When Everyting Old is New Again

 

            I really enjoyed the reading and discussion this week; however it all sounded eerily familiar.  While administrative practices and theories have come and gone and come again, have good teaching practices really changed that much?  There is always going to be a boogie man out there and we teacher keep doing what we do. During the industrial revolution we couldn’t keep up with Britton and Germany. During the Cold War we couldn’t beat the Soviets into space. Today we are losing the technology war to China and India. Wrong on all three counts, politicians and industrial leaders just needed and continue to need someone to blame and the schools are convenient scapegoat.  As Matt pointed out in class, just a few short years after Sputnik the United States put men on the moon. That wasn’t accomplished because of the National Defense Education Act. It was accomplished by men who started school while space travel was just a dream. Just like today, their teachers had to prepare them for jobs that didn’t even exist. Could Neil Armstrong have taken that one giant leap without his teachers?  I had the opportunity to attend the Northwest Educational Technology Conference this past year. One of the speakers informed us that the United States filed more that 4,000 patents in 2012.  The Chinese only filed 44.  I really think politicians manufacture these crises in education just so they can have something to bloviate about. Hope you don’t mind me stealing a phrase from Bill O’Reilly. Just imagine a reporter asking a candidate where they stand on the situation with the U.S. education crisis. The candidate responds, “I think the United States has the finest system of education in the world”. Can you say unelectable?

            I’ve decided that I’m going to stop feeling beat-up by what is said in the media about education.

            We have made great strides in providing equal access to education for all, however, there seems to be one segment of our population where separate but equal is still the rule. I’m talking about students with disabilities or even an apparent lack of ability.  Yes, there is a difference between having a disability and not having the ability. As I reflect on my own time in elementary school I remember the day in 1^st grade when our school principal came to each class to tell us that the words Negro or colored would no longer be used. Instead we would say black or Afro-American. This would have been a year before school bussing started in Omaha. I’ve found myself having those exact conversations with teachers and students lately only the words have been Autistic, or he’s Down’s , or this one (and it really twists my guts to even type it) retarded or retard. I had a parent recently defend her son’s right to call another student retard because, “retard is in the dictionary”. I thought my principal handled it well when she pointed out that the “N” word is also in the dictionary.  That day in 1971 when Mr. Pederson told us we had to stop using colored when referring to black students I was very confused as a 1^st grader, but it was the response of parents and teachers that stuck with me. There were crossed arms, huffs and tisks, and much rolling of eyes. The same response I get when I talk about using people first language. A couple of years ago I pointed out to a teacher that Johnny (not student’s real name) is not Autistic, he is a student in your 4^th grade class who has Autism.  Her response, “I guess I’m just not that PC”. The more things change the more they stay the same.