Alright already.

Things really have to change. I want to see flexible school days, I want to see more engaged students, and teachers. I want to see realistic assessment not testing or testing alone. I want to see real world things happening in classrooms rather than something that has been status quo for over 150 years. I want to see the parents no only "give a shit" but actually show support, or even disdain if that is the truth. Get mad and say you are mad. Come on people!! We are falling behind and no one is doing ANYTHING to make it better. The small enclaves of superiority take a back seat to the big talkers. We need, as I have already said, a damned educational REVOLUTION. Come on parents and kids, let us MAKE the powers that be listen.!!!

The Latest

You know, something pretty interesting just happened in the last couple of weeks since my last post. I have been watching The West Wing and paying attention to some of the things the "candidates" were saying on the campaign trail. Many of the issues brought up by Jimmy Smits' character on the show are those which I feel should definitely be addressed in truth. The idea of tenure just due to seniority is ludicrous in my mind, BUT the idea that merit pay be only based upon easily measurable test scores is just as bad, so, how do we find a way around this?

Governor Ted Strickland of Ohio, I like this guy's ideas more and more each time I hear one, except for his strange stance regarding Charter, or, in Ohio's terminology, Community, Schools. He has an idea that would do away with the Ohio State Board of Education as we know it. The elected officials would be replaced by people whom might actually know a thing or two about the educational process. I have often wondered how the voters in the state could readily pick ANYONE to sit on that board. I have been voting for twenty five years and have NEVER known an candidate for the State Board of Education. That coupled with the fact that I have been an educator for nearly 20 years makes a person wonder, "Why???"

Anyway, I believe that his premise is great as long as it ensures that the board actually works toward the betterment of education rather than become yet another burden. The betterment of education, as I am writing, has to do with my previously mentioned thoughts that we are in need of an absolute and unequivocal overhaul of the entire system. I am not only speaking of the asinine testing, but of the complete and ridiculously outmoded mindset most people have with regard TO education. I heard something on The West Wing that, although I understood it and have heard people say it myself, was horrible to accept. A man stated, when he was talking to the Jimmy Smits' character, something on the lines that he got a decent enough education, so why should the delivery or quantity of time in school change for his kids. That is the EXACT type of thing that has caused us to lag behind schools in the top performing nations. In fact, our days in school are way behind the countries that are doing well.

Next

I feel as though I may be beating the proverbial dead horse at the moment, so I will move on. Our educational system is in need of a massive overhaul that cannot be mandated by the government, any government, from local to federal. The changes in this field, as in most as ingrained and archaic as education, must be revolutionary. I mean we must begin this as a grassroots effort.

School boards and various other groups have held the standard for much too long. Places such as Cleveland, Ohio have taken it even further away from where it should be by forcing the State of Ohio to take over the schools. The city schools were awful to begin with so this was even more of a slap in the face for parents faced with the prospect of HAVING to send their children to such places. The system, though showing minor gains in some places, is still a steaming heap of fetid trash.


Let us look at some of things that are important in our society, shall we? Not only has the emphasis on material possessions overshadowed the basic need for human compassion towards one another and ourselves, but the import on trivial information has exceeded the value of true knowledge. Is this what we really want to instill in those who are our future? I think not.

This, I know, is not the way it is for every child, nor even for most, BUT it is the thing we see most often in the media. For God’s sake, one of our most popular shows right now is “Do You Know More Than a Fifth Grader?” Well, do we? Honestly, most of us don’t. You know why?
We are wasting our time learning inane garbage with an archaic delivery system. Yes, a fifth grader knows “more” than a rocket scientist because she is forced to memorize ridiculous trivial drivel. But does the fifth grader run the world or might it be more up to the rocket scientist? Hummmmm, I wonder.

The Problems as I See Them

The problems with our compulsory education in the United States are myriad. Things are so out of whack, I couldn't even begin to write about them all, but I do believe in some specific things that will not only help our kids to succeed. It MIGHT even get them to like the idea of school, at least more so than they do now.

I know there are millions of you out there that have heard exactly what I am about to write. "But you get paid to go to work. I don't get paid nothing to go to school."
Most of the time we are at a loss to come up with an argument that makes sense, even to us. So... don't! Tell them they are absolutely correct in the schema from which they come. Tell them that there are things in this world that one does not get paid for but are more important than pay. Tell them that there are people starving in China, Africa, Afghanistan, Iraq, the South, whatever you want, BUT make than think. Get those haughty excuses for young humans to open their minds and ask a question, even if it is to themselves. Use the grandest words you can think of to get that, "What the hell did she just say?" look in your sons' and daughters' eyes. In short give them the biggest load of bullshit you can possibly swing their way.

They will, mark my words, try to find out what you were saying. Most likely you won't be asked, which might bode very well for you, but they WILL look for something that helps them understand what you said. When they finally come to you it is time to show them how they are paid.

You might want to take it from a literal standpoint and show them how much in taxes you pay each year to keep them in that factory sized babysitting environment. You might want to explain what you spend in school clothes, transportation, fees, food, or whatever, in order that they have what they need every day. You may want to do nothing of the sort and just tell them that life isn't fair and they have to go to school or go to jail. The choice is yours BUT, that choice is slowly being taken away.

There is a reason for this, you know. The few that do not do their best to raise their kids and expect others to do it are causing the community leaders, police, judges, and, yes, many of us to attempt legislating parental skills. It will never work. We have to take the power out of the hands of the government, meaning judges, social service agencies, police, even schools themselves, and take control. These are OUR kids and this is OUR service to be provided by those we hire using our taxes. We need to ensure that we are not EVER intimidated by the "ivory tower," of the educational institution. We all went through it in one way or another, therefore have an intimate knowledge of how things work. Why is it then that we all feel so lost when we go back as adults? It really makes no sense does it?

End of the Beginnings

One of my biggest peeves is that these monstrous entities we call, "State Boards of Education," are nothing but political cluster fucks. In fact, the concept we all have of a, "board," has gotten quite skewed in the last 100 years. Most Boards of Directors, upon which such of: Education, etc. have been modeled, are composed of cronies who will help propagate the ideals of the President and/or CEO. While our State Boards of Education are elected, at least some of them, most people don't even vote for them, AND they often run unopposed. I may be over-generalizing here, but my point remains. The concept behind a State Board of Education may have been good originally but its time has passed, at least in the current inception. It is my belief we need State liaisons between the federal, Department of Education and the Local Boards. The State, at least in Ohio and in my estimation, just gets in the way, ALL THE TIME...

My Thoughts

I read a quote recently and have no idea to whom I should accredit it, but here goes: I must do this as a paraphrase, because I do not remember it fully. If Rip Van Winkle had awakened in 22nd century America and seen nothing that resembled when he had fallen asleep, he would feel right at home within an American High School.


The truth of that statement should scare every one of us. American High Schools have been the major purveyors of status quo in our country. Nothing seems to ever change, which I know is redundant.

The Most Recent Background

I began full time teaching as a semi-permanent, my phrase, substitute in 1990. I worked in the middle school special education classes, specifically learning disabled, for about two years in various districts. I had subbed in various social studies classes and even phys. ed. once or twice (I hated nothing more that that). I did, though, find my niche in the LD classes. At the time I was working for a special education camp in Lake County called "Camp Sue Osborn." This camp was run by the East Shore Special Educational Resource Center, which has since been re-named to make sure no one knows about "Special Education."

I worked with and learned from some of the most dedicated and brilliant people I had ever met. The camp brought kids from all over the county together in a special education only setting. We had kids with Muscular Dystrophy and other degenerative diseases, severe mental retardation, traumatic brain injury, gifted kids, kids with learning disabilities and, my favorite, those deemed SBH. The term has since been politicized as have most, but Severely Behaviorally Handicapped is pretty self-explanatory in my book. I learned more in the three summers I worked those camps than at any other time during my formative collegiate and beginning teaching years.

Through my connections at the camps, I met a Superintendent in a small Southern Ohio district. New Lexington City Schools was my first full-time, salaried, contracted position and Clyde Metz was my mentor. As soon as I began in New Lex, I was put into a position that had me flying by the proverbial seat of my pants. The middle school was new as was the LD unit, so I had to create something from nothing while not really having any idea what I was doing. I had begun taking special education classes at Ohio University and Kent State, but hadn't even completed one yet. They learning by full immersion is the best way to go. I am not sure if I agree, but it did force me to come up with a plan pretty damned quickly. I had a superb mentor in Pam Melragon whom I still keep in touch with regularly. She and I went to many a seminar to see what was going on in our SPED world. I spent three years there.

I then spent two years on Put-in-Bay, South Bass Island, as the SPED Director. There were only about 90 kids in the entire K-12 school but I was the only SPED person, so I was able to be named director. This position afforded me the ability to attend State Directors of Special Education conferences in the State Capital of Columbus and various other events furthering my knowledge of the Special Education world. I was also a member of the CEC (Council for Exceptional Children), which was once the definitive organization for SPED professionals, for most of the 1990s.

Needing to leave the stifling confines of the island as well as the prohibitive nature of travel in the winter, I took a position as a part-time LD tutor in Parma at Valley Forge High School. From Parma I spent four years as a middle school LD teacher in the Cleveland Municipal School District under the Barbara Byrd Bennett regime. That did me in for about four years. After my stint in Cleveland, I felt totally worthless. I felt that our entire system was too far gone to ever make a difference. Thank God, the years away re-vitalized my need to help kids find wroth in themselves. My work is just beginning, but, as you all now know, I do have some background giving me the right to voice some of the opinions herein being discussed.

A change MUST come and soon. We are losing our greatest asset at an alarming rate, and the tide must not just be stemmed it must be reversed. I have some ideas and would love for you to take them and use them to help me help the world.