Everybody recognizes the spectacular value and importance of literacy. Or rather, everybody that actually gives serious thought to it when considering a means by which we can improve our schools recognizes the spectacular value and importance of literacy.

The research, the data, the biggest thinkers in education, they all agree: literacy is critical, if not absolutely essential, and there is a direct correlation between academic success and the literacy levels of students.

I mean it’s not that hard of a concept to grasp. Kids who are poor readers and writers are often poor students — in many subjects areas, not just in our ELA classes — and kids who have strong literacy skills have a much greater chance and capacity to successfully navigate the halls of our schools. Like I said, almost self-evident.

But try talking literacy instruction or its importance to “other” teachers in “other” academic disciplines. I mean really, don’t they they pretty much tune out?

Come on, do math department people really embrace the idea that literacy is actually monumentally important to their own effectiveness? Naw, not really. However, if you look at a state standardized test, in so many ways it’s a reading comprehension test before it is a math test.

And the same is true for science and history as well.

But do other departments buy into the idea of teaching literacy across the curriculum? If so, well… I’m just not seeing it. Yet to be fair, in the places I do see it, I see schools that seem to more closely resemble a smartly functioning organization.

For the haters and doubters, check out this latest capstone study by the Carnegie Foundation. It’s packed with good stuff.

It’s also titled Time To Act. But will we?

Let’s face it, I am at a HUGE disadvantage when it comes to names.

First off, there are about a ba-zillion new ones I need to learn. This always takes a lot of effort and a few weeks. Kids, they have about 6-10 new names they must learn at school at the start of a new year — the names of their new teachers. Me, I have scores and scores and scores of them I must learn.

It’s a challenge every year… learn all the names as fast as you can. However, at least I learn them!!

See, I just realized I used the word “must” above. However, as other teachers often prove to me, what I find to be a “must” is not really a “must” when it comes to public education. I mean how many teachers are there out in our school systems this year that will just never even bother to learn all their students’ first names? (More than you think, that’s for sure.)

They just simply put kids into alphabetical seating order and spend the rest of the year looking at their charts to see who is who — but they don’t really know the kids. Wouldn’t know what to call them if they saw them at lunch or in the halls or what not. And let’s face it — the kids know when you do not know their names.

This is why I view learning the names of my students as a must — because how in the world can you expect to be an effective educator if you do not even know your students’ names?

Even if there are 43 kids in your 2nd period class (with only 36 desks)?

(Those are rhetorical questions, BTW… you really can’t, IMHO.)

So I learn names. All of them.

However, I still haven’t figured out a way to handle remembering the names of all my former students. I mean, I teach teenagers and these kids change and grow and lose their braces and cut their hair and pierce their faces and color their hair and gain weight and lose weight and on and on an on.

So when a semi-quiet kid I had 2 years ago in 4rth period who has become taller by 2 inches, grown a mini-mohawk, gotten contact lenses and is now deeply into goth comes up to me and says, “Hi Mr. Alan,” a bit of a deer-in-the-headlights look sometimes crosses my face. I mean I know I remember the kid… I just don’t quite remember their name.

It’s that tip-of-the-tongue thing that never comes.

And they sense it. And they take it personally. And I feel bad. But I am struggling with names in the month of September. Struggling badly. My focus is more on learning new ones than recalling old ones anyway and the fact is, I think the memory card between my ears has storage space limitations that inhibit me from remembering any more than I already do.

I mean how many names can a teacher possibly be expected to recall?

For example, I betchya that last year in the month of June I knew the first names of 500 people on campus. Kids, teachers, administrators… yep, 500 seems like a solid guess. And yet, there were probably at least 1,000 people that new my name if not more. (We were over 4,000 at our high school in enrollment, or thereabouts.)

But do I get any credit for the ones I remember? Nope… but I feel terrible for the ones I forget.

Never mind the fact that I have 4 Juans, 5 Marias and two students named Jesus this year (one’s a boy and one’s a girl — go figure). It’ll all make a person bonkers.

So what do I do when I get hit with a former student saying, “Hi, Mr. Alan”?

I play the “Uhm, Hey… Dude” Name Game.

But if there’s a better way, I’d love to hear about it.

I just scored a new car this past weekend — had to do it. (Hey, I live in L.A., the land of cars and when it’s time, it’s time). But what is so remarkable, is that the salesperson lied to me and I still bought the car from him.

And not just one salesperson lied to me — at every dealership I visited, I was lied to. No matter make, type, design or whatever, I’ve just experienced firsthand how it’s an industry filled with people who believe that they are allowed to tell their customers half-truths and self-serving semi-falsehoods — they say what they feel they need to say in order to make the deal — and then when you call them on it, they tell you it’s nothing personal, you shouldn’t take their words literally, that’s not what they meant, it’s just the way that business is done, blah, blah, blah…

For example, the salesperson uses a lot of words like “best” and “most”. I was given the “best” possible price. But then, after 25 minutes of silly haggling, I was given the real “best” price. And then another 20 minutes after than, I was given yet another “best” price.

Their best keep getting best-er… and then, when I offer them a number I am willing to pay for the car, they acted insulted. As if I were taking food out of the mouths of their children. They had the nerve to quote me a “best” price that was thousands of dollars over the “best” price that they offered me 50 minutes earlier and then when I counter-offered with a reasonable price, well… at the end of the day, it all felt oily to me.

And the truth is, even if I got a good deal, I still feel as if I were taken to the cleaners. It’s as if getting them to say yes to a purchase price means I screwed up somehow because they somehow got me in a way I still do not know and I overpaid for my vehicle.

And of course, car buying is an industry that has felt this way for decades. So what is going to cause this industry to change? I mean some have tried it but obviously, it hasn’t yet caught on. At least that’s the question that I asked myself as I signed all the final papers. (You know, the ones where the literal definitions of words actually matter for the first time in the car buying process since they are on binding legal documents).

But ironically, just as I was thinking this, the finance guy, in order to fill the space of the room with some small talk as he typed, told me, “So you’re a teacher huh? Boy, talk about a system that needs to change. What is up with our schools?”

Goodness, how low have we sunk when people who spend their lives trying to deceive others to fleece them of as much cash as they can get look down upon us for the work we do in our classrooms as if all educators are a bunch of charlatans trying to pull one over on the parents, community, government and kids the way that car salespeople are trying to pull one over on legit customers who only want a fair shake?

I mean when the New Car Used Car Salespeople think they can take the high ground over teachers, geesh… what in the world is going on?

Is it just me, or does everyone else, when getting ready to attend a faculty or department meeting, prepare themselves for these stellar events by figuring out what they are going to read just in case the meeting devolves into a complete waste of time?

Is it just me, or does everyone else think that all these face piercings that kids today wear look like they really hurt when initially installed?

Is it just me, or does everyone else think that student desks should be more comfortable considering how long we are asking them to sit their butts down in them?

Is it just me, or do other people have students who feel that homework is an educational option — and if they only turn in 65% of the assignment, these kids feel as if they should get 65% credit. (Well, when they go to McDonalds and order french fries and the container is only 65% full, do they let the fry cook tell them, “Ah dude, that should be cool, right?”)

Is it just me, or do other teachers have what seems to be thousands of students in violation of the dress code every single day?

Is it just me, or does everyone else, think it’s short-sighted and childish that things like voicethread, animoto and other web tools like me.com are blocked from my access by the school district’s firewall as if they are insuring student safety by holding onto archaic internet policies?

Is it just me, or does everyone else feel as if it’d be nice for the local business community to step up and offer some real support to their local schools through internships, professional leaves days for the employees to come speak to us, financial support, and so on?

Is it just me, or does everyone else think that there are a whole lot of things that could use re-thinking this year… but know that they are going to be shelved until next year… where we’ll know we need to re-think them again… but we’ll shelve them again til the year after that cause there is something always more immediately pressing than planning for a better future when it comes to running schools.?

I think it’s hard to be a teacher with a bad attitude… at least I think it’s harder to be a teacher with a bad attitude than it is to be a teacher with a good attitude. And yet, why does it seem as though a whole buncha folks in our profession choose to have such a cynical outlook on their school/job/profession/kids/lives? (And yes, I do believe attitude is a choice. Read some Viktor Frankl if you doubt me.)

Truly, if you think about it, being negative, pessimistic, aggravated and cynical all the time runs you down.

Physically, having a bad attitude is hard on a person’s body. The negativity wears on you. Stomach problems, heart problems, problems from stress in general have been proven to be one of the leading causes of illness in this country. Disease is literally caused by dis-ease… i.e. stress. Having a bad attitude physically taxes you in ways that cause body parts to break down.

Emotionally, having a bad attitude sucks the life force right out of the day. I mean if you are going to be good at having a bad attitude you are going to have to be relentless about it which means that as soon as you find one thing to complain about, there are about 20 other things you need to explore and complain about as well. That takes time, effort and emotional energy. And if you spend all the space of your human spirit dwelling on the negative things, it leaves a lot less room for the positive stuff.

And we all like the positive stuff. I mean, remember that original reason you got into teaching? Working with the kids, lighting lights, illuminating paths and turning on kids to things/wisdom/books/ideas that were/are oh-so-important to you? Well, if you cling on to a bad attitude, very little of that original passion for this profession has a chance to surface and thrive. It get supplanted by focusing on what’s wrong instead of what’s right.

Finally, (well, not really finally cause one could go on and on and on about the detriments of holding on to a bad attitude) bad attitudes are contagious. Quite often, teachers that are cynical, bitter and jaded are sending those type of messages to their students which means they are teaching other people’s kids to be cynical, bitter and jaded about the world.

OWCH! How many parents really want that kind of lesson being imparted to their children? I mean the world is tough enough to negotiate as is so I gotta wonder, does the youth of today really need an extra splash of bitterness thrown on their life’s plate by an jaded educator who chooses to go through life like a grump?

Attitude is a choice — and if wielded intelligently it can yield amazing things in a teacher’s life and classroom. Used unwisely, however, it can destroy things like cancer.

I was in my classroom when the second plane hit the World Trade Center in 2001. I heard about the first plane as I drove into work, turned on the tv in my room and then watched the second plane hit.

And that day, all we did in my class was watch the news and talk. I remember telling my kids, “You just saw the world change.” I didn’t know how, I didn’t know in which way, shape or manner, but I did know that right then, our world had changed.

And it did.

And today, I gotta say I am still hoping it will change some more because where we are, well… it could be better. A lot better.

So the school year is a few weeks in now and we just had one of those big, long English department meetings. You know the kind, where people gripe, complain, moan, go off topic and stray into conversations about how they are the best educational practitioners ever and back in 1981 I was doing this and blah, blah, blah.

Put it this way, if you do not know what type of meeting I am talking about, consider yourself blessed. We have good peeps on our staff and we are all working hard… but put 27 people in a room when there are still a buncha pockets of sheer chaos in different areas of campus and you are gonna hear some stuff.

Essentially, if there was a theme (and I am big on themes — I make my kids find them, analyze them, write about them and so on), it would be, “We don’t have enough.”

We don’t have enough desks. Due to the budget cuts we lost educators and now there are a bunch of teachers with 43 per class with only 34 desks in the room.

We don’t have enough teachers. Some people are carrying more than 200 students on their total roster this year. (And that’s a hell of a lot! Too many in fact… no doubt!)

We don’t have enough books. Being that about 30% of our kids didn’t return the books they checked out last year, and we have no money to order new books, we’re short materials.

We don’t have enough administrators. Yep, you heard me say it. There just aren’t enough hands on deck right now and being that we switched from SASE to ARIES and it’s giving major problems to everyone — and the guy who did the master schedule for the past decade just retired — my admins just spent last Saturday and Sunday on campus still working out schedules and the such. Admins aren’t the enemy… they have it just as tough… but they unfortunately can devolve into number crunching bureaucrats… and there is nothing more problem than number crunching bureaucrats who do not have enough number crunching bureaucrats around them to properly crunch the numbers like good number crunching bureaucrats are often called upon to do.

Essentially, We don’t have enough, we don’t have enough, we don’t have enough!

And so we must make up for it in spirit.

So the Marxists didn’t take over, the commies didn’t infiltrate, the youth of this nation weren’t indoctrinated unwittingly into an irreversible cult of personality and North Korea’s heinous government regime didn’t supplant our own now that Obama has addressed the kids of this nation with a “you should to do well in school” speech.

But ooh, we were so close to imperialistic calamity, were we not?

Obama talked about hard work. Obama talked about personal responsibility. Obama celebrated the benefits of being well-educated. Matter of fact, with all the hoopla from the far, far right, I am surprised they didn’t send out Sarah Palin or Bobby Jindal to offer a rebuttal to El Presidente’ from the minority party.

Could you imagine…

Fair people of this fair country, while on one hand your Marxist Chief believes you should devotedly apply yourselves in school, we in the “real America” know that attentiveness to your own education is a right… and you have the right to refuse to apply that right because it is your right to do so! You do not have to become learned. You do not have to become skilled. You do not have to become part of the well-educated, “elitist” crowd. (Pause for big gasp from audience.) Why let them take away your constitutionally guaranteed ability to be ill-equipped to succeed? Who are they to brainwash you into believing that school is going to help? Who are they to cast aspersions against things like dropping out? Come, be one, unite and fight against this liberal tyranny!

(Right?)

A few weeks ago I talked about H.R. 1895 and The Stand Up Act in regards to providing more strict guidleines for teen drivers.

It just smacked of complete common sense. Well, banning txting and driving is next up. This seems, to me, to be another one that just elevates itself to the level of NO-BRAINER.

See, when I click on this article and see a picture of a tow truck in a swimming pool, I gotta kinda laugh. Then again, I am not the 68 year old lady that went to the hospital as a result of this txting tow truck driver who caused one heck of an accident.

And alerting teens to the dangers of txting has gone international. Check out this PSA aimed at young-ins to scare them into keeping their eyes on the road and not their phones when operating a vehicle. (Warning: this thing doesn’t pull any punches. It’s gruesome!)

Are we, as teachers not responsible to bring up these issues in our class? I mean, I know it’s not necessarily “standards-based” but still, is there not an almost moral imperative to teach right from wrong, as well as skills, in the modern day classroom? (BTW, this could easily lead to a standards based assignment, whether you want to tie it to reading comprehension, a written reply, and so on.) But does every little thing have to be standards-based?

Kids need to know that txting and driving is SUPER DANGEROUS. For me to teach this, to discuss this, to hammer this home, do I have to “lesson plan it out according to the California state standards” or is there room in my classroom for just some lessons about life? And when the national standards people meet in the secret halls of covert “We know what’s bestness?” are they taking things like this into consideration? I really wonder.

Will I get “merit pay” if I happen to save a kid from a fate worse than choosing incorrect bubbles on a standardized state test?

I mean, I hate to say it, but dontchya get the feeling that the higher-ups would prefer I spent the time teaching gerunds?

Cause as we all know, gerunds save lives.

Obama wants to address the school-kids of this nation and, whodda thunk it, there’s controversy surrounding the idea of such an address to our nation’s youngsters.

Now, obviously, (or maybe not, so I’ll say it here) I am of the opinion that a well-spoken President addressing our nation’s kids in a “you can do it” tone now that it’s back-to-school season is good for the kids, good for the schools, and good for the good ol’ U. S. of A.

So I wonder, is it just me, or does this brouhaha strike anybody else as artificially contrived, politically motivated nonsense?

I mean, and this is a quote I pulled off the AP wire:

Texas Governor Rick Perry says he understands the concerns of parents who don’t want their children listening to President Obama’s school-time speech next Tuesday on the importance of education, aimed directly at the nation’s school children.

Well, I am glad he understands the concerns… cause I don’t. Could his political affiliation actually be the cause of the concern?

I mean Obama is OUR president, of the entire country, and if he wants to fire up the students, I say, “It’s about time a President did this.” Nice idea. Come to think about it, we couldda used something like this many, many years ago. But the right wingers (and I mean the far right-wingers) are…

“…saying Obama is using the opportunity to promote a political agenda and is overstepping the boundaries of federal involvement in schools.”

Huh? I mean is “work hard, set goals, aim high and strive to become learned” some kind of liberal agenda now? (I am only speculating that this will be the thrust of his speech.) I mean if it is, I am way more liberal than I thought I was. And trust me, I am a tax and spend, California, left-coast animal lover, who believes in things like universal pre-school, universal health care, and recycling.

To counter, Obama’s people say the reason for it is this:

“It’s simply a plea to students to really take their learning seriously. Find out what they’re good at. Set goals. And take the school year seriously.”

Ooh… sounds nefarious. I bet there are secret code words embedded in the Closed Captioned text too that will send messages to aliens about our nuclear codes.

Yet, folks like Oklahoma Republican State Sen. Steve Russell say this…

“It gives the appearance of creating a cult of personality. This is something you’d expect to see in North Korea or in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.”

Like I said, “Huh?”

Why do I have a feeling that if this was an idea from the prior presidency, some of those folks who are now chirping would have been singing an entirely different tune?

Then again, it never would have happened with our last president because Dubya Bush was (at best) a C- student, so having him tell the kids not to “misunderstimate the value of a gooder education” really wouldn’t have helped anyone too much.

Come on, does politics have to taint everything nowadays? I mean can’t the President say one nice thing without it being politically motivated? Will Obama’s Merry X-mas wish be dissected by the pundits for the way he tries to abscond with the well-wishes of the season for Democratic gains in the House come the 2010 elections?

Truly, am I the only one sick of this nonsense? Really, at what point do we not all recognize that this kind of stuff is hurting, not helping, our nation?

You know, Freud once famously said, “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.” Well, “sometimes a speech to kids is just that… a speech to kids.”