My apologies to the list for leaving these emails intact. Thank you, Elaine, for these comments. I'm inserting my own below.
On Jul 11, 2007, at 9:42 AM, elaine garan wrote: >> I can't tell you the number of times I have spoken up, been >> the ONLY one who has spoken up, and everyone else just sits silently, >> so some wackadoodle thing gets pushed through, and then later four or >> five people will come to me privately and tell me they agreed with me. >> >> What is the matter with people? >> Renee > well, this might not make you feel much better but people are afraid. > As someone here said once in a meeting we had to address NCLB and RF, > the reason we have so few people in attendance is because 1) they are > afraid, 2) thing have not yet gotten bad enough for them. I agree with you here, and no it doesn't make me happy, because I think there are some things to be afraid of and other things not to be afraid of. It doesn't take a whole lot to say something like, "I'm not sure about this" or "I'm a little confused about why we are doing this" or even "Are we sure this is the best thing for kids?" and those are the kinds of statements I'm talking about. I don't expect the average teacher to be up on all the research but I have an expectation that people... especially those in the profession for a while.... know what works for them and should be able to stand up for that. > > I would add that if you measure success by the methods of Reading First > -- skills reproduction in isolation, etc then there is the illusion of > > progress. I believe teachers are so overburdened and so pressured that > they often don;t stand back and look at the big picture. They see kids > in their own classrooms but don't necessarily have a wider perspective > of how their performance at that isolated slice of time in their > classroom plays out as school gets more complex and isolated skills are > not enough to get them by (thus the infamous 4th grade slump) What concerns me is the number of teachers who buy into the idea that "skills reproduction in isolation" is a measure of progress. You and I and most people on this list know it's an illusion. My expectation is that ALL teachers should recognize this as an illusion, and even more, that all *administrators* should recognize this as an illusion. I think this phenomenon will be getting worse and worse in the coming years as there are more administrators put in place who have graduated from administrator/leadership mills... people who have not seen a classroom since they were students. > > Also, teachers at the elementary level are largely female. And Dave and > John, I know this is sexist-- but women do tend to be nurturing and > nonconfronational. I am too. In fact, I vacillated for hours about > whether or not to post the information on the Essential Five Elements > because I'm afraid to offend people. Same with any other disagreement. > I do it. I do it a lot especially when I'm writing books (the new one > is not confrontational at all)-- but it is really hard for me to stand > up there and call spade a spade and in some cases, a liar a liar. I agree. Recently I was put in the position of negotiating a price for some writing I was doing for a publisher. I was ready to take what they offered until my daughter (28 years old, an executive analyst for a major city) told me that we need to learn to "negotiate like men" and so I argued for... and got.... a higher price. Women can really be wusses. If they are not, then they become "bitches." > > I kind of feel though that if I don't, who will. Krashen has said > something that gives me strength and courage when I'm exhausted and > discouraged (which is about half the time)-- He says it doesn't matter > if you win or lose, but that you follow your conscience and do what you > know is right. In my first book I ended it by saying that even if what > I've written does no good, when I'm real old and sitting in a rocking > chair thinking back over my life, at least I can say, "I didn't just > stand back and let it happen. at least I tried. " So did all of you so > be proud We are often faced with the opinion that "I am just one person and I can't do anything and it's going to be mandated anyhow so why bother?" and I keep telling people that it starts with one person saying "no" or at least "hmmm" and if you do nothing, then you have not done whatever you could. But again... that's just me. > > There is a quote by Lily Tomlin that is so true and that I think of > when I consider standing back and letting Krashen or someone else fight > out there all alone--- "I wondered to myself, 'Why doesn;t somebody DO > something about that?' and then I realized, 'I'm somebody' " We are all somebody. We should remember that. Renee "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
