on my soap box;)

DISCLAIMER: Yes, I work for a public school district, but the views purported below are my own and not reflective of the district that I work for:)!

A battle has been brewing at the State Board of Education for years - the media calls it "Liberal" vs "Conservative", but I call it something totally different - it is a powerstruggle and unfortunately the real losers are your children and mine! Let me back up for those of you who aren't in the loop on this one...

Every so often the documents that tell teachers what objectives to teach must be examined - Are they reflective of current best practices? Do they provide rigor and challenge? Do they push our students to be the best thinkers and learners possible? Do they adequately prepare children for a post-education future? Refinement is a necessary process. Scrapping the whole thing and starting over under the table is not. (This is what has happened to the Language Arts objectives in the state of Texas.) Enter E.D. Hirsch - you should be leery of this man - in print he advocates a "one size fits all" curriculum - according to him, there is a body of core knowledge that is essential for all children - doesn't sound bad, does it? Hold on... Joining E.D. Hirsch on the stage is Chairman of the Board Don McLeroy - not an educator but because he went through school and college and knows teachers, he feels particularly qualified to say what should and should not be taught and to unequivocally state that Texas teachers are not currently getting the job done well enough. McLeroy is a huge fan of Hirsch. He thinks we should all be huge fans of Hirsch. He thinks the Language Arts objectives need a complete overhaul due to their repetitive nature and a couple of other unsubstantiated reasons. Hmm... repetitive... according to McLeroy, teachers should teach complex processes such as inferring, one time in one grade level and move on. No room for continuing to teach complex thinking processes - you either get it or you don't. Too bad, so sad. So, let's think - I went to the dentist as a child and because I had my teeth cleaned back then, I don't need to have them cleaned anymore - right? Wrong! Or, better yet - I ate dinner yesterday, so I don't need to eat dinner ever again - right? Wrong! (Yes, you do hear a touch of sarcasm, but just a touch because we all know I would never seriously consider giving up food!)

You should also be leery of a woman lurking behind the scenes - Donna Garner. I can tell you that I have read emails written by her and she attempts to discredit Texas educators and basically anyone who doesn't agree with her alternative document that McLeroy thinks is so fabulous. Here's a thought - Chairman McLeroy - Donna was pushed off stage more than a decade ago, her document was buried and seen as developmentally inappropriate and not reflective of anything even close to best practices for students then- why in the world would you invite her to the stage now?

So... you say, "Monica, why in the world should I care about this drama? It doesn't effect me." Here's why - you live in this state and you work in this state. You have children that will go to school in this state. If McLeroy and his conservative cronies win this battle, your children and mine lose. It is that simple. As an employer you want to be able to hire workers who can think, reason, problem solve and create. Under the document that McLeroy is pushing your students will become robots who are required to read and write simply through rote processes. Thinking not required. Problem-solving not necessary. I've always wanted my children to be robots! Yikes - I hate it when sarcasm comes sneaking through!

Let me say for the record, I've lumped the conservatives together in this particular instance and I've made it clear that I don't agree with them, which probably surprises most of you. Well, I haven't switched to the other side - the field of education should be neither Republican nor Democrat, Conservative nor Liberal. It should be about doing what is best for kids - anything else is cutting our noses off to spite our faces. Let's face it, today's students will be paying our Social Security in years to come. BUT, aside from that - education is about kids, to make it about power and money is ethically and morally reprehensible.

Let's keep moving... As parents you and I want the best possible education for our children - we want them to go farther and learn more than we have - the world is constantly changing and they need to be able to change with it. McLeroy doesn't think so. He thinks one size fits all. Tell me, where in the world does one size fit all?? At the doctor's office - if you have cancer, I don't think so! In the courtroom - if you're on trial, I don't think so! Truly, there is no place in this world, except maybe church - and that's a whole other discussion - where one size fits all.

So... I've "soap-boxed" enough - yes, I can tell you're glad, but you need to know that being silent and uninformed is not a choice if you want your children to thrive in public school. Check the Chronicle, check TEA's website - http://www.tea.state.tx.us/, check out what national organizations have had to say about this debacle - http://www.internationalreadingassociation.org/ and http://www.ncte.org/. It is a scary time for Language Arts educators as well as for all students and their parents who expect the best. Trust me on this one, the State Board of Education - the very people that we elected, do not want the best - they want the publishing perks and bonuses. Your children and mine simply don't matter! Their pride and pocketbooks are their priorities.