Dare to Teach and Learn

In 2010, when we were on our second safari in Tanzania, we again splurged on a posh yurt village in the Serengeti. This time we met a wealthy couple from England, pompous name-droppers who claimed to be friends of David Cameron, then the Prime Minister. I knew we held different values when she appeared at dinner in a flowing white linen shirt and palazzo pants, knowing full well that locals would have to try to wash them in water heated over an open fire. At dinner one night, she confirmed that sense when she started denigrating zoos. Another guest and I pointed out that zoos were responsible for significant conservation efforts, like the Amsterdam Zoo’s program for black rhinos, and that many people could only learn about animals through zoo. “Oh, no,” she replied blithely. “They should just all come to Africa to see animals for themselves.” Clueless and out of touch, she failed to see the value of empowering people to learn about the world beyond their own lives.

I have been thinking of her attitude a lot lately as I continue to read about the attacks at library board and school board meetings as people fight to curtail access to books for readers. Yet reading is an invaluable way for each of us to expand our awareness of worlds hitherto unknown to us. As a teacher, I always accommodated parents who had concerns about works in our curriculum. As an educator, parent, grandparent, and citizen of this country, I am appalled at the efforts of conservative individuals and groups to limit not only their reading of their own family members but of everyone. They would remove so many books from libraries and schools that many students would never see themselves reflected in their reading, much less learn about others who are different.

Consider this passage from Reading is Fundamental [scenicregional.org]:

Books are sometimes windows, offering views of worlds that may be real or imagined, familiar or strange. These windows are also sliding glass doors, and readers have only to walk through in imagination to become part of whatever world has been created or recreated by the author. When lighting conditions are just right, however, a window can also be a mirror. Literature transforms human experience and reflects it back to us, and in that reflection we can see our own lives and experiences as part of the larger human experience.

I am somewhat comforted, though, by Newton’s Third Law: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. I am relieved to see many organizations actively working to support those of us who would fight such censorship. These include the following:

American Library Association’s Office of Intellectual Freedom (http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/oif/; challenge support tools at http://www.ala.org/tools/challengesupport)
Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (http://cbldf.org)
National Coalition Against Censorship (http://www.ncac.org)
National Council of Teachers of English (http://www2.ncte.org/)

If I were still in an English classroom, I would depend upon the efforts of the National Council of Teachers of English. Their “This Story Matters” initiative provides rationales to defend books under attack. Their position says it best:

The right to read is one of the foundations of a democratic society, and teachers need the freedom to support that right so their students can make informed decisions and be valuable contributors to our world. A story can encourage diversity of thought, broaden global perspectives, celebrate unique cultures, and motivate the reader to achieve their dreams. This right matters. This Story Matters.

Tennessee Leads the Way!

Like so many states, Tennessee is concerned about the “COVID Slide,” the estimated learning loss for students from the pandemic’s school closures and disruptions. Their Department of Education recently released data that projects an estimated 50% decrease in proficiency rates in 3rd grade reading and a projected 65% decrease in proficiency in math. This is about 2.5 times higher than the learning loss students can experience during a normal summer break” [governorsfoundation.org].

Such data is not news, but Tennessee’s approach to this harsh reality is news. The Governor’s Early Literacy Foundation [GELF] addresses this problem: “The mission of Governor’s Early Literacy Foundation is to strengthen early literacy in Tennessee. Our vision is a Tennessee where all children have access to the resources, guidance and support they need to become lifelong learners” [tn.gov/education]. In January of 2021, GELF, in partnership with the Tennessee Department of Education, “announced a statewide rollout of Ready4K, a research-based text messaging program to help parents support their students in learning at home” [Ibid.]. Their research confirmed that 97% of parents had smart phones and texted [Ibid.]140,000 families with children enrolled in pre-K through third grade received, at no charge, “three weekly text messages with facts, easy tips, and activities on how to help each child learn and grow by building on existing family routines. Text messages match each child’s age, with simple, engaging facts and suggestions for building on existing daily routines, such as getting dressed, bath time, or preparing a meal” [Ibid.].

“’Tennessee is taking a leadership role in providing families with accessible, evidence-based family engagement text messages to help foster child development and bridge the gap between home and school during a time of unprecedented challenges,’ said Ben York, Ph.D., founder and CEO of Ready4K. ‘With more than 15 million children in the U.S. living without adequate internet access or devices, the use of texting addresses the country’s digital divide and enables even the hardest-to-reach parents to access high-quality information and resources for their children’” [Ibid.].

An evidence-based program, Ready4K is continuously being evaluated and improved through ongoing partnerships at Stanford, Brown and Notre Dame universities. It “has been shown to increase family engagement at home and school and increase child learning by 2-3 months over the course of a school year” [Ibid.].

Last week GELF announced its second year of Its K-3 Book Delivery program. Partnering with Scholastic Library Publishing, it will deliver half a million books to teachers and students all over Tennessee, including to every first grader in the state. The high-quality and age-appropriate books will be delivered directly to homes at no charge [businesswire.com]. Encouraging students to read through the summer improves their literacy and reduces learning loss.

Participants agree. A survey by GELF showed a positive response to the program from caregivers, teachers, and students of 94-97% [Ibid.].

This program builds on Dolly Parton’s incredible leadership for childhood literacy. “Since 1995, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library program has delivered meticulously chosen, personalized, age-appropriate books every month to children up to five years old — all free of charge” [rollingstone.com]. Initially a very local program, it kept expanding and, by February of 2021, had distributed nearly 155 million books [Ibid.]. Now the state of Tennessee is following her lead.

The pandemic has brought about lots of handwringing about learning loss, and I myself have written about it often enough. Here, though, is meaningful good news. Here is a state, one not necessarily known nationwide for leadership in education, that offers a concrete solution to address the COVID slide. Their leadership makes me hopeful for the children of Tennessee. Now may other states follow suit, developing programs like these or their own alternatives, so that our students catch up and become literate adults!

Enough!

More than 311, 000… that’s how many students have experienced gun violence at school since the Columbine High massacre in 1999. “While school shootings remain rare, there were more in 2021 — 42 — than in any year since at least 1999. So far this year, there have been at least 24 acts of gun violence on K-12 campuses during the school day” [washpost.com].

So we start the sad dance all over again. Politicians who claim to be pro-life [who would take away a woman’s right to choose how to deal with her pregnancy] spout the same sanctimonious spiel to all who will listen even as they fight gun control legislation and take millions from the NRA. And nothing changes… We are growing numb as well as impotent.

David Frum points out: “Every other democracy makes some considerable effort to keep guns away from dangerous people, and dangerous people away from guns. For many years—and especially since the massacre at Connecticut’s Sandy Hook Elementary School almost a decade ago—the United States has put more and more guns into more and more hands: 120 guns per 100 people in this country” [atlantic.com]. He reminds us that the most numerous gun sales in our country’s history occurred during the pandemic, “almost 20 million guns sold in 2020; another 18.5 million sold in 2021” followed by a surge of gun violence [Ibid.]. We are the “only country with more civilian-owned firearms than people “ [forbes.com].

The conservative podcaster Allie Beth Stuckey points out that the one common factor in these school shootings is that they are all committed by young males. She argues that we “are doing absolutely everything wrong when it comes to promoting healthy masculinity, purpose, & goodness for these boys and men” [Ibid.]. The gunman who killed 19 students and 2 teachers in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24 had dropped out of school after being bullied for a speech impediment. He had a difficult home life and unsatisfying job, and his behavior and social media posts offered warning signs. Yet no one pursued those signs, and he shot his grandmother in the face before walking into a school, wearing body armor, and randomly shooting victims. We may not understand, but we must act.

We could know more and better understand situations like these if it weren’t for the 1996 Dickey Amendment that forbade the CDC from using its funding to study gun violence. In 2019 the law was clarified, and research resumed the following year, but now we’re running to catch up [washpost.com 2].

And I fear, as do so many, that once again nothing will be done. Brian Broome argues that nothing will change, that this will be yet another tragedy that will prompt empty speeches and vigils but no action on gun control. “The gun is a holy relic in America. A sacred talisman. More important than life itself [washpost.com3]. We live in a country that loves its guns more than its children. Isn’t that backwards?

Some in the Senate have tried. After 32 people died and many more were injured in the August 2019 El Paso and Dayton shootings, Senator Chris Murphy and others were negotiating with then Attorney General Bill Barr when the Trump/Zelensky call derailed that effort [washpost.com4]. Even the Manchin-Toomey bill, so diluted to appease the NRA that some called it “toothless” couldn’t pass the 60-vote threshold [Ibid.]. Manchin tried again after the May 2022 massacre at a Buffalo, New York, grocery store. Again, no legislation passed.

Those who argue for the sanctity of the Second Amendment to the Constitution would distort its meaning and context. “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” That right did not include private ownership of cannons, and assault rifles didn’t even exist. We require training and licenses to drive a car but not to own a gun.

Our elected officials are failing our nation. “Nearly 60% of registered voters think it’s at least somewhat important for lawmakers to pass stricter gun laws, a new Morning Consult/Politico poll found after a mass shooting in Buffalo, New York—even before another shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas on Tuesday further ramped up calls for Congress to pass gun control legislation” [forbes.com]. Yet once again, nothing changes.

What can we do? Each of us must find out the position of our elected officials on gun controls. Then we need to work to vote for candidates who will support red flags and background checks and mental health efforts. We must vote out the hypocrites who offer sympathy as they block change. Congress and Governors and the President haven’t done it. It’s up to all of us.

The Practice of Religion in Schools?

A high school football coach in Bremerton, Washington, wanted to continue to pray on the field after games even after the school district asked him to stop. Joseph A. Kennedy started coaching there in 2008 and initially prayed alone on the 50-yard line after each game. “But students started joining him, and over time he began to deliver a short, inspirational talk with religious references. Kennedy did that for years and also led students in locker room prayers. The school district learned what he was doing in 2015 and asked him to stop” (washingtonpost.com). When he refused, the school district fired him from his coaching job, and Coach Kennedy went to court.

The three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court unanimously ruled against the coach, “saying that school officials were entitled to forbid his public prayers to avoid a potential violation of the First Amendment’s prohibition of government establishment of religion” (nytimes.com). On April 25, 2022, Kennedy’s case reached the Supreme Court. Conservative justices questioned the attorney for the school district about other scenarios that might impinge on the coach’s right to free speech. They responded, “by proposing lines the justices could draw. Mr. Clement said it mattered whether a coach’s speech had “an instructional component” and whether a religious exercise was fleeting” (Ibid.). Although Judge Kavanaugh acknowledged the possibility of players feeling coerced to participate, “Members of the court’s conservative majority indicated that the coach, Joseph A. Kennedy, had a constitutional right to kneel and pray at the 50-yard line after games” (Ibid.).

The issue involves two potentially conflicting sets of rights: the coach’s right to freedom of expression and the separation of church and state in schools, including protecting students from feeling coerced to participate. I find it interesting that some of the same social forces that support the coach’s public prayer in front of the community as one of his inalienable rights don’t support the same free speech protections for classroom teachers who, in many states, no longer can choose their curriculum nor tackle tough issues deemed untouchable.

As a teacher, I felt my freedom of speech had to bend when it might offer undue influence on students. I sought to encourage dialogue and discussion without being didactic about my own beliefs. Teachers and coaches often have a significant impact on their charges, and they need to be thoughtful so as not to abuse that impact. Kennedy argued that his religious expression is constitutionally protected. Others disagreed. “’When a coach uses the power of his job to be in a place and have access to students at a time when they’re expected to encircle him and come to him, that’s an abuse of that power and a violation of the Constitution,’ Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, told CBS News’ Jan Crawford. ‘Religious freedom is not the right to impose your religion on others. We all need to have it, so that’s why the free exercise and establishment clause work together to protect religious freedom for all of us’” (cbsnews.com).

The Washington Post offeredacompilation of reader responses to this issue. On April 30, 2022, in “A Coach Who Prays Is Not the Issue,” (washingtonpost.com2). Ryan Miller of Monroe, Georgia, played three sports in school and was aware of the impact his actions had on his coach’s perception of him and his subsequent playing time. He writes, “A coach expressing his right to pray personally should not be unconstitutional in and of itself; however, when a coach’s expression compromises the free exercise of his players and encroaches upon the role of a parent, the courts should intervene” (Ibid.). Clayton Childers, a retired United Methodist Minister in Manassas, Virginia, says that the doctrine of separation of church and state has served religion well by allowing citizens to choose and practice their faith as they see fit with no government interference. He argues that “true faith is grounded in voluntary choice and spiritual vitality; neither is fully present where government becomes faith’s promoter and overseer. That is why it is critical for agents of the state, including public high school coaches, to refrain from leading public prayers while on duty. As soon as they do, the neutrality of the state toward faith is compromised. The government moves from faith neutrality to faith promotion” (Ibid.). And Maureen O’Leary, Director of field and organizing for Interfaith Alliance, refers to the sway coaches have with student athletes, which might make those athletes feel pressured to participate. She fears that a ruling “ allowing educators to push their religious practices on students would erode the long-standing wall of separation between religion and government, and foster an environment that is less — not more — tolerant of different beliefs” (Ibid.).

As a well-educated teacher, I would fight for the right to shape curriculum [though I would always be willing to talk with parents about concerns about content and approaches] and I would not want to be muzzled the way many seek to muzzle teachers these days. As an educator aware of the dynamics between students and their teachers, as well as students and their coaches, however, I think my responsibility to protect students from feeling coerced into following my path trumps my freedom of speech. A coach is welcome to pray privately. Praying on the 50-yard line in front of his students creates an unacceptable pressure. There’s a fine line here, and I fear the Supreme Court will throw it away.

Facing a Future Without Enough Teachers

Our nation faces a growing teacher shortage and we have failed to address the underlying causes. Attrition and retirement coupled with fewer students entering teacher training programs prompted regional shortages even before the Covid pandemic. The added stressors of the pandemic and often remote instruction plus parent attacks at school board meetings and the ever-increasing number of laws regulating what teachers may teach/do/say have created conditions that threaten the future of American public schools.

The American Psychological Association clarifies the importance of effective teachers and good student-teacher relationships: “Positive teacher-student relationships — evidenced by teachers’ reports of low conflict, a high degree of closeness and support, and little dependency — have been shown to support students’ adjustment to school, contribute to their social skills, promote academic performance and foster students’ resiliency in academic performance” [apa.org]. They also assert that “students were less likely to avoid school, appeared more self-directed, more cooperative and more engaged in learning” [Ibid.]. The Economic Policy Institute warns of serious consequences of the teacher shortage: “A lack of sufficient, qualified teachers threatens students’ ability to learn. Instability in a school’s teacher workforce (i.e., high turnover and/or high attrition) negatively affects student achievement and diminishes teacher effectiveness and quality. And high teacher turnover consumes economic resources (i.e., through costs of recruiting and training new teachers) that could be better deployed elsewhere” [epi.org].

Yet educator Larry Ferlazzo reports that “There will be a big increase in teacher retirements in the spring/summer, leading to a teacher shortage that will make this school year look like a picnic. Then, in an advance prediction for 2023, the stress created by that staff shortage will result in an equal number of departures the following year” [WashPost.com]. Teachers are tired. “Fears of catching Covid-19 and enforcing pandemic protocols are additions to the long list of challenges teachers face daily — from low pay and often little regard from their communities, to growing numbers of school shootings and legislative requirements about what and how to teach. Many educators have walked away in recent years and amid a dire shortage, few people want to fill their spots” [cnn.com]. The Learning Policy Institute lists largely stagnant salaries over the past decade, a 19% weekly wage gap between teachers and other college-educated professionals, a culture of teacher blame and punitive test-based evaluation as additional negative forces [learningpolicyinstitute.org]. The Rand Organization identifies increasing stress as the single largest factor causing teachers to leave the profession [rand.org]. Right now “Schools struggle to find and retain highly qualified individuals to teach, and this struggle is tougher in high-poverty schools” [epi.org].

Some teachers are hanging on until they reach retirement age. Even as cohorts begin to retire and the need for new teachers increases, the pipeline of new teachers is shrinking. “In fall 2020 and 2021, about 20% of institutions surveyed by American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education reported the pandemic resulted in a decline of new undergraduate enrollment of at least 11%. Roughly 13% of institutions reported ‘significant’ declines in the number of new graduate students. Regional state colleges and smaller private institutions — often found in rural communities — have seen the steepest declines” [cnn.com].

What do we do now? As a nation, we must reinvest in education. The Learning Policy Institute recommends supporting the existing workforce, hiring additional staff to make the workload more manageable, strong mentoring and induction programs, investing in mental health services, leveraging teacher training candidates by hiring them for residency and aide programs, and providing mental health support [learningpolicyinstitute.org]. The Economic Policy Institute supports involving teachers in developing district-wide approaches to reduce stress and building more flexible schedules[rand.org].

I would add several expensive but worthwhile initiatives:

Mentoring new teachers, a pivotal role in keeping them in the profession, too often gets done on top of all other responsibilities. Build a school system where new teachers have lighter loads their first two years, and they have a mentor with release time to help them. Get the cooperation of teachers’ unions for this – it will pay off.
Build a national program to pay tuition for teachers in training in exchange for a multi-year commitment to teach in an underserved area.
Hire more social service support for students so that teachers don’t have to function as social workers and counselors, instead focusing on their primary purpose.
Develop tutoring programs to help students who are struggling with the materials to support instruction in the classroom.
Provide a buffer for the political hysteria that wears educators and school board members down.
Develop programs and opportunities to build a positive climate for learning and for parent engagement. Couldn’t parent/teacher nights be designed to be more effective at team-building and community-building, for example?

I became a teacher because I loved teaching and learning, because I wanted to build relationships with students and impact them positively. I chose my profession as a fifth grader helping in a first-grade classroom during my recess period. I knew my path then. I don’t know if I would feel that same determination today. As a nation, we must figure out how to invite people into this very important profession, and then we must support them. The future of our nation and our ability to be an effective part of this complex world depend upon our doing that.

Transgender Battles in Texas

We may be accustomed to politicians manipulating the “culture wars” for their own political purposes, but the actions of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Texas Governor Greg Abbott have gone even further than most, weaponizing the government against loving families and harming children already in precarious positions. Abbott followed Paxton’s legal opinion that gender-affirming medical treatment harms children with a directive to state health agencies to conduct “prompt and thorough” investigations into the use of gender-affirming care for transgender children [*WashPost*]. Their position is dangerous, disingenuous, hypocritical, and misinformed.

Their actions directly endanger trans people and their family. Jack Turban, a chief fellow in child and adolescent psychiatry at Stanford University School of Medicine who works with trans youth, writes, “at least 14 studies have examined the impact of gender-affirming care on the mental health of youths with gender dysphoria and have shown improvements in anxiety, depression and suicidality” [*WashPost2*]. “And as conversations mounted, the Trevor Project — an organization dedicated to suicide prevention for LGBTQ youth — received more than 10,800 total crisis calls, texts and chats from LGBTQ youth in Texas looking for support between Jan. 1 and Aug. 30, 2021. More than a third of those crisis contacts came from transgender or nonbinary youth” [npr.org].

Their actions are disingenuous and hypocritical. Abbot, Paxton, and their allies are using the plight of others for political gain. Jennifer Rubin writes, “Consider how perverse the Republican Party’s mentality is: Parents should be allowed to intervene or even sue schools for teaching about racial history, but if they try to support their children along medically accepted lines, the GOP will try to take their kids away” [*WashPost3*]. So parents know best about education – they know better than professional educators trained to determine what to teach – yet politicians somehow know better than parents when it comes to children’s health and sexuality? Hardly consistent…

Their actions are misinformed. “Contrary to the outdated, inaccurate and intentionally misleading information cited in the attorney general’s opinion, gender-affirming treatment for children and adolescents suffering from gender dysphoria is supported by every major medical association in the United States, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association and the American Psychological Association. Decisions about treatment are made with care and thought and consultation; research has established that transgender youths at risk of mental health problems and suicide benefit when their gender identity is affirmed” *[WashPost*]. Paxton’s claims that gender-affirming care for adolescents results in sterilization are also false. “Puberty blockers have been used for decades, and they don’t impair fertility” [*WashPost2*]. Nor are teens rushed through gender-affirming care. In reality, clear guidelines require minors first to work with mental health professional trained in these issues, often for a year or more, and then the wait to get into a clinic is often a year or more as well. [*WashPost2*].

Frank C. Worrell, PhD, president of the American Psychological Association, directly condemns Abbott’s directive:
This ill-conceived directive from the Texas governor will put at-risk children at even higher risk of anxiety, depression, self-harm, and suicide. Gender-affirming care promotes the health and well-being of transgender youth and is provided by medical and mental health professionals, based on well-established scientific research. The peer-reviewed research suggests that transgender children and youth who are treated with affirmation and receive evidence-based treatments tend to see improvements in their psychological well-being.

Asking licensed medical and mental health professionals to ‘turn in’ parents who are merely trying to give their children needed and evidence-based care would violate patient confidentiality as well as professional ethics. The American Psychological Association opposes politicized intrusions into the decisions that parents make with medical providers about caring for their children. [apa.org]

Emmett Schelling, the executive director of the Transgender Education Network of Texas told NPR, “The state leadership has said, ‘We would rather see dead children … instead of happy, loved, supported, thriving trans kids that are alive and well,’ ” [npr.org]

I do see glimmers of hope. The ACLU has asked a judge to issue a temporary restraining order, temporary injunction or permanent injunction for what they call legislating by press release. “Governor Abbott’s letter instructing DFPS to investigate the families of transgender children is entirely without Constitutional or statutory authority,” the lawsuit says, adding the governor’s directive denies transgender youth equal protection” [cnn.com]. Frank C. Worrell, PhD, president of the American Psychological Association, condemns the governor’s actions:
This ill-conceived directive from the Texas governor will put at-risk children at even higher risk of anxiety, depression, self-harm, and suicide. Gender-affirming care promotes the health and well-being of transgender youth and is provided by medical and mental health professionals, based on well-established scientific research. The peer-reviewed research suggests that transgender children and youth who are treated with affirmation and receive evidence-based treatments tend to see improvements in their psychological well-being.
Asking licensed medical and mental health professionals to ‘turn in’ parents who are merely trying to give their children needed and evidence-based care would violate patient confidentiality as well as professional ethics. The American Psychological Association opposes politicized intrusions into the decisions that parents make with medical providers about caring for their children [apa.org].

A number of Texas district and county attorneys say they will refuse to enforce the order. Harris County Attorney Christian D. Menefee spoke for many of them when he said, “My office will not participate in these bad faith political games. As the lawyers handling these cases, we owe a duty of candor to the courts about what the law really says. We’ll continue to follow the laws on the books — not General Paxton’s politically motivated and legally incorrect ‘opinion’” [*DallasNews].*

I know trans people from my decades in safe schools work. Those I met as adults helped me understand their journeys through discussion. Those I knew through their transition have shared their struggles firsthand. They have taught me how essential it is for every human being to be able to be authentic in life without being judged or harassed. Isn’t that what all of us want for ourselves? We cannot let politicians deprive transgender people and their families of such basic rights.

At Last!

I’ve been working on a serious blog entry for a week now, but the topic inflames me so strongly that it’s been hard to pull together. I will finish it and get it posted soon; today, though, I’m just going to write about last Sunday’s book launch.

Being a teacher always called to me; it was the second most important part of my life after family, and sometimes [when grades were due, when research papers piled up on my desk…], it even displaced family as a priority! Long before I finished teaching, I knew I wanted to capture the stories from my years in the classroom. I wanted them to be more permanent than mere dinner party storytelling.

It took me seven years and the support of a good writing group to really pull my stories together. It took my writing group to help me define my audience, and a specific member of my group to help me create the structure I ended up using. Often life got in the way, but I remained determined.

When my first real copy arrived, I wept. I had already published two textbooks about writing with computers when they were new to schools along with dozens of articles. None of those compared to seeing this book in print. It’s so personal to me.

And on Sunday I had the privilege of seeing and hearing from former students, a blessing in its own right. Some I’ve been in touch with, so I was less surprised when they came or ordered the book from me. Others offered wondrous surprises. A young woman I hadn’t seen since her mid 90s graduation brought in her creative writing portfolio with my notes and grade of A+. I had encouraged her to submit one of the poems for the graduation program, and it was chosen. She told me on Sunday that that had been a turning point for her, that my encouragement and having her poem chosen had mattered so much. I had no idea… Other former students surprised me with flattering Facebook comments. That’s the thing about teaching — you often don’t know.

I’m surprised at how many years have passed since I left the classroom for retirement, but my teaching experiences remain a fundamental part of my identity. I am so grateful for them and for the relationships that teaching allowed. I’ve finally told my “tales out of school,” and I know how lucky I’ve been.

The Roller Coaster Ride of Publishing a Book

I started this blog almost five years ago because I kept hearing how essential it was for authors, especially nonfiction authors, to have a platform. The writing consultant Jane Friedman defines platform as “an ability to sell books because of who you are or who you can reach.” While agents and publishers also consider previously published work and speaking engagements, most people focus on their reach through their websites and social media, including blogs and newsletters.

So in March of 2017, this blog was born. I was deeply engaged in writing my teaching memoir, and I wanted to define and grow an audience for it. Little did I know it would take me so long to finish the book and get it published!

At last the time has come. And I have learned so much along the way:

Although I had already published two writing textbooks and dozens of articles, I had no idea how hard this book would be to write.
Joining a writing group and having critical friends read your work is essential. Of course, you have to be willing to consider feedback with an open mind!
Memoirs offer an additional challenge: the limitations of memory. Finding documentation helps whenever possible, and I spent oodles of time going through old teaching files and letters.
Determining your audience is critical. My writing group pushed me to define mine more clearly, and that altered the direction I took.
Dialogue and sensory details bring a book to life. There’s a reason that writing teachers always insist on “Show, Don’t Tell.”
Outside readers also help catch jargon and assumptions about what a reader already knows.
Editing the manuscript grows ever more difficult with subsequent re-readings. You tend to see what you meant, and it grows harder to catch errors.
Drafting the manuscript is barely the beginning. Finding a publisher, choosing a cover, doing the marketing, and even providing shelf talker text for bookstores [that’s those little handwritten notes that bookstores place by chosen books] takes time and energy.
I will be disappointed if no one buys the book – though many have already offered! – but fundamentally I chose to write it for myself. It gave me some closure to a career in education that I loved until I didn’t, that I miss sometimes. It gave me a chance to archive these stories and gain a sweeping overview of my experience.

On March 6, 2022, I will host a book launch at our local public library. I can’t wait!

Note: If you are interested in a purchasing a copy , you can contact me directly for a signed copy or purchase online from https://www.politics-prose.com/ after 3.1.22.

Out of the Mouths of Babes

An Op-Ed caught my eye this week, reminding me that young people often can be remarkably wise. I find myself remembering the phrase, “out of the mouths of babes,” “a shortening and revision of expressions in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. In Psalms 8:2, God ordains strength out of the mouth of babes and sucklings; in Matthew 21:16, praise comes from this source. Later generations changed strength and praise to wisdom” [www.dictionary.com].

I’ve written before about the current trend of parents and taxpayers to show up at school board meetings to attack board members verbally over fraught issues like mask and vaccine mandates, as well as their concern that critical race theory [CRT] is being taught to their children, causing them shame and harm. Their position shows a true misunderstanding of what that theory is and where it is taught. A scholarly framework first developed in the late 1970s, its “core idea is that race is a social construct, and that racism is not merely the product of individual bias or prejudice, but also something embedded in legal systems and policies” [www.edweek.org].

Few K-12 schools teach that theory, but it really doesn’t matter, because opponents simply use the label to identify any teaching about racism. They would deny the systemic racism clearly apparent throughout society or insist that students shouldn’t learn about it anyway.

Philosopher George Santayana said, “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” When I was in high school in the 1960s, even though my school was nationally known for excellence, I did not learn about the Tulsa Race Massacre, redlining, the Tuskegee experiment, or most other racist events and tragedies. I knew about Freedom Riders because my parents were involved in the civil rights movement, and because one of the young adults killed was the son of friends of theirs. I didn’t learn about Japanese internment or Stonewall and other LGBTQ assaults either. A colleague taught me about driving while black many years ago, a problem that only received national attention recently. How can we make our society more fair and just if we don’t know our own history?

A black high school junior from Brooklyn, New York, wrote about this more eloquently than I can. In a January 14, 2022, Op-Ed in the Washington Post, “Take it from a high schooler who’s actually learned about CRT: Adults need to chill out,” Christiane Calixte wrote:

Opponents of CRT claim that this academic lens is divisive, anti-White and anti-American. Many have claimed that its teachings are a means of forcing a political agenda onto children in lieu of focusing on subjects deemed more educational.

Don’t be fooled, though. The retaliation against CRT shows that parents have no idea what students are learning — and that their protests are less about education and more about a projection of their own biases and fears [Washington Post].

Calixte’s school offers both a 75-minute workshop and an optional senior elective on CRT. She took the seminar and assures readers that it promoted neither hatred of white people nor their shaming. “In our discussion, CRT also wasn’t presented as absolute and unchangeable truth. Throughout the lesson, teachers emphasized that all students had the right to agree or disagree with the teachings” [Ibid.]. She warns us that CRT is “simply being used as a straw man for those who aim to restrict speech and knowledge — and, in some cases, perpetuate bigoted ideologies” [Ibid.].

Calixte’s closing plea speaks volumes: “Don’t reverse centuries of progress in favor of promoting ignorance. If the goal of schools is to create a well-informed populace, then nuanced discussions of historical racism must be held in classrooms. It is the only way young people will learn to think critically about our country’s institutions, and the only way to create an inclusive America for future generations.” [Ibid.]

Christiane Calixte’s Op-Ed should remind us all that our young people are more capable than we credit them for, that they can and must think critically about our institutions. And she is not alone. According to a 2021 Washington Post IPSOS poll, “Just under 6 in 10 teenagers said that racial discrimination is “a major threat” to their generation, including larger shares of Black (85 percent), Hispanic (69 percent) and Asian teens (68 percent) than White teens (43 percent)” [washingtonpost.com]. Young adults have led the way in other areas of discrimination. For example, a research report from NORC at the University of Chicago describes an growing generation gap in attitudes toward same sex marriage : “While 64 percent of those under 30 back same-sex marriage, only 27 percent of those 70 and older support it” [NORC]. In the Pacific Standard, a nonprofit publication that for more than a decade published award-winning work on social and environmental justice, a sociologist and professor of religion at a Catholic university, describes the tolerance he sees in his daughter and in his students as “ a beacon of hope for all of us” [psmag.com].

Why, then, do so many fear teaching truthful American history? I can’t get the lyrics of a song from the musical South Pacific out of my mind lately:

You’ve got to be taught

To hate and fear,

You’ve got to be taught

From year to year,

It’s got to be drummed

In your dear little ear

You’ve got to be carefully taught.

You’ve got to be taught to be afraid

Of people whose eyes are oddly made,

And people whose skin is a diff’rent shade,

You’ve got to be carefully taught.

You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late,

Before you are six or seven or eight,

To hate all the people your relatives hate,

You’ve got to be carefully taught!

Imagine if our careful teaching switched from promoting bigotry to trying to understand the strengths and flaws of our great nation by exploring true history and learning from it? Young people are up to the task. We must be, too.

“The Children Are Our Future”

Out of Africa