Here’s a little true tale I’ll call The custodian and the ditcher.

Walking back to class during my planning period I just spied a student being read the riot act… by the school’s custodian. It was an African American man speaking to an African American teen telling him about how “he needed to get to class, grab onto this chance for school” while giving him a heads up as to how there are just a whole “mess of people that want to simply turn kids like him into little gang bangers that’ll end up doin’ time — cause there’s a whole lot of folks that make good money off of that in this country, both the gangs and the government.”

I had to smile. I mean how often is it that we devalue what it is that our “non-teaching” adults on campus can bring to the table when it comes to the quest of educating kids? For years I have said that the security guards, the school lunch personnel and so on would love to be asked to do more than merely clean the garbage or scoop out the corn kernels and plop them on lunch trays.

Yet we don’t ask. And we don’t empower. And we don’t trust. The fact is, school employees, for the most part, LIKE KIDS (at least as much as teachers do, LOL) and would love to lend their wisdom and insights if only they were empowered to do so.

My feeling is that it’s a great waste of our natural resources that we do not ask more of the people who would be quite willing to do more. Just because a person is a school custodian is no reason not to believe that this person can’t also be an educational ally.

And when it comes right down to it, don’t you think that the conversation I just heard came from a man who had a small degree of credibility to speak about the matter? Heck, maybe even more so than myself.

Is it okay to feel good? Is it okay to be FIRED UP? Do we spend enough time genuinely recognizing the joy that is the teaching profession?

I mean I just got done with an IMMENSE amount of work. Papers, lesson plans, a trip to Jacksonville, Florida where I did a student assembly for a few hundred at-risk middle school kids about the value of school, education and making good choices (a total HOME-RUN, btw… I mean kids are kids are kids and anyone who doesn’t think so, doesn’t really know teens very well at all. They may put up masks, but inside they love to laugh, be inspired and feel validated!).

So does the crappy hotel bed, the 3 hour layover in Atlanta, the fact that every seat on the plane was taken on my way home and I had a dude the size of an NBA basketball player sit in the middle seat next to me for the flight across country bother me?

Well, it does if I let it — but if I focus on how great it feels to have just done a heck of a lot of hard, good professional work as the end of the month approaches, well… there’s value in that. Deep value.

Loving your job is spectacularly important and if you don’t remember to acknowledge and honor the love, and relish in the hard, strenuous, push you to the edge work, now and then, you are gonna burn out.

But if you do, you get forged into steel. Just like metal, the heat of our job can burn the impurities away. Remember what it’s all about. That’s the fountain of our strength!

Turns out the jails in Los Angeles will not have to endure financial cuts. And to the average citizen, I am sure that brings a sigh of relief.

But our schools of course, aren’t so lucky.

To read this article is to see that in the prisons,”the department has managed to find $25 million in additional savings and revenue.”

Steve Whitmore, the department’s spokesman, said, “There will no reductions in services in unincorporated areas and no reductions in detectives.” He also said, “There will be no jail closures, and no portion of a jail will be closed.”

Doesn’t this really tell you what is going through the mind of most American residents? We value jailing people over educating them and when push comes to shove, if one has to give, let it be schools — cause incarceration is a bigger need if choices have to be made.

Schools have been closed, teachers have been fired, kids have been provided less services in an almost draconian manner these last few months. But when it comes to our jails, the powers that be are doing everything they can to ensure that all remains status quo.

Not that I want them to cut off the legs of our justice system. I mean I don’t want the prisons emptied either. But why is it that the jails can manage to save their own skin and schools can’t… and that there isn’t more of an uproar about it either?

America loves incarceration, that’s for sure.

I am not sure if sexual molestation by school personnel against students is on the rise or if the explosion of web-based media has simply drawn more attention and awareness to the problem. Either way, it’s absolutely tragic when this stuff happens.

And it devastates lives.

As this story in the L.A. Times shows, the victims, the kids, suffer in ways that color their existence and worldview for the rest of their life… and what scares me is how numb I think we in our society have become to the crime because of the frequency with which it is being reported these days.

Having had students confess to me their victimhood over and over (it’s so much more common than I ever realized — like SO MUCH MORE!) is what drove me to want to do more. And the fact is, an incident right out of my own classroom (the tale a female student told me about her uncle) was the original spark for my latest book of fiction, The Secret Story of Sonia Rodriguez.

In some ways, I am just amazed how SONIA has hit a nerve with so many kids. Especially girls. And even more especially, with Latina girls. This novel hasn’t become breakout big like TWILIGHT or anything like that but it does have a very strong group of kids and teachers that really support it extremely well and it’s being brought into classrooms all around the country. (And oh the emails they send to me.) For that I am honored.

But still, I want to do more.

I guess the question is, how can we better protect our kids? And what more can we do to help them when this stuff happens?

BTW, was it always so prevalent and yet under-reported, or is society so much more sexualized that seeing more and more of this type of abhorrent behavior is simply inevitable?

Yet, this still brings me back to the bigger point: what can be done?

I do know that banning books like Laurie Halse Anderson’s SPEAK is not the answer. Books open conversations in a way that few other forms of media can do. Read Laurie’s answer as to how she feels about banning books right here… you go Laurie!

The tragedy of sexual molestation is a plague on teens today and yet so many folks are sweeping it under the rug pretending it’s not happening in their school, their community, their world.

As Mark Twain once quipped, “Denial ain’t a river in Egypt.”

Another very big study was just published as to what keeps teachers in their jobs — particularly at urban schools.

It’s worth a read if you have the time (click here) but in a nutshell, here is what they found.

The overall story implied by these results is largely similar to what was learned from the OLS analysis: a supportive principal appears to have a large effect on job attractiveness, and an induction program and curricular flexibility have smaller, but substantial effects. The ethnic composition of the school population has remarkably little influence. (note: this is taken directly from page 9 of their report)

Look, it’s not money that drives us. This is why the national conversation about merit pay is so frustrating. Uh duh… if money were the leading reason why people became teachers they wouldn’t become teachers.

We like the work but want to feel supported. It’s really hard to work in a school — especially an urban school. Even exceptionally challenging at times (almost more difficult than anything we imagined). But at the end of the day, as so many studies prove, teachers want two basic things.

1) To feel supported and be appreciated for our efforts by our campus leaders.
2) To have a certain degree of curricular flexibility so as not be micromanaged by scripted programming/textbook pacing plan nonsense/ district overlords and so on that are not responsive to the needs of our individual students as we best diagnose their aptitudes and necessities.

It’s not rocket science. We need to feel as if someone has our back and that the people who have our back trust us and will serve as a resource to us when times get tough. We want input and solutions and help… not castigation, fear-mongering, blame, or abandonment.

Provide these things and we’ll deal with the challenging salary, demands of the job, crazy hours and so on. But take away a campus leader who is empathetic and encouraging and dictate the lesson plans being implemented to the point of us feeling as if it’s more about all bureaucratic nonsense and a CYA mentality than it is about the kids- – kids who are most assuredly struggling — and the attrition rate for folks like me explodes.

No, we’re not monks and yes, we like and need cash as much as the next person. But life, to us, needs to have some meaningfulness embedded in our day-to-day work and if the two elements above are absent, the meaningfulness plummets and we get the itch to abandon ship.

For anyone who says that class size does not matter, I say to them…

Well, this is a civil conversation so I’ll bite my tongue. But come on, in the rush to hoist the notion of “teacher quality” to the top of the educational flagpole, we are allowing ourselves to pretend truthful things are not really truths.

And one truthful thing is that class size does matter. A lot.

Here’s an article from the Los Angeles Times about how some classes at Fairfax High School have 50 students crammed into classrooms built for 30. When kids sit on the floor, on filing cabinets, and the such, is anyone really going to say that “teacher quality” trumps all other factors when it comes to successfully educating students? My second period class this year has 43 kids while I only have 34 desks. (I do have some chairs however and right now, no one is sitting on the floor.) But am I the same teacher I am in my 8th period class where there are only 29 students on the roster?

The answer is, I try to be but no, it saddens me that I am not. I believe I am a better teacher in the class where there are less students.

Why? (Like you have to ask.) Because at a certain point the volume becomes unmanageable to individualize and attend to the unique needs of all students. With 29 it’s hard. With 35 it’s threshold. With 43, it’s approaching ludicrous. I get spread too thin and they get less and less and less of me. And with 50, as they cite in the article mentioned above where kids are sitting on the floor, let’s be honest, those kids are being short-changed.

And so is the teacher. And so is the school. And so is the community. And so is our country. Do kids have to sit on the floor for us to recognize that we are heading towards rock bottom?

Here’s a quote from a major new study about merit pay:

Overall, our results consistently indicate that the increased focus on individual teacher performance caused a sizable and statistically significant decline in student achievement.

Read it again. It’s a bold accusation. “…increased focus on individual teacher performance caused a sizable and statistically significant decline in student achievement.”

That’s right, a DECLINE.

Here’s the link to the entire piece.

Now, I am not going to get into a debate about the veracity of this study. There might be a ba-zillion things wrong with it which I have no means — or desire — to try and defend. But it does raise an interesting question:

Isn’t it just speculation to assume that merit pay is actually going to raise student performance in a significant and salient manner? And what if this hypothesis about the merits of merit pay are wrong? How is it going to ravage our current system? What is going to be the fallout for kids, schools and teachers? What might we expect in terms of collateral damage to our current feeble structure and are these costs that make prudent sense to pay?

Merit pay is a weird one for me. I mean on one hand, I think I’d get a salary bump. I work hard, my kids do well and I toil with diligence at my job to the point of workaholic-ism (in an inner-city school where we have severe issues top-to-bottom). Like I said, for me personally, I suspect I’d benefit. Maybe not, but I think I’d be a candidate.

On the other hand, I am not sure how good it’s gonna be for the kids? Or morale? Or communities? Am I going to want to share my best lesson plans with the teacher down the hall if only one of us is going to be financially rewarded for higher test scores? Do I really want to see my allies as my competitors? Am I really going to want to take on kids with issues of truancy knowing that their absenteeism might be taking food off of my own dinner table?

All in all, I just don’t know — but the study about makes me hope that the people in charge are looking before they leap.

Being that I work in a place that the ad world absolutely covets — I mean my campus is Madison Avenue’s dream turf, right? — and I am in a place that most definitely needs an influx of cash, well, why not take advantage of my own unique ability to reach young consumers.

That’s right… PIMP ME OUT!!!

I am talking about full frontal teacher marketing here. Really, why not turn me into an English teacher that looks like a NASCAR driver?

I could sport the Pepsi logo, put Nike posters up all over the front of my class, and encourage kids to buy Wrangler jeans as opposed to Levi Strauss… from WalMart!

Matter of fact, I could even sell product placement in my lesson plans. Like I could pause while teaching Huck Finn and talk about how Tide detergent would really help get Jim’s clothes sparkly clean before his next jaunt down the river. Or maybe I could do a compare and contrast essay between Verizon and Sprint to help illuminate the benefits of joining America’s largest network.

Heck, I could design lesson plans that culminate in purchases. Like I know it was a well written composition but unfortunately, you did not print it on Mead paper so the highest score you could get was a B.

Sure, some teachers have already taken to selling ad space on their tests to help offset the costs of school, but I am talking about taking it to a whole new level.

Our students are victims waiting to be exploited. Really, am I the only one ready to recognize this?

And being that merit pay is coming, why not tie my salary to my ability to whore myself out as well? I mean, forget bubble tests… measuring me by ability to convert naifs into blindly loyal consumers seems much more logical and quantifiable anyway. Besides, ain’t that what America is all about anyway nowadays? The more rapacious I can make our kids the better it will be for the long term health of big business, right?

And for those who refuse to mandate that 5 paragraphs essays are first outlined with Bic pens and then typed on Dell computers only to later be printed on HP laserjets, I say, think about the kids, baybee.

Think about the kids.

The City of Philadelphia is closing all — that’s right ALL — of its public libraries. Click here and GULP!

Actually, it seems the city got a stay of execution… click here to read about the reprieve.

Either way…
–Is this not a metaphor for what plagues our nation’s literacy ills?
–Is it not entirely ironic that they are considering this a month before the largest convention of English teachers in the country convenes in their city?
–What does it say about a city that finds libraries to be a luxury?
–What does it say about the city’s leaders that they allow this to occur?
–Are other cities now going to “jump on the sad bandwagon” and start closing libraries in the shortsighted attempt to save money by expanding ignorance?

Being a big Ben Franklin fan, I am quite confident that this past decade has seen him roll over in his grave a few times over. Well, right about now, I am sure he’s taking another spin.

To me, this is a no brainer: whacking kids to learn ‘em right doesn’t seem very learned at all. And yet, apparently, there is a heck of a lot of butt smashing going on in our classrooms today.

(More than I ever suspected. Something like a quarter million kids were paddled last year in American classrooms according to the ACLU and Human Rights Watch.)

And so I ask, does anyone really believe that in this day and age, the use of the paddle is actually a defensible educational instructional tool?

I know I don’t… but I am open to hearing from the ass-smashers.

So aside from the data that says students with disabilities are far more likely to get paddled than kids in the general population, aside from the fact that kids can become emotionally (if not physically) scarred from the trauma of being paddled, aren’t we being a bit hypocritical if we condone paddling? For example, what’s one of the things that might get a student paddled? Fighting, of course. This means we are teaching kids not to hit by hitting them.

Uh… hello?

And in reading about the history of “juvenile justice” while doing research for a new YA novel I am writing, I came across this stat:

The legal paradox (of why we are allowed to paddle in schools) can be traced to a 1977 Supreme Court ruling that found the Eighth Amendment only protects convicted criminals from cruel and unusual punishment — not students confined to a classroom.

As with so many things I blog about, you just can’t make this stuff up. Essentially, convicted juvenile criminals in lock-up have rights that non-felonious teens in school don’t similarly enjoy.

For all the paddlers out there, doesn’t this seem a bit flipped? I mean, if you believe in hitting kids — which I do not — shouldn’t you be pounding the kids who have actually been convicted in a court of law? The paddling we allow today is basically at the whim of the teacher/educator.

And isn’t it mostly done out of anger? I mean is there any real educational application to smashing a kid other than instilling fear or exacting revenge?

Can someone please intelligently defend the use of paddling as a worthwhile discipline policy in our schools in the year 2009 — cause, no offense, but it seems really backwater to me.

And why do I have a feeling that if some kid catches a teacher/administrator paddling a student on camera and posts it on YouTube, it’s not going to be long before CNN and all the other media types get ahold of the clip and start labeling the teacher, principal, school district and so on barbaric. Just seems like a lawsuit and media mess waiting to happen.

And if happens at a school with low tests scores, Lord help them!