Towards a More Perfect Union
America has always been a country of aspirations, of ideals. From its founding, it has also - obviously - been flawed; our history is filled with shameful moments, some of which have not made it into many history books. We have had dark moments, that's for sure - and most of these moments have involved discrimination against a group of minorities, sometimes even to the point of atrocity. From the Original Sins of the slaughter of natives and slavery to the mistreatment and dehumanization of groups from women to People of Color to LGBT folks, America has, despite aspiring towards progress, often failed to achieve it.
Of course, American history is also filled with moments of light. Moments of greatness. Times when we lived up to our ideals as a nation. There have been victories over evil overseas like WWII, victories over discrimination like the Civil Rights Act, amazing innovations in industry and technology, and progress on a huge number of social issues. But, invariably, we find ourselves right back in moments like the one we are experiencing now - dark moments that seem completely disconnected from the ideals and aspirations which have formed a foundation for the great work we have been engaged in for more than 200 years: the work of making America better, of establishing a more perfect union for all of us.
It's All American
I have been guilty of something - a simple logical error. When faced with the latest norm-defying transgression by the Orange Madman - with children being ripped from mothers, vulnerable immigrants being threatened with violence, poisons like lead and mercury and asbestos being deregulated, the environment being abandoned and betrayed - I have said, "That is so un-American!" But there is a stark reality to remember; it's all American. We need to own the ups and the downs, remember that our errors were real, that our flaws really happened, and that each time we failed is a moment to learn from.
Maybe this dichotomy can be traced back to the Founding Fathers, whose decisions were driven both by hope and fear: the hope that the American experiment would live up to its promises, and the fear that getting 13 disparate and sovereign States would be impossible without concessions. When we strive for our ideals, we are embracing our hope; when we regress from them, it is almost exclusively because of fear.
The Path to Progress
So what is the path forward? It seems pretty simple sometimes. Remember our ideals. And don't let irrational fear guide our behavior. We have been better before; we can be better again. We have thought of ourselves as Camelot, as a shining city on a hill, as a beacon of hope to the world, as lifting our "lamp beside the Golden Door" of opportunity. Remember that we are the "land of opportunity" - that this is how the world once saw us. That we have prided ourselves on our decency and, sometimes, even been guided by the best principles of our biggest religions.
The path forward is one that has America embracing its role as a global leader, acknowledging that the world is shrinking, welcoming the vulnerable and the refugee, and seeing the interconnectedness that binds nations together as groups of fellow humans. America - at its best - has been wealthy AND generous, powerful AND kind, patriotic AND welcoming, talented AND inclusive, secure AND welcoming. You want to Make America Great Again? Remember this - "America is great when it is good." You want to be "Great Again" - then let's focus on being BETTER again.
Saturday, November 3, 2018
Friday, November 2, 2018
GOP Goal: Block the Vote?
Original Sin and a History of Progress
The Founding Fathers are often depicted in binary ways: saint or sinner, genius or shortsighted, bold or craven. Many of them were slaveholders and the women of their time had virtually no power, including even the right to own property. At the same time, the Enlightenment foundations of the country, the purported forward-looking habits of some of the Founders, and the elasticity built into our founding documents complicate the clarity with which we can evaluate the decisions these men made. Even though there are legitimate questions about our complicated past, which is ripe for debate, how we speak about and think about it is probably a conversation best reserved for a less critical time. Because we have an emergency in this country; our most basic right - the franchise, the right to vote - is under attack, more in some places than in others, and much more for some people than others.
Throughout our history, the right to vote has expanded in huge ways. Initially only granted to white adult male landowners, the right to vote was expanded to include non-property owners in the 1820s, former slaves in 1870, women in 1920, and 18-year-olds in 1971. And with each de juro expansion of voting rights, the powerful and the privileged have thrown up obstacles, passed intentional and illegal restrictions, and caused the courts to have to enforce de facto application of the law. So, to borrow a phrase from a great man, the arc of the moral universe HAS bent towards justice overall, but the powerful and entitled in our country - mostly male and mostly white - have resisted every degree of change that those fighting for progress have achieved. One of the greatest modern strides in protecting the franchise was the Voting Rights Act of 1965. It provided desperately-needed monitoring and protections for the rights of voters - especially POC - in states with a history of voting rights violations. For nearly 50 years, the law was one of the primary forces protecting the right to vote. Then, in 2013, the Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, invalidated key provisions of the law. And THIS is, at least in part, why we find ourselves where we are today.
Voter Suppression: A Primer
Literacy tests and poll taxes are a thing of the past. For a decade or more, the "new" voter suppression, just like the "new" racism, had been slick, tricky, and - usually - plausibly deniable. It had hidden behind reason, plausibility, and "rational" concerns about "securing the vote" or "voter fraud." Of course, any liberal or SJW worth his or her salt could link within seconds to article after article claiming, correctly it seems, that, for all the hyperventilating concern on the Right, voter fraud is, simply, not a thing. Yes, it happens. But it has never decided any election; even the most loosely defined list includes maybe 1,000 examples gleaned from the past few decades of voting. When Trump was elected and appointed Kris Kobach (whose middle name is William, though Kevin would probably make more sense) to a doomed voter fraud commission, the stated mission was to find the evidence for The Donald's claim that 3 million votes had been cast in 2016. Of course, the evidence the commission gathered did not do Kobach or Trump any good. The claims the Right had been using for decades had clearly worn thin, even with huge swaths of the American public.
So it is now, apparently, time for the old to be new again. Today's voter suppression is - again - like today's racism - more overt, obvious, and less apologetic thanks to Trump's normalizing of behavior only recently considered aberrant. Watch an actual news channel (or an hour or two on Fox - thanks, Shep and Chris) and you will see the stories. Brian Kemp, a sitting Secretary of State in Georgia running for Governor, is notorious for flagrant violations of voting rights. His opponent Stacey Abrams has already won a case against him. Kemp is having his hand forced by the courts, but he is fighting every step of the way. In the first few days of November, he has been forced to recognize the right to vote of brand new citizens and to stop invalidating registrations using an "Exact Match" system that has invariably disproportionately impacted Voters of Color.
While Kemp is the kingpin of modern voter suppression, he is by no means alone. Kansas's Kris Kobach (ah, there it is!) has a little place name Dodge City in his state (yes, it is THAT Dodge City) that has grown a lot substantially thanks to large meat-packing plants in the area; the workers in these plants are overwhelmingly Hispanic. The 15,000 voters of Dodge City used to vote in ONE polling place - which was already strange. This year, though, their polling place has been moved - outside of town, a mile away from the closest public transportation, because of "construction" around the former polling place - which both does not appear to be under construction (thanks, Maddow) and which has events schedule both before and after Election Day (11/6).
In North Dakota, a state which elected Heidi Heitkamp in part because of Native American vote, a new voter ID law demands that voters have an ID with a physical address, not a PO Box like many Native American reservation dwellers have (and have had for decades). Those in charge have thrown up obstacle after obstacle but are pretty clearly trying to disenfranchise voters. And these stories are just the biggest. Story after story details direct attempts to lower turnout, to limit voters, to cut voting days, and on and on and on. It is clear that the Republican Party has a vested interest in fewer people voting.
If You Can't Win, Cheat...
The bottom line seems pretty clear here. After the 2012 election, Reince Priebus tried to convince the GOP that it had to do something about its inability to truly become a "Big Tent" party - to appeal to minorities, the LGBT community, to women, etc. The findings were damning, detailing how the GOP had alienated subgroup after subgroup with policies and tone. The Republicans did basically nothing with this autopsy - and then Donald Trump happened. His win and the subsequent two years have been driven by the assertion that, contrary to the belief at the time, no reflection was needed. The grievance and anger that Trump had identified and exploited was enough. The base was enough. And, after all, if the reality is that your base is a shrinking population of angry people who feel threatened by considerable social changes, what better way to operate than to appeal to their base fears, solidify your support and ride the wave wherever it goes. And if you couldn't win, cheat. Take advantage of institutional advantages, both those inherent in our Constitution and those built in by gerrymandering and broad control of state governments. The principles of democracy, after all, matter far less than "winning."
And when the leader of your party is a man who lies habitually and seems to never be punished for it, a man who has embraced the offensive, the taboo, the unacceptable, how can you possibly resist the call of less than savory tactics that he sees as "just part of the game." The fact seems to be that the GOP has morphed from a party on the cusp of reflection to an all-in, balls-to-the-wall, grievance-filled engine of liberal-tear-savoring, tantrum-throwing man-children. So the question is what can we do?
Vote - SRSLY, Just Vote!
There is one reality of voter suppression tactics, which is pretty likely to hold, regardless of how dark of an age we seem to be experiencing. Sure, the GOP will suppress the vote a bit, here and there; it will rely on built-in quirks in the law; it will try to invalidate a vote or a few thousand. But what it will not do is wholesale, widespread, open discarding of votes. Even cheaters know that there is a limit. So, the solution? Vote. In large numbers. Together. As one. No purity tests. Just vote. Call your friends; nag them; drive them; poke them (digitally and, well, digitally). Vote in numbers so large the results can not be doubted. Defy the odds. Ignore the polls. Be the unlikely voter. Deliver a sweeping loss, an outright, damning indictment of Trump and the GOP. Show them your power; claim your mandate. Beat the institutional unfairness; work through the gerrymandering. It has been said that there are no "red" states - there are only states with low turnout.
So go out there. Vote. Bend the arc of history.
Throughout our history, the right to vote has expanded in huge ways. Initially only granted to white adult male landowners, the right to vote was expanded to include non-property owners in the 1820s, former slaves in 1870, women in 1920, and 18-year-olds in 1971. And with each de juro expansion of voting rights, the powerful and the privileged have thrown up obstacles, passed intentional and illegal restrictions, and caused the courts to have to enforce de facto application of the law. So, to borrow a phrase from a great man, the arc of the moral universe HAS bent towards justice overall, but the powerful and entitled in our country - mostly male and mostly white - have resisted every degree of change that those fighting for progress have achieved. One of the greatest modern strides in protecting the franchise was the Voting Rights Act of 1965. It provided desperately-needed monitoring and protections for the rights of voters - especially POC - in states with a history of voting rights violations. For nearly 50 years, the law was one of the primary forces protecting the right to vote. Then, in 2013, the Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, invalidated key provisions of the law. And THIS is, at least in part, why we find ourselves where we are today.
Voter Suppression: A Primer
Literacy tests and poll taxes are a thing of the past. For a decade or more, the "new" voter suppression, just like the "new" racism, had been slick, tricky, and - usually - plausibly deniable. It had hidden behind reason, plausibility, and "rational" concerns about "securing the vote" or "voter fraud." Of course, any liberal or SJW worth his or her salt could link within seconds to article after article claiming, correctly it seems, that, for all the hyperventilating concern on the Right, voter fraud is, simply, not a thing. Yes, it happens. But it has never decided any election; even the most loosely defined list includes maybe 1,000 examples gleaned from the past few decades of voting. When Trump was elected and appointed Kris Kobach (whose middle name is William, though Kevin would probably make more sense) to a doomed voter fraud commission, the stated mission was to find the evidence for The Donald's claim that 3 million votes had been cast in 2016. Of course, the evidence the commission gathered did not do Kobach or Trump any good. The claims the Right had been using for decades had clearly worn thin, even with huge swaths of the American public.
So it is now, apparently, time for the old to be new again. Today's voter suppression is - again - like today's racism - more overt, obvious, and less apologetic thanks to Trump's normalizing of behavior only recently considered aberrant. Watch an actual news channel (or an hour or two on Fox - thanks, Shep and Chris) and you will see the stories. Brian Kemp, a sitting Secretary of State in Georgia running for Governor, is notorious for flagrant violations of voting rights. His opponent Stacey Abrams has already won a case against him. Kemp is having his hand forced by the courts, but he is fighting every step of the way. In the first few days of November, he has been forced to recognize the right to vote of brand new citizens and to stop invalidating registrations using an "Exact Match" system that has invariably disproportionately impacted Voters of Color.
While Kemp is the kingpin of modern voter suppression, he is by no means alone. Kansas's Kris Kobach (ah, there it is!) has a little place name Dodge City in his state (yes, it is THAT Dodge City) that has grown a lot substantially thanks to large meat-packing plants in the area; the workers in these plants are overwhelmingly Hispanic. The 15,000 voters of Dodge City used to vote in ONE polling place - which was already strange. This year, though, their polling place has been moved - outside of town, a mile away from the closest public transportation, because of "construction" around the former polling place - which both does not appear to be under construction (thanks, Maddow) and which has events schedule both before and after Election Day (11/6).
In North Dakota, a state which elected Heidi Heitkamp in part because of Native American vote, a new voter ID law demands that voters have an ID with a physical address, not a PO Box like many Native American reservation dwellers have (and have had for decades). Those in charge have thrown up obstacle after obstacle but are pretty clearly trying to disenfranchise voters. And these stories are just the biggest. Story after story details direct attempts to lower turnout, to limit voters, to cut voting days, and on and on and on. It is clear that the Republican Party has a vested interest in fewer people voting.
If You Can't Win, Cheat...
The bottom line seems pretty clear here. After the 2012 election, Reince Priebus tried to convince the GOP that it had to do something about its inability to truly become a "Big Tent" party - to appeal to minorities, the LGBT community, to women, etc. The findings were damning, detailing how the GOP had alienated subgroup after subgroup with policies and tone. The Republicans did basically nothing with this autopsy - and then Donald Trump happened. His win and the subsequent two years have been driven by the assertion that, contrary to the belief at the time, no reflection was needed. The grievance and anger that Trump had identified and exploited was enough. The base was enough. And, after all, if the reality is that your base is a shrinking population of angry people who feel threatened by considerable social changes, what better way to operate than to appeal to their base fears, solidify your support and ride the wave wherever it goes. And if you couldn't win, cheat. Take advantage of institutional advantages, both those inherent in our Constitution and those built in by gerrymandering and broad control of state governments. The principles of democracy, after all, matter far less than "winning."
And when the leader of your party is a man who lies habitually and seems to never be punished for it, a man who has embraced the offensive, the taboo, the unacceptable, how can you possibly resist the call of less than savory tactics that he sees as "just part of the game." The fact seems to be that the GOP has morphed from a party on the cusp of reflection to an all-in, balls-to-the-wall, grievance-filled engine of liberal-tear-savoring, tantrum-throwing man-children. So the question is what can we do?
Vote - SRSLY, Just Vote!
There is one reality of voter suppression tactics, which is pretty likely to hold, regardless of how dark of an age we seem to be experiencing. Sure, the GOP will suppress the vote a bit, here and there; it will rely on built-in quirks in the law; it will try to invalidate a vote or a few thousand. But what it will not do is wholesale, widespread, open discarding of votes. Even cheaters know that there is a limit. So, the solution? Vote. In large numbers. Together. As one. No purity tests. Just vote. Call your friends; nag them; drive them; poke them (digitally and, well, digitally). Vote in numbers so large the results can not be doubted. Defy the odds. Ignore the polls. Be the unlikely voter. Deliver a sweeping loss, an outright, damning indictment of Trump and the GOP. Show them your power; claim your mandate. Beat the institutional unfairness; work through the gerrymandering. It has been said that there are no "red" states - there are only states with low turnout.
So go out there. Vote. Bend the arc of history.
Wednesday, October 11, 2017
A Clear and Present Danger
Dear Congressional Leader:
I am writing to you because it has become more and more
clear that Donald J. Trump is both unfit to be President of the United States
AND appears to have committed impeachable offenses. I am imploring you to
either initiate impeachment proceedings or work towards implementing the 25th
Amendment. Either will do.
I could enumerate Trump’s actions here, but I am sure you
have been watching. Being POTUS is a serious job, probably the most impactful
job in the world. President Trump has proven to be an agent of chaos, to be
almost childish, to be petulant and dangerous, to be impulsive and reckless.
This is not the kind of person who should be President of the most powerful
country on earth.
It is hard to tell sometimes whether Trump is mentally
unstable or completely disinterested in civil calm. One minute he seems to be
completely vapid and idiotic; the next he seems to be maliciously
deconstructing important public institutions. For a while, I kept wondering
whether he was addled or evil, and now I know it doesn’t matter. He has to go.
In terms of impeachable offenses, take your pick. The
Emoluments Clause; failure to supervise recovery in Puerto Rico; dereliction of
duty in crippling the ACA; moral turpitude in his attacks on private citizens
from the bully pulpit; obstruction of justice in the firing of James Comey. And
then there’s the latest.
Trump has already shown no regard for the First Amendment in
his attacks on NFL players who joined in the act of kneeling to protest the
treatment of African Americans by police. Just today, he posted this on his
favorite venue, Twitter: “Network news has become so partisan, distorted and
fake that licenses must be challenged and, if appropriate, revoked. Not fair to
the public” (5:09 pm – 11 Oct 2017).
To me, this represents a bridge too far (like so many of his
actions). He is directly talking about attacking the First Amendment and its
enshrined right of “freedom of the press.” He has no regard for our
institutions, for our rights, for our way of life. Donald J. Trump is a
narcissistic, sociopathic, egomaniac with dangerously thin skin. He has to be
stopped.
And all of this? It doesn't even include the pretty
likely possibility that Trump and his campaign staff knowingly colluded with Russia
to interfere with and influence the 2016 Presidential Election.
Donald Trump represents a clear and present danger to our
country.
So I beg you. Stand up. Be brave. Follow the example of an
oh-too-small number of your colleagues. Follow Bob Corker’s example. Say what
you believe; stand up for America and not just your party. Impeach him. Show
how unfit he is. I don’t care. This man has, in 9 months, caused chaos and
disruption in this country. I shudder to think what he could accomplish in 4
years. Will our country even be recognizable? It is in your hands to preserve
what is already great about this country.
Thank you,
A Concerned American
Tuesday, February 23, 2016
On the Eve of Negotiations
Budgets matter; recessions matter; the bottom line matters. Money matters...of course it does.
As a negotiator of salaries, I can tell you that the financial arguments matter; you need to find the money, analyze the reports, dig into the budgets, understand the math, and see the reality in front of you. Negotiating is, after all, about the balance between hope and reality.
As a human being, though, as a father who wants to give his children every chance I can, who doesn't want to tell his kids (brilliant and wonderful young teens) that a state school is "good enough," as a husband who wants to see the world with the love of his life, to live in comfort with her, as a teacher who wants to feel in front of his students like a respected professional and not a fool, I can tell you that the bottom line, the cold calculations of the business-minded fail to consider a basic truth: money is about emotion. Salaries are about quality of life. And it all comes back to RESPECT.
The stories are everywhere:
- the married teacher couple with two young children who are burdened under huge student loans with little hope of paying them off because their salaries haven't kept pace with the cost of living
- the art teacher who works a night and weekend job at Starbuck's because her salary isn't enough to get married and buy a condo and live a middle class life, who actually then spends a chunk of the money she earns on art supplies for her students because her school doesn't budget well and she is THAT kind of teacher
- the promising young teacher who comes in like gangbusters, is clearly destined for teaching and seems to be answering a calling who decides after a couple of years that the working conditions and salary make teaching untenable as an option and then leaves the profession forever.
- the veteran teacher with more than two decades of teaching who is angry, frustrated, and bitter because he feels robbed, feels like promises were broken, feels like there is no hope he will ever see the top of the salary range. He feels disrespected, disregarded, and forgotten.
The businessman running Broward Schools doesn't understand something simple. His business classes forgot to teach him something. Every time he refuses to budge, every time he plays with numbers, every time he manipulates money or analyzes and reworks a budget, he is dealing with people, with their lives, their futures, their hopes, their dreams, and the hopes and dreams they have for their children, for their students, for their loved ones, and for their lives. He doesn't understand something critical.
Sure, the bottom line matters. But people matter more.
Friday, December 4, 2015
Best and Brightest: Part Duh
A recent article in the Sun-Sentinel shared the news that Florida's Best and Brightest Teacher Scholarship Program was being considered for renewal in the state legislature. In case you aren't familiar with it, this is the completely misguided program created by the state legislature (the brainchild of representative Erik Fresen) that rewards teachers for high ACT/SAT scores and "highly effective" evaluation ratings. New teachers with high ACT/SAT scores qualify automatically.
This is the latest attempt by the state to work around actually fully funding education; it also satisfies those who believe in merit pay programs, hate experience-based salary schedules, and despise teacher tenure. Plus, it does a pretty good job of attempting to attract new teachers while mostly ignoring veterans, which seems to be the modus operandi of schools districts lately. Experience doesn't matter to the powers that be - compliance seems to be the trait they value most, and veteran teachers are less likely to be compliant. So, from that perspective, this program might seem like a good idea.
However, here's the funny thing. Explain this program briefly to almost anyone and they will look at you in a befuddled way and say something like, "That doesn't make any sense." Or "Who came up with this garbage?" Or "What do high school test scores have to do with being a good teacher?" I understand the spirit behind it and a little of the logic. Politicians like Fresen look at the low enrollment numbers in college teaching programs and see a looming problem, so their knee-jerk reaction is to try to increase the flow of people into teaching. Of course, it is important to recruit new teachers.
But if Mr. Fresen and others in his position would think for just a second or two longer, then their synapses would fire again and the next natural question would come to them: why is there a looming teacher shortage? Why do so many people leave teaching in the first five years? Why are so many people with experience getting out as early as they can? The reason I call this program short-sighted is that it mostly focuses on recruitment and not on the real problem. Teaching, which used to be fun, can really, really suck.
Now, before anyone flies off in a tizzy, let me say this: I love teaching. I enjoy my students and colleagues. However, it's a good thing that I am arrogant enough and strong-willed enough to teach students what they need to know and help them learn to do what they need to do. When someone tries to mandate my curriculum, I smile at them, patiently, and then make it clear that I know my standards and will do what I need to do to teach them. But this kind of boldness is not universal and really only comes with time. Plus, all of the top-down pressure can squeeze the fledgling boldness right the heck out of a teacher who is learning to think for himself. Honestly, test-madness has drained so much of the joy out of the job that teachers have to teach by subversion or just throw in the towel and go along with mandate after mandate. And the constant cycles of testing, remediation and retesting which many districts insist on make it even worse.
So the legislature, in coming up with a program like B&B is putting a butterfly band-aid on a very big wound. The field of teaching is hemorrhaging teachers and something much bigger has to be done to save it. I have said to many friends that I would not go into teaching if I were in college right now.
Would a program like the Best & Brightest Teacher Scholarship have attracted me? Sure. But, with the way things are right now, it wouldn't have kept me for very long.
This is the latest attempt by the state to work around actually fully funding education; it also satisfies those who believe in merit pay programs, hate experience-based salary schedules, and despise teacher tenure. Plus, it does a pretty good job of attempting to attract new teachers while mostly ignoring veterans, which seems to be the modus operandi of schools districts lately. Experience doesn't matter to the powers that be - compliance seems to be the trait they value most, and veteran teachers are less likely to be compliant. So, from that perspective, this program might seem like a good idea.
However, here's the funny thing. Explain this program briefly to almost anyone and they will look at you in a befuddled way and say something like, "That doesn't make any sense." Or "Who came up with this garbage?" Or "What do high school test scores have to do with being a good teacher?" I understand the spirit behind it and a little of the logic. Politicians like Fresen look at the low enrollment numbers in college teaching programs and see a looming problem, so their knee-jerk reaction is to try to increase the flow of people into teaching. Of course, it is important to recruit new teachers.
But if Mr. Fresen and others in his position would think for just a second or two longer, then their synapses would fire again and the next natural question would come to them: why is there a looming teacher shortage? Why do so many people leave teaching in the first five years? Why are so many people with experience getting out as early as they can? The reason I call this program short-sighted is that it mostly focuses on recruitment and not on the real problem. Teaching, which used to be fun, can really, really suck.
Now, before anyone flies off in a tizzy, let me say this: I love teaching. I enjoy my students and colleagues. However, it's a good thing that I am arrogant enough and strong-willed enough to teach students what they need to know and help them learn to do what they need to do. When someone tries to mandate my curriculum, I smile at them, patiently, and then make it clear that I know my standards and will do what I need to do to teach them. But this kind of boldness is not universal and really only comes with time. Plus, all of the top-down pressure can squeeze the fledgling boldness right the heck out of a teacher who is learning to think for himself. Honestly, test-madness has drained so much of the joy out of the job that teachers have to teach by subversion or just throw in the towel and go along with mandate after mandate. And the constant cycles of testing, remediation and retesting which many districts insist on make it even worse.
So the legislature, in coming up with a program like B&B is putting a butterfly band-aid on a very big wound. The field of teaching is hemorrhaging teachers and something much bigger has to be done to save it. I have said to many friends that I would not go into teaching if I were in college right now.
Would a program like the Best & Brightest Teacher Scholarship have attracted me? Sure. But, with the way things are right now, it wouldn't have kept me for very long.
Thursday, December 3, 2015
It Is What It Is - Acceptance or Learned Helplessness?
Here is another tragedy. Another horrifying loss. Another gut-wrenching, terrifying turn of events. The details are disturbing, the unfolding story is mind-boggling, and the great unanswered question (Why?) is still unanswered.
These events are becoming so common that the BBC started off its coverage with, "Just another day in the United States of America - another day of gunfire, panic, and fear." The politicians are trotting out their platitudes. The trolls are trolling. The bloggers are blogging. Liberals are screaming for gun safety and conservatives are making it clear that "this is not a gun issue."
So nothing has changed. If anything, there have been fewer comments about the shooting, fewer calls for change, fewer voices raised in outrage. And this might be the most disturbing kind of reaction to this kind of ugly event - a lack of one. It suggests that we are just worn down, that our outrage machines are broken, that we are learning to accept this as part of the "new normal." After Newtown, many people were sure - absolutely certain - that something would happen, that something would change. The loss of so many young lives at once would surely, the logic went, inspire movement and change. That didn't happen.
The lack of response and the hardened sides of the argument suggest that we are learning to be helpless. Wikipedia (which I don't often quote) says this about learned helplessness:
"Learned helplessness is behavior typical of an organism (human or animal) that has endured repeated painful or otherwise aversive stimuli which it was unable to escape or avoid. After such experience, the organism often fails to learn escape or avoidance in new situations where such behavior would be effective. In other words, the organism seems to have learned that it is helpless in aversive situations, that it has lost control, and so it gives up trying. Such an organism is said to have acquired learned helplessness."
Americans might, unfortunately, have started believing that, when it comes to mass shootings, there's just nothing they can do. They may be resorting to phrases like, "What are you gonna do?" or "It is what it is" when it comes to this topic. And that's not a good thing. Now, I don't know whether a country can get clinically depressed, but learned helplessness is thought to be a precursor to depression and other forms of mental illness.
So we have to do something. Because the alternative is apathy. I am not super-religious, but I do at times turn to religious text for advice. The Serenity Prayer says, "God grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change; Courage to change the things I can; And wisdom to know the difference." The key here is that it takes courage to make change and wisdom to know when change can be made.
In times like these, serenity, courage, and wisdom are invaluable.
These events are becoming so common that the BBC started off its coverage with, "Just another day in the United States of America - another day of gunfire, panic, and fear." The politicians are trotting out their platitudes. The trolls are trolling. The bloggers are blogging. Liberals are screaming for gun safety and conservatives are making it clear that "this is not a gun issue."
So nothing has changed. If anything, there have been fewer comments about the shooting, fewer calls for change, fewer voices raised in outrage. And this might be the most disturbing kind of reaction to this kind of ugly event - a lack of one. It suggests that we are just worn down, that our outrage machines are broken, that we are learning to accept this as part of the "new normal." After Newtown, many people were sure - absolutely certain - that something would happen, that something would change. The loss of so many young lives at once would surely, the logic went, inspire movement and change. That didn't happen.
The lack of response and the hardened sides of the argument suggest that we are learning to be helpless. Wikipedia (which I don't often quote) says this about learned helplessness:
"Learned helplessness is behavior typical of an organism (human or animal) that has endured repeated painful or otherwise aversive stimuli which it was unable to escape or avoid. After such experience, the organism often fails to learn escape or avoidance in new situations where such behavior would be effective. In other words, the organism seems to have learned that it is helpless in aversive situations, that it has lost control, and so it gives up trying. Such an organism is said to have acquired learned helplessness."
Americans might, unfortunately, have started believing that, when it comes to mass shootings, there's just nothing they can do. They may be resorting to phrases like, "What are you gonna do?" or "It is what it is" when it comes to this topic. And that's not a good thing. Now, I don't know whether a country can get clinically depressed, but learned helplessness is thought to be a precursor to depression and other forms of mental illness.
So we have to do something. Because the alternative is apathy. I am not super-religious, but I do at times turn to religious text for advice. The Serenity Prayer says, "God grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change; Courage to change the things I can; And wisdom to know the difference." The key here is that it takes courage to make change and wisdom to know when change can be made.
In times like these, serenity, courage, and wisdom are invaluable.
Tuesday, December 1, 2015
Best and Brightest...Not so Much
So, it's official.
I found out today that I do not qualify for Florida's Best & Brightest Teacher Scholarship. I am not one of the "Best & Brightest." The scholarship, which is actually a bonus, is the brainchild of Erik Fresen (R-Miami) of Florida's House. The program, with a total price tag of $44 million, rewards teachers with high SAT or ACT scores. Brand new teachers with test scores in the 80th percentile or higher automatically qualify. Teachers with at least one year of experience also have to be rated highly effective according to their school district's evaluation systems. Now, to be clear, the scores that have to be in the 80th percentile and above are the teacher's personal SAT/ACT scores...the tests they took to get into college.
Here are the teachers this program leaves out: (1) teachers who started last year but didn't work long enough to get a complete evaluation, (2) teachers who never took the SAT or ACT, (3) teachers who couldn't find their old score reports and couldn't secure them from the College Board or ACT, (4) excellent teachers who didn't have great scores in high school, (5) teachers who work in Districts that have low numbers of "highly effective teachers, and (6) a bunch of others I am not thinking of.
I don't qualify for the bonus because of math. I had great scores in high school; I dug through boxes in the attic to find my scores and turned them in. I did earn a "highly effective" rating on my observations (completed by my former Assistant Principal and Principal). However, because I taught a group of International Baccalaureate students last year, their test scores don't count towards my evaluation. Some AP scores did count for me (I also taught AP English Language), but my overall evaluation brought me in at a 3.253. To get "highly effective" and the bonus, I would have to earn a 3.3.
Funny story...3.253, rounded to the tenths place, is 3.3. My District, though, is refusing to round. This is despite having a remarkably low percentage of teachers earning a "highly effective" rating, especially when compared to neighboring (and competitor) counties. You would think this District (Broward) would be interested in getting as many teachers as possible qualified. Because when the numbers come out and a huge chunk of teachers from Dade and Palm Beach earn the bonus, what will perspective teachers do? Where would you go?
The funniest thing is this: I am not really sure where to focus my frustration. Who deserves more of my anger? Is it the short-sighted legislature that simply refuses to fully fund education in Florida? Is it the specific legislator who proposed this idea, who saw this program as a viable option? Is it the education reformers who actually believe in merit-based pay and value-added models? Is it the School Board and Superintendent of Broward who, despite the potential power of the District, are eager to please and overly compliant whenever the state issues any edict? Is it Arne Duncan and President Obama who have doubled-down (until recently) on the A-word in education: accountability?
There is a lot of anger to go around. A lot of unfairness. A lot of frustration. Maybe everyone deserves a little bit of it. I can't help thinking, though, that the best approach is to focus the anger into an effort to make change at whatever level I can. Maybe that means looking to local elections, local offices, local changes that can be made more easily. And then working from there. So look out; I am angry, awake, and aware...and ready for action...even if I am not one of the "best and brightest."
I found out today that I do not qualify for Florida's Best & Brightest Teacher Scholarship. I am not one of the "Best & Brightest." The scholarship, which is actually a bonus, is the brainchild of Erik Fresen (R-Miami) of Florida's House. The program, with a total price tag of $44 million, rewards teachers with high SAT or ACT scores. Brand new teachers with test scores in the 80th percentile or higher automatically qualify. Teachers with at least one year of experience also have to be rated highly effective according to their school district's evaluation systems. Now, to be clear, the scores that have to be in the 80th percentile and above are the teacher's personal SAT/ACT scores...the tests they took to get into college.
Here are the teachers this program leaves out: (1) teachers who started last year but didn't work long enough to get a complete evaluation, (2) teachers who never took the SAT or ACT, (3) teachers who couldn't find their old score reports and couldn't secure them from the College Board or ACT, (4) excellent teachers who didn't have great scores in high school, (5) teachers who work in Districts that have low numbers of "highly effective teachers, and (6) a bunch of others I am not thinking of.
I don't qualify for the bonus because of math. I had great scores in high school; I dug through boxes in the attic to find my scores and turned them in. I did earn a "highly effective" rating on my observations (completed by my former Assistant Principal and Principal). However, because I taught a group of International Baccalaureate students last year, their test scores don't count towards my evaluation. Some AP scores did count for me (I also taught AP English Language), but my overall evaluation brought me in at a 3.253. To get "highly effective" and the bonus, I would have to earn a 3.3.
Funny story...3.253, rounded to the tenths place, is 3.3. My District, though, is refusing to round. This is despite having a remarkably low percentage of teachers earning a "highly effective" rating, especially when compared to neighboring (and competitor) counties. You would think this District (Broward) would be interested in getting as many teachers as possible qualified. Because when the numbers come out and a huge chunk of teachers from Dade and Palm Beach earn the bonus, what will perspective teachers do? Where would you go?
The funniest thing is this: I am not really sure where to focus my frustration. Who deserves more of my anger? Is it the short-sighted legislature that simply refuses to fully fund education in Florida? Is it the specific legislator who proposed this idea, who saw this program as a viable option? Is it the education reformers who actually believe in merit-based pay and value-added models? Is it the School Board and Superintendent of Broward who, despite the potential power of the District, are eager to please and overly compliant whenever the state issues any edict? Is it Arne Duncan and President Obama who have doubled-down (until recently) on the A-word in education: accountability?
There is a lot of anger to go around. A lot of unfairness. A lot of frustration. Maybe everyone deserves a little bit of it. I can't help thinking, though, that the best approach is to focus the anger into an effort to make change at whatever level I can. Maybe that means looking to local elections, local offices, local changes that can be made more easily. And then working from there. So look out; I am angry, awake, and aware...and ready for action...even if I am not one of the "best and brightest."
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