been thinking about her tweet, about what it means for education during this election cycle, and about what education means to the broader voting public (I see you, you non-voters; I see you). 

A brief caveat: I don't pay much attention to campaigning at this point. I think a long, drawn out primary and election cycle only lends more power to the influence of money. The results end up being more about who can outspend, rather than who can position themselves as the better candidate. However, I think it's important to talk about the difference between what are easy platitudes and what are the kinds of education reform discussions that really need to be happening.

Teachers and their plight have been getting more and more attention both from the media and from candidates. Part of this is due to the state and city wide strikes that have won concessions from their respective governing bodies. It has led to an increase in the visibility of the issues surrounding teacher pay, namely how little it is. We saw it grace the cover of TIME magazine. It was also a key campaign point of Florida's Democratic nominee for governor, Andrew Gillum. While teacher pay is rising in people's minds, it's definitely not the only issue that needs to be addressed in education.

It would be great to get a raise. As someone who is in exactly the situation Harris is talking about, her proposal really resonates with me. I’d love to be able to leave my third and possibly even my second job behind. That would give me more time to focus on my wife, my children, family and friends even. Also important, it allows me to focus more on my practice as a teacher, to be better prepared, and to do more learning in my field about how to best approach and connect with students.

The reality is stark, because even as Harris acknowledges in an earlier tweet from March, and something I've discussed with people at length, is that the teacher pay penalty is real. So even Harris's proposed $13,000 increase would only bring us back to where we should be based on our education, training, and responsibilities. Also yes, we need to increase access and funding for early-learning in PK through 2nd, as these are fundamental times for learning and most student learning gaps can be traced back to issues at that age. And no doubt, having a public school teacher at the head of the Dept of Ed, as Warren has proposed, would be fantastic and might help reorient their priorities to a certain degree. But even these relatively simple changes face a long road to approval and implementation.

One of the more significant talking points I've heard is Warrens commitment to supporting teachers unions and the right to join unions. In theory, this sounds great. Except this runs into a huge problem in the same place all other educational reform does: at the state level. Right now in Florida I'm more than welcome to join a "union" or an Association as they’re more likely to be. I'm currently a card carrying member of the Pinellas County Teachers Association, which also includes me in the National Education Association (described as a "terrorist organization" by Bush's Education Secretary Rod Paige). But that means very little in the bigger picture. They negotiate with the district on our behalf around salary and benefits, although that seems to be about the extent of it. And that's because Florida, like so many other currently or previously conservatively governed states, is a "Right To Work" state. This is just a clever way of saying anti-union. We have no right to collective organized action, which means we have no power. Which is why we keep seeing our legislators doing things like allocating money for charter schools, virtual schools, and guns in the classroom instead of things that can actually help. And also, remember those strikes that teachers "won" in West Virginia and Oklahoma? The conservatively controlled legislatures in both states have now passed bills barring and punishing teachers from going on strike again.

At the end of the day, most of what is being proposed by current candidates is a) pretty much the same and b) unlikely to have any type of real impact on education in America. Increasing teacher pay will help with teacher morale, retention, and preparedness. But it doesn’t do anything to offset the external burdens we bear. Our classrooms are overpopulated as class size laws are ignored by officials at all levels. We teach in old, deteriorating, and poorly designed schools that are so overly swollen with students that most have portables. We are hamstrung from innovating curriculum and cultivating culture in the classroom by the tyranny of mandated curriculums and teacher evaluations. And, we are painfully over-extended trying to meet a wide range of community, district, state, and federal initiatives. 

If politicians of any stripe want to show they’re serious about helping teachers and students, and that they’re serious about fixing public education in America then there are a few things that need to start coming up in their stump speeches, town halls, and televised debates. We need more teachers, not just to get us out of our current teacher deficit, but to help improve the teacher-to-student ratio. We need new schools and more schools. Schools with enough classrooms for every child, and enough teachers for every classroom. We need freedom, the freedom to do what is best for our students under our care in our classrooms. And finally, we need an understanding that the most powerful and most important part of learning is what happens in the classroom, and that all education policy and reform should be done in support of that.

But until that happens, education and the education reform movement won’t really change much in this country. And guess what, those changes are going to cost a lot more than the $315 billion that Harris’ pay raise proposal will.

Literacy Library, A Call To Action

Almost all of last years donations in one shot.

At the beginning of the last school year, I put out a call to action to the people in my life. I shared an Amazon Wish list with a robust list of modern, diverse titles meant to engage readers across a spectrum of skills and experiences. The response blew me away. It blew the minds (and might have sparked a little jealousy) in the minds of the other teachers at my school as well. In total, a little over 60 books were donated to my classroom library.

It was all part of a little rebellion on my part. I had just come home from a week in Austin at the 2018 International Literacy Association Conference in Austin where I had spent 5 days being inspired by the idea that if we give kids books about them, with characters that look like them, and live lives like them than they will be much more likely to engage with reading. But most importantly, we needed to give them dedicated time to just read. Time everyday for them to read whatever they wanted, no matter what it looked like and what it was about, as long as they were reading. And that most importantly, we had to stop fearing that someone would walk in and see kids that were “just reading”. It’s a reading class. That’s what they’re supposed to be doing!

But I’m happy to report that, IT WORKED. It wasn’t wall to wall success, but there were successes. Kids read. They enjoyed reading. They finished books, often for the first time in years. I almost cried when one of my students, very proudly, told me they finished a book for the first time they could ever remember. Some even finished whole series.

A lot of our titles are sourced from the Project Lit Community’s Annual Reading List.

And so I’m asking for your help again, to help grow this idea in my classroom, because it’s starting to catch on with the other teachers at my school as well. And also to help grow this idea at my wife’s school. Below, you’ll find a link to an Amazon wish list. If you’re feeling generous and willing to help out, I ask that you sort the list by priority. The books listed as Highest and High Priority, are the ones we are most interested in adding to our libraries for this year. You’ll also notice that most books only have a requested quantity of TWO. This way, her and I can each get one copy for the classroom, then gauge its level of success and interest with students, and finally use district and Title 1 funds to order additional copies of the titles we think are doing best with students.

As the weeks march on towards the end of summer and the beginning of school, I’ll be sharing more details about the reasons why this is important, why it matters to teachers, students, and schools, and how research proves that this approach to reading classrooms helps cultivate better students, lifelong learners, and better citizens of the world. So check back each week to see what we’re talking about, share this with other teachers who also teach reading and English, and if it’s right for you, feel free to donate a book or two off the list.

Book Discussion: Why They Can't Write by John Warner (2018)

A brief note: This is not a book review. I’m not here to tell you if a book was good or not, or how many stars or points or Beards it got. Assume that any book that makes it to this website was good enough to hold my attention and make me want to talk about in depth. Hence, this is a book discussion. Now, discussions also require input, so feel free to add your thoughts in the comments or over on Instagram and Twitter. But as always, be nice and cite your sources.

Let's start this discussion by getting one thing out of the way: if you come to this book expecting a myriad of ready-made solutions to slap into a curriculum or lesson plan, then you should seek that elsewhere. However, whether you're looking for these things or not you should still absolutely read this book. The real draw lies buried in the subtitle: Killing the Five-Paragraph Essay and Other Necessities.

John Warner's book initially presents itself as the memoir of a grizzled and battered college writing teacher looking back on why his students are so disappointing when they arrive in his first year college writing class. But, it quickly turns away from that. Warner rapidly moves onto the very real concerns he has to present. He starts with the widely renowned and loathed five-paragraph essay, moving neatly and sharply through the concept and breaching into the realm of his "other necessities" when he declares:

"The standardization [of the the five paragraph essay] makes them easier to assign and grade for teachers who are burdened with too many students." (p.29)

From here forward, Warner launches a full assault on all of the underlying causes that are attacking and eroding our public education system. All of which in turn lead to students being poor writers. His text has a tendency to slide back and forth between tightly discussing specific issues and wandering in and out of the myriad social, economic, political, racial, and historical issues that have plagued and continue to plague students, teachers, and schools. But amongst these, there were three very specific ideas that stood out to me. These revolved around data, expectations for students, and treatment of teachers.

One of the first topics that Why They Can't Write gets into is data. Warner uses this excellent metaphor about how, in a hospital, data is constantly being gathered on a patient. However, the doctors and nurses aren't responding to every blip in that data as they know that small changes in either direction are natural and usually correct themselves (2018). This is contrasted with our schools, where we use data as a misnomer of measuring learning in every subject and every task in order to monitor both students and teachers. In many ways the collection of data in schools rivals that of the data collection being performed by big corporations like Amazon, Facebook, as well as your cell phone and internet providers. But in schools, the real-time application, manipulation, and often misuse of that data is far more apparent.

Students are constantly being earmarked for accommodations, different learning conditions, and additional testing every time there is even the slightest change (especially if it's downwards) in student “learning.” The danger here lies in what are the unexamined consequences when these data-initiated, external interventions "become an expectation [students] bring into the learning experience" (Warner, 2018, p. 44). The caveat being that while I completely understand that many students do need accommodations in certain topics and environments, we have also seen the rise in abuse of testing accommodations.

The collection of data and its uses and misuses is also leading us down a path where student control, especially control of student attention, is being valued above all. In a deviation into the ills of the educational technology market, Warner specifically comments on a number of products designed to garner, monitor, and manage student attention. This is of course all done under the errant belief that attention = learning. This dangerous belief has grown within the edtech market because it has grown among the educational reform movement as well, specifically at charter schools and so called No Excuses Schools. I won't get into the myriad of issues that center around schools like these and their zero-tolerance policies, but I will focus in on their role in creating what sociologist Joanne Golann calls the worker-learner. She describes them as students "who monitor themselves, hold back their opinions, and defer to authority" (Warner, 2018, p. 55). Some of you may be sitting there saying, that sounds like the ideal student! but research shows us that learning, real, true learning "requires time, space, and freedom" — all things that are stifled by zero-tolerance policies as well as "relentlessly tracking students in real time" (Warner, 2018, p. 56).

Warner goes on to extol on data and edtech pointing to the idea that the point of most of this is to drive an increase in "efficiency" in the class, but as he states it is "difficult to reconcile the value of efficiency with learning" (2018, p. 96). He goes on to question the value in efficiency, whether it is valuable "in our relationships" or "with our families" or even if our "most profound love [is] efficient" (p. 96). He pushes back on the idea of efficiency, as does with many others, by going to Dewey's belief that "education...is a process of living and not a preparation for future living." Unfortunately, Dewey's lament becomes more and more the reality with each passing day. We see education, both public, private, K12, and higher-ed being denigrated into a simplistic form of job training and career preparation. Education in this country is being transformed into a "vision of American values that substitutes gainful employment for freedom" (Warner, 2018, p. 137).

American educational values used to, at least in theory, be more about promoting learning. We wanted teachers to be instilling students with curiosity and critical thinking. These types of values and outcomes requires a specific type of of freedom and flexibility in the classroom. However, those making policy and in control of budgets have been adopting a more control-oriented approach to education. This approach is driven by increased means of collecting and monitoring data which exists in a feedback loop with educational technology. The more technology we use, the more data we collect. This allows us to create a more efficient and targeted technology, which allows us to collect more specific and tailored data. All of this is leveraged in an attempt to make schools and classrooms more efficient by “helping” teachers be more effective and efficient. The end result being that if a teacher is more efficient, they can have more students in the classroom. We already see this manifesting in the growth and expansion of online schools run by for profit companies financed by public funds. One of the leading states is Florida, which is no surprise since former governor Jeb Bush has been one of the strongest proponents of virtual schools since 2010, which was compounded by the state’s budget crisis in 2011 that led to a slashing of budgets for public education and a reallocation of the remaining funds to grow the sector (Rooks, 2017). These online schools and virtual classrooms can take on significantly more students per teacher and often escape the same levels of certification and oversight that public schools and public school teachers are subjected to.

Speaking of teachers, Warner spends a lot of time on them in Why They Can't Write. Early on, he appears to be laying the blame on them for why students in high school are so woefully unprepared for writing at the college level. Then he shifts that blame by acknowledging that while public school teachers may not be getting the job done, it's because of the incredibly long list of reasons that are interfering with and or outright preventing them from being effective and "efficient" in the classroom.

Many will acknowledge or at least pay lip service to the idea that teachers are overwhelmed and overburdened. But, it's my belief that many think well hey, I’m busy too, I have a lot going too, I'm stressed too and then discount it and move on. Warner actively goes into the hurdles faced by teachers today. He points out that research shows that U.S. teachers "spend 38% more time in the classroom" (2018, p. 121) compared with those in other developed nations and that educators are "least likely to report feeling their opinions seem to count" (p. 121). He sums it up by pointing out that while teaching is "honorable work" it is being performed at a "pace that is unsustainable and not conducive to effective teaching" (p. 120). This unsustainable pace means that teachers have "no time for professional development" or even "enough time for adequate rest" (p. 120). When you roll this in with the well documented teacher pay penalty , hopefully it beings to become a little clearer as to why there is a looming (just kidding it's already here) crisis in the hiring and retention of quality teachers.

This all has to be compounded with the fact that teachers are constantly juggling new initiatives. Warner has a whole section on fads in education, essentially how in the constant quest to “fix” education we are constantly seeking some now quick, singular solution. In his writing, he distills each of these into a "hype cycle" and how it plays out over 9 stages. Stage 6 really stood out to me:

"The burden of implementing this new curriculum falls entirely on teachers via administrative diktat. Nothing is removed from teacher’s responsibilities to make way for this additional requirement, although many things naturally fall by the wayside. Teachers are to be held accountable for how their students perform on these new metrics while being given very little, if any assistance in implementing these new programs." (p. 75)

At the end of the list of stages, it highlights how the failure of each successive initiative is always chalked up to "poor implementation" which I read simply as code for “'the teachers fault.”

Why They Can't Write isn't all about problems with no solutions. In fact, it actually offers up a number of answers to these issues. Unfortunately, they're the unpopular ones that require spending money directly on schools and teachers. The one that stood out to me the most, as it's a problem and solution near and dear to my heart, is class size. I'll expound more on this in later posts, but in the book, Warner cites specifically a list from the Conference of College Composition and Communication on optimal conditions for college writing classes. The list contains 12 principles, that while specifically written for post-secondary writing, could easily be adopted for all classrooms. Principle 11 stated that "instructors [should have] reasonable and equitable working conditions" which they went on to add, also includes that "teaching loads should be no more than 20 students per class" and that no teacher should have "more than 60...students a term." (2018, p. 114).

I want you to pause here and imagine that. Imagine what your school experience would have been like if all of your classes had fewer than twenty students, and if your teachers had been freed up to enable your learning by not being encumbered under 150 other students to teach. Imagine what school would be like for your children if they could receive that kind of clear eyed, focused attention and feedback.

But this would also require acknowledging that teaching and learning are not things that can be rushed or forced. It would also require acknowledging that if we really want to help teachers we "should first recognize that teaching is a profession with its own practice," and that that practice, like any other, law, medicine, etc., "requires what any professional needs: time, resources, and motivation." (p. 229). This acts as the heart of Warner’s argument: that teachers can't effectively serve students because they're not allowed to serve themselves. But he also connects it back to students, noting that this failure to support teachers "trickles down to students" (p. 122).

If we want students to be better, and to do better, we have to give teachers the means to be better, and to do better.

Algretto, S.& Mishel, L. (2018) The teacher pay penalty has hit a new high. Economic policy Institute.

Retrieved July 3, 2019, from https://www.epi.org/publication/teacher-pay-gap-2018/

Florida department of education. (2019). Identification of critical teacher shortage areas. Retrieved July 3,

2019, from http://www.fldoe.org/core/fileparse.php/7584/urlt/CTSA1920.pdf

Lombardo, C. (2019) Why the college admissions scandal hurts students with disabilities. National Public

Radio. Retrieved July 3, 2019, from https://www.npr.org/2019/03/14/703006521/why-the-college-admissions-scandal-hurts-students-with-disabilities

Rooks, N. (2017). Cutting school: Privatization, segregation, and the end of public education. New York, NY: The New Press.

Warner, J. (2018). Why the can’t write: Killing the five-paragraph essay and other neccessities. Baltimore MD: John Hopkins University Press.

A beginning of sorts

To begin is always the first challenge, often even more so than to complete something. Based on the number of marginally filled notebooks, halting attempts at journaling, and the many other blogs and blog-adjacent type things I have floating around on the internet you might be tricked into believing I am quite good at starting things. But that would not account for the number of ideas that barely survived the firing of a few synapses, the million dollar ideas scribbled in notebooks never to be looked at again, or the best laid plans that always materialize after beer number 3 but are gone by the end of number 4.

But life is funny like that. We never know which of these seeds we plant are going to even sprout let alone grow and put down roots and come to overtake us. Which is kind of what happened when I finally decided to return to the classroom several years ago.

Growing up my mom was a teacher, first in Kindergarten and then as a teacher-owner of a preschool. I never had any illusions about education being a magic fairy tale land of learning and creativity. After we survived Y2K I watched as former governor Jeb Bush pushed Florida into educational reform under the guise of charter schools, vouchers, and merit-based pay for teachers. All things that, at the time I had a vague sense were not actually good for public schools, their students, and their teachers, but I didn't have the context to fully comprehend their impact.

Now having been in education, in the classroom for going on five years, and having worked with students across the spectrum, my eyes have been opened to the stark inconsistencies between what we as a nation say we believe about education and what we actually want and do with our public schools. My two years spent pursuing and completing my masters degree opened me up to a number of other things. First, and foremost, that their is a towering wealth of research, knowledge, and wisdom about what comprises good teaching, effective schools, and sound policy, but that is all roundly ignored by districts and policy makers and out of reach of most teachers. Second, that I finally learned and honed the skills necessary for effectively accessing, identifying, and analyzing information pertinent to what was important to me. Third, that for all the griping we teachers do about how problematic things are and how much they need to change, we rarely take action to change them. Of course, we also rarely have the time and energy left over to do little else besides make it through each day.

These last few years I've been paying much closer attention to whats happening around me, both in my school and my district, but also more broadly across the state of Florida and across our country. I've watched teachers fight back with massive city and even statewide strikes. I was filled with joy watching throngs of teachers clad in red filling the hallways, stairways, and lobbies of their seats of government. I've also watched as both our federal government, and my own state government has fallen more and more under the sway of right wing politicians who continue in earnest the work of dismantling our entire public education system. I was filled with rage and dread when the Florida State legislature passed unconstitutional legislation to broaden charter and private school access to public education funding. But both of these things fueled my passion for wanting to make a difference.

And so here we are, at a beginning of sorts. I felt I had spent enough time posting on Instagram stories or pigeonholing friends and family about educational policy and reform at the dinner table, and that it was time to turn to a better outlet. Something that allows for more in-depth discussion, but also the flexibility to take what you like and leave the rest. The goal is to have one main post a week, with other smaller posts as needed. I'll be talking about the books I've read, the insanity and beauty of Florida, the broader going-on's in our country and world, and of course, looking in-depth and at length at the whos, whats, whys, and hows of our educational system. And if it all works out, hopefully it will all connect together.