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DCGEducator: Doing The Right Thing

~ A Teacher Speaks

DCGEducator: Doing The Right Thing

Monthly Archives: August 2016

A WISE MEMORY

19 Friday Aug 2016

Posted by David Greene in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Sometimes you have to love Facebook. Yesterday I posted a note regarding the spreading of innuendo and rumor about people. I quoted Marcus Aurelius and Socrates’s three filters.

Marcus Aurelius is quoted as having said, “If it is not right, do not do it; if it is not true, do not say it.”

Good advice, but how often is it not followed when it involves personal information about someone? So often gossip is not true, but even if it is true, it should not be said if it is not good. Socrates used a triple filter test.

When a friend came to Socrates with a juicy bit of gossip, Socrates replied, “Before you tell me this bit of gossip, will it pass my triple filter test? First of all, what you are about to tell me, is it true?” The man replied that he was not sure; he had heard it but could not verify its truthfulness. Socrates continued by saying, “You want to tell me some gossip but you are not positive that it is true.” “Well,” said Socrates, “Is what you are about to tell me good?” “No,” the man replied, “it certainly is not good.” “So,” Socrates continued, “you want to tell me something that may not be true and it certainly is not good. Let us give this bit of gossip the final of the three filter tests: Is what you are about to tell me going to be useful to me?” Again the man had to confess that no, it would not be useful to Socrates. So, in his wisdom, Socrates then said, “Well, if you are not sure it is true, you know it is not good, and you tell me that it will not be useful to me, why then tell it to me?”

If only each of us would use this triple filter test when someone comes to us with a juicy bit of gossip, it certainly would stop gossip right in its tracks.

Out of the blue I received a comment from a student I taught and mentored almost 30 years ago… John Dawson, from Woodlands HS in NY. When I asked him how he was doing this was his reply:

“I’m well, truly blessed. I have a “my cup runneth over” type of good fortune. I work about 100x harder than I did in HS, and perhaps too much, but I love it.

From time to time I look at your review of my Wise Project and smile at how you flagged the need to ensure avoidance of the “Angry Young Man” syndrome years-ago-i-was-an-angry-young-man

— which I conquered by junior year of college. After which time it was all Dean’s List and an evolved perspective.

You may not recall but I stapled the Selective Service letter to my Wise Journal and told them over the phone that I would not send in this vestigial remnant of the Vietnam War as I took issue with our nation’s foreign and domestic policies …

Fast forward to early 1999, when I was having my “perfunctory” character and fitness interview for admission to the NY State Bar. First question I get from this wise geezer is “Why in 1989 did you say you would not support this country’s Constitution?”

As much as I wanted to clarify my original statement and sentiment (“3/5ths of a man, anyone? Oliver North drugs for guns, anyone?), I told the truth and said my statements at that time were of a 17-year old boy, and that my views had evolved and I would now uphold the Constitution unflinchingly.”

Then I asked him how that all worked out and here is his reply.

“I was at Hogan & Hartson for 7 years, my oral advocacy mentor was current Chief Justice, John Roberts, who was head of our Supreme Court & Appellate Litigation practice …. One of my colleagues in the NYC office was current Attorney General, Loretta Lynch, who was super nice and super

I eventually left to focus my practice on intellectual property, representing wineries and other alc. beverage producers. I head up the IP group at a 20-lawyer firm in Northern California, in the Russian River Valley. What can I say, I love wine! So while the best of my peers went into public service, I hang out and taste test wines all day in wine country … A very selfish existence. ;)”

A very good decision I think… Easier to avoid angry old man syndrome.eastwood

 

 

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A Plea to Intelligent Trumpeters

14 Sunday Aug 2016

Posted by David Greene in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

No disrespect to any of my friends who are Trump followers who agree that Washington DC is broken and that $ rules, and that too much globalism is a bad thing, or whatever your economics is….but when will enough be enough?

This is not liberal reporting. It is kids reporting what has happened to them WHILE IN SCHOOL!!!

This community of Forest Grove Oregon, near the farm where I grew up in western Oregon, has historically been a charming, friendly and welcoming community.  

“But in the middle of a physics class at the high school one day this spring, a group of white students suddenly began jeering at their Latino classmates and chanting: “Build a wall! Build a wall!” The same white students had earlier chanted “Trump! Trump! Trump!”

“People now feel that it is O.K. to say things that they might not have said a year ago,” Briana Larios, a 15-year-old Mexican-American honor roll student who hopes to go to Harvard, said of some of her white classmates, “Trump played a big role.”

 “Another teacher reported in North Carolina, that a fifth grader told a Muslim student “that he was supporting Donald Trump because he was going to kill all of the Muslims if he became president!”

How can you still support a man who clearly incites this stuff? This election is beyond politic, or policy or whether or not you believe Hillary is crooked.

“Among any nation’s most precious possessions is its social fabric, and that is what Donald Trump is rending with incendiary talk about roughing up protesters and about gun owners solving the problem of Hillary Clinton making judicial nominations.

 We need not be apocalyptic about it. This is not Kristallnacht. But Trump’s harsh rhetoric tears away the veneer of civility and betrays our national motto of “e pluribus unum.” He has unleashed a beast and fed its hunger, and long after this campaign is over we will be struggling to corral it again.

So far, Trump has arguably benefited from his fondness for over-the-top rhetoric. He gets attention and television time and is always at the center of his own hurricane. But in November, after the ballots have been counted and the crowds have gone home, we will still have a country to share, and I fear it may be a harsher and more fragile society because of Trump’s campaigning today.

Inflammatory talk isn’t entertaining, but dangerous. It’s past time for Trump to grow up.”

The problem is that he can’t. This is who he is. His own advisors and fellow republicans cant get him to stop. He does for a couple of days, then there is another oops… and everyone just cringes. He loses more and more support from Republicans and Independents who may agree with some of his ideas but for whom this just goes too far.

My message to you is: maybe it is time for intelligent supporters of him like you to tell him, Donald, STOP, or we will have to drop our support as well.

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The Day Donald Trump Was Principal-for-a-Day in a NYC Public School

12 Friday Aug 2016

Posted by David Greene in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Scholarships, not sneakers!

Diane Ravitch's blog

Many have wondered whether Donald Trump has ever set foot in a public school. He has said during the campaign that he LOVES, LOVES, LOVES” charter schools. In that sense, he is allied with Peter Cunningham of Education Post, Campbell Brown of The 74, the billionaire Waltons, the billionaire Gates, the billionaire Eli Broad, and every Republican governor.

It is unknown whether he has ever visited a charter school.

But there is documentary proof that he did visit a New York City public school 19 years ago, when he participated in a program called “Principal for a Day,” sponsored by a civic group called PENCIL.

Trump visited PS 70, and his idea of generosity was to hold a lottery for 300 students in fifth grade, with only 15 winners, who would get free Nike sneakers at the Nike store in Trump Tower. Here is the contemporary account of his visit…

View original post 315 more words

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THE FUTURE IN THEIR EYES

08 Monday Aug 2016

Posted by David Greene in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

IMG_0268

B. Keller and D. Greene

Rev. Dr. Barbara Austin Lucas often invokes renowned sociologist Sarah Lawrence Lightfoot when she discusses the relationship educators must have with their charges. Lightfoot said, “You can’t educate anyone unless you can see your future in their eyes.”

This means there has to be some connection, some investment, some sense that your future’s success is tied inextricably to the success or failure of the person sitting before you. That is a powerful statement, but more importantly, it is a true statement. You can’t teach “at a distance”. You have to be in the trenches, with your sleeves rolled up, not standing on the sidelines pointing out every mistake or theorizing about what might work. You’ve got to be a problem solver in addition to being the problem finder.

Learned scholars and educational experts contend that a major reason for the lack of academic success of young people today is the failure of others to properly motivate them. Who motivates them to demand the latest (and most expensive) styles? Who motivates them to spend countless hours on video games and texting to girls and guys, but not even 5 minutes on studying or homework? Who motivates them to memorize and learn by rote, (an educational taboo according to the learned educational experts and scholars), the words of meaningless, often disrespectful hip hop or to get up at 5:30 in the morning to stand on line for a pair of basketball shoes that sell for $300 when they cannot find way to get to school on time for a class that starts at 8:30 in the morning?

So who motivates them in class? We expect students to be self motivated, but most need help.

Good teachers and coaches know you have to have trust your students and players. You have to believe they can do what you need done. If you trust them and believe in them, there is nothing they will not do for you. If you don’t trust them and believe in them, you won’t get anything from them at all. If you don’t, they will give you nothing. The New York City DOE and many of the other national reformers do not value, trust, respect or believe in either the teachers or the students who attend their classes.

When reformers say they want to successfully reform education,they really mean teachers and students. But you can’t accomplish that unless unless you value and respect them. You can’t value anything you don’t believe in, respect, or are devoid of a “connection” to. You can’t reform from the outside. You have to get in and move the rocks and the boulders. You have to be willing to do some of the heavy lifting and not just stand on the sidelines and tell everybody else where to move things.

It strikes us that in all of the discussions and conversations about fixes and ways to reform education, little, if anything at all), has been directed towards students. In the end, no matter how great the teachers are or how technologically adept the schools the students attend may be, NOTHING will be accomplished without EFFORT on the part of the students. How do we become more successful at gaining that effort?

A major flaw or inconsistency in the plans to reform schools as it pertains to students is the failure in getting students to focus. Without focus, nothing can be accomplished. In the world students live in today, the concept of focus is virtually nonexistent. They are told they can do many things at one time and their preoccupation with computers and mobile device related activities which last only a few seconds or minutes erode the concept of focus. Think snapchat.

To focus means “to concentrate one’s thoughts on ONE point or purpose.” This means one cannot be “focused” if one is doing or being asked to do several things at one time. Focus provides strength and power as it pertains to a task.

A single ray of light cannot really do anything, but a laser, a focused beam of light, can cut through steel. Focus allows one to put all of his/her effort into one thing, and like the laser, it allows the person to create a better, stronger product.

Focus requires self-discipline, and while reformers talk about “evaluating and assessing teachers more thoroughly” and “raising the level of expectation for teachers”, they rarely speak about HELPING teachers motivate the self-discipline students require in order to focus themselves on the goal of succeeding in school. To reformers, reform is more about testing. For example, reformers demand that teachers maintain passing rates of 85% or better, when the truth be told, the graduation rate in America, with very few exceptions, has historically hovered around the 60-65% mark!

Teachers are expected to be motivated and have focus, but reformers have not only have made many teachers less motivated and focused, they have inadaquately dealt with these issues regarding students. No matter what plans are made to reform education, reform will NEVER occur without the participation of the students and that participation requires motivation and focus on the things that ensure academic success.

It is the students who will suffer the most because of the reforms that place all of the responsibility for student success on someone OTHER than the students.

Motivation must come from within. How many of us have given up on that diet or workout routine because we lost motivation? It must be encouraged, nourished and supported by others, but it ultimately it must be produced by the individual, because no matter what the “experts” claim or say, motivation, plain and simple, is an inside job.

How are education reformers motivating students? They aren’t.

Any successful reform or change, particularly as it pertains to education, must have some sense of humanity, some sense of connection one to the other if it is to work. The educational reforms are lacking in this element. You gotta love the rhetoric; “No Child Left Behind”, “Children First”, “Students First”. The problem is that it’s only rhetoric. It has no humanity, it has no soul. Poets, musicians and artists agree that if the words, music, or image have no humanity, nothing to connect the reader, listener, or viewer to the experience being captured then the they are just words, sounds, or images. They do not move or inspire. They do not motivate. They do not stimulate focus.

The same is true in education. If the changes are just about making the numbers look good or making them fit a particular bottom line or paradigm, then they are devoid of the “connective tissue” that makes them more than just changes or catchy phrases. They do not motivate. They do not stimulate focus. They do not help students become more self-disciplined.

Most reformers do not send their children do not attend public schools that are ravaged by the rhetoric driven reforms. Many of them apparently did not attend public schools, or have forgotten HOW the teachrs in their schools gave them the foundation to be who they are today. Many do not value or respect public schools, nor do they believe in, trust or respect public schools, public school students, or those who work in the public schools.

******

What do John King, General Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, President Barack Obama, President Bill Clinton, Dr. Ben Carson, James Baldwin, Maya Angelou and a host of others, including most of you reading this essay have in common? They are all products of public education.

Not one of them succeeded because of common core standards. All of us who went to public school before the Common Core and its associated reforms and tests were created succeeded prior to these reforms.

“Which one of the reformers would send their children to the schools their reforms have created?” Which one of them would send their children to a school that housed 6-8 different schools, with 6-8 different philosophies, that shared one library, auditorium, gymnasium, (that is if they have a gymnasium or library), that promote separation rather than collaboration, (by virtue of the fact that each school inside of each building is encouraged to “brand” its space), that have principals who cannot train teachers or teach them to become better teachers because they have taught only 2-3 years, (if they have taught at all), that have teachers who are 2 year TFA transients?

Which of these reformers send their kids to schools that focus only on students passing tests rather than learning to analyze and critique philosophies and concepts, or schools that do not offer students challenging, competitive classes such as AP classes, honors classes, calculus, physics, trigonometry, etc., (although those same students are theoretically receiving “a world class education”), or schools that use technology as a solution rather as a tool to help students to succeed, or eschew the use of experience and experienced teachers whose methods and philosophies have been tried and tested? Which of them would send their kids to schools tha thave no recess? No art? No music? I am certain beyond any doubt, the answer will be “None.”

If they are not willing to trust this type of school reform with their children, it is criminal to create schools with these constructions for other children. That is just plain wrong.

We believe that teachers teach their students the same way they’d want their children to be taught. We want our children to have diligent teachers who motivate their students to focus, analyze, think for themselves, challenge themselves, and expect more of themselves. That is exactly what we have tried to do in every class we have taught for approximately four decades.

For us the purpose of education is to get students to see their “future in their eyes.”

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TODAY JUST MIGHT BE A GOOD DAY

01 Monday Aug 2016

Posted by David Greene in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

By B. Keller

Today

just might be a good day

to teach a little bit of

history.

 

Might be a good day

to remind the world

we were the first to die

when America stood against

the rule of one man,

that we fought to reunite

the “house divided”,

and the “war to end all wars”,

the battle at Pearl Harbor,

the tiny island of Iwo Jima,

and the “Great War” to “save”

the world.

We served in the Korean Conflict,

and the war in Vietnam,

the Gulf War,

The Persian Gulf,

in Iraq and Iran,

and Afghanistan.

 

We are buried in graves

from Boston to Gettysburg,

from Flanders Field

to Arlington,

from the jungles of Southeast Asia

to the deserts of Afghanistan.

 

We built the White House

laid out the design of this nation’s

capitol.

We were the backbone of this nation’s

wealth,

we saved the agriculture of the South,

(despite being chained, beaten, raped

and lynched).

 

We took gold in 1908in London

with a runner born to slaves

in ’36 in Germany against the

“superior” race,

in ‘48 at London,

in ’60 in Rome,

in ’64 in Tokyo

and ’68 in Mexico City,

in ’84 at Los Angeles

’92 at Barcelona, Atlanta in ‘96

and ’08 in Beijing.

 

We made blood transfusions possible,

and performed heart surgery,

and invented the traffic light,

and the gas mask, the Real McCoy

helped Bell and Edison to make

their inventions work,

and we brought America

blues, jazz, r and b,

and hip hop.

 

Today,

Might just be a good day

to teach a little bit of

history.

 

Go on.

You can look it up.

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Profile

David Greene has spent 58 of his 66 years in Public Schools. He taught high school social studies and coached football for 38 years. He was an adjunct and field supervisor for Fordham University mentoring new teachers in the Bronx and formertreasurer of Save Our Schools. He is presently a program consultant for WISE Services. David Greene’s book, DOING THE RIGHT THING: A Teacher Speaks is a result of his experiences and his desire to pay forward what he has learned over the years as he continues to fight for students and quality education in PUBLIC schools. His essays have appeared in Diane Ravitch's website, Education Weekly, US News and World Report, and the Washington Post. He wrote the most responded-to Sunday Dialogue letter in the New York Times entitled, “A Talent For Teaching”. He has appeared on radio, local TV, Lo-Hud newspaper articles, and has given several talks about Common Core, APPR, TFA, teacher preparation, the teaching profession, and other issues regarding education. Most recently he appeared on: The growing movement against Teach For America, December 11, 2014 11:00PM ET, by Lisa Binns & Christof Putzel He is presently a contributor to Ed Circuit: Powering The Global Education Conversation.

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HE COULD MAKE WORDS SING

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Helping parents and teachers end common core.

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deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Mostly Education; a Smattering of Politics & Pinch of Personal

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Crazy Normal - the Classroom Exposé

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hosted by Anthony Cody

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A Teacher Speaks

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Where Education, Law, Psychology, Politics, Parenting and Sarcasm collide.

Deborah Meier on Education

Views on Education

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Are schools failing, or are they being failed?

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