Pedagogues.
Gotta love 'em.
I remember the first time I heard the word. My younger brother, who works as a teacher in a high-risk, special needs school, was offering up his opinions on the difference between educational theory (or those who prattle on endlessly about educational theory) and the reality of life in the classroom. My brother is a black and white, "either/or" kind of guy; all right angles, no shades of gray. If he likes you, you'll know. If not, leave the room very quickly.
Anyway, many of his exact words on this particular occasion were largely unprintable, but I perked up when he used the word "pedagogue." I knew the word "pedagogy," but this one was new. Pedagogue. But every time he said it, it rolled off his tongue the same way someone would use the word excrement.
I remember laughing and asking my baby bro why he was being so harsh. Wrong question. He let loose with a expletive laced tirade about pedagogues that would make our mother seriously rethink our private school education.
On occasion, I will volunteer my time in my son's kindergarten class. Six words come to mind every time I do this: "Oh...my...dear...God" and "controlled chaos." It's insane. I have no earthly idea how the teacher, God bless her, does this everyday. There are too many kids in the classroom, classroom management is an ongoing battle, there are kids with wildly different learning abilities and styles and if you drop your gaze for a moment to focus on a single child, classroom chaos will soon ensue as the other children, now bored, begin to (literally) take their education into their own oh-so-curious little hands.
After each one of these visits, I better understand my brother's frustrations with pedagogues. They talk. And talk. And talk. They write white papers. They give lectures. They theorize.
They have PhDs.
They know....
And you know what?
Most of them don't know a damn thing.
It seems there are reform hawks on one side and teacher unions on the other. I sit squarely in the middle. I am a reform hawk that vigorously defends and supports our teachers because I think that meaningful eduction reform must begin with engaging and motivating teachers. I also really appreciate the work they do. The pay is crappy, the hours are terrible, the work is often thankless and the working conditions are often antiquated and hopelessly out-of-date. But when something goes wrong....bad test scores, lousy graduation rates, truculent, underachieving kids, who do we blame? Teachers. It's a lousy deal. An unfair deal.
And I don't like unfair.
So here's my deal. My thought for the day. There's a lot of talk about education reform these days, especially with all this new stimulus money swirling about. But if you've never been a teacher, spent time in a classroom, managed thirty kids that are not your own; if you've never been in the trenches; if you've never been a teacher, then all you are to me is a citation. Go write a white paper or give a lecture at Harvard.
Because I have no use for pedagogues.
I'd rather spend my time talking to teachers.
I rather spend my time taking to someone who actually knows something.
Gotta love 'em.
I remember the first time I heard the word. My younger brother, who works as a teacher in a high-risk, special needs school, was offering up his opinions on the difference between educational theory (or those who prattle on endlessly about educational theory) and the reality of life in the classroom. My brother is a black and white, "either/or" kind of guy; all right angles, no shades of gray. If he likes you, you'll know. If not, leave the room very quickly.
Anyway, many of his exact words on this particular occasion were largely unprintable, but I perked up when he used the word "pedagogue." I knew the word "pedagogy," but this one was new. Pedagogue. But every time he said it, it rolled off his tongue the same way someone would use the word excrement.
I remember laughing and asking my baby bro why he was being so harsh. Wrong question. He let loose with a expletive laced tirade about pedagogues that would make our mother seriously rethink our private school education.
****************
On occasion, I will volunteer my time in my son's kindergarten class. Six words come to mind every time I do this: "Oh...my...dear...God" and "controlled chaos." It's insane. I have no earthly idea how the teacher, God bless her, does this everyday. There are too many kids in the classroom, classroom management is an ongoing battle, there are kids with wildly different learning abilities and styles and if you drop your gaze for a moment to focus on a single child, classroom chaos will soon ensue as the other children, now bored, begin to (literally) take their education into their own oh-so-curious little hands.
After each one of these visits, I better understand my brother's frustrations with pedagogues. They talk. And talk. And talk. They write white papers. They give lectures. They theorize.
They have PhDs.
They know....
And you know what?
Most of them don't know a damn thing.
****************
It seems there are reform hawks on one side and teacher unions on the other. I sit squarely in the middle. I am a reform hawk that vigorously defends and supports our teachers because I think that meaningful eduction reform must begin with engaging and motivating teachers. I also really appreciate the work they do. The pay is crappy, the hours are terrible, the work is often thankless and the working conditions are often antiquated and hopelessly out-of-date. But when something goes wrong....bad test scores, lousy graduation rates, truculent, underachieving kids, who do we blame? Teachers. It's a lousy deal. An unfair deal.
And I don't like unfair.
So here's my deal. My thought for the day. There's a lot of talk about education reform these days, especially with all this new stimulus money swirling about. But if you've never been a teacher, spent time in a classroom, managed thirty kids that are not your own; if you've never been in the trenches; if you've never been a teacher, then all you are to me is a citation. Go write a white paper or give a lecture at Harvard.
Because I have no use for pedagogues.
I'd rather spend my time talking to teachers.
I rather spend my time taking to someone who actually knows something.
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2 comments:
I'm sorry but I can't let this post slide without a comment.
It drives me crazy when my colleagues (yes, I am a classroom teacher) criticize research and the ones who conduct it. The systematic and scientific study of education is an invaluable tool to every teacher. Those who choose to ignore it or label its proponents as "out of touch" are inherently crippling themselves.
I teach at a pretty rough school myself and yes it, is a damn hard job, but I spend plenty of time reading the current research and evaluating what works and what works better. Why? Because my students deserve to be taught in such a way that each of them can learn as much as possible.
Do I think of educational theory when I am breaking up a fist-fight in the hallway? No. But my lesson planning is firmly rooted in what research reveals works best. No individual teacher has the time to conduct nation-wide studies to evaluate the most effective means of helping students learn vocabulary terms. Researchers and pedagogues do. And when a teacher chooses to discount their contributions to the field of education, he chooses to not give his students the best opportunity to learn that he can.
I should think that you would have realized that research is quintessential to convincing people of why 1-to-1 works. Everyone whom I have met that has successfully advocated any sort of technology initiative has mentioned the importance of well-documented research in the adoption process.
And by the way, I am going to Harvard next year. Perhaps I will go give a lecture about instructional strategies that have been proven to work best because that is one way that people can learn to teach better.
Sorry for the book, but think a little more about what you are really saying before you convince more people to be resistant to change and what is good for education (something you yourself have bemoaned in previous posts).
First of all, thank you for the comment. I appreciate the fact that you took time to respond. We may agree or agree to disagree, but healthy debate is a good thing.
That said, I suspected this particular post might ruffle a few feathers.
Good.
It should.
The irony is that I agree with much of what you wrote. Of course there is a time, place and value to research and research-based solutions. Pedagogical change and education reform should not be an exercise in shooting from the hip or throwing intellectual spaghetti against the wall. Public education should not be a grand experiment in "let's see if this works."
My issue isn't with research, but with solutions disconnected from practical application. What I find fault with (and what I think exasperates many teachers) are "reforms" that sound great in theory and that resonate well in the halls of congress or lecture rooms, but fail to account for the reality of life in the classroom.
Differentiated instruction is one such example. It sounds great, right? Who would argue against meaningfully and individually engaging every child? But talk to most teachers and they will tell you that differentiated instruction is virtually impossible in overcrowded classrooms with overworked teachers in underfunded districts. It's a pipe dream. So rather than prattle on and on and on about theory, which academics are want to do, we might be better served if those charged with shaping education policy spent a bit more time in classrooms actually talking to teachers in order to better understand the reality of that which they so eloquently talk about.
I think it's great that you will be attending Harvard. It is a phenomenal institution of higher learning. But what I find more impressive than that is where you teach and what you do right now. Perhaps this experience will fuel and inform your views on education reforms in the future. I hope so. Because as I mentioned in my blog, a contention I fully stand by now, the great failure of most efforts at educational reform lie in the fact that they were developed without the input and involvement of teachers who are ultimately charged with executing reforms. "Reforms" of this sort have been tried and have failed time and time again. In the meantime, million of our children are, in fact, being left behind or have already been left behind.
So go to Harvard. Give your lecture. (Who knows, I might attend). Continue to ask "why" and opine on "what" we must do. But when you ask "why," as you instruct those who will shape the minds of our children about "what" they should do, I hope you are then prepared to put down your chalk, walk from behind the lectern, look those you address in the eyes and answer "how."
Otherwise you become a citation, a footnote, along with so many other citations and footnotes in a seemingly endless stream of academic theory at a time when what we need are solutions.
On this we agree, and agree absolutely. Every child deserves the best opportunity to learn. Right now, that's not happening.
Perhaps you will be a part of the solution.
I hope so.
Perhaps you will take our sad song and make it better.
Good luck.
I really do wish you well.
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