Today’s blog post is a throw over to a must read article. Here is the link.

I must say, I have had my issues with Diane Ravitch before (not personally; I do not know her) but this piece is entirely exceptional. Perhaps because it is so accessible. Truly, the lay person in the general public can read it and “get it”.

People in schools, parents of kids in schools, Joe and Jane on the street, this is a must read link if you want to know about our schools. We are just crushing our nation’s schools – and what’s worse is that it’s only getting worse.

*head on desk, banging*

So I just watched a 60 minute documentary which left me weeping as well as re-evaluating every aspect of the manner in which I spend the currency of my life.

That currency being time. Not money.

I genuinely believe that every person over the age of 40 years old in America needs to see this piece. (Why 40? Just my own instinct. Could you be 39 or 33 or 22? Yep.)

Here’s the link. I am simply a bit too moved by the whole thing to blog about it any further today but if ever I was to give an endorsement, this one has it.

THUMBS UP!

If you hear that little voice inside your head right now saying, “Hmm, I wonder if I should check it out?” The answer is yes.

Be prepared to be terrified, illuminated, profoundly moved, confronted and warmly hugged all within 60 minutes. Just knocked me off my feet!

It’s a fun party question to ask, “If you could meet anybody, who would it be?” Me, I love people and couldn’t really narrow my list down at all. Truthfully, I find so many folks interesting – especially the weird ones (who gravitate towards me like a magnet, I might add… no names mentioned). But usually people mean the question in terms of which famous person from history [dead] would you like to meet?

Still, I have a list a mile long. But probably at the top, I’d have love to have met some of the biggie writers. I’m talkin’ canonical Mo Fo’s.

- Dostoevsky

- Victor Hugo

- Hemmingway, Thoreau, Franklin, and Billy Boy Shakespeare!

Could you imagine sipping tea with Poe?

How about going for a row boat ride with Emerson?

A late night cafe con leche with Cervantes?

Me, I think the writers would be fascinating but then again, I’m a book dork. I mean chatting art with Monet, design with Michelangelo, or love (and ears) with Van Gogh would be hot!

And I am not sure if one could beat a clam bake with Dali or a barbecue with Picasso, either

Let’s not forget music. Perhaps there might not be a more tickling reaction to be had as giving me the chance to put a pair of iPod ear buds on Beethoven’s head so that I could expose him to the artistry of Justin Beiber.

But still, if I had to choose a famous dead person I really have no idea which way I’d go. It’d be a “thinker” though, of that I am pretty sure. The military folks never intrigued me as much as those with a philosophical bent. (Not that military guys aren’t thinkers, but I’ve a luvah, not a fighter.)

Lamb with Aristotle? Yes.

Turkey sandwiches with Stonewall Jackson. Eh, I’d take it, but not even a top 100. And though I am sure he’d eat my liver if he heard me say this, Dr. Seuss intrigues me far, far more than Attila the Hun.

Who would you choose? And why? Me, I have no idea. (But secretly I have always wished I was the one who wrote Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure a movie where two high school kids time-travelled and got to have a great time with all kinds of famous dead folks).

Einstein, Voltaire, Plato, Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed, Moses… it’d be great to share some chips and salsa with any of these cats, too, I think.

I’ve also noticed that my list is notably male. I blame patriarchal history. In a battle of Charles Dickens vs. Jane Austen, I’d take Charles Dickens every time. That’s not to say Jane wouldn’t be a kick in the pants – and only a fool would suggest that sharing a front porch and a glass of lemonade with Emily Dickinson wouldn’t be pretty outstanding – but the guys do seem to dominate my thoughts. Sure Getrude Stein, Sylvia Plath, Mother Goose (actually, she might crack my top 100; I’d just sit there with warm cookies and milk and drool the afternoon away) they all hold an attraction. (And now that I think about it, Jeanne d’ Arc would be a “let’s have some bouillabaisse” pick for sure). But the dudes certainly feel like they are carrying the category for me. (Perhaps there’s an argument for castration to be had in the reason why, somewhere.)

If I could only pick one? No idea. (But W. Somerset Maughm feels like a top 5.)

Is there anything more enjoyable/memorable/inspirational than having a bunch of admins in business wear cruise through your room in the middle of class wielding checklists?

They gaze at the walls, your demeanor, the students in their desks, and so on, with a keen, knowing, eye. They glean insights – lost to all but the most well-trained of checklist-checking bureaucrats – and discern how ably you are educating to the essence of Socrates’s finest philosophies by the way you’ve written your daily agenda clearly on the board.

And then, in their most ironic move of all, each of the educators that these people will eventually salute during the state accreditation process when they turn in their checklist to other checklist checkers (because every campus needs to hold someone on the staff up as a paragon of professionalism on campus) will be someone who…

Does all sorts of thing that never appeared on any checklists.

I mean if they want teachers to conduct themselves in a manner that aligns with the checklists then that’s what they should put on the checklist to check. But no. It’s the person that strays from the checklist. The person that re-invents the checklist. The person that builds a better checklist that gets all the spotlight during these moments when they need to hold up a leading campus light.

And yet, if anyone dares to let the checklist bearers know that they intend to stray from the checklist, re-invent the checklist or attempt to build a better checklist before they actually do it, they get met with a “Ha-rrumph!”

They want you to do what’s on the checklists but those that are exemplary in our field are those that do the things that are not on the checklists.

But then again, those that do not do the things that are on the checklists are also the pariahs in our field.

Ah, the paradoxical tango of the checklist and the checklist checkers.

With all the WOW stuff flying around, I am thinking about starting a Dear Alan column because I’m getting more and more and more emails from people asking me for my take on matters that really, well… they have no “right” answers.

And so, sharing some of those questions in my blog, and lending my own perspective (while acknowledging, “Hey, this is just my viewpoint but in a world where little is black-n-white sometimes it’s nice to be able to hear about the many shades of gray) feels like something that might catch traction with me.

Anyway, all questions will remain anonymous – for about a thousand different reasons – so if you write to me, know that you can use your real name and I won’t publish it.

Can’t promise I will always post a Dear Alan as a result but hey, in this day and age, it feels like a lot of folks are looking for a place to turn and talk. And if I can even help one person through these efforts than hey, it’s worth it, right?

Anyway, here’s this week’s question:

Hi Alan, Could you please do a blog about rosaries being a sign of gang affiliations? My high school has had six police cars in the last week, added security and two lock-downs. We have a gang problem. Our high school accepted more schools of choice kids than any other district – no background checks – period. We had a rumor this week that someone was going to come in and shoot up the school. It was not substantiated. We had so many students absent on the day it was supposed to happen, it was unreal. Students were scared. Staff was scared.

In our “Emergency Staff Meeting,” I brought up the fact that many of our students are suddenly wearing rosaries and this is a gang symbol. Our administration basically told me that I was absolutely wrong and that it’s a trend. This is the same administrator who after I sent reported a student wearing a tshirt with his gang air-brushed all over it, he called him out of class and made him turn his t-shirt inside out and then sent him back to my class for two hours. It was hell. The kid was furious and was extremely disruptive. Some staff said that I never should have reported it because I could get my tires slashed…
I’m frustrated! Did you ever deal with gang issues in your classroom and was your administration helpful?
I know for a fact that rosaries are a touchy subject, but I also know that many students are strutting their gang affiliation right under our noses and not one person is doing anything about it. Any suggestions?
Thanks,

In short, this is a WOW question. So many things come up.

Today, I am just gonna let you “chew on it”. Tomorrow, you’ll be able to see my response. (Plus, it’ll be kinda long and already we’re at the edge of a reasonable day’s post.)

Is this how abby started? (LOL)

People hit me up with stuff all the time, from all kinds of different angles via email, in person, through snail mail (I’ve gotten bunches of letters from inmates in jail). Really, I never know what I am going to find inside of my life’s inbox.

Adds spice to the day, that’s for sure.

Here’s a question I just got from a student. (Kind of sent to me in a Dear Alan type of fashion.)

I just want to know how to deal with teachers who don’t push you towards greatness in the classroom.

Here’s my answer.

Great question.

Clearly, if you have the inclination to take the time to write me this note then when I tell you that if your teachers do not take the time to push you towards greatness, then you are going to have to push yourself.

Life is weird that way. But, as the old Zen saying goes, when the pupil is ready, the teacher will appear. Perhaps this teacher’s best lesson to you is that you do not need to wait for others to realize your own potential.

Then again, the lesson might be that we, in this country, need to do a better job of getting rid of the lame-o educators who have given way to lethargy, cynicism and general lemon-hood as a way of professional life.

Either way, here’s a little something that might help you out. I came across it years ago. Perhaps it will speak to you in the way it did to me.

THE TEN RULES OF BEING HUMAN

1. You will receive a body. You may like it or hate it, but it’s yours to keep for the entire period.
2. You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called, “life.”
3. There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of trial, error, and experimentation. The “failed” experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiments that ultimately “work.”
4. Lessons are repeated until they are learned. A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it, you can go on to the next lesson.
5. Learning lessons does not end. There’s no part of life that doesn’t contain its lessons. If you’re alive, that means there are still lessons to be learned.
6. “There” is no better a place than “here.” When your “there” has become a “here”, you will simply obtain another “there” that will again look better than “here.”
7. Other people are merely mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects to you something you love or hate about yourself.
8. What you make of your life is up to you. You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you. The choice is yours.
9. Your answers lie within you. The answers to life’s questions lie within you. All you need to do is look, listen, and trust.
10. You will forget all this.

Lots of people reach out to me. Between my books, my blog and my big mouth I guess sorta invite it. And I gotta say, I like when people rant because venting allows people to blow off steam that – left unblown – often proves to be like lurking toxins in the engine of our careers and lives.

I got just such a rant the other. A smart person who had been pushed a bit over the brink the the inanity and tomfoolery of this world. (And who hasn’t been in that category, right?) This person got to me at just the right time, too, because I was a good emotional place. So instead of throwing logs on the fire of their raging soul I instead typed up a short, somewhat level-headed response.

I am gonna share a version of it right now. But before I do, please don’t expect me to always live it. I swear I’ll try, but, what’s that old religious saw? Oh yeah, the flesh is weak.

Illigitimus non carborundum. (i.e. Don’t let the bastards get you down.) I think that’s the moral of the story you just told me. There are so many things one can’t control in the life of being a teacher that we often forget to focus on that which we can.

That outlook leads to lots of pounding. Length in the teeth has taught me there are other tools, too.

Teachers are demoralized these days. If today you can hoist the spirit of a peer you will have done the world of schooling good.

I wonder, do I hate bad professional meetings more than I love good professional meetings, or vice versa?

If you can count yourself as a person has never suffered through the torment of a terrible professional meeting, raise your hand.

If your hand is up right now, please consider yourself blessed?

And now please put your hand down… your are making the rest of us feel like doing physical harm to you out of petty spite.

Let’s try it from the other side. If you’ve had the chance to be in the room where somebody really challenged your thinking, opened your mind, and stirred your soul, please raise your hand.

Now keep it up.

Now coochee-coochee-koo (I just tickled your armpit).

Hold a sec… gotta go wash.

Okay, I’m back.

Ain’t great PD the best?

So, is the high a better high or the low a lower low?

I’ve been through both and I gotta say… I just don’t know.