Circle the wagons, ma...

"Circle the wagons, Ma! I think I see a band of consultants ridin' down on us!"



Well, the inspectors are here with that "kicking ass and taking names" look on their faces. They're ducking into and out of classrooms so fast that I think I'm watching a Marx Bros. movie. All we teachers can do is sit in our Potemkin Village classrooms hoping that they don't look behind the newly decorated bulletin boards and discover the sham that we teachers "must be" (because why would they be here if we weren't?). I feel like a subjugated ward of the state.

However, they too are guilty of a sham. How can they possibly know what is the one (or two) right teaching steps that we should take to immediately turn our high school around - "Show more student work." ..."Use fewer 'teacher-directed' lessons in your class." Yeah, right!

I think it's their sanctimonious certitude that bothers me the most. If they knew the answers - I mean REALLY knew the answers- the districts in which the state took control would be "flying high" in academic achievement. But those districts are still mired in the 10 percentile swamps of the state tests.

I could understand suggestions from the inspectors, but it seems that they spell suggestions d-i-r-e-c-t-i-v-e-s. But they, like us, know that failing districts are like "unhappy families"- each is failing in its own way, and usually for myriad reasons.

Moreover, it's presumptuous when anyone says that we know how to "fix" broken schools. If that were true, then there wouldn't be so many broken schools still out there.

Looking back at this blog, I realize that it is so very bitter in tone, but I'm getting very tired of all these "experts" who are so sure that their "simplistic" remedies will effortlessly solve our complex problems. I believe that failing schools can be fixed, but it will take hard work, time, and money. Remedies that most people don't want to hear or to acknowledge.